Drexel Athletics Photo
A week of working the transfer portal finally paid off for Kentucky Sunday when Drexel standout Amari Williams committed to coach Mark Pope and UK.
ESPN was the first to report the commitment that had been expected since Williams arrived on campus for a visit and went to Keeneland with Pope on Saturday.
The 6-10 Williams, who has a 7-5 wingspan, is the first transfer to commit to Pope since he took over the Kentucky program.
He was a defensive standout during his four years at Drexel and was named the Coastal Athletic Association Defensive Player of the Year three times. He led the conference in blocks the last three seasons while playing at Drexel.
Williams certainly has experience as he played in 105 games at Drexel and averaged 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.6 assists per game in his career.
He is the type of versatile center that Pope’s offense uses and has shown he can make the passes/reads to keep the offense moving.
Williams was a first-team all-conference pick the last two seasons and considered both St. John’s and Mississippi State.
Last season he averaged 12.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 blocks per game. According to https://kenpom.com, Williams had the 28th-best defensive rebounding percentage in the country (26.2 percent) and the 65th-best offensive rebounding percentage (12.7 percent) last season. He also ranked in the top 25 in fouls drawn per 40 minutes at 6.8.
5 Responses
Yahtzee!
A defensive stopper who has the bulk to rebound…perfect for the 5 spot! Stay tuned…there will be more signings this week. Go Mark! Go Cats!
Hope this week drops more hits for us. Coach Mike can only give the Popemeister a rating of C+ for first week’s work. I think passion and commitment will help him big time but still little worried about coaching/recruiting after only 1 trans commit first week. We lost key contact to Baylor and the big Egyptian to UL. That was a stinger there. Also, no carryovers from past UK team and none from BYU even though several were reported to be coming and may still. I know we need patience on all this, but many of us seniors to not have the virtue of patience working on our side.
The kid that went to UL had surgery and will not play next year, so no loss at all. Give Pope time, I think he is doing A+++ Excite for UK BB again!
I knew about no play next year but should not lose to UL when down to the 2 schools. Their train wreck worse than ours.