Mark Pope lands a transfer. Amari Williams, an elite defensive big man, is coming to UK.

New Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope has gone portal shopping. And he’s added an elite defensive big man to his first UK basketball roster for the 2024-25 season.

On Sunday afternoon, Amari Williams — a former four-year standout at Drexel in the Coastal Athletic Association — committed to Pope and the Wildcats out of the NCAA transfer portal, according to ESPN.

Williams, a 6-foot-10 forward with a 7-foot-5 wingspan, took a recruiting visit to Kentucky over the weekend. He picked UK from a final shortlist of schools that also included Mississippi State. Williams also considered St. John’s while in the transfer portal.

A native of England, Williams entered the NCAA transfer portal last month with impressive defensive credentials. He won the last three Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Defensive Player of the Year awards and led the conference in blocks in each of the last three seasons while playing at Drexel, which is located in Philadelphia.

“He’s a solid addition to the team. And he’s a guy that fits the way Pope plays,” 247Sports national analyst Travis Branham told the Herald-Leader about Williams joining the UK roster.

“I’ve talked to other coaches in the CAA — obviously, he’s a three-time defensive player of the year in the conference — and the way people describe him is, obviously this is kind of an outlandish thing, but almost like a (Nikola) Jokic-style player.”

Williams was the first player from the transfer portal to schedule a visit to UK with Pope as the Wildcats’ new head coach. News of the visit, which took place this weekend, surfaced just a few hours before Pope was formally introduced as the next Kentucky coach to a packed crowd of UK fans at Rupp Arena.

That weekend recruiting visit for Williams to Lexington included a stop at Keeneland, with Pope, on Saturday afternoon during the track’s 2024 Spring Meet.

During his four-year career at Drexel, Williams played in 105 career games and had averages of 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.6 assists per contest.

“A guy on the offensive end of the floor that you can give the ball to and he’s really smart, he can really pass,” Branham said. “Guys can move away on and off the ball. You can do a lot of actions away from him, and he’s going to be able to make the right reads and the right plays to get guys easy shots and easy looks. So, in that regard, he fits (with Pope’s style of play).”

He was a CAA First Team selection in each of the last two seasons, and also averaged more than 12 points per game for Drexel during both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.

“When you hear Amari Williams’ name, you think of his defensive presence ... and his elite ability to pass. That is what has gotten him the attention of NBA scouts,” Drexel head coach Zach Spiker told City of Basketball Love, a Philadelphia basketball-focused publication, last April. “... Some big men are wired differently. He’s wired to block shots and has great vision to pass. He took strides in getting and creating his own buckets.”

Last season, Williams led Drexel in rebounds (7.8 per game) and blocks (1.8 per game). He was ranked second in points (12.2 per game), assists (1.9 per game) and steals (0.8 per game). Williams committed a team-high 2.4 turnovers for a Drexel team that went 20-12 overall, 13-5 in league games and lost in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament.

Per KenPom, Williams had the 28th-best defensive rebounding percentage in the country (26.2%) and the 65th-best offensive rebounding percentage (12.7%) last season. Also per KenPom, Williams excelled nationally when it came to block percentage (8.5%, which was 39th in the nation) and fouls drawn per 40 minutes (6.8 fouls drawn, which was 23rd).

According to college basketball statistician Evan Miyakawa, Williams ranks as the No. 111 overall transfer in the portal, as of Sunday afternoon.

“He’s not a great post scorer, but he rebounds his area,” Branham said. “He’s got size. And, again, three-time defensive player of the year in the (CAA). So with how he would fit into the system offensively, and also how he would be able to impact the game defensively — he’s certainly an impactful addition.”

In addition to being a defensive force, Williams also shouldered a significant offensive load for Drexel. According to KenPom, Williams ranked 18th in the nation in percentage of possessions used, which is defined as “credit or blame to a player when his actions end a possession, either by making a shot, missing a shot that isn’t rebounded by the offense or committing a turnover.”

Williams had a percentage of possessions used of 31.8% last season with the Dragons.

When Williams entered the NCAA transfer portal last month, he also declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Williams is not listed by ESPN among that organization’s top-100 prospects for the 2024 NBA draft.

According to ESPN NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, Williams is still exploring the NBA pre-draft process.

College basketball players have until May 1 to enter the transfer portal, and the early-entry deadline for the 2024 NBA draft is April 27. Players who enter the draft with remaining NCAA eligibility will have until May 29 to remove their names from consideration and return to school.

Assuming Williams does arrive at Kentucky, he projects to slide straight into the starting lineup for Pope’s first Kentucky squad.

“I would say there’s going to be a learning curve,” Branham added about Williams’ defensive ability potentially translating to the SEC.

“He’s not the most physical and tough of players. I’ve actually been watching him since he was in high school over in Great Britain, and that’s kind of always been the case. So it’s going to be a learning curve, an adjustment. Still, I would imagine that he’s going to be able to hold his own in the SEC and play against the national schedule that Kentucky will have.”

Mark Pope continues to build his first Kentucky basketball roster

A complete roster transformation is underway ahead of Pope’s first season as the UK head coach.

Aaron Bradshaw (Ohio State), Joey Hart (Ball State) and Zvonimir Ivisic (Arkansas) are players from UK’s 2023-24 squad that will transfer to new schools. Additionally, Jordan Burks, Adou Thiero and D.J. Wagner are also still in the NCAA transfer portal.

Thiero is still considering a return to UK, and has the Wildcats among his final five playing options for next season.

Also from last season’s squad, Rob Dillingham, Justin Edwards, Ugonna Onyenso and Reed Sheppard have declared for the 2024 NBA draft. Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves have exhausted their college eligibility.

Five of the six players that former UK head coach John Calipari had lined up as part of Kentucky’s 2024 recruiting class have decommitted from the Wildcats, including all three of Kentucky’s McDonald’s All-American recruits and both of UK’s incoming frontcourt recruits.

In-state guard Travis Perry, the all-time leading scorer in Kentucky high school boys basketball history, is the only one of those six recruits expected to remain committed to UK and play for Pope.

Collin Chandler, a combo guard and former BYU signee, announced last week he would be following Pope to Kentucky. Chandler was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class before taking a two-year mission trip.

UK was among the top three schools for former BYU and Charlotte center Aly Khalifa. But on Thursday, Khalifa announced he would be transferring to Louisville and redshirt the 2024-25 season.

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