Syracuse Basketball: Elite defensive big man in portal; would be a great fit at 'Cuse

The Syracuse basketball coaching staff, I hope, will take a look at Drexel senior big man Amari Williams, who has entered the transfer portal.

The 6-foot-10, 265-pound Williams, who is from Nottingham, England, said via his X page on March 12 that he planned to test the 2024 NBA Draft process while maintaining his collegiate eligibility and hitting the portal.

On Monday, the transfer portal opened for 45 days. According to a social media post on Monday from the X account PortalUpdates, Williams had officially entered the transfer portal.

Williams is an elite defensive player. During the 2023-24 season, he was named the Coastal Athletic Association's defensive player of the year for a record third time. Earlier this month, Drexel (20-12 overall) lost in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament to Stony Brook, 91-88.

Might Syracuse basketball pursue Drexel big-man transfer Amari Williams? We'll see.

In 2023-24, Williams appeared in all 32 games for the Dragons. He averaged 22.9 minutes, 12.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.8 blocks per contest, while connecting on 51.7 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from beyond the arc, and 65.5 percent from the free-throw line, according to ESPN data.

Besides being named the CAA's defensive player of the year in 2023-24, Williams was on the league's first team for the second straight stanza. This past term, he led the CAA in blocked shots per affair for the third campaign in a row, according to a press release from the Drexel athletics department Web site.

Williams was a member of the 2020 recruiting cycle who attended Myerscough College in Lancashire, England.

The Orange, in 2023-24, had four centers on its roster in junior Naheem McLeod, junior Mounir Hima, sophomore Peter Carey and freshman William Patterson. At the onset of this past term, McLeod was the starting center, but he only appeared in 14 games before suffering a season-ending injury.

Hima and Carey didn't play much. Patterson is expected to take a redshirt in 2023-24. In the second half of the season, sophomore power forward Maliq Brown assumed the starting duties at the center position.

In terms of big men ahead of 2023-24, the 'Cuse brings in five-star power forward Donnie Freeman from Washington, D.C., who has played at a high level as a senior at the powerhouse IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.