Corneilous Williams announced his commitment to Memphis on Friday afternoon. Williams is the second player to commit to Penny Hardaway’s team today after Tylik Weeks announced his commitment earlier in the day.
Williams was a four-star recruit out of high school, according to 247Sports’ composite rankings, and he signed with LSU. In Baton Rouge, he didn’t see any action and entered the transfer portal after serving a redshirt season.
He landed at Western Carolina and appeared in 29 games off the bench. Williams averaged 3.5 points and three rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game, and he decided to enter the portal again following his redshirt freshman season.
He landed at North Alabama and immediately stepped into a starting role. Williams appeared and started in 64 games over the last two seasons for the Lions.
The forward averaged 9.7 points and 9.1 rebounds in 29.8 minutes per game during his first season in Florence, and he shot 63.5 percent from the field. As a redshirt junior, Williams averaged 12.2 points and 9.3 rebounds in 32.5 minutes per game, and he shot 55.1 percent from the field and 72.5 percent from the free-throw line.
Williams is an elite rebounder, and he finished the season averaging 3.7 offensive rebounds per game, ranking in the 90th percentile for offensive rebound percentage. He’s also a threat for second-chance points, and he averaged 5.4 second-chance points per 40 minutes, ranking in the 97th percentile.
Williams will give the Tigers a massive boost on the boards, and he’ll join a team that didn’t have a single player who averaged more than five rebounds per game last season. Hardaway added seven forwards/centers to the roster last season, but none of the additions were anything close to the rebounding prowess that Williams adds to this roster.
Most of Williams’ offense comes around the rim, but he can also be a factor in the pick-and-roll, which pairs nicely with the point guards that the Tigers added earlier this week.
Defensively, the forward is a good rebounder, and he finished the year with a 2.9 block percentage. North Alabama struggled last season to get much going, but during the 2024-25 season, he had a slightly positive defensive regularized adjusted plus-minus.
Williams is the 13th player to commit to next season’s roster, and he’s the eighth player to commit out of the transfer portal. Hardaway has two roster spots available, and it will be interesting to see if he fills both of them ahead of the season.