Kam Williams was Kentucky’s spark at Louisville. Why didn’t he play more?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky inserted Kam Williams late; his minutes shifted momentum.
- Williams produced rebounds, a 3, a putback and a block to cut deficit.
- Coach Mark Pope praised Williams’ focus and long-term potential
There weren’t many bright spots in Kentucky’s 96-88 loss at Louisville on Tuesday night.
One of the few was Kam Williams, the sophomore transfer from Tulane who helped spark the Wildcats’ comeback attempt in the second half.
“I thought Kam gave us a little length and a little mobility,” coach Mark Pope said immediately after UK’s loss to its biggest basketball rival. “And his ability to kind of have a little gravity on the court was important for us.
“We’re blessed with a really special roster — a great group of guys. And there’s going to be a learning curve with the pieces — about trying to figure out when and how and where to put them together. But I thought he helped us tonight.”
Williams didn’t do anything to help the Cats on the court in the first half. Because he didn’t play.
Williams was a postgame talking point because — when he did finally get into the game — he had a noticeable, positive effect on it.
The 6-foot-8 guard didn’t see the floor in the first half, when Louisville led by as many as 18 points and nothing much went right for Kentucky.
Williams checked in when the Wildcats were at their lowest point — between two free throws from U of L guard Mikel Brown Jr. — and when the ball was put in play for the first time with him on the court, UK was down 78-58 with the Yum Center rocking and just 12:24 remaining.
His impact was apparent immediately.
Williams grabbed a rebound on his first defensive possession. That led to a UK and-one three seconds later. Williams drained a 3-pointer — his first of the season — on the Cats’ next possession. In less than two minutes on the court, U of L’s lead shrunk by six points.
A few minutes later, his putback pulled the Cats to within 83-75. A couple of minutes after that, he had a momentum-shifting block that helped propel Kentucky from a 10-point deficit to an 88-84 score in a short amount of time.
The Wildcats wouldn’t get any closer, but Williams at least helped them make a game of it. And after he checked in with 12:24 to go, he never left the court. Plus-minus isn’t a very dependable stat — especially in small sample sizes — but this one was difficult to overlook. Williams was a plus-11 for the game. No other Wildcat was anywhere close to that.
His presence was so clear that the question was obvious. Why didn’t he play more?
“I have the same conversation with Kam every single day, and that’s about him being more aggressive and assertive and more physical,” Pope said Thursday, with a couple of days to look back on the loss. “He’s got a massive upside. He’s incredibly talented, but he’s also been asked to do things at a level — with an intensity and aggressiveness — that is different.”
Williams’ short time in Lexington has indeed been a learning curve. He was most effective as a 3-and-D guy as a freshman at Tulane last season, but this level of competition is a big step up, and the matchup with Louisville was the first marquee game of the regular season.
The UK newcomer turned heads during the offseason with his ability to disrupt on defense and crash the boards as a backcourt player. He’s a tremendous 3-point shooter. But there was also talk about a lack of consistency on both sides of the ball and a difficult time of transitioning to Pope’s “ultimate green light” approach to long-range shooting.
Williams never really looked comfortable in a UK uniform before Tuesday night. He took just one shot (it was blocked) in the Blue-White Game. He was a combined 2 for 11 from 3-point range — and didn’t attempt a 2-pointer — in exhibition games against Purdue and Georgetown, tallying more fouls (five) than rebounds (four) over nearly 41 minutes of play across those matchups.
In 34 total minutes against Nicholls and Valparaiso last week, Williams combined to go 1 for 6 from the field and missed all five of his 3-point attempts.
All of that earned him a spot on the bench for the first half against Louisville. And that’s actually where Pope said he was “most proud of Kam” coming out of Tuesday night. The UK staff “grades” the bench during games, and Pope said Williams was “elite” with his demeanor there.
“He was unbelievable. And it’s just a credit to him,” the coach said. “And then he came in the second half, and he was actually really, really functional. He helped us in a lot of ways. And that’s the type of thing that we need on this roster is for guys to stay engaged and stay on it and stay involved and keep their whole hearts and heads and minds in it, regardless of the flow of the game. And he was a brilliant example of that for us. I’m really proud of him.”
Pope has talked since the loss to Louisville about his team’s “distracted” nature in that defeat. He’s not questioning his players’ effort, but rather the way in which they failed to concentrate it toward something positive.
“When you’re under pressure and duress, sometimes you just fall into bad habits, default habits, distracted actions,” he said. “And so we spent a lot of time the other night being really, really distracted in a disappointing way. But it’s human nature. It’s what it is. It’s what you fight as an athlete — the ability to just kind of get back to focused on this moment. We didn’t do it very well.”
Williams did it well. He could have sulked on the bench in that first half or pressed once he did finally get onto the court. That he didn’t do either of those things is a positive sign for a player who was on some prominent NBA draft boards heading into this season.
There’s a long way to go before that type of potential is realized, but — on a night with many lowlights — Williams’ concentrated effort was one positive takeaway. And that’s likely to lead to better opportunities in similarly big spots down the road.
“We all believe he’s got a huge future ahead of him,” Pope said. “And it’s gonna come in all different forms — in a zig-zag path — but I thought he was great. He was incredible in his refusal to be distracted. He was great.”
