LEXINGTON, Ky. – Amari Williams, three-time conference defensive player of the year, has joined the Kentucky men’s basketball program for the 2024-25 season, head coach Mark Pope announced Tuesday.
As a senior, he averaged 12.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 blocks per game in 22.9 minutes of action. Williams started all 32 games for Drexel en route to earning his third straight defensive player of the year honor and an All-Coastal Athletic Association First Team nod. Williams will have one season of eligibility remaining.
“At times, Amari Williams looks like a man among boys on the court,” Pope said. “He is a three-time conference defensive player of the year, which is incredibly hard to do. He is bringing a big presence to the game and is going to serve as a rim-protector and rebounder. Amari is a gifted defensive player who can switch onto any position, one through five, which will add security to how everybody else feels on the court.
“Offensively, he is dangerous at the rim and he’s one of the special passers in college basketball. Amari can make all of the reads, all of the passes, all of the plays and he fits into exactly what we want to do on either end of the court.”
Originally from Nottingham, England, Williams played at Myerscough College before landing at Drexel. His first defensive player of the year honor came as a sophomore where he logged 9.5 points, 7.3 boards and 2.0 blocks per game. During his junior campaign, Williams notched 13.7 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.2 blocks per game for the Dragons. He was an All-CAA First Team selection as well. (Note: the league was known as the Colonial Athletic Association until the summer of 2023, when the name was changed to Coastal Athletic Association.)
Williams has appeared in 105 career games at Drexel, while making 79 starts. He’s averaged 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. He’s scored 1,081 career points, connecting on 51.9% of his field-goal attempts. He’s also snared 732 boards and blocked 186 shots. Williams has scored in double figures 62 times and registered 24 double-doubles. Fifty-one times, he’s swatted multiple shots in a game and has logged games with five or more rejections on six occasions.
The 6-foot-11 big ranked first in the CAA in blocked shots per game, fifth in total rebounds per game, and sixth in both offensive and defensive boards per game as a senior. He is the first three-peat CAA Defensive Player of the Year in the award’s existence. This season, Williams helped lead Drexel to its first 20-win season and first top-two seed in the CAA Championship since 2012. With Williams anchoring the defense, the Dragons ranked among the nation’s top 35 teams in scoring defense, yielding just 66.6 points per game.
Williams capped his tenure with the Dragons ranking fifth in Drexel’s record books with 186 career blocked shots. His senior season highlight was recording five rejections, including one with just four seconds to play, in Drexel’s two-point upset of No. 18 Villanova.
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