BUTTE — Asa Williams’ voice was hoarse from coaching.

He was guiding high-potential prep prospects, screaming “and one” during one-on-one sessions and imparting knowledge as a newly-minted professional basketball having returned to “Butte-fresh” air for the first time since graduation and inking a contract in Germany.

“It was definitely a lifetime experience,” Williams said.

“Learning the game overseas, seeing a European-style of basketball and being able to add to my repertoire and understanding there’s more to basketball outside of America.”

The 6-foot-6 guard, now garnering awe-inspiring glances from Tech campers, averaged nearly 17 points per game and earned first-team All-ProB accolades for the Hessing Kangaroos.

His squad captured its first-ever regular-season championship, but failed to advance in the playoffs, a step necessary to jump leagues. Williams emerged, in 26 games, as one of the best import players, knocking down 74 3-pointers, doling out 2.2 assists and averaging 1.8 steals.

Culturally, Williams enjoyed shopping trips to Munich and his first European soccer match.

He visited France, eyeballing the Eiffel Tower for the first time and photographed the Mona Lisa.

“The German language is definitely tough,” Williams said, smiling. “Just the fact that basketball stretches outside the United States. That’s what a lot of people fail to realize.

“Germany won the [FIBA] World Cup [in 2023] and there’s some really good basketball players there…They were some of the best teammates I’ve had in my career because of the way they love to be connected. It reminded me a lot of my time here at Tech.”

Williams played against former Orediggers teammate Caleb Bellach in Germany, before the former Manhattan Christian star returned home and was hired to head Manhattan’s boys basketball program.

“Playing against a guy like Caleb, man, a guy who had my respect and a high respect for me, first-team All-American, battled an injury, came back and was a first-team All-Conference player – that’s something you hear about in movies,” Williams said.

“To play against him was definitely a blessing in disguise. For so long, we were the one-two here at Tech. It was like Batman and Robin, you know? It was just amazing to see each other.”

Williams was visited by another former Tech star overseas, third-year pro Sindou Diallo.

The pair played AAU basketball in Seattle during the summer of Williams’ junior high school year in Laramie, Wyoming. When Diallo played for Tech and Williams for Chandler-Gilbert Community College, the two reconnected in Arizona years later.

That interaction, in large part, produced Williams’ Tech opportunity following a ping-pong-type career at various junior colleges. Like Diallo, Williams wore jersey No. 1 at Tech and honored his friend by retaining that digit in Germany.

“Sindou remembers when I could barely make a lay-up at 15 or 16 years old,” Williams said. “I wasn’t the best basketball player then, but I had the pride and the potential to be good. [Playing professionally] is something we always believed in and we got the opportunity to do.

“We each have this picture of us sitting next to each other in AAU. It’s one of those pictures where it’s like, ‘man I can’t believe we both made it.’”

As a teenager, Williams thought himself too good for the NAIA.

Son of Jermaine Kimbrough, an NCAA Division I coach for programs like Arizona State, Loyola-Chicago and the University of Wyoming, Williams was humbled when, as a sophomore, he was cut from the high school basketball team in Solon, Ohio.

He didn’t play in the Montana-Wyoming All-Star Basketball Series and failed to truly blossom on the hardwood until he reached Tech. Along the way, Williams fell in love with hard work and learned what he poured into basketball is what he often received back from the sport.

Williams considers Montana, in many ways, home. He burned the midnight oil many times in Germany watching Tech games and no doubt recalling moments from his final two collegiate seasons. Now, Williams sees himself in many of the kids he lost his voice coaching.

“I was a good athlete, but I wasn’t the best basketball player [growing up],” Williams said. “Watching a lot of these kids, I’m trying to tell them early, ‘it’s not about where you start, it’s about how you progress along the way.’”

“As long as you continue to keep working out, working hard and believing in yourself – that’s one of the main reasons I made it as far as I did. I believed in myself.”

That confidence, producing an edge on display during the 2023-24 Frontier Tournament Championship Game against Carroll College, has Williams searching for a new professional basketball team.

Scouted by some upper-level programs, Williams and his agent are vying for a contract offer from a bigger, higher-tier, more competitive league, perhaps in Spain.

The goal? To reach the EuroLeague or beyond.

“I had a good club, I had good teammates, but you always want better for yourself, you know?” Williams said. “For me, I wanted to move to a higher league.

“I know what I worked for and I know I can definitely play against better players. Of course it was a good starter league for me, but it was time to move up in the rankings I feel like.”

Williams plans to leave Montana Monday for Arizona to see family and work out.

Ideally, his second professional contract is signed by July or August and his bags packed for somewhere different. Maybe a new country and culture. He’ll continue repping Tech gear overseas, a subtle shutout to the genesis of a potentially lengthy career.

“I’m still hungry,” Williams said. “I still want to achieve more things and I still wanna make it to the highest level – whether that’s the NBA, the EuroLeague, [NBA] G League contract, no matter where it is.”