Amari Williams Continues to Deliver for Kentucky

Amari Williams is getting comfortable in his role for the Wildcats, one that continues to expand. Shorthanded in the backcourt without Kerr Kriisa and Lamont Butler, Mark Pope looked to his center to operate the offense. Even with Butler available against South Carolina, Kentucky needed the ball in Williams’ hands.

“At one point, with four minutes left, my staff was yelling at me. ‘You got to get Lamont out, you got to get Jaxson out.’ So that leaves us with zero point guards on the floor and now it was like nope, we’ve got Amari and put the ball in his hands and let him kinda run it,” Pope said after the victory over South Carolina.

It wasn’t the splashiest performance from Williams. On the heels of a historic triple-double at Ole Miss, he only had two assists and two turnovers. That doesn’t accurately quantify the center’s impact.

Williams had a plus-minus of +32 during his 21 minutes on the court against South Carolina. The second-best plus-minus for the Wildcats was +21.

“We’ve asked so much out of him and he just keeps delivering.  I thought he was really terrific tonight,” said Pope.  

“You know, he’s still an even one-to-one assist turnover ratio tonight and he comes off of a 10-3 game and you know, he didn’t shoot it as well as he did the other night, but he was still really, really effective and impactful. I thought the best thing he did tonight is he rolled hard and actually caught balls.  He was really aggressive going to catch balls and that’s important.”

That's @amxriwillixms 😤

10 PTS | 6 REB | 2 AST pic.twitter.com/Hs6s6f9Wtk

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) February 9, 2025

Williams struggled to finish near the rim (4-9 FG) early against South Carolina’s physicality. Once he got comfortable with the pushing and shoving, he scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. More importantly, his confidence never wavered. The lefty is showing off a right-handed baby hook-shot, which will make it more difficult on his future opponents.

Saturday served as a showcase for Brandon Garrison, who played his best game as a Wildcat, but Big Blue Nation cannot take for granted how valuable Amari Williams is to the Kentucky offense.

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