Amari Williams is '400 pounds of steel just racing down the floor' in transition

Amari Williams is unlike any player we’ve seen in quite some time at Kentucky. How many seven-footers can pass, dribble, and move as fluidly as the native of England can?

From the very first play of the Wildcats’ 103-62 season-opening win over Wright State, he was fixing up Andrew Carr for a tone-setting lob dunk. Not long after that, Williams pulled in a defensive rebound, sprinted up the floor with the ball in his hands, and laid off an easy pass for an Otega Oweh dunk. Soon after that, he was taking his defender off the dribble from the top of the key for a left-handed poster dunk.

You just don’t see players his size be so quick on their feet, especially ones that suffered a leg injury a few days prior.

“Tell me you all don’t get excited when he’s racing down the floor with the ball in his hands. That’s like 400 pounds of solid steel just racing down the floor at an amazing clip,” Head coach Mark Pope said postgame. “None of us know what’s gonna happen. It’s fantastic… Amari is a really special player, I thought he was terrific.”

Williams finished his night with 12 points (5-6 FG), 13 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block in just 20 minutes. He’s still looking to establish consistent on-court chemistry with his teammates, but his ability to spark fastbreaks is just an unusual trait for a 260-pounder (Pope might have exaggerated the 400-pound line). It easily made up for the four turnovers he had, which mostly came off miscommunicated backdoor cuts. Give it a few more games and those will turn into assists.

“Man, thank you, God,” Koby Brea said with his head pointed to the sky when asked how nice it is to have Williams by his side. “That man is special. He opens it up like crazy for us because it’s not often that you have a seven-foot dude that is able to bring down the ball for rebounds and find the open man every time. Make decisions for himself or others. He’s a great playmaker. He’s a blessing to this team honestly.”

“He’s like a unicorn pretty much,” Otega Oweh added. “He just makes the offense so much easier for us.”

Williams’ playmaking skills aren’t something that took the Big Blue Nation very long to notice, but his ability to run the floor has been a bit more surprising. “That’s something I’ve always been willing to do,” Williams said, which still doesn’t mean it’s normal. He can create mismatches in transition that free up Kentucky’s bevy of outside shooters.

Even more impressive about his performance is the fact that Williams could have easily sat this game out.

During the opening minutes of Kentucky’s second exhibition game last Tuesday, Williams went down with what appeared to be a knee injury. Pope clarified during Monday night’s postgame press conference it was a “little patella injury” Williams suffered. Williams later admitted he couldn’t really run or walk in the days leading up to the season-opener. He hardly practiced and was still a bit wobbly inching closer to tipoff.

But something in the Rupp Arena air gave him all the strength he needed once he finally stepped on the hardwood.

“I was kinda shaky coming into the game but as soon as I stepped on the court for the warm-up, felt the BBN energy, I guess all my pain went away,” Williams said. “That’s something special about this place. I didn’t have any pain throughout the game.”

A healthy Amari Williams, is a dangerous Amari Williams.

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