Amari Williams celebrated with Kentucky fans in Milwaukee after Sunday's win. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky coach Mark Pope managed to talk about point guard Lamont Butler (14 points, five assists), Koby Brea (23 points, six rebounds), and Amari Williams (10 rebounds, eight points, six assists and three blocks) after Kentucky’s 84-75 NCAA Tournament win over Illinois Sunday.
But he also managed to promote a NIL deal for Williams, who is from England.
Williams talked about Pope’s personality helping hold the team together with his positivity no matter how many injuries hit the team only to have the coach interrupt the postgame press conference and said that was “not the real answer” to Williams’ play.
“Yeah, I had Weetabix this morning,” Williams said.
Weeta what?
Turns out it is an English breakfast cereal exported to over 80 countries, including the United States. It’s made from whole-grain wheat.
“Friday, I had four pieces of toast for breakfast (before UK played Liberty), and they (UK staff) thought that wasn’t enough,” Williams said.
Pope asked him what he usually ate and he told the Kentucky coach he ate Weetabix growing up in England.
“It’s like Shredded Wheat. Me saying this is crazy because my parents always forced me to eat it growing up. So (UK staff member Will Barton) did a good job of finding an international store out here in Milwaukee, and he got me Weetabix,” Williams said.
“I had about three of them this morning. Coach Pope joined me too, and Brandon Garrison. Yeah, I feel like that helped my performance today for sure.”
Pope has bought in.
“We will have mandatory team breakfast this week every morning featuring Weetabix,” the UK coach said.
When asked how the breakfast tasted, Williams did not give it a glowing review until Pope helped him restate his answer just in case a NIL deal could be in his future.
“It doesn’t taste too bad. Depends how you make it,” Williams said.
Pope gave him a do-over.
“You’re right, it tastes amazing. It definitely tastes amazing and it gives you a lot of energy throughout the day, for sure,” Williams said.
Pope also made him reveal the “secret ingredient” for Weetabix.
Williams said sugar and with more prodding from Pope threw in the warm milk he uses with his Weetabix.
“Ever since coming to America, I’ve never seen people have cereal with warm milk. So I feel like that’s something you definitely need — why are you shaking your head? That’s something you’ve got to try if you have Weetabix and warm milk, for sure,” Williams said.
Pope said he thought Weetabix was “extraordinary” and comes in a biscuit.
“It looks very untasteful. I learned today that you crumble it up into tiny little things, and then you put some warm — the warm milk is key. I’ve never had cereal with warm milk,” Pope said.
“And then Amari gave me permission to put some sugar on it. He was nervous. He put four packs of sugar, I put one, because if I put more than one (my wife) Lee Anne was going to kill me. It was actually fantastic. I like it so much more right now than I did this morning.”
So from now on, the breakfast of champions for Kentucky basketball will be Weetabix.
9 Responses
The mate turns the ball over way too much and heavens sake dunk the ball on those shots around the rim. He’s a 7ftr so act like it man…
Yes, that is now 3 straight games where he has underperformed offensively. He acted like after last game he agreed that he needed to be taking it in more but still didn’t but did have hands of stone. He and a couple others still need to go back to finishing school.
Took the words right outta my mouth.. Said it during the game…if you got to jump stop go off 2 feet then do it..but power that baby home.
Dunk the ball when you are that close my friend and good things will come of it i promise ….
I’m not worry about whether he dunks the ball or not. You guys need to watch the game again he did some stuff that kept us ahead throughout the game.
Williams +plays vs. -plays were about 50/50. If he had dunked those under the basket shots his ratio would have been 75%+.
Again, watch the game Barry, you guys are not given him credit what he does on the floor then worry about whether he dunks the ball or not. He has great passing skills for a big man and can bring the ball up the court when needed and can defend had 2 or 3 blocks. ooooooooh by the way he can rebound as well.
He should be able to rebound. He’s 7 foot. Look.. if you are at the rim you need to dunk it. He’s got very little touch. You rewatch it and see how many times he threw the ball at the hoop. Those aren’t shots they are line drives. Nobody says he needs to be perfect. Nobody as we all know makes everything. But if you are 7 foot and have his ability ,make them stop you.
He’s a great around the basket on defense he needs to take the ball up and dunk it with authority. By not doing this he is costing himself about 5-6 ppg. He’s great when he rebounds with 2 hands. Also I would love a guard to take the ball from him after he rebounds the ball. When he dribbles coast to coast I get so nervous. Pope needs to tell the team when he grabs a rebound have a guard come get it from him and let him run down the court and post up fast. Williams makes alot of great plays but makes almost as many bad plays. If he could cut back on the bad plays he would be a terrific player.