Memphis basketball has enough issues as it is. Don't add Mikey Williams now | Giannotto

OXFORD, Miss. — The last shot was the final baffling blow.

It was a one-footed, 3-point runner by the oldest, most experienced player on this Memphis basketball team with more than three seconds still on the clock. It not only hit nothing but backboard, a regrettable miss to cap off a regrettable 80-77 loss at Ole Miss. It wasn’t the shot Memphis coach Penny Hardaway drew up. The ball was supposed to go to the corner, to freshman Ashton Hardaway.

“And Ashton was wide open,” Hardaway said. “But JQ (Jahvon Quinerly) took that shot. I got to live with it.”

This was the exclamation point on a mistake-filled Saturday that was deflating because it seemed completely avoidable. Memphis had the better talent, and had the lead for much of the afternoon. But it did not have the better coach or the better plan or the better resolve.

So the result felt like a revealing one, particularly given the decisions swirling around the program after what transpired inside The Pavilion in Oxford, Mississippi, and in a courtroom across the country a couple days earlier.

These Tigers suddenly have plenty of issues to sort through. They shouldn’t add Mikey Williams to the list. Not in the middle of this season that’s suddenly reached a precarious juncture.

But that possibility can’t be ignored anymore. There were reminders during the game when the Ole Miss student section chanted, “Mikey’s guilty,” conveniently ignoring that Ole Miss coach Chris Beard is about a year removed from being fired by Texas after being charged with strangling his fiancee.

But after it was over, after this transfer-filled roster with 13 new players trudged to the locker room in disbelief over squandering an 11-point second-half lead, Hardaway left the door open for Williams when asked if there’s a possibility he joins the team this season.

“I’m not sure on that,” Hardaway said. “You know, obviously, you know, Mikey is a part of our team. I just have to get back with the AD. His status hasn’t changed yet with the school. I have to get with the AD and talk about it.”

Here’s hoping that discussion leads to more patience. To waiting until next season to introduce the potential distraction Williams and his considerable social media star power will inevitably create.

Memphis (5-2) is already having trouble figuring out how to keep everyone involved as is. The starting quartet of Quinerly, guard Caleb Mills, forward Jaykwon Walton and big man Jordan Brown were a combined 7-of-29 from the field for 20 points. David Jones, after he seemed to have an answer to every Ole Miss charge over the first 30 minutes of action, didn’t take a shot over the final 5:50.

It was, Hardaway admitted, mostly his fault. He had the team playing through Quinerly, and the veteran point guard was largely ineffective.

“We should have gotten the ball in David’s hands,” said Hardaway.

That dynamic led to a halfcourt offense that looked disjointed and disorganized, which has become a glaring deficiency for this group through seven games. It seeped into the Tigers’ defense as Ole Miss went 11-of-22 on 3-pointers and outscored Memphis by 24 points from beyond the arc. It negated the advantage Memphis had on the glass.

But this isn’t a matter of talent.

For goodness sake, that 19-2 run Memphis went on in the first half was fantastic. Jones had a personal 7-0 surge. Malcolm Dandridge welcomed former teammate Moussa Cisse back to college basketball with a vicious block and a dunk that may well be the most stunning of Dandridge’s entire career. The Memphis roster was better than the one Ole Miss trotted out there, even though it had no answer for guards Jaylen Murray and Matthew Murrell.

This is about cohesion, structure and players embracing their roles within all that. This is, in essence, the same storyline that has plagued Hardaway at the beginning of seasons past.

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A couple years ago, another talented Memphis team lost this type of game at Ole Miss and nearly collapsed. Hardaway afterwards made public the locker room dissension that had developed between the Tigers’ older players and then-freshman Emoni Bates. It was the result of Hardaway forcing Bates into a situation he wasn’t ready to handle.

The situation surrounding this Memphis team feels far less dire right now. There are more chances this month with the schedule Hardaway put together for the Tigers to spruce up their NCAA tournament resume before conference play begins.

But there is a variable looming out in Southern California. Williams could have the same polarizing effect Bates once did.

You’ll recall that Bates appeared in only two more regular-season games after that 2021 loss to Ole Miss only for Hardaway to inject him back into the lineup for March Madness.

It didn’t backfire. But a repeat of that would be every bit as baffling.

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis basketball has enough issues. Don't add Mikey Williams now