Sitting at Oakland International Airport on Wednesday morning, Marcus Williams was at peace with himself. A senior point guard on the San Francisco basketball team, he was awaiting the Dons’ flight to Spokane, Wash., where on Thursday night they will duel Gonzaga for ownership of second place in the West Coast Conference.
Three years ago this month, as a sophomore at Texas A&M, Williams’ outlook was much different. “I had a lot of problems off the court. I couldn’t really dial in and give the team everything I needed to give them,” Williams recalled. “I needed to get away from everything that was going on down there.”
So, after a month-long stretch that included a severe shooting slump and an eight-game losing streak, Williams elected to take a leave of absence from the Aggies. He wasn’t sure he was coming back — not just to A&M but to basketball.
“Around this time, I was just sitting at my Pop’s house in Dickinson, Texas, contemplating what I wanted to do next in life,” he said. “That’s when I was debating whether I wanted to keep playing the game or not.”
Fast forward three years and Williams has found joy in the game once more and turned all things in the right direction. He’s one class shy of earning his undergraduate degree and he’s averaging 14.4 points and 4.2 assists for a USF team (20-6, 10-3) that resides in second place in the WCC, a half-game ahead of the Zags (18-7, 9-3).
The winner of Thursday’s 8 p.m. game on ESPN will have sole possession of second place, trailing only Saint Mary’s (22-4, 12-1), which maintained its two-game margin in the loss column after a 73-64 win over Santa Clara on Tuesday night.
“Coming out here and interacting with this staff and these players, I found a love and joy for the game,” Williams said of his decision to transfer play for coach Chris Gerlufsen at San Francisco. "I’m beyond blessed to be in this position, knowing where I was three years ago. You always have to put yourself back in those shoes to understand where you are now. It makes me even more pumped up to play for this guy and this program.”
Back in the spring of 2022, Gerlufsen had just been promoted to the Dons’ head coaching position after assisting former coach Todd Golden in the program’s successful pursuit of its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1998. Williams was his first recruit.
“Marcus had gone through a little bit of a rough patch with his experience at Texas A&M,” Gerlufsen said. “Truthfully, I think he was contemplating whether he was even going to continue playing basketball. Just didn’t have a great experience.
“Marcus went through some growing pains at Texas A&M and probably didn’t handle some of the adversity the right way. Just kind of fell into a bad place and I think that affected every part of his life.”
“That’s 1,000-percent true. I was a young kid and really wasn’t built to fight through things,” said Williams, who said he has no issues with anyone at A&M. “Coming here, [Gerlufsen] helped me change my mindset and change how I move in certain areas. One thing he helped me change is how I deal with adversity. I would deal with it completely differently now that I know what I know, understand what I understand.”
Their relationship began to hatch on the night Williams, accompanied by his mother, made his campus recruiting visit.
“We went to dinner and we just instantly clicked. He saw somebody he could help and mentor and for me it felt like he could help me off the court,” said Williams who also was drawn to Gerlufsen’s basketball aptitude. “That first season he was constantly trying to guide me in the right direction and stay on me even when I wouldn’t understand it. It was always for the bigger picture. He knew that. I’m just thankful that he saw something bigger in me that I couldn’t see myself. I’m seeing it for sure now.”
Gerlufsen’s squad is guard-driven with fellow seniors Williams and Malik Thomas in their third seasons together and sophomore Ryan Beasley emerging in recent weeks after dealing with a hamstring issue earlier in the season.
“They’ve gotten better and better individually but also learning how to play with each other within the framework of our offense,” Gerlufsen said of Williams and Thomas, whose 19.2 scoring average leads the WCC. “Ryan is kind of the third head of the snake with those two guys. It’s become a strong backcourt that I have a lot of confidence in.”
“I’m a great passer and he’s a great scorer, so we go hand-in-hand,” Williams said of his partnership with Thomas. “I just think we have a great feel for one another and it’s starting to show right now. We’re just kind of always on the same page, which is a great feeling.”
Gerlufsen is gratified by Williams’ overall growth, on and off the basketball floor.
“To be able to give him kind of a fresh start here and kind of build him back up and breathe some life back into him . . .it’s been nice to be a part of his rebirth and see the life come back into him as far as just enjoying being around the game.”
The Dons are one week removed from a 65-64 victory over Saint Mary’s, which snapped USF’s 11-game losing streak in the series. Williams, who had 16 points in the win, said the Dons’ comeback from a double-digit deficit midway through the second half demonstrated the team’s resilience.
“It was huge. It shows you the game is never over,” he said. “It showed that when we’re playing our best and with maximum effort, we can beat anyone in the country. That gives us all the confidence we need, especially going into a place like The Kennel. We’re going in with that same mindset.”
Remarkably, Gonzaga has won 30 straight games vs. USF and prevailed in their past 35 meetings at Spokane. So, yes, this will be a sizable challenge for the Dons.
Williams said a victory on Thursday night would mean the world to former USF players and the program’s fan base. “But even more for us as a program,” he said, “because of what we’re trying to do this year. We feel we’re a top-caliber program and our goal is to make March Madness. We know how important this is.
“We had some early losses we shouldn’t have had but we never let it shake us. We just kept fighting. We always have self-belief.”