The most intriguing Kentucky basketball transfer might have been the first
It came as a surprise when it happened on a Friday morning a little more than three months ago. By that night, it was an afterthought. And by the next day, it was surely forgotten by many.
The commitment of Kam Williams to Kentucky — the first transfer portal addition for Mark Pope’s 2025-26 UK basketball roster — would have received much more fanfare if it had gone down at just about any other time.
But it happened on the morning of the Wildcats’ Sweet 16 matchup with Tennessee, and the buzz quickly subsided in favor of the game itself. When UK lost that night — ending Pope’s first season as the Cats’ head coach two victories shy of the Final Four — attention around the program turned to who would be staying, who would be leaving and who else might join for the 2025-26 campaign.
And as those decisions piled up in the days and weeks ahead, Williams faded into the background.
UK’s transfer class ended up as one of the most highly rated in the country, with projected NBA lottery pick Jayden Quaintance joining accomplished SEC veterans Denzel Aberdeen and Mouhamed Dioubate, dynamic point guard Jaland Lowe and Lexington native Reece Potter.
Amid all those intriguing storylines, Williams’ addition was somewhat lost in the shuffle.
Once the games begin again, it shouldn’t take him long to step into the spotlight.
247Sports analyst Travis Branham has been high on Williams’ fit with Kentucky since the morning of his commitment, envisioning a player who should work well with Pope’s offensive approach while providing some much-needed length and athleticism on defense.
Few have Williams penciled in as a starter for the Cats next season — Lowe, Aberdeen and Otega Oweh are popular picks for the backcourt, with Dioubate and either Quaintance or Brandon Garrison widely projected for the two other spots — but that doesn’t mean he won’t have a major impact from the start.
“Given the current makeup of the roster, I think he’s going to be a great depth piece next year,” Branham told the Herald-Leader this week. “A guy that has really good size, incredible length. He’s a really impressive athlete. So he has all the tools, and the things that he showed this past season at Tulane — his ability to make shots efficiently from 3. He showed a lot of really promising flashes as a defender.
“He’s still a bit of a work in progress, but I think as he gets stronger — but most importantly, as he gains confidence — I think he can make some significant leaps in his development to be a very impactful 3-and-D type of wing for Kentucky.”
Williams — listed as a 6-foot-8, 190-pound guard as a freshman at Tulane last season — averaged 9.3 points and 4.5 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game. His impact was felt defensively, and he made 63 3-pointers — tops among UK players on the 2025-26 roster — at a 41.2% clip.
Despite all of the offseason buzz surrounding Kentucky’s other splashy transfer additions, plus the return of Oweh and the arrival of future-star freshmen like Jasper Johnson, there were only two Wildcats on ESPN’s first attempt at a 2026 NBA mock draft a couple of weeks ago.
At the top of the list was Quaintance, viewed by pretty much everyone as a likely lottery pick a year from now. He’s No. 6 on ESPN’s board. The other Wildcat was Williams, who was listed at No. 46 overall.
“With the makeup of this roster, he may not have a significant role, but I think there’s probably going to be some loud games out of him throughout the course of the season,” Branham said. “And I think that’s going to be the case with a lot of these guys, just given this depth. But in time, he can really start making some leaps and bounds, and he was one that was already on the NBA radar this season. I think he could continue to elevate his status there.”
Kam Williams at Kentucky
Branham, who scouted Williams as a high schooler in Lafayette, Louisiana — he was No. 178 nationally in the class of 2024 composite rankings — and tracked his progress at Tulane last season, expects the 19-year-old to play the 3 and 4 positions for Pope’s team.
“He’s not the most physical player right now. He’s got to get stronger,” he said. “But with that size, with that length, he can absolutely play minutes at the 4 for Kentucky, especially if you’re wanting to space the floor like Mark Pope wants to.”
Branham mentioned gaining strength and improving as a ball handler as a couple of key areas for Williams’ development. But the biggest thing the analyst will be watching over the next several months is Williams’ confidence level. It’s grown since his high school days, Branham said, but there’s still more work to be done.
“I watched him in high school, and he had all the tools,” Branham said. “But with a lot of these kids, confidence is everything. And so, for him, that’s going to be a huge part in taking that next step.”
Williams made it clear in his first interview session as a UK basketball player this week that he’s more than ready to take that next step. And, as far as confidence goes, he talked a big game.
Asked to name the purest 3-point shooter on this Kentucky team, he didn’t hesitate.
“I think I’m gonna win every single shooting contest we have,” Williams said.
A topic of conversation from the previous week then spilled over into his interview time. With the news that EA Sports is planning to relaunch its college basketball franchise, UK players were asked what their rating — on a scale that tops out at 99 — would be in such a video game.
Lowe, the team’s projected starting point guard, gave himself a 91. Williams was more humble about his overall rating — “I would say somewhere in the 80s” — but again showed no hesitation when asked what his rating as a shooter would be.
“99,” he said, matter of factly. “That simple.”
That’s part of the reason he’s here in Lexington.
Pope’s offensive approach is reliant on 3-point shooters, and when he targeted Williams in the early days of this year’s transfer portal, both sides saw a major need.
Kentucky’s top four volume 3-point shooters — Koby Brea, Jaxson Robinson, Ansley Almonor and Lamont Butler — were all departing seniors on last season’s team. So when Pope offered Williams a chance to join the wave of replacements, he jumped at the opportunity.
“I noticed that they had a lot of seniors and a lot of players that were leaving,” Williams said. “And I knew that I could fit the playing style that Coach Pope has, so I didn’t want to waste no time and let other people jump in my spot.”
So far, so good.
Williams has been enjoying the first few weeks of UK’s summer practices, and the early buzz out of the Joe Craft Center has indicated he’s fitting in well.
He knows the Cats don’t have a ton of proven 3-point shooting ability on paper, but he mentioned that first when talking about this team’s strengths. “Don’t worry about the paper,” he said. “... Everyone on the team can really shoot.”
Williams also prides himself on his defense, perhaps the No. 1 area of focus for Pope this offseason, after last season’s team was often bullied around by longer, more athletic SEC foes. “I feel like this team’s gonna be a better defensive team than last year’s team,” Williams said.
All in all, Williams’ first interview as Wildcat was dripping with confidence. It’s possible that he’s already experienced some growth there, even though he’s been on campus for only a few weeks. Given the setting, that shouldn’t be surprising.
“Having been to a couple of (Pope’s) practices, it is one of the more positive environments I’ve seen,” Branham said. “And just how he tries to build his guys up — the way he teaches them the game — it’s definitely hard to not be confident playing for him. So I think that will certainly come with Kam Williams. He’s a guy that, obviously in the media, he will build you up. But even in practices, the way he communicates and celebrates his players, it really makes an impact with how these guys go out and play, and also ultimately develop their games.”
That’s why Williams is here. His goal is to make it to the NBA draft — whether that comes next year or later in his process — and ultimately stick in the league. He’s stepping outside of his comfort zone in order to make that dream come true, a major step up in competition level but a situation that should allow for future success.
Williams knows what he’s capable of doing on the court. Pope sees a potential future star. And the UK coach has wasted no time letting the sophomore guard know he wants him to turn it loose.
“I had a couple instances in practice where I didn’t shoot it, because I wanted to kind of slow the ball down,” Williams said. “And, you know, he got on me. We ain’t gonna say what it was, but he told me, ‘Be confident and shoot the ball.’ That’s what he brought me here for. …
“He loves his guys. And he wants us to be great.”
