Otega Oweh, Amari Williams Garner NABC All-District Recognition
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Junior forward Otega Oweh and graduate center Amari Williams represent the Kentucky men’s basketball team on the National Association of Basketball Coaches 2024-25 Division I All-District Teams, as announced on Tuesday. Oweh was chosen as a first team selection by NABC-member coaches while Williams was picked to the second team.
The NABC introduced a new model for its Division I district alignment this season, with schools arranged by state rather than by conference. The modernized NABC Division I district alignment features 10 geographic regions that each encompass multiple states. Kentucky is a part of the Central District with schools from Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Tennessee.
Otega Oweh
Oweh has enjoyed a breakout junior season during his first year in Lexington, leading the team in scoring with 16.2 points per game. Oweh, who spent two years at Oklahoma before transferring to UK, is averaging career-highs in points per game (16.2), rebounds per game (4.6), assists per game (1.6), steals per game (1.6) blocks per game (0.5) and free throw percentage (.782). His play earned a spot on the All-Southeastern Conference Second Team as well as the Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List.
The Newark, New Jersey, native started the year by scoring in double-figures in Kentucky’s first 26 games of the season, marking the longest streak of double-digit scoring by a Wildcat since Malik Monk did so in 30 consecutive games during the 2016-17 season. He has scored in double-figures in 30 of 33 games this season overall, including 12 games with 20 or more points.
He has been at his best in the second half, when he is averaging 10.2 points per game on 54.1 percent shooting from the field and 44.2 percent from deep. Oweh became the first player this century to score the game-winning basket in multiple one-point victories against the same opponent in a single season when he hit a buzzer-beater in the win over Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament for his second game-winning shot against the Sooners this year.
Amari Williams
Williams has been a crucial piece for the Wildcats, serving as the team’s leading rebounder while also often facilitating the offense as a point center.
The grad-transfer from Drexel is averaging 11 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists. His rebounds and assists per game both mark career-highs, as does his team-leading 58.0 percent field-goal percentage. Williams also leads the team with 40 blocks, including 10 multi-block games. The big man ranks sixth in the country with 40.1 points/rebounds/assists per 40 minutes. That number is the third highest by a Kentucky player since 1996-97 and the seventh highest by an SEC player.
He became just the fourth player in program history to register a triple-double, doing so against Ole Miss with 12 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 10 assists. He is the only 7-footer in the last 20 years to have a points-rebounds-assists triple-double and the tallest player in program history to turn the trick.
Williams also had a standout showing vs. Vanderbilt when he became the first Division I or NBA Player since Pau Gasol in 2010 to record 15 or more points and four or more blocks while shooting 100 percent from both the field and free-throw line and committing no fouls.
A native of Nottingham, England, Williams has posted 10 double-doubles this season, a number which ranks him second in the SEC behind only Johni Broome. He is one of 14 active Division I players with both 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
Williams was a preseason selection to the Kareem-Abdul Jabbar Award Watch List.
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