After finishing his high school education, Williams intended to play college basketball. He was ranked as one of the top 20 recruits in the 2009 class. In May 2009, he announced his verbal commitment to attend the University of Memphis. He chose Memphis ahead of Georgetown, Kansas State and Florida International. He became Josh Pastner's first recruit as the Memphis Tigers head coach. However, he struggled to qualify academically and later backed out from his commitment to play for Memphis and instead skipped college basketball altogether to play professionally. However, a player who attended high school in the United States is not eligible to enter the NBA draft until a year after his high school graduation. He was expected to sign with an overseas team before entering the NBA when he became eligible, a similar path taken by Brandon Jennings who played in the Italian league for a year before he was drafted in 2009.