Scotty vs. Corliss
UA legends like brothers, unless they’re coaching against each other.
Scotty Thurman recognized the young man sitting beside him in an ACT prep class in Jonesboro during the summer of 1990.
Thurman, a native of Ruston, La., was in town for an AAU tournament, and so was the other teenager.
Reaching across his desk, Thurman introduced himself to a then-16-year-old Corliss Williamson.
The pair didn’t talk much that day in Jonesboro, but they kept in touch. Williamson, who lived in Russellville, reconnected with Thurman at the same tournament the next summer, where Williamson’s side would best Thurman’s in the consolation game.
But Thurman holds a 3-0 edge in their more recent meetings on the high school basketball circuit, and tonight the former Arkansas Razorback teammates will meet again with plenty at stake in the 5A-Central Conference.
Little Rock Parkview, with Thurman in his second season as head coach, is looking to chase down first-place Maumelle. Little Rock Christian, with Williamson as an assistant, is searching for a signature conference victory.
Yet it’s their bond — more than 30 years from its inception — that makes the game that much more significant.
“[Scotty and Corliss] were probably the closest of any two players I coached, and I’ve had brothers on a team,” former Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said. “They were pretty much inseparable. If one did something, you could pretty much count on the other doing the same.”
‘STICK TOGETHER’
Thurman arrived in Fayetteville too late to start summer school in 1992. As a result, Richardson allowed him to move into a one-bedroom apartment off campus.
Williamson, the Razorbacks’ only other freshman that year, already had set up shop in his dorm. He hadn’t spent much time outside his room beyond practice, so he figured why not just move in with his classmate?
“It was our first time being away from home, leaving our parents and friends who we grew up with,” Williamson said. “Being the young guys, you try to stick together and figure it out.”
That bond was crucial for Thurman. His older brother, Al, was battling substance abuse issues at the time and spent five years in a Louisiana jail on drug-related offenses.
Even with their feet dangling off twin beds in that small Fayetteville apartment — Williamson measured in at 6-7, and Thurman just an inch shorter — the two found ways to be competitive. They’d go head-to-head in cards or dominoes, and whenever they faced off on the hardwood — be it on opposite teams in a scrimmage or playing one-onone — Williamson and Thurman had to get the better of the other.
They’d even see who could earn a better GPA.
That intensity carried over to games, to Arkansas’ benefit. The Razorbacks captured the 1994 national title, stunning Duke in the final on Thurman’s high-arching three-pointer.
Williamson and Thurman, the two leading scorers in a 31-3 season, combined for 38 of the Razorbacks’ 76 points that night. They returned to Fayetteville the next season and led Arkansas back to the championship game, where the Razorbacks lost to UCLA.
From there, their paths diverged.
Williamson was selected 13th in the 1995 NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings and played a dozen NBA seasons with four franchises. Thurman went undrafted and trotted around the globe, playing for 11 different teams in six countries over the span of 11 years.
Both eventually landed in the coaching world, albeit at different points in their lives. Williamson jumped in shortly after retiring, starting at Arkansas Baptist in 2007 before an unsuccessful stint at the University of Central Arkansas from 2010-13 — the Bears improved from five to 13 wins during Williamson’s three seasons, but never broke the .500 mark.
While Williamson returned to the NBA as an assistant, Thurman got his start at the bottom of the coaching rung. He first served as a volunteer assistant for his son’s middle-school team as well as at the AAU level before joining Episcopal Collegiate as a middle-school coach, then high-school assistant.
About 15 years after his Razorback career ended, Thurman returned to Fayetteville in 2010 as Arkansas’ director of student-athlete development under John Pelphrey. Thurman held that position for six years before joining Coach Mike Anderson’s oncourt staff in 2016.
“I never really had any intention of being a coach, but in some ways, I maybe ran away from it,” Thurman said. “I did that for a while, but I always came back to instructing young people and going to the game and watching the game, and I just fell back into it.”
FEELS LIKE ‘BLOOD’
Anderson was fired after the 2018-19 season and replaced by Eric Musselman. There were opportunities to stay with the program in a noncoaching capacity, but Thurman left and was hired by Parkview in July 2019.
Three months earlier, the Phoenix Suns fired Igor Kokoskov and his entire staff, including Williamson.
By July, Williamson had agreed to join Clarence Finley — his former AAU coach — as an assistant at Little Rock Christian, where his son, Creed, would be entering his sophomore year and another son, Corliss, was an eighth-grader.
When Thurman took the Patriots’ helm, the two knew they’d see one another on the sidelines as 5A-Central foes.
It wasn’t long until the trash-talking and mind games that were part of their incessant competition resumed.
“We talked the night before we played the last game,” Thurman said, recalling their Jan. 15 game when Parkview eked out a 67-64 win. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m getting ready to go to sleep and try to get ready for tomorrow.’ And he said, ‘I hope this one night that you don’t sleep very well and you wake up in the morning with a crick in your neck.’ ”
Deep family ties make the semiannual matchup between Parkview and Christian even more special.
In addition to Creed and the younger Corliss — now a junior and freshman, respectively — Thurman’s daughter, Ramoni, attends Christian. On the other side, Parkview assistant coach John White is the youngest brother of Williamson’s wife, Joan.
Richardson takes great joy in knowing Williamson and Thurman’s relationship has withstood the test of time. He’s even happier knowing the competitive fire he stoked within the pair decades ago continues to burn.
“My grandmother always told me, ‘You’ll knock out an aunt with a sledgehammer,’ and I always said if I was playing against my grandmother, that’s my attitude,” Richardson said. “So when they play each other, somebody’s going to knock somebody out — and they should feel that way.
“If they thought differently than that, I’d be disappointed.”
Williamson and Thurman want nothing more than for their team to run the other’s out of Warrior Arena today. They’ll add a new chapter to their shared and cherished memories either way.
“It’s a humbling feeling to be able to witness something this cool,” Thurman said. “A lot of stuff is taken for granted, and especially in light of what’s going on in the world today, you just have to take some things and be proud of them and be grateful for health, strength and family — and in this case friends, because we’re not blood but it feels like it.”