Williams Fills Positions on Husker Staff

Lincoln - Head Coach Amy Williams filled her Nebraska women's basketball staff with some familiar faces on Friday, adding all three of her assistants and her director of operations from the University of South Dakota.

Williams completed the hiring of her staff just four days after becoming Nebraska's 10th head coach for women's basketball on Monday.

"We had a terrific staff at South Dakota and we worked well together, building off each other's strengths," Williams said. "Our staff has great trust with one another, and we bring out the best in each other."

Assistant Coach Tandem Mays' working connection with Williams dates back a decade, when Mays was a junior guard at Tulsa when Williams was in her first season as an assistant coach. In 2005-06, Tulsa won the Conference USA championship and earned its first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.

After completing her playing career at Tulsa in 2006-07, Mays joined Williams on the basketball staff at Rogers State in Oklahoma. Four years later, after helping the Hillcats to the NAIA Elite in 2012, Mays spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at South Dakota, before earning a full-time assistant coaching spot for the 2014-15 season. Williams originally recruited Mays as a high school player at Fort Smith (Ark.) Northside High School, when Williams was an assistant coach at Oklahoma State.

Love's connection to Williams also dates back to their days at Rogers State. In 2011-12, Love was a men's basketball assistant coach at Rogers State, helping the HIllcats to the NAIA Elite Eight. He joined Williams on staff for their first season at South Dakota in 2012-13.

As a player at Northwestern Oklahoma State, Love helped the Rangers to the NAIA Elite Eight as a junior in 2007, before graduating in 2008. He went on to be a graduate assistant at Northwestern Oklahoma State and served as a men's basketball assistant coach at Wayland Baptist in Texas.

Assistant Coach Tom Goehle (pronounced GAY-lee) and Director of Operations Amanda Hart spent their first seasons on Williams' USD staff in 2015-16.

Goehle, who worked to develop post players in stops at Coastal Carolina, North Dakota State and Sioux Falls, was also a long-time high school teacher and coach in Minnesota before joining the college coaching ranks. He graduated from Augustana (S.D.) in 1993.

Hart was a standout on and off the court at Dakota Wesleyan, setting the school single-season (112, 2011-12) and career (391) three-point records. She finished seventh in school history with 1,406 points. She earned her bachelor's degree as a double-major in English and sport management from Dakota Wesleyan in 2014.

Williams also announced that Nebraska Administrative Assistant/Video Coordinator Katie Adams is expected to remain in her current position. Adams was in her first season on the Nebraska staff in 2015-16. She was a member of Rutgers' 2007 NCAA runner-up team. Adams was an assistant coach at Bucknell for four seasons before coming to Lincoln.