Kentucky basketball 7-footer Amari Williams has big showing in first game of Mark Pope era

Posted by Admin November 5, 2024 Basketball

LEXINGTON — Amari Williams had Kentucky basketball’s only offensive rebound in Monday night’s first half. He made it count. And along the way, he displayed perhaps his most overlooked skill: his dribbling.

Williams tracked down Kerr Kriisa’s missed 3, which ricocheted back beyond the arc. Instead of dishing off to a teammate, the 7-foot Williams kept it himself. He drove to the basket and finished for two points with a smidgen more than 12 minutes remaining in the half.

Williams helped in plenty of other ways, too, as No. 23 UK barely broke a sweat in coach Mark Pope’s debut as coach, walloping Wright State, 103-62, at Rupp Arena.

“It’s something I’ve always been able to do; it’s just if you’re allowed to do it,” Williams said of his ballhandling ability. “Just kind of how it works with any team.”

Williams said he’s always had a knack for it. He didn’t hit a growth spurt until later in his playing career, as he noted he never had a defined position as a youngster.

“You all get excited when he’s racing down the court with the ball in his hands,” Pope said. “That’s like 400 pounds of solid steel just racing down the floor at an amazing clip. And really, none of us know what’s going to happen. It’s fantastic. And he loves it.”

Like Pope, Williams was in his maiden game with the Wildcats; a native of Nottingham, England, Williams spent the past four seasons at Drexel. Williams authored a stellar stat line, posting a double-double (12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds) and dishing out three assists.

One of his assists was of the highlight-reel variety.

Less than two minutes into the contest, Williams pulled down a defensive rebound and started the fast break. By the time he reached the 3-point line at the other end, he dished off to a cutting Otega Oweh, who did the rest of the work, capping the possession with a two-handed slam.

“He’s really important to what we do,” Pope said. “And when you have bigs that can grab a rebound or block a shot and then lead out of the break, it’s pretty spectacular. It makes you really dangerous defensively, because you end up with every mismatch in transition you could possibly want.”

Just a minute before that, Williams assisted on the first points of the Pope era at Kentucky (1-0), lofting a perfectly placed pass to Andrew Carr on an alley-oop.

All around, Williams was ultra-efficient offensively, making five of his six attempts (a conversion rate of 83.3%). The first: a ferocious dunk barely a minute after tipoff.

The basket itself was far less important than what it represented: For Williams, it was a confidence boost. Last week, he left with an injury in UK’s exhibition win over Minnesota State Mankato early in the first half; he didn’t reenter that contest.

“It was tough after the game. I couldn’t really walk on it. I couldn’t run,” Williams said. “So for me, I kind of thought it was for the worst. But got everything back — (with) the MRI scan, everything was in place. So it’s just about me feeling comfortable. … The trainers and strength coaches we have did a great job helping me.”

In the leadup to Monday’s game, Pope expressed optimism Williams would return.

But until he arrived at the arena, Williams wasn’t entirely sure of himself.

“But as soon as I stepped on the court for the warmup, felt the BBN (Big Blue Nation) energy, I guess all my pain just went away,” he said. “So that’s something special about this place: It helped me throughout the game. I didn’t have any pain throughout the game.”

He made it painful for the Raiders (0-1), though. When he wasn’t scoring or assisting offensively, he was terrorizing Wright State defensively. Williams recorded a steal and a block. And he altered multiple shots from the visitors that weren’t credited as blocks in the official stat sheet but contributed to the visitors’ woes. (The Raiders made only 35.3% of their field goals Monday, going 24 for 68.)

The Wildcats, on the other hand, shot 60% (39 for 65) from the field — 45.8% (11 of 24) from 3 — and four of his teammates also had double-digit scoring efforts, led by Oweh’s game-high 21. Koby Brea was next in line, with 18 points off the bench; he made seven of his eight field-goal attempts, including all four 3s. Lamont Butler had 14 points, and Carr had 11.

Yet afterward, Williams’ gifts were all his teammates could talk about.

“He’s like a unicorn, pretty much,” Oweh said. “Like he just makes the offense so much easier for us, because … he’s gonna block it at the top of the backboard, then catch it, bring it down (and) get us into our offense.

“So that takes so much pressure off of the guards when you have a big that can do that.”

Prior to this season, Brea said he’d never played alongside a 7-footer before. Much less one with Williams’ capabilities.

“It’s not often that you have a 7-foot dude that’s able to bring down the ball off a rebound and find the open man every time, make decisions for himself or others,” Brea said. “He’s a great playmaker. He’s just a blessing to this team, honestly.”

Even Pope struggled to fit Williams into a box.

The ever-thoughtful, analytically-minded Pope was a team captain for one of the best teams in Kentucky’s history. One stocked with future NBA players. Pope himself played six seasons in the NBA.

Williams is a cut above.

“He’s got really good handles, he’s got really good vision, he’s got great athleticism, and he plays to the end of the play,” Pope said. “And so, I’m telling you: There’s just not a lot of guys his size with his skill set. There’s just not.

“In fact, I don’t know if there’s any that are exactly his size and his skill set — and I’m grateful that we have him.”

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.