Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky coach Mark Pope had a question for media members at his postgame press conference earlier this week after UK’s 41-point win over Wright State.
“Tell me the truth. You all get excited when he’s racing down the floor with the ball in his hands? Does he? That’s like 400 pounds of solid steel just racing down the floor an amazing clip. Really, none of us know what’s going to happen. It’s fantastic. And he loves it,” Pope said.
He was talking about 7-foot center Amari Williams who had 12 points, 13 rebounds, three assists, one steal, one block and four turnovers in 20 minutes in his UK debut.
“Amari is a really special player and I thought he was terrific. He missed the last game and only played a couple of minutes last game with a little patella injury and he missed a couple of days of practice and just really the first time gave us some live stuff yesterday and I thought he responded great,” Pope said.
“I thought he was terrific tonight. He got a little gassed in the game but I thought he was really good. He’s really important to what we do. When you have bigs that can grab a rebound or block a shot and lead out in 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. He is really talented. We are going to need him to do that more and more all season long. It’s a great skill set.”
Pope said Williams, a Drexel transfer noted for his defense, believes he has a lot of skills.
“If you asked him he would say he’s got incredible handles,” the Kentucky coach said. “What he does is he’s got really good handles. He’s got really good vision. He’s got great athleticism. He plays till the end of the play.
“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 are any that are exactly his size and skill set. I’m grateful we have him.
“Hopefully all of you guys will get time to sit down with him. He’s one of the best human beings in the world. He’s representing Nottingham, England in an extraordinary way as a player and even more as a person. He’s really special.”
5 Responses
He reminds me of Derrick Henry in basketball shoes.
good comparison Barry
I like that.
He’s actually better than I thought he would be. I knew he would be great on defense but his offense is what surprised me. He runs the floor better than any 7 footer that is weight that I’ve ever seen. He plays like a stretch 4 but is built almost like Shaq. Garrison and Williams is probably the best 1-2 punch down low we’ve had in quite some time. I don’t understand how he didn’t average close to 20 points a game. Then I looked at his minutes and he didn’t really play a ton of minutes last year. It looks almost effortless to him. I absolutely love this team. Like Pope said everyone has a little tool belt of things they are great at. He seems to maximize there tool belts.
A good friend I keep in touch with during the game kept complimenting Williams, saying how much he really like his relentless effort and good decisions. Sounds like a lot of folks like Williams. He’s playing for the right coach at the right program!