Promising 2023 recruit Williams considers HBCU route

Mikey Williams, a promising 6-foot-1 point guard from the 2023 recruiting class, turned heads Tuesday by publicly weighing the merits of playing NCAA basketball at a historically black college or university.

"This has been a thought for years, this didn't just recently pop up in my head," Williams wrote in a follow-up post Wednesday on Instagram. "What a lot of coaches don't understand is that we don't need them. We control our own narrative."

Williams added: "Any way I can help or make a change in the black community, best believe I am going to do that. Only God knows what the future holds. But when that time does come that I have to narrow my schools down to whatever number it is, there will be multiple HBCUs on that list. And they won't just be there for show."

While Williams had already received offers from powerhouses such as Arizona, Kansas, and UCLA, his recent pondering has led to a number of offers from HBCUs, including Howard, Grambling State, and Tennessee State - schools that have typically not been in the running for elite recruiting talent in recent years.

Coach Robert Jones of Norfolk State, another HBCU that has made an official offer to the promising point guard, thinks someone in Williams' position could change the entire perception of HBCU athletics.

"Honestly, all that it would take is one top-25 kid coming to an HBCU, being successful, and going on to play in the NBA," Jones told Yahoo Sports' Jeff Eisenberg and Krysten Peek. "Then a lot of other kids would follow. It would change everything."