Winning three consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards with Drexel in the CAA, Amari Williams is most known for his defense. Transferring to Kentucky for his final season of eligibility, Williams is looking to show off other parts of his game to raise his stock for the next level. One area that Mark Pope wants to really key in on is his passing.

“He’s one of the special passers in college basketball,” Pope said about Williams when he committed back in April. “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.”

Looking at Pope’s offenses at BYU, the big man plays a key part in facilitating the offense, specifically at the top of the key through cuts and handoffs. Last season, Aly Khalifa averaged four assists per game, the third most in the country last year, in this role.

If you look at William’s career assist averages, they are not eye-popping, averaging less than two per game last season. However, those numbers can be somewhat deceiving. Considering his assist rate, Williams was in the top 25 nationally for big men at 18%. Essentially, he assisted on one out of five possessions.

Teammate Brandon Garrison has gone head-to-head against Williams in practice and has high praise for his passing ability.

“He’s an amazing passer,” Garrison told the media on Tuesday. “Just seeing it in person, guarding it, I ain’t never played against a passer like that.”

Williams responded to Garrison’s compliments on Thursday. “I feel like I have always been a good passer,” Williams said. “I feel like that is the reason he (Pope) recruited me in the first place.”

Pope got the big man facilitator that he wanted, and given the spacing of his offense, Williams is primed to show off his passing more than ever this season.

Also published on a Sea of Blue.

When Mark Pope first got to Kentucky, one of the first high school recruits he zeroed in on was 2025 prospect Tounde Yessoufou out of Santa Maria (CA), but is originally from the African country of Benin. The Wildcats have been trending for him for some time now and on Tuesday he announced he received an official offer, he announced on social media.

According to 247 Sports, Yessoufou is a five-star, top-20 prospect and is ranked as the sixth-best forward in the 2025 class. That said, he may be the class’ most impressive athlete.

With a 6-foot-5, 211-pound frame, Yessoufou is a powerful athlete that excels in transition. However, shooting 38.9 percent from deep at Nike EYBL’s Peach Jam, he is also a capable shooter, specifically on spot-ups. An underrated part of his game is his activity on defense, where with his physicality and verticality can match up 1-4, and with some undersized fives.

In addition to Kentucky, Yessoufou holds offers from Arizona, Baylor, Kansas, UConn and many others. Already taken official visits to Arizona and USC, over the next few months he plans to visit UConn, Tennessee, and Kansas, with his final official visit being Kentucky. This will give the Kentucky staff the chance to give him the final pitch. Yessoufou plans to make a commitment closer to the end of the year.

Check out some of his highlights at Peach Jam where he averaged 21.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.2 steals, and 39 percent from three.

Also published on A Sea of Blue.

Lamont Butler has proven himself as one of the premier defenders in college basketball over the last four seasons at San Diego State, having earned MWC All-Defense honors in three straight seasons and winning the 2024 MWC Defensive Player of the Year Award.

With that level of defensive impact, Butler had no shortage of interest when he put his name in the transfer portal this Spring. In less than 48 hours after officially entering the portal, he had his decision, choosing Kentucky and becoming just the second commit of the Mark Pope era.

Butler’s parents, Lamont Butler Sr. and Carmicha Butler, recently spoke to KSR about how the family decided on Kentucky and what kind of player and young man the Wildcats are getting.

“I can start off simply by saying that it’s Kentucky,” Lamont Sr. said. “Most kids in America, if they ever got the opportunity to play for a program like that, any kid would jump at it. With Lamont being in the position in life that he put himself in, it was the perfect move for him.”

While the brand of Kentucky Basketball is a big selling point, and one that Pope is emphasizing more than Calipari did, it was not the only selling point. The other big part was how Butler was going to be used at Kentucky, and Pope and his staff hopped on a plane to Las Vegas where he was working out, to do just that.

“We were at the gym working out, when, all of a sudden, we see the men in black coming in,” Lamont Sr. said. “I’m like, wow. It was the whole kit and caboodle. They were serious about Lamont.”

Before meeting with Butler and his family, Pope was already very familiar with his game having competed against him for three seasons at San Diego State in the MWC, and that certainly showed.

“He practically broke Lamont’s game down,” Carmicha said. “He told him how he played, who he is, how he wanted to use him, his plans for him at Kentucky, and what he wanted to do with him. For me, it was amazing for Pope, who he never played for, to know that much detail about my son, on and off the court. That was a major plus, a major benefit.” 

Pope’s plan for Butler though is to show off his full game. While he is known as a defender, there is much more to his game, with his father highlighting his unselfishness and leadership.

“Lamont is the type of player who’s unselfish to a fault,” Lamont Sr. said. “I was telling someone, that Lamont scored 1,000 points but would’ve passed those 1,000 points up to make the right play. There are too many selfish players in the world. Everybody wants me, me, me, me, me. Lamont is about us, us, us. I told him that’s what’s going to take him far in life.” 

Those two characteristics are a big reason why Pope wants Butler on the ball, rather than off the ball which was the case most of the time he was at San Diego State.

“It doesn’t matter to Lamont, but Pope is going to have him on the ball. That’s what a lot of people don’t know,” Lamont Sr. said. “That’s what it’s going to be, to lead the team and make sure he’s playing faster than he’s ever played.”

The primary thing though, Kentucky fans are getting a player who is willing to do whatever it takes to put another banner in the rafters.

“They’re getting somebody who’s going to give it his all on the court, injured or not,” Lamont Sr. said. “He’s going to be out there and do whatever it takes to put a number nine up in those rafters. That’s what Lamont is coming to do.”

Also published on A Sea of Blue.