Penny Hardaway won't cut ties with Mikey Williams, wants to see how everything plays out

Renowned high school hoops star Mikey Williams is in some trouble with the law. Back in April, the Memphis signee was arrested and faces five charges of assault with a weapon plus one count of firing into an occupied vehicle — and he could face up to 28 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

However, shortly after his arrest, Williams pleaded not guilty and is awaiting his preliminary hearing on June 29. His future head basketball coach, Penny Hardaway, says he’s waiting to see how the court proceedings go before deciding what to do with Williams as a player.

“There are no updates,” he shared on the incoming Tiger rookie, according to Memphis basketball beat writer Parth Upadhyaya. “We’re just waiting to see how this thing plays out, just like everyone else.”

Upadhyaya also reported Monday morning that Hardaway said he’s “not that type” of person to simply cut ties with a student-athlete over an incident before hearing the full story and letting the legal system sort it out. Penny emphasized that he doesn’t want to “call him guilty before he’s innocent.”

So, Hardaway is letting the court process play out on the side with Williams while the rest of the team turns their focus to summer workouts, with the Tigers preparing to try and make their third straight NCAA Tournament. They were a No. 9 seed in 2022 and scored a win over Boise State before bowing out to No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga. Then, this spring, they one-upped last year by securing a No. 8 seed, but they lost in heartbreak fashion against eventual Final Four participant FAU.

For Coach Hardaway, success has been in large part thanks to a shift in roster building mentality. Penny was all-in on stacking his rosters with five-star freshmen for much of his tenure, but in the last two years, especially in 2023, Hardaway developed and found tough, talented and really old players to fill his roster.

After losing so many seniors this summer, headlined by superstar transfer Kendric Davis, Hardaway had to rebuild and did so by finding an elite freshman like Williams along with some old transfers while also baking on some younger guys to step up in their third or fourth years with the program.

With Williams out of the picture for the foreseeable future, it’s likely that the Tigers will open the season with a starting lineup that’s once again chock full of upperclassmen. And like 2023, they’d have an old transfer point guard in Caleb Mills, who began at Houston before stopping by Florida State.

Plus, if the 26-year-old DeAndre Williams is somehow able to secure a waiver to play next season, Penny could field a team older than the city’s NBA franchise.