What fueled UK’s Amari Williams against Illinois? A cereal you’ve likely never heard of before
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Amari Williams was one of Kentucky’s best players Sunday in the team’s second-round NCAA Tournament win over Illinois, and coach Mark Pope is attributing his performance to a cereal you’ve probably never heard of.
Williams finished the game with 8 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks and a steal, all while only committing one turnover. He led the Cats in rebounds, assists and blocks.
His performance was better than in Kentucky’s first-round win Friday over 14-seed Troy. So what was the difference?
Pope thinks it was his pregame breakfast, Weetabix.
Weetabix is a wholegrain, biscuit-shaped cereal from the United Kingdom high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Williams said he ate the cereal growing up in England.
“It definitely tastes amazing, and it gives you a lot of energy throughout the day, for sure,” Williams said during a postgame news conference Sunday night.
Williams said his pregame breakfast before the game against Troy was four pieces of toast. His teammates thought that wasn’t enough for the seven-footer, so a member of UK’s staff found an international store in Milwaukee and bought Williams some Weetabix.
Williams had three bowls of Weetabix Sunday morning before facing Illinois. He thinks the Weetabix helped his performance.
“We will have mandatory team breakfast this week every morning featuring Weetabix,” Pope said during the news conference.
Even Pope and Brandon Garrison tried some Weetabix, and Pope described the cereal as extraordinary. The key to making Weetabix taste good is warm milk and sugar.
“I’ve never had cereal with warm milk,” Pope said. “... And then Amari gave me permission to put some sugar on it. He was nervous. He put four packs of sugar, I put one, because if I put more than one Lee Anne was going to kill me. It was actually fantastic.
“I like it so much more right now than I did this morning.”
Walmart carries Weetabix cereal, although people in Lexington will have to order it online.
Weetabix is now the 11th best-selling breakfast cereal on Amazon, ahead of popular choices like Lucky Charms, Honey Bunches of Oats and Fruity Pebbles.
This story was originally published March 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM.
