CHICAGO -- Memphis Grizzlies guard Jason Williams, king of the earring-wearing, tattoo-bearing, hip-hop generation of NBA players, has this thing about old-school coaches who get in his face when he throws a behind-the-back pass into the first row or fires up one of his ill-timed 3-point shots.

He loves it.

"Like I tell young kids all the time, when a coach yells at you, that's a good thing," Williams said. "When he's not yelling at you, he don't give a (bleep) about you. Know what I mean?"

	Jason Williams believes Hubie Brown's teachings will do him and the Grizzlies plenty of good.

Hubie Brown sure does. Now that Brown is back coaching in the NBA after 16 years on the sidelines, we'll get to see just how much Williams likes the coach who personifies the old school. Last time out as coach of the Knicks, Brown didn't discriminate. He verbally abused players, young or old, whom he felt didn't give him their best effort, every single minute of every single game.

Williams, who will try to get Brown his first coaching victory since Nov. 1986 tonight in Memphis against the 76ers (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET), insists he can take the heat, even after the normal honeymoon period is over.

And, he wants to take the heat, too.

"He and I are in this together," Williams said Saturday after the Grizzlies fell to 0-10 with an 18-point loss to the Bulls. "We're on the same page."

"This team needed a guy like him and I needed a coach like him," Williams continued. "See, he doesn't put up with no B.S. and he makes us play. He's somebody who knows what it takes to win and he's not going to give in on anything. If he tells you he wants to do something, by God, you better do it. Or else he'll stop everything until you do. He wants to help me, and I definitely want to help him, any way I can."

Anyone who ever played point guard for Hubie Brown knows the first way to help is to take care of the ball. Rory Sparrow heard it every day for four years when he was Brown's playmaker in New York.

"Hubie was an authoritarian, a driven-type of coach, and that's the total opposite of today's players," Sparrow said. "So I'm surprised as anyone that at age 69, he's back coaching. But who's to say that Hubie can't change? And who's to say that Williams and other players won't want to play for him?"

Just a week into his new job, Brown has the same passion for teaching, but has yet to show that old confrontational style. Maybe that's because he says that Williams and his players have done everything he's asked during the two-a-day practices he's conducted to make up for lost time.

"It's tough for them and it's tough for us," Brown said. "This is a project."

It's one he didn't expect to undertake until Jerry West offered him three years at $10 million. From the start of training camp, West wasn't happy that young, promising players, like Pau Gasol, Drew Gooden and Shane Battier were getting no teaching from Sidney Lowe. Enter Brown.

"As you get older, you're a little mellower," Brown said, when asked if he was still apt to get in a player's face. "But I don't worry about what people say about me and younger players. It's just basketball. But isn't it interesting how the great teachers don't kowtow to anyone? The great coaches are like that, too, still running meticulous, organized practices. And, getting great results."

The results are still to come, but the Grizzlies seem to think that Brown's no-nonsense approach is exactly what they need. Actually, for some players, it's a return to their college days.

"If you weren't doing your job, Coach K would get in your face," said Battier, recalling his days playing for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. "And your teammates would get in your face, too. We're all professionals here and we are compensated very handsomely to do our job. So if we're not playing the way we should, we're letting down our organization, our teammates and our fans. And there should be some accountability."

	“	I love the way it is now. I think you need that as a player. How can you expect to develop your game and play to your potential if you're not always playing hard? ”
		— Drew Gooden

Which was one of Brown's first messages when he began running two-a-days. Without the benefit of a 30-day training camp to install his system, he let his players know that what he said goes, and that no one is guaranteed a minute of playing time.

"First thing I told my dad after our first practice was, 'He's just like Bill Fitch,' " said Lorenzen Wright, who played for Fitch as a member of the Clippers for two seasons. "Coach Brown demands that you work hard and holds you accountable. But it's just not one guy. It's everyone. And if not, he'll get after you."

It was no different for No. 1 pick Drew Gooden at Kansas while playing for Roy Williams.

"I love the way it is now," Gooden said. "I think you need that as a player. How can you expect to develop your game and play to your potential if you're not always playing hard? Coach Brown and his assistants won't even let you get on the court if you're not trying your best. The coaches keep pounding that in you."

When he was coaching Kentucky to an ABA title in 1975, then Atlanta for five years and the Knicks for four-plus seasons, Hubie Brown did his share of pounding. It's the old-school method. Some general managers think that way of coaching is outdated, and point to other yellers who have been fired, like Rick Pitino, P.J. Carlesimo and John Calipari, as prime examples.

"The 5-Star (basketball camp) guys really struggle with today's players," said one Western Conference GM. "This hip-hop generation doesn't respond to guys who are in their faces, yelling."

Maybe. But some recent coaches, who aren't exactly as old as Brown, had success riding their teams hard, like New York's Jeff Van Gundy.

"Coach Brown is just like Mike Fratello," said Memphis' Wesley Person, who was with Fratello in Cleveland. "They're both disciplinarians. There's more structure now than what we had. Everything is laid out in detail. Mike was very similar. He always had a plan of what he wanted to do and he'd hold you accountable. So you have to go out and do it. It's doing it the right way."

The Hubie Brown way.

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.