The summer of 2020 will forever be remembered as one of the most eventful in American history. Most notably, the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery sparked a protest movement that extended beyond the borders of America and entered into other nations. Thousands of protesters took to the streets to express their frustrations with the poor treatment of Black people from coast to coast at the hands of police.
In the midst of all that was going on, there was a noticeable shift in some of the country’s top basketball prospects. Prospects like Makur Maker and Elijah Fisher began to publicly express their interest in attending historically Black colleges and universities. Ultimately, Maker decided to attend Howard University and Fisher said that he was “seriously considering” attending Morgan State University.
One of the many prospects that publicly expressed interest in attending an HBCU was Mikey Williams. The five-star recruit currently resides in North Carolina and is projected to be the eighth-best player in the class of 2023. While he has received offers from Kansas, USC and Memphis, Williams included five HBCUs in his top ten school choices last summer.
“Why does it always have to be the big names? Have you ever thought about helping your own people out? We are the reason that these schools have such big names and such good history,” he wrote on Instagram last July.
Skeptics wondered if Williams, Maker and Fisher were only interested in attending HBCUs because of the social uprising that took place last summer. Thus far, the trio has proved skeptics wrong. While he was injured for the majority of the season, Maker did attend Howard University for his lone season in college. Meanwhile, Williams is preparing to begin his junior year of high school and schools like Hampton and Tennessee State still top his list. A recent report from T.J. Guinn of ESPN indicated that Williams is still seriously “leaning toward” playing at HBCU. However, Guinn didn’t disclose which HBCU that Williams is leaning toward.
