Mark Pope visits highly-touted transfers Amari Williams & Great Osobor; Williams cuts list

Mark Pope has been a busy man since being hired by the Kentucky Wildcats.

Now that he’s had a full week on the job, Pope’s coaching staff is rounding into form, and he’s been traveling across the country meeting with transfer recruits.

Per Jeff Goodman, Pope visited Drexel forward Amari Williams on Thursday and will see Utah State forward Great Osobor on Friday.

While Pope has contacted a wealth of transfers, these are two of the very few he’s reportedly either visited with or plans to host on UK’s campus for a visit. Williams is currently scheduled to visit Kentucky on April 21-22nd. He has already visited Mississippi State and St. John’s, so could Rick Pitino pluck this one away from UK?

Wouldn’t you know it, Williams just cut his list to Kentucky, St. John’s, and Mississippi State. That means we’ve got a good old-fashioned Pope vs. Pitino battle (with a cameo from Chris Jans).

Osobor was originally an unranked class of 2021 signee with Montana State. After two seasons, the 6-foot-8, 250-pound native of England hit the transfer portal and committed to Utah State.

This past season, Osobor averaged 17.7 points on 57.7% shooting, 9.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 1.3 steals per game in the Mountain West. He’s easily one of the best bigs in the portal, so Kentucky (and pretty much everyone) should be interested in him.

As for Williams, he was originally an unranked class of 2020 signee with Drexel. Since then, the 6-foot-10, 265-pound native of England has slowly developed into one of the best mid-major big men while playing in the Coastal Athletic Association.

This past season, Williams averaged 12.2 points on 51.7% shooting), 7.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.8 blocks per game. He’s won three straight CAA Defensive Player of the Year awards. The fact that UK visited Williams just days before hosting him for a visit shows how important he is.

These two are firmly on Mark Pope’s big board.