I’M LEAVING”: Kentucky basketball head coach Mark Pope send strong message to UK basketball and BBN fans….

 

 

 

 

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To start the season, Amari Williams wasn’t as protective with the ball as Mark Pope would have liked.

 

 

 

The seven-footer was turning the ball over far too often. He transferred to Kentucky from Drexel with a career mark of 2.1 turnovers per game. Through his first eight games as a Wildcat, that number was up to 2.9 turnovers per contest. Williams had 20 assists with 23 turnovers — not a good stat for someone who operates as the hub of Pope’s offense.

 

 

 

 

But something changed after Kentucky’s loss to Clemson back on Dec. 3. Williams finished with two assists and four turnovers in that defeat on the road. It was not his best overall performance or even close to it.

 

 

Since then? Williams has 14 assists to just three turnovers in the six games following the Clemson game. He posted five assists and one miscue in Kentucky’s most recent win over Florida.

 

 

 

“Can I brag about Amari Williams for a minute?” Pope asked after UK beat Florida at home over the weekend.

 

 

“He’s 6-7 from the field. Six games ago, we kinda had one of those come-to meetings. We’re like, okay we gotta fix some things, right? Amari was, at the time he had just fallen under the water, assist-to-turnover wise.

 

 

So he was less assists than turnovers. And for guys on our team, bigs that handle the ball so much and have to be decision-makers, that was a real problem.