But the next step for Williams, 45, didn't involve UC Davis. After eight seasons at Davis he decided to take his game and took a job as head coach at Division I UC Santa Barbara.

Weeks into the season, he probably asked him self why. The Gauchos opened the season with a 20-point loss to Pepperdine. Then they lost four more games, all in the closing seconds.

Now things are looking brighter on the seaside campus 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Under Williams, Santa Barbara has become the team to beat in the Big West Conference -- not the team that is usually beaten.

Since an 0-8 start, the Gauchos have gone 8-2 entering Thursday night's game against Long Beach State and are in first place of the Big West's west division with a 6-2 record. They visit second-place Pacific today at 7 p.m.

Williams had his doubts about UC Santa Barbara. Was the team concept -- the philosophy stressed and demanded by Williams -- right for the Gauchos? Would it work for players unknown to Williams, a team accustomed to playing more as individuals?

"After we lost five straight, I drove to Cal State Los Angeles to watch the Aggies play them," Williams said. "I was nervous driving to the game, wondering how I would feel, wondering how I would react to the Davis players and how they would react to me. And, I was also thinking about the losses we had. When you are 0-5, you start second guessing what you are doing."

But as Williams watched the Aggies, he became excited. The drive home was different than the drive to the game.

"I was rejuvenated," Williams said. "Watching those kids compete, play hard, it was exciting. I knew what I was doing and what I had been doing all those years was right. I was so proud of them. I felt like I was coaching them again."

"Everything we do I learned from Bob," said UC Davis coach Brian Fogel, who assisted Williams for three years before taking over this season. "There's no need for him to be second guessing what he is trying to do. The team comes first.

"It's not an earth shattering concept. It's so fundamental and so simple that's it's kind of unique. It's the ideas from the John Wooden era, really, and it takes some time to develop that understanding in the players, especially if they haven't been used to that."

It took three more games -- all losses -- before the Gauchos began to understand what their new coach was talking about.

The turnaround has surprised people at UC Santa Barbara. They aren't accustomed to winning. The Gauchos finished last season with eight consecutive defeats. They posted losing records the last five years. Losing was a way of life.

"The only thing that was consistent in all the preseason polls about our conference was not who was going to win but who was going to come in last. It was always us," Williams said.

Even the most faithful fans are stunned by the swift work of Williams.

"A lot of people were there to support Bob when the team started off 0-2, 0-3, 0-4. . . ," said Dave Pintard, a Santa Barbara businessman and Gauchos supporter for 20 years. "We saw the progress and knew he could turn the program around. But from worst to first in this short of time, nobody thought that could happen."

Other coaches know the challenges of turning around a program. Bob Hawking, an old friend of Williams and coach of Big West rival Cal State Fullerton, appreciates what Williams has accomplished in his first season.

"One of the most difficult things to do in sports is to step into a situation which is in a little bit of turmoil and get things resolved," Hawking said. "And to try and do it with many of the same players who have been exposed to the turmoil, to try to get them all on the same page -- your page -- and to win at the same time, it's a complex process for most of us. It doesn't happen overnight. Bob has done a great job."

Josh Merrill and B.J. Bunton, senior forwards and team leaders for Santa Barbara, have helped make the Gauchos aware of the new game plan.

"He definitely wants a team game," Merrill said of Williams. "And the reason we have been doing so well lately is because the team is finally following his lead and playing as a team. Last year, there were a lot of guys going their own way. At times, it seemed like a different team out there each night.

"Obviously, the start was real frustrating, especially losing all those one-point games."

Williams admits he's "a little surprised" at how well the team is playing. He knew the Gauchos had talent and intelligence. He figured they would improve. But not this fast.