Kentucky basketball will be a physical team this season

Last season, the Kentucky Wildcats weren’t physically down low, which led to opposing big men scoring a lot of points. Aaron Bradshaw, Ugonna Onyenso, and Zvonimir Ivisic weren’t the best defenders, so if a team had a solid center who had good post moves, he scored a ton of points.

This season, Mark Pope put together a center room that is going to be much more physical down low, making it hard to score. Both Amari Williams and Brandon Garrison are massive players with a big frame. Williams is 7’0 and weighs 265 pounds. Garrison is 6’10 and weighs 245 pounds. These guys are not going to be moved easily in the paint. Both Williams and Garrison are going to make opposing centers’ lives miserable all game long.

The SEC is going to be full of really good big men like Johni Broome at Auburn and transfer Clifford Omoruyi who plays at Alabama. Williams and Garrison will need to stop these guys and some of the other solid centers in the SEC this season.

Williams is an elite defender who won his conference Defensive Player of the Year Award multiple times while at Drexel. Garrison isn’t as good of a defender as Williams, but he is still a solid defender.

These two clogging up the point will make it hard for guards to take the ball to the rim and for opposing bigs to score with post moves. Coach Pope’s team will not lack physicality this season, which will be a lot better than what we saw last season.