Scholar Stories: For Williams II, Academic Pride a Family Tradition
1/17/2024 10:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Features
Continuing the series that began in 2016-17, each week MGoBlue.com will highlight a Michigan student-athlete and their academic pursuits. These are our Scholar-Athlete Stories, presented by Absopure.
By David Woelkers Jr.
University of Michigan senior Terrance Williams II has a long list of accomplishments to be proud of in his Wolverines men's basketball career -- two Sweet 16 appearances, an Elite Eight and a Big Ten Championship to name a few.
What Williams is most proud of, though, did not come on the court, but in the classroom. For the two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, earning his education has been a foundational goal since the very beginning.
"This is the sort of hard work and dedication that I pride myself on," Williams said. "I'm not just a basketball player. I'm not just this way on the court. I can lock in on my schoolwork and do well in the classroom, too, and that opens success anywhere I want to go in life."
With his parents taking two widely different paths -- his father, a student-athlete himself, being the first in his family to earn a degree, while his mother grew up in a rigorous academic household and earned multiple master's degrees -- Williams saw both sides of the coin when it comes to the importance of getting an education growing up.
"From elementary school to now, taking care of my business in the classroom has always come first in my family," he said. "They've stressed that a long way because when the ball drops on my playing days, I need something to fall back on. They took that dead serious -- if I ever came home with a bad report card, they'd get on me hard. It never was bad thankfully, but that was known clearly to me growing up. Every coach I talked to knew I was locked in on doing well in school."
His desire to learn reflected in his recruitment, with the D.C. product only having an eye for schools like Georgetown, Stanford, and, of course, Michigan. After being offered by David and Meredith Kaplan Men's Basketball Head Coach Juwan Howard and associate head coach Phil Martelli, Williams decided to become a Wolverine and in the process discovered the School of Kinesiology's sport management program. It was an instant and natural fit, knowing that he wanted to prepare for a life after basketball as much as he tried to make a name for himself in the game.
"Academics probably played the same role as sports in my recruitment honestly," Williams said. "It was emphasized big that if you get a degree from here, it will take care of you for life between the alumni network and the education you get, so that definitely intrigued me right off the jump.
"But I always knew I wanted to stay in sports after my playing time was over, so I talked it over with my parents and they were like, 'If you want to stay in sports when you're done playing, take full advantage of the sport management program they offer.'"
According to clinical professor and industry professional Barry Klarberg, a former professor of Williams' in the School of Kinesiology, the average career of a professional athlete spans about 3.8 years, a fact he emphasizes to all his students. Williams has taken that stat to heart -- combing through the litany of opportunities available to him in the industry he wants to spend his life in and around.
"There's a ton of pathways that get opened up by having more than just a playing background in sports," Williams said. "You can do a lot with the stuff you learn here, whether it's in a front-office position or if you're interested in the other side of things, becoming an agent one day. Having a degree in the business of sports is incredibly valuable, especially when it's coming from a place like Michigan.
"I'm learning a lot of different things about the business I didn't know coming in, a lot of opportunities and careers I wasn't even aware existed coming in, and I feel like I have the knowledge now to go into this field I love and have the expertise to get any position I could dream of having."
As part of the sport marketing and management concentration of the program, Williams' studies have centered around real-world issues and events in the sports industry. Of particular interest to the senior was a course centered around live-time case studies taught by Klarberg, who had high praise for his former student.
"[Williams] was a very, very impressive student," Klarberg said. "Something that really struck me about him was, I've had a lot of student-athletes in my classes over the years. Some of them coast by, they lean on their reputation as an athlete, whatever. Terrence wanted to fit in as a student. He was actively involved in discussions, super organized and on top of things, and he had a boldness to him that I really enjoyed. He was a sharp student and he knew it, and he really recognized the importance of planning beyond his playing career."
As Williams enters his final semester of undergraduate studies, his biggest piece of advice to incoming students and student-athletes was a reflective one -- spend the four years well.
"Really think about what you're doing here, and what you want to do after," Williams said. "If you're going through the motions of your work, or you choose a major you don't really love, it's not going to pay off when you leave. These four years are important for the next 40, especially at a place like Michigan."
