Drexel transfer Amari Williams opens up about choosing Kentucky regardless of Mark Pope's visit: "I was already set"

Former Drexel forward Amari Williams was the first official visit of the Mark Pope era as coach of the Kentucky Wildcats on April 20. Williams had entered the transfer portal and declared for the NBA draft before withdrawing and committing to the Wildcats.

Although he committed on April 21, the Kentucky recruit's future was still up in the air until he met with Pope. During a recent interview with KSR, the forward revealed his total dedication to Kentucky.

“I was not close at all to going anywhere, I wasn’t close to going anywhere. I knew where it was,” Williams said. “My coaches knew I was going to stay. It was just a matter of speaking to him and seeing where things were at. Even if he didn’t fly out to see me, that wouldn’t have changed my decision. I was already set on going to UK.”

Amari Williams and Mark Pope's style, a match made in heaven

Amari Williams averaged 12.2 points on 51.7% shooting from the floor and 33.3% from beyond the arc, along with 7.8 rebounds and 1.9 assists last season for the Drexel Dragons.

During the interview with KSR, Williams revealed that the type of offense run by coach Mark Pope influenced his decision to commit to the program a day after visiting.

“A lot of people have talked about the offense Mark Pope runs,” Williams said. “It’s an offense of passing bigs. That fits my play style the best. We have a great group, a great set of guys. A lot of us know that we’re underrated right now. Knowing that’s in the back of our minds throughout practice, throughout the year, is going to be good.”

The passionate Mark Pope has been lauded for his intimate recruitment style at Kentucky, where he even goes to pick up prospects from the airport during their official visits. Amari Williams backed up these assertions.

He revealed that due to Pope's focus on him during the visit, he had already decided on his future by the end of the day.

“It was just about seeing the school and seeing the plan he (Pope) had for me which influenced me to make the decision so quickly,” Williams said. “He was with me everywhere on my visit. He showed how it worked for him at BYU and how he could see me doing similar things. That was one of the deciding factors.”

Coach Mark Pope is under pressure to entice an elite recruitment class at Kentucky after the recruitment heroics of former coach John Calipari, and he is already finding underrated gems like Amari Williams in the transfer portal.