BREAKING Mason Williams Visits Kentucky Wildcats, Will Mark Pope LAND a Future Star?

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Kentucky is yet to pick up a recruit in this year's class.

However, they just got a visit from a point guard who could be the perfect ad to next season's back court.

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Alright, what's going on?

Big blue nation.

Welcome on in to Lockdown Kentucky.

I'm your host Lance Dull and on today's episode.

We're going to be talking about the fact that Tyron Stokes could be going anywhere at this point

with Jason Hart out at Kentucky.

Bill Self may be out at Kansas.

We're also going to be discussing the fact that the Wildcats are swimming in money thanks to the New York Times.

Latest breakdown of the JMI deal.

But first we're going to be talking about Mason Williams taking a visit to Kentucky.

The four star point guard who is obviously the son of Mo Williams holds offers from the likes of Ole Miss.

Jackson State Memphis, Louisiana, New Mexico States, Stephen F. Austin, Washington and Texas Tech.

Decommitted from Jackson State and his father Mo Williams just a while back.

And I think that he would be the perfect addition to Kentucky's back court.

In case you don't know who Mo Williams is former NBA player, I believe he played at Alabama.

Big time guard there in the league and Mason.

I think it's following in his father's footsteps as an extremely talented two way guard.

He's listed at six foot two hundred and eighty five pounds playing for the Tennessee collegiate academy out of Millington, Tennessee.

He is ranked according to 24 seven sports as the one hundred and ninth overall player.

The number 12 point guard and the number three player in the state of 20 T, 20 Tennessee.

According to the composite ratings, however, he's the one 25 overall player still 12 best point guard in the class.

Secondary ball handler, I think for Kentucky's back court, if he were to commit to the Wildcats.

And I think that he would be a perfect third option that could prove his worth as a secondary option at point guard.

If he gets on the floor and plays well, the thing that has shocked me about Williams outside of just watching his tape are the raw stats.

So he's been playing for EYBL, the scholastic league, which will get into a little bit what exactly that is relative to some of the other things we've talked about with the EYBL circuit.

I actually think it's more impressive and I'll tell you why in a minute, but first the stats absolutely jump off the page.

There's a tweet going around right now by big blue Dylan pointing out the fact that this kid shot over 60% from the floor over 40% from three and 89% from the free throw line.

And you may say, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? Those are insane splits.

And I do want to point out those splits that have been posted are over an eight game period with Tennessee collegiate academy.

And the competition that he played, I can't necessarily speak to the consistent talent level.

I mean, obviously he's played prolific prep Xavier Academy Sierra Canyon. He only played.

He didn't even hardly play at all against Sierra Canyon actually in that contest on October 24th, but that's an eight game sample size where he averages 15 points,

four and a half boards, five and a half assists, 60% shooting, 41.2% from beyond the arc there.

So I'm more concerned about what exactly he did in 13 games with Tennessee collegiate academy in the EYBL scholastic league.

And these stats are still just as impressive as those four different reasons.

He averaged with the EYBL in the EYBL circuit 15.4 points shooting 44% from the floor, 48% from three and 90% from the line,

averaging 4.7 boards a game and for assists per game there as well.

You may have heard the stat that absolutely jumps off the page, 48% from three,

while taking 3.7, three point attempts per game against actual elite competition.

Those shooting numbers alone are good enough to get Mason Williams to a place like Kentucky full stop.

We haven't even talked about his play style, we haven't talked about the competition he's going against,

the details of the scholastic league, 48% from three on 48, three point attempts over the course of 13 games,

and then also to be able to shoot 41% from three over eight games against other competition with his high school.

That is legitimate, and you watch the form, you watch the way that he's shooting the ball,

it is legitimate high level shooting from a player that's just outside the top 100.

My guess as to why he is outside the top 100 is strictly because of his size and what I assume to be bad defense,

Tennessee collegiate academy with the scholastic EYBL league is just 2 and 11 overall.

My guess is that there is a lack of overall burst and athleticism on the defensive end from Mason.

And I don't think that's necessarily needed at Kentucky given his role, potential role in year one,

I think that he would be a depth ad that would play as a third option at point guard,

and I'm not kidding you, I think Kentucky needs three options at point guard because of the way that their health is gone.

We'll get into details more as to what exactly I would want Kentucky to do at point guard, but first hold on.

We have to talk about what exactly the EYBL scholastic league is because when you hear EYBL,

it actually means two different things now. They're not the same.

There are two different types of EYBL. You have just the straight up EYBL, which is the AAU circuit.

So it's spring and summer. It's travel teams. It's not schools. It's shoe team base.

So it's like Nike grass roots, right? And it's big events like peach jam and different things like that.

It's more free throwing, free flowing, less structured.

And it's more showcase basketball and it's a recruiting circuit.

The scholastic league is a little bit more detailed and I love it.

It's fall in winter. So the actual school season, it's prep school.

So it's real teams and it's real consistent rosters, structured schedules, practices, coaching.

It's a lot more close to college basketball style. So it's elite high school level play with a college style aspect to it.

And the fact that Williams is shooting 48% from three over the course of the 13 games that he's played against consistent high level prep schools is incredible.

So AAU EYBL is a talent showcase. Scholastic is an actual basketball environment, a legitimate basketball environment.

And AAU there's a faster pace. There's less defense. There's more ISO ball stats can get inflated.

So scouts are asking what are his physical abilities, what are his limitations?

What can he do when I when we stress him in an environment where there's pace and ISO ball NBA style ball and scholastic.

It's more set stuff. It's more scouting and game plans. It's more defined roles. It's a lot better team defense.

We're asking at this point what translates to the college game and it's a lot more I think focused.

So this is why I like the scholastically a lot better.

So when you see a player like Mason Williams performing well, it's not empty stats.

It's not AAU buckets. It's not shot chucking. It is against real actual structure and real actual competition.

And in my opinion, that carries a lot more weight. AAU ball will tell you who's more talented.

And scholastic will tell you who can actually play at the college level, right?

And I think that there is a floor here for Mason Williams now some of the critiques.

He's not the most athletic player. He's not a player that plays above the rim.

He's not a Darren Rippy junior type guard, right?

He's not somebody that's going to jump out of the gym. He's got some grim razor dunks out in transition, whatever.

I would be concerned a little bit about the size at six to one eighty five.

Jacob whole check friend of the program and his article had him listed at six to one seventy.

He's not one seventy. He's he's got to be at least one eighty somewhere between one eighty to one eighty five.

Just watching him in his frame in the way that he plays.

This is not a Jasper Johnson type player who would just get bulldozed and you can't hold on to the ball.

He is much more controlled. He is much more under control with himself and his physical body control.

And then the way that he handles the rock, it's just a lot more balanced than somebody like Jasper.

And yeah, he has limitations.

But I think that there is a floor of stability that comes with the player like Mason who can also score at three levels and can also shoot the ever loving lights out of the ball.

With all of this being said, I would want high level athleticism to stack on top of this.

I would want at the one for Kentucky whoever they can get out of the portal that is more explosive bigger more athletic at point guard.

Kentucky needs a player that can that like as a lead of a guard as they can possibly get that is as well rounded can jump out of the gym is physically bigger is more athletic can handle the ball with the best of them.

That's what they need an elite PG one.

I would take Jalen low off of the bench.

Frankly, if he doesn't want to come stay here and be off the bench, I would ask him to leave.

And then you get scoring efficiency from Mason as your third option who also plays a little bit of time at the two.

It's the depth ad who could be really, really good in the future.

The stats are great.

The four star rating some Kentucky fans may weirdly turn their nose up at I understand given the current state of Kentucky rich crew recruiting.

However, I would like to remind you players like a do the arrow or three stars coming out of high school.

They recruited they were recruited late and they ended up blossoming he ended up blossoming into a really, really talented player.

When I watch Mason Williams scoring, it reminds me a bit of Tyler Ulyss.

If you don't like that, I don't know what to tell you.

Mason Williams really talented player who has been shooting very, very, very, very, very well.

And somebody that I would like to add as a depth piece for the future that will play a little bit this season with the opportunity to grow into a bigger role.

He's a player that I really like not that have watched him.

Lucky basketball has money.

Apparently they're swimming in it.

And apparently it's not a money laundering scheme.

They promise we're going to dive into what's going on with Kentucky and their money and the fact that they apparently have some and they're trying to get out ahead of ahead of everybody.

And I do it like that and I do appreciate it before we do it though.

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All right, continuing along here on today's episode of the show.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Subscribe if you have not already Mason Williams, a big time guard.

Who I think despite yes, the four star status, yes, the high level athleticism.

The kid is great with the ball in his hands and he can score and he's been doing it against some really impressive competition.

The team has been struggling, but I think Mason provides enough value to where I would absolutely take him as guard depth 100% 100% I would take him.

Kentucky's got money. They've got a lot of money.

And new reporting from the athletic suggests that Kentucky is not just keeping up financially.

They're probably ahead of the curve, actually.

And the athletic, if you want to go read the articles behind a paywall, it virtually details the champions blue LLC, the $210 million JMI deal, which goes through 2040.

We've talked a little bit about that JMI deal.

Right.

And Kentucky at this point is trying to be smart about things and they're not just trying to react to the new era of college sports.

They're trying to control it and get out ahead of it.

So first and foremost, what is champions blue LLC?

It was created a little over a year ago as a holding company for Kentucky athletics.

So the purpose of this is to increase Kentucky's flexibility financially to generate more revenue and then to cut through university red tape.

It also allows some outside investment as well from other people faster project execution.

So you're seeing that and things like the Kroger field renovations.

You're seeing that in the purchase of land near Memorial Coliseum, where you could potentially put an entertainment district in the future, maybe a new practice facility as well.

Kentucky is trying to turn themselves into more of a business operation and less of an athletic department or not just an athletic department, I should say, also a business.

So the financial goal for Kentucky, according to this article, according to just the university and they want to grow their annual budget into somewhere around 225 to 250 million, right.

That would put them playing with the big boys Ohio State Texas programs like that floating somewhere near or around 300 million.

It's putting you really, really, really close to the best programs in college athletics.

So Kentucky isn't trying again, they're not trying to just keep up.

They're not trying to react.

They're trying to enter the elite financial tier.

This is the way that they're trying to do it, not just competing within the SEC.

They're trying to get the money that these best programs have in order to really, really, really start to complete compete in a serious way.

The industry seems to agree that Kentucky's going about this in a smart way, anonymous sources from the New York Times article that they could not actually label these people.

Kentucky has the smartest model in all of college sports.

It's a mystery right now, but it's still working.

They keep coming up with money.

People inside the industry don't fully understand what's going on with Kentucky and their money, but they respect it and they know that it's working.

Another quote from this article, all the money is in one pot.

It sounds like money laundering, but I swear it's not what money laundering, but it's not.

I would really like to not look up a year and a half from now and Kentucky get in some sort of legal trouble and all everything to do with the athletic department.

Just goes to you know what in a hand basket.

The JMI deal is interesting because the sports yield generates a little over 30 million annually.

And the rev share cap is 20 and a half million right for the 2526 season, meaning Kentucky is effectively operating above the cap comfortably.

We don't exactly know how they're getting all of this money with these deals in place, but they're getting the money.

We talk a lot when it comes to the transfer portal with Eva Sitch and Yellowwich and and players coming overseas.

We've been complaining about how Kentucky doesn't operate quick enough right within the structure that they have in place.

They are just slow to react.

I'm not asking them to bend rules.

I'm asking them to react a little quicker.

But this time, they found a way to legally bend the system without breaking it.

It feels like, and I'm really interested to see what happens here with their spending, how they acquire talent.

Okay, you've got all this money.

Can you acquire the talent?

Kentucky's football roster or a football roster, I guess I should say, is about a $25 million budget, according to this article.

Basketball already has over the cap in a NIL deals lined up for the 2627 season.

So none of this is theoretical for this season, for this season for football and basketball.

They're already spending at a very high level, very high level.

Does it translate to wins?

We'll have to wait and see.

I'm actually really intrigued because Pope has been unable to close on some of these recruits.

I'm really interested to see, what does this mean for Kentucky football?

We're already starting to see Kentucky start to push a little bit in recruiting.

We're starting to see them come up for players that you normally wouldn't see Kentucky come up for.

Quarterbacks specifically, that could really change the future of this program.

So the reality check hits here for the basketball program, however,

because despite all this money, you go and Google Kentucky basketball 2026 commits and you'll come up with a goose egg.

Then we'll have anybody.

So if they continue to struggle, it won't be because of their resources.

We've now got some clarification on that.

In the past, the reporting has been the JMI stuff is unclear.

It doesn't make a ton of sense. It's turning the hose, it's turning people off, it's scaring the hose away.

But at this point, if Kentucky struggles, it won't be because they don't have the money.

Money will remove some of the excuses, but it does not guarantee results as well.

So Pope has got to close.

He's got to close.

Looking ahead to the future, there is potential, according to the article, for private equity involvement and Kentucky appears to be open to continuing to push those boundaries.

And that could be a blueprint for the future of college athletics.

In my opinion, I think that the involvement of private equity in college athletics is a bad thing for a variety of reasons that we don't have time to get into here today.

But I also think that it's a possible reality that we could be seeing.

I think we've briefly touched on that on the show before, and I don't want to get into that today.

I just want you to know, I don't think it's the greatest idea, but watch that space.

Kentucky is trying to operate less like a college and more like a modern sports franchise, as they should, I think.

They're trying to combine NIL media rights, internal financial control and growth.

And they're trying to create a competitive advantage strategically and structurally, not just financially.

The way that they're getting the money and growing is a little bit more different.

They're trying to separate themselves from the pack.

And the article said Kentucky's swimming in money.

And they're not just swimming in money.

The potential here is that they could be swimming in a system.

The rest of college athletics has not caught up with yet.

Now that this is public, I'm very curious to see if the basketball program can start too close on some recruits.

If they can possibly go get in the transfer portal and get some guys with Keegan Brown now as a part of the staff.

And if they can win with said talent.

Okay, cool.

We've got all this money.

We're doing it a cool way.

Nobody really else is doing it like this.

We got a lot of it.

We got a lot of money to play with.

Okay.

Let's go and get that talent now.

Let's let's go and start to make this work.

And speaking of talent.

Number one overall player in the 2026 class.

Has still not committed to Kansas or Kentucky his two schools that are that he's being pursued by.

And he's deciding between.

And the recruiter for Kentucky has gone to SMU.

And the head coach of the J Hawks might be retiring.

He did eyes it.

But just walk with me here.

What's going to happen with Stokes?

We're going to dive into it in just a second before we do it though pause for a water one more time.

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All right, continuing along here on today's episode of the show.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in. If you have not subscribed, I love it.

If you did so wrapping up here with just a little bit of speculation with just a little bit of thought for you guys.

And I tweeted this out.

Maybe a day or two ago, two days ago.

And I said, OK, if Jason Hart has gone to SMU.

And Bill self might be retiring.

In my opinion, he's gone.

But there are rumors of his retirement. He denied it.

He said it straight up BS and that he's he's sticking around.

We'll see.

We'll see.

Walk with me here.

Hearts gone. Self is gone.

When I said my tweet and I'll reiterate reiterate it here is who's driving the bus?

Who's going to make this happen if self retires?

Because Stokes is not going to commit to a retiring coach.

He's not going to do it.

He's not going to commit to Jason Hart because he's gone now.

What's going to happen?

I am really curious to see if a team like Arkansas gets in here.

If Louisville or Oregon steps in.

And yes, I understand the Nike money and that being a problem for maybe someone schools that would want to try and step in here.

We'll see.

And the other side of this that I really do think you have to think about if you're Stokes.

Is let's say self doesn't retire.

Let's say he doesn't Kentucky still offering money maybe even more than what.

Kansas is.

And you look at Kansas this roster next season.

They've got Taylor and Kenny, David and Adkins, Trent Perry and Luke Barnett.

Three four stars and then obviously Kenny the top 15 player that he is who's going to need the ball in his hands a lot.

TK and Stokes I think would be great.

But the reality of the situation is there's going to be a lot of mouths to feed with this Kentucky team.

What if I continued to say as the season has ended in these past few episodes?

Kentucky needs scoring.

We need guys who can get buckets in a variety of ways.

Stokes can provide you that they need a sharp point guard who can score.

They need a talented point guard who can score.

And they need somebody like Stokes at power for it who can be versatile and shoot the three.

He would be so big for this team next season.

So big.

I would argue Kentucky needs a more.

And I would argue that they can provide him with more financially.

At that point that that's not even a discussion or a debate.

It's clear if the New York Times is telling you hey, Kentucky's got more money than just about anybody in the college basketball game right now.

And they're continuing to get more and they're operating about $10 million above the cap.

You see what's going on here?

If we really wanted to, we could give the kid more money than anybody.

And that's not an arrogant thing.

It's just what's happening.

It's just what's being report.

It's just the reality of it.

What is going to happen now?

I really do hope.

I really, really, really, really, really do hope that Pope is able to get his stuff together and close this thing out.

Or get somebody in the portal that is comparable.

And if Stokes doesn't come here great, but you need somebody as good of a score.

You need a talent like him.

Absolutely you do.

We'll continue to watch that space.

We'll continue to see what happens.

That's going to do it for today's episode of the show.

Thank you guys so much for tuning in.

If you have not subscribed on YouTube or on wherever you get your podcast,

we'd love it if you did so.

Tomorrow we'll be talking a little bit more about portal guys,

some names that have entered that I find interesting.

Maybe it's not the ones that you see everywhere.

I'm going to try and just give you my honest opinion about the athletes and the scores that we need.

And we'll see where Kentucky goes from there.

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I will see you all tomorrow for another episode of locked on Kentucky.

Hope you guys have a great rest of your day.

And God bless.

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