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In eight years as the head basketball coach at UC Santa Barbara, Bob Williams has re-established the Gaucho program as one of the best in the Big West.
The picture wasn't always so rosy.
In March of 1998, UCSB and Williams got together. The Gauchos were coming off of their fifth-straight losing season that culminated with eight consecutive losses and Williams was completing his eighth season as the head coach at UC Davis, which culminated in an NCAA Division II Championship and National Coach of the Year honors.
It seemed like a good match.
Although UCSB battled through a difficult and injury-plagued 2004-05 season in which it finished 11-18, the program bounced back with a 15-14 record in 2005-06, including wins in eight of its last 11 games. The Gauchos have posted winning records in four of the last five seasons, the first time the program had experienced that level of success since the late 1980s and early 1990s. Williams has also directed UCSB to several firsts. In 2002, the Gauchos won their first Big West Tournament Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 12 years. In 2003, he coached UCSB to a 14-4 league record, its first Big West regular season title and a National Invitation Tournament bid. It marked the first time in a decade that UCSB had advanced to postseason play in back-to-back seasons. Also, in 2003, he piloted the Gauchos to the program's first win ever over USC, and during the 2003-04 season, he coached the team to its first-ever victory over a storied UCLA program at Pauley Pavilion.
Williams started turning things around in Santa Barbara almost immediately. After the Gauchos opened the 1998-99 season with eight consecutive losses, extending a two-season losing streak to 16, UCSB proceeded to win 15 of its final 20 games finishing 15-13 overall and 12-4 in the Big West. The Gauchos also won the Big West Western Division title.
In 1999-2000, his second year at UCSB, Williams guided the Gauchos to wins in 10 of their final 14 games. They finished 14-14 overall and 10-6 in the Big West and Williams became the first coach in school history to open his career with back-to-back seasons of .500 or better.
In 2000-01, despite losing their starting center three days before the season opener, and finishing the year with three freshmen and a sophomore in the starting lineup, the Gauchos battled back from a slow start to finish with a respectable 13-15 overall record, and a 9-7 mark in Big West play. In the next three seasons, that group of players led UCSB to 54 wins overall and a 35-19 record in league play. The 14-4 conference record in 2002-03 was the best in school history and UCSB's Big West record of 79-55 in Williams' eight seasons ranks him among the top four in the league in both winning percentage and total wins over that span.
Williams is a two-time Big West Coach of the Year honoree, earning the award in 1999 and then again in 2003. In 1999, he was also selected District Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
With a 15-13 record in 1999, Williams set a UCSB standard for victories by a first-year head coach and his 107 wins through seven seasons is one of the two highest totals in school history. His overall UCSB coaching record is 122-111.
Williams has experienced success at every level of coaching. He came to Santa Barbara on the heels of an amazing run that saw his program at UC Davis win the 1998 NCAA Division II National Championship, posting an overall record of 31-2. In eight seasons as the Aggies' head coach, his teams went 158-76 for a school record winning percentage of .675. In each of the final four seasons of his tenure, UC Davis advanced to the NCAA Tournament and won 20 or more games. Over that span, the Aggies had an overall record of 95-28 (.772). Finally, in February of 1998, Davis climbed to seventh in the NCAA Division II poll, its highest ranking ever.
In the eight seasons prior to his arrival at UC Davis, the program logged a 104-118 record. In 1989-90, the year before Williams' arrival, the Aggies recorded an 11-16 mark and in 1990-91, his first season, they posted a 20-8 record, only their second 20 victory season in school history. By the time of his departure, UC Davis had recorded six 20-win seasons in its basketball history, five of them during Williams' tenure.
Prior to accepting the head coaching position at UC Davis, Williams spent two seasons as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator to Tom Asbury at Pepperdine. In those two seasons, the Waves were 37-24 (.607). In addition, he recruited a core of players that ultimately led Pepperdine into the NCAA Tournament.
Before moving to Malibu, Williams spent five seasons as head coach at Menlo College, three while it was a junior college and two (1986-88) after it made the leap into the ranks of NCAA four-year schools and competed at the Division III level.
In all, Williams has been a head coach at four-year schools for 18 seasons, going 311-211 in those 18 years.
Including three seasons at Cabrillo Junior College and three seasons at Menlo Junior College, Williams had a 90-74 record at the community college level. In 24 seasons overall as a head coach, at the four-year level and two-year level, his teams have won more than 400 games.
Williams, 53, is the sixth coach UCSB has had since 1937. He has a daughter, Kori, and resides in Santa Barbara.
