Inside Terrance Williams' Bond With Phil Martelli, Fellow Incoming Freshmen

Those are three examples of the daily motivational text messages Michigan basketball associate head coach Phil Martelli sends 2020 signee and incoming freshman forward Terrance Williams.

"He literally sends one every morning," Williams said.

Williams and Martelli have a great relationship, one that goes back long before Williams committed to the Wolverines on New Year's Day. When Williams decommitted from Georgetown in early December, it was Martelli that encouraged head coach Juwan Howard to give him a look.

"We’re definitely in contact a lot," Williams said. "And I’m also close with Coach [Howard] Eisley and Coach Saddi [Washington], too. I’m basically cool with all of the assistant coaches, but Martelli was really the one that got Juwan to look at me."

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Those motivational texts Williams receives in the morning help him go about the rest of his day.

"It’s just cool," he said. "Coach Martelli, the Godfather, that’s what they call him, texting me every morning, giving me motivational messages. That just makes me want to get up and do something productive to start my day off."

While he's bonding with his new coaches, Williams is doing the same with his future teammates, especially the fellow freshmen.

Williams played with incoming freshman center Hunter Dickinson on the Nike EYBL circuit with Team Takeover, winning the 2018 Peach Jam Tournament. They also competed against each other in high school. Of those matchups, Team Takeover head coach Doug Martin, a neutral observer, told us they "battle like they don't know each other."

Now, the two back to being friendly, safely training at the same local gym they've gained access to.

Williams, a versatile forward who can play the three or the four, is looking to be as ready as possible for when he gets to Ann Arbor.

"I’m just working on conditioning, really," Williams said. "At the next level — Big Ten basketball, NCAA — it’s a big court. The environment is definitely going to be more intense, so I’m just gonna get ready for that type of environment conditioning-wise. Hopefully I get my stamina up, and also I’m working on my ball handling to expand my versatility even more."

The rest of the class — that includes Zeb Jackson and Jace Howard — is also staying in touch via a group chat.

"We’re very close," Williams said. "We talk about just anything Michigan. We talk about daily lives and what’s going on.

"We definitely keep in touch every day, so as soon as we get to campus, we’ve already had that chemistry really just forming from us talking."