He’s one of Kentucky’s most important players. And he’s finally heating up
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kam Williams turned a late hot streak into an emerging 3-and-D threat.
- Mark Pope backed Williams, demanded intensity and prioritized shooting confidence, reps.
- Williams’ shooting surge could boost Kentucky’s perimeter in SEC play.
The role Kam Williams was recruited to play for this Kentucky basketball team? It’s pretty simple.
“Shoot 3s and play defense.” That’s how the sophomore guard described it after UK’s 99-85 victory over Bellarmine last week, the game in which he went 8 for 10 from 3-point range and scored a career-high 26 points.
It’s actually not that simple. Williams went on to say that his role is more complicated than that. It encompasses all aspects of the game. “Really, just come out here and play basketball,” he clarified.
But if Williams can do those first two things he mentioned — be that 3-and-D guy for these Wildcats — then it should go a long way toward helping Mark Pope’s team win more games as this season progresses. And doing those two things — at this level — is difficult enough.
Over his first 10 games or so for Kentucky, it was incredibly difficult.
Williams, who came into the season with NBA draft upside, according to some prominent national analysts, instead found himself the odd man out on multiple occasions.
He shot 41.2% from long range as a freshman at Tulane, but that shot wasn’t falling to start his UK career. A 6-foot-8 guard with ample athleticism, he showed flashes of defensive excellence, but Pope challenged him — both publicly and privately — to bring 100% intensity at all times, whether that be in games or practice.
Williams struggled to meet that challenge, and he found himself glued to the UK bench for the entire first half against North Carolina Central three weeks ago. Rather than sulk, he was the team’s biggest cheerleader for that 20 minutes. Pope played him for most of the second half, and — three days later — said Williams responded by having his best practice as a Wildcat the next time he hit the Joe Craft Center court.
Next game out, Williams scored nine points and played 24 minutes in Kentucky’s win over Indiana. Both were season highs against a high-major opponent. A week after that, he nailed two huge 3-pointers — and finished with 11 points — to help lead the Cats’ comeback win over St. John’s. And then came his 8-for-10 showing from deep against Bellarmine.
By the end of the North Carolina Central game — UK’s 10th of the season — Williams was 6 for 31 on 3-pointers. That’s 19.4%. In his past three games, he’s gone 11 for 17 from deep. That’s 64.7%.
Despite the early struggles, Williams kept the faith.
“Just keep shooting,” he said on the eve of the Bellarmine game. “Can’t really say too much after that. You can’t settle, like, ‘Oh, I’m not making shots. I’m gonna stop shooting.’ Like, that’s not how it works. The best shooters in the world keep shooting.”
He explained that his favorite player is Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, one of the greatest shooters of all time.
“And he misses a lot of shots, too,” Williams said. “But he’s gonna keep shooting. So I got to keep the confidence up.”
That’s easier to do when those around you have confidence, too, and Williams’ biggest cheerleader in Lexington this season just happened to be his head coach.
Before the St. John’s game — when Williams was shooting a pitiful 21.2% from deep through 11 appearances as a Wildcat — Pope pooh-poohed a question related to the perimeter woes.
“It’s just such a small sample size,” he said. “I wish there was more science into it than that. And there’s probably little things that contribute to all kinds of little things. But he’s a guy that, at any given moment, could go on a tear and make 30 or 35 3s over the course of six games, right? It’s just who he is.
“All the numbers eventually work themselves out to kind of represent who guys are as players. And he’s an elite-level shooter, and he was before he got here. He is going to be when he leaves here, and he’s going to be while he’s here.”
Williams is 10 for 15 from long range since Pope made that statement, with perhaps the two biggest 3s of Kentucky’s season against St. John’s and one of the best long-range shooting performances Rupp Arena has ever seen after that.
Part of the reason Williams kept on shooting? Pope kept on encouraging him to do just that.
“He just tells me to keep shooting,” he said. “Never lose my confidence, because — as a shooter — sometimes when you’re not making shots, (your confidence) kind of starts to decrease a little bit each game. But he just tells me every day, every practice, like, ‘Keep shooting. Keep shooting. They’re gonna fall. They’re gonna fall in.’”
Kam Williams emerging for Kentucky
There are some clear contributors to Williams’ slow shooting start.
In his first few games as a Wildcat, he said he felt like he was rushing a little bit. He knew this would be a step up in competition, and it’s taken a little time to trust himself this season. At first, he said it seemed like opposing defenders were closer than they actually were.
“I gotta realize that, like, I’m 6-8. So, a lot of people are not gonna block my shot, for real,” he said. “So I just have to not try to rush. Take my time. Shoot the same shot that I shot last year.”
The return of the team’s top point guard, Jaland Lowe, clearly helped in the St. John’s game, when both of Williams’ 3-pointers came off transition opportunities initiated by Lowe.
“He’s probably the fastest player that I’ve ever seen with the ball,” Williams said. “So he just says … ‘Just run,’ and he’s gonna find us, which he does.”
Lowe didn’t play against Bellarmine, but the Knights played a zone defense almost exclusively, and Williams’ other teammates were able to work the ball around enough to get him plenty of open looks. He took advantage.
Whether the Wildcats can get him similar looks against quality competition remains to be seen. SEC play begins Saturday at Alabama, and the 17 games left on the schedule after that will all be against league foes, too. UK is shooting just 23.9% from 3-point range against its six high-major foes so far this season.
When Williams’ shots aren’t falling — and that will happen again at some point, no matter how hot he gets — he knows what will keep him on the court. That’s his defense.
On the whole, he’s been one of UK’s best defenders, even if Pope has asked to see that intensity on a more consistent basis.
“I really took a lot of pride (in that), because, if you’re a ‘shooter’ — quote, unquote — and you’re not making shots, you gotta find other ways to affect the game,” Williams said. “So I try to affect the game with steals, deflections, blocks, rebounds, stuff like that. Just playing the hardest I can. … So we’ll keep it going.”
If he can bring that intensity to the defensive end on an every-game basis, Williams will be difficult to take off the court, even when that shot isn’t dropping. His blend of size, athleticism, quick-twitch ability and a general nose for the ball can be a deadly combination, especially when sharing the court with guys like Otega Oweh, Mouhamed Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance.
When those teammates are on the court, you’ve got to play with intensity just to keep up.
“It makes you want to do something the next possession, whenever it’s your turn,” he said. “So it’s just like a momentum swing, whenever (Quaintance) gets a block, or Mo gets a rebound, or O gets a steal.”
Even while Pope was calling for more intensity, he never really seemed worried about Williams.
“I mean, he’s been our best defensive player,” the UK coach said before the St. John’s game. “He’s doing an unbelievable job on that side of the ball. And he’s getting more bold and more comfortable on the offensive side of the ball. He’s got a massive ceiling. Like, we’re not even seeing the beginnings of what he can be. It’s just growing. It’s a zig-zag process.
“There’s a lot of guys on this team that I think are going to look so much different as we progress through the season. He’s one of them. I think he’s got a huge, high ceiling, and it’s just a matter of time and reps and belief and experience for him to get there. But he’s got so much to offer this game, for sure.”
In the two games since that statement, Williams has offered quite a bit to the Wildcats, proving to everyone that he can be one of this team’s most important players. And he’s doing it at a most important time.
“The role that I was brought here to do, I feel like I’m trying to get better at it any chance that I get,” he said. “I’m not a perfect player. I’m going to make mistakes here and there. But having a staff and team and a crowd that still supports you through thick and thin, it makes me play my hardest every chance I get.”
