Amari Williams' size and defense overwhelmed Troy in the NCAA's first round

The Troy Trojans were eliminated from their first NCAA Tournament since 2017, losing to your University of Kentucky Wildcats in the first round in Milwaukee. Troy head coach Scott Cross hadn’t been to an NCAA Tournament in seventeen years before Friday night’s loss to Kentucky. After the game, he spoke highly of his team’s effort against the No. 3 seed Wildcats, but Kentucky’s size advantage inside and two big runs were too much to overcome.

“Kentucky’s a really good basketball team, and the size obviously affected us a lot,” said Cross. “Amari Williams plugging up everything in the paint was hard for our guys. I think we were able to get some good looks off the pick and roll, but you go right in and have got a seven-foot shot-blocker sitting in the paint, and that’s hard to deal with. When you kick it out and your 3s aren’t falling, it makes it difficult to score baskets.”

Troy hung around with Kentucky for the first fifteen minutes of the game, then a 10-0 run right before halftime gave the Wildcats a comfortable cushion at the break. Kentucky went on another scoring run to put the game away in the second half, and the Trojans couldn’t recover.

“It was disappointing to lose the basketball game. Our guys played hard. They went on a run. Our intensity dropped a little bit.”

“His size and defensive ability was greater than what I expected”

Later in Cross’s postgame press conference, he mentioned that he had seen plenty of film on Williams going into the game and knew the challenge ahead. Still, Troy was surprised by just how good Williams was for Kentucky.

“His size and defensive ability was greater than what I expected,” Cross admitted. “You see on film that he’s a big old guy, but, yeah, standing next to him, he really defended the rim well. I felt like we were able to get some advantages off the pick-and-roll to where we could maybe play 2-on-1. But then you drive it in there and he’s blocking shots or he’s bluffing and getting back and he’s walling up guys, it just makes it really, really difficult. About the only thing you can do is pick-and-pop.”

Cross knew Troy couldn’t pull off the upset by relying on its five-man picking and popping the entire game, noting that Williams’ presence inside allowed Kentucky to defend more aggressively.

“(Andrew) Carr too is a great team defender. He’s got size and length. It makes it tough,” Cross added. “Then Butler does a great on the ball. I think he gives them a big lift in terms of their defensive DNA. Oweh is a good defender as well. So those guys collectively, I think, you know, they played a really, really solid defensive game.

“If they can continue to play at a high level defensively, they’re as good as an offensive team as I’ve seen throughout — I watched a lot of college basketball… Kentucky can really, really score the basketball. They have probably, in (Koby) Brea, one of the best shooters in the country. He has to be a top three in the country. You have to respect that. That opens things up for so many other guys. Tough to prepare for, for sure.”