Amari Williams deserved some love from All-SEC awards

Amari Williams was notably left off any of the All-SEC postseason awards, which were announced Monday. I’m going to explain why that was an error.

Williams was more than deserving of one of the 15 spots spread across the three All-SEC teams. Instead, he was snubbed from an honor as the league’s coaches instead went with mostly guards and scoring wings. Only four players listed over 6-foot-7 made an All-SEC team: Auburn’s Johni Broome (1st Team), South Carolina’s Collin Murray-Boyles (2nd Team), Missouri’s Mark Mitchell (3rd Team), and Florida’s Alex Condon (3rd Team).

Broome and Condon are the only ones you might consider centers, the other two are more traditional forwards. If the SEC prefers to pick the best players instead of creating actual “teams”, then so be it. But arguing Williams wasn’t better than everyone above aside from Broome is one I’m not buying.

After spending four seasons at Drexel, the unique seven-footer transferred to Kentucky and immediately established himself as a key piece to Mark Pope‘s offense. Granted, it wasn’t a perfect start to his time as a Wildcat, but Williams was still highly impactful. He eventually hit a groove, right around the time conference play picked up.

The legend of Amari Williams quickly began to gain momentum from there. He opened SEC action with 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in a win over Florida. He recorded just the fourth-ever triple-double in program history against Ole Miss on the road. Opposing coaches were bragging on him being the tallest point guard they’ve ever seen. Eight of his 10 double-doubles this season came against SEC competition. Across 18 conference games, Williams averaged 11.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 0.9 blocks in just 23.8 minutes per outing while shooting 59 percent from the field. He did not sit out a single game all season.

Williams outplayed Florida’s Condon in their head-to-head matchup back on Jan. 4. He outplayed Auburn’s Broome in their head-to-head matchup on March 1. Against South Carolina and Murray-Boyles, Williams was a game-high +32 (while dealing with foul trouble) in a 23-point win for the Wildcats. Missouri and Mitchell had no answer for Williams (once again the game-high leader in plus/minus at +13) in Kentucky’s regular season finale as he lived at the free throw line with a 10-12 FT mark.

After Broome, Williams has performed like the second-best center in the SEC this season. His skillset is one that no one else in the league — and maybe in all of college basketball — possesses. A lack of playing time compared to the four names mentioned above is the one area he doesn’t stack up as well in, but part of that is due to the tremendous amount of responsibility he was handed on both ends of the floor, especially when Kentucky was battling several injuries to key ball handlers. Even still, I could understand that being used against him.

But Williams (19th) still ranks far ahead of Murray-Boyles (84th) and Mitchell (49th) in EvanMiya‘s player ratings for this season, and is a couple spots above Condon (21st). Williams has been a more impactful and consistent player than all three during conference action. That’s no disrespect to those talented players, Williams was simply just better. Only looking at conference games, he finished first in the entire SEC in total rebounds (159) and tied for seventh in assists (67). Every player above him in total assists is a backcourt player; Williams is seven-foot, 260 pounds.

Were SEC coaches hesitant to add two Kentucky players to one of the three teams, considering the ‘Cats finished sixth in the league standings? Only Auburn, Florida, and Tennessee — three of the top four teams in the standings — saw two players nominated. If we count All-Defensive, Auburn and Tennessee finished with three honorees. Alabama, the fourth team among the top of the standings, had two players make the cut, one for All-SEC First Team (Mark Sears) and one for SEC All-Freshman (Labaron Philon).

It’s hard to argue against Otega Oweh, who was named All-SEC Second Team, making one of the three teams. He was the most consistent scorer in the conference from start to finish. So again, was it simply a matter of choosing between Oweh and Williams as Kentucky’s lone postseason award winner? I won’t even argue Williams should have been named to All-Defensive Team or been tabbed Newcomer of the Year. If anyone from Kentucky is making All-Defense, it’s Lamont Butler. Tennessee’s Chaz Lanier is deserving of Newcomer of the Year.

But Williams certainly did more than enough to earn a spot on an All-SEC team for everything he did this season. The coaches got that one wrong. He can prove it in Nashville this week.