Well, that’s a bummer.

DeAndre Williams’ career with the Memphis Tigers is, indeed, over. The school confirmed in a statement Friday afternoon that Williams’ waiver was officially denied by the NCAA. That statement ended, appropriately, with this: “Nevertheless, we are very much looking forward to an exciting season on the court for our men’s basketball team.”

DeAndre Williams denied additional year of eligibility by NCAA

You should be, too. Because even though the Tigers won’t have the seniority and production of Williams, they will have:

• an SEC tournament MVP and two-time SEC champion point guard in Jahvon Quinerly;
• a former Preseason AAC Player of the Year in Caleb Mills;
• a 6-7 senior guard who shot 40% from three in Jaykwon Walton;
• a 6-6 tough forward who was highly productive in the Big East and played for his native country’s national team in David Jones; and
• the reigning Lou Henson Player of the Year in big man Jordan Brown.

In other words: Memphis is still going to be very good, even without Williams.

That shouldn’t be lost in all of this tough news. Their two best players may not be as good as last year’s, but the Tigers are significantly better from roster spots 3-10 this season.

As great as Williams and Kendric Davis were last year, the Tigers felt a little too one-dimensional at times and just couldn’t consistently rely on anyone outside of those two.

It’s going to be different this year with several players who could conceivably lead the team in scoring, and Quinerly won’t be a dropoff in terms of point guard play.

But make no mistake: It’s tough news for Memphis and Williams that his time is up. Unfortunately, he got some bad guidance early in his collegiate career, and he was misled.

Hardaway: If DeAndre Williams returned, team would adjust

The analytical splits for this team are pretty drastic with and without Williams, as we’ve written about before. Memphis is a Top 10-caliber team with Williams and a Top 35-caliber team without him.

Williams would’ve been by far the most productive returner — someone all the newcomers, young and old, could defer to — and without his presence, the Tigers have no continuity amongst players who played on the team last season. When you’re trying to establish roles, as Penny Hardaway will have to do, it’s an easier job when there’s already an awesome player entrenched in the program.

But guess what? This is a problem most college basketball programs have to deal with every single year. It’s the way of the world now.

Teams lose entire starting fives to the transfer portal and reload the same exact way. Penny Hardaway did it about as well as anybody; the Tigers rank No. 14 at 247Sports in their 2023 transfer portal class rankings (yes, that’s a thing now). That’s better, for example, than Arizona, Indiana and North Carolina, to name a few. 

Furthermore, even though Memphis basketball officially got the news Friday, this team has been practicing all summer without Williams. Maybe that felt peculiar given his status was still up in the air, but it looks like the right approach in hindsight.

As suspension looms, Hardaway sees reality check from LeMoyne-Owen as ‘healthy’

Hardaway certainly would’ve welcomed Williams back into the program — Memphis’ efforts have made that clear — but he’s been preparing his team all summer not to have him. Had Williams been working out and practicing at the facility, it might have made Friday’s news doubly crushing. But Hardaway should have a pretty good idea now of who brings what to the table for his team.

And in terms of what his team can accomplish? It’s largely unchanged. This team still has the pieces to advance to the second weekend. It’s a team that should be experienced enough to manage a challenging non-conference schedule. It’s a team that should roll through an incredibly weak American Athletic Conference and build on the program’s tournament appearance streak.

Memphis Tigers rout LeMoyne-Owen despite sloppy play in exhibition game

Still, it’s an anticlimactic way for Williams’ career to end at Memphis. He may not be on the list of the truly greatest Tigers, but he played with an unbridled passion that we’ll always remember. He chose Memphis over Kentucky and proceeded to throw himself into the community and embraced Memphis in every way.

So, no, he won’t be playing for the Tigers again. But if this Memphis team accomplishes what it’s capable of, it’ll owe something to him for helping lay the foundation that might’ve made it possible.