Kentucky basketball player Kam Williams opts for surgery for broken foot
Kentucky basketball player Kam Williams had surgery for a broken foot Friday.
UK head coach Mark Pope said before the Wildcats’ game against Ole Miss on Saturday morning that Williams underwent surgery and termed it a “successful” operation that will put the sophomore guard “on the road” to a full rehabilitation.
Pope did not give a timetable for Williams’ potential return to the court. He has not officially ruled him out for the season.
Williams was injured during the opening minutes in the second half of Kentucky’s 85-80 victory over Texas on Wednesday night. The 6-foot-8 guard was running down the court to get set on defense when the injury occurred. He played out that possession and then limped off the floor at the next whistle, going directly to the UK locker room.
Pope announced after the game that he had suffered a broken foot, though he was holding out hope at the time that Williams might return this season. “We’re going to get him back healthy as soon as we possibly can,” Pope said. “But he’ll be out for a while, and it’s certainly a blow to us.”
Williams started four games during the nonconference portion of the schedule and broke back into the first five in Kentucky’s win over LSU on Jan. 14, four days after scoring 14 points — his second-highest total this season — in the Cats’ victory over Mississippi State.
The Texas game marked Williams’ third consecutive start, and he had scored nine points in 16 minutes before leaving for good with 18:11 remaining. He scored a career-high 26 points — and went 8 for 10 on 3-point shots — in UK’s nonconference finale against Bellarmine on Dec. 23.
Williams is averaging 6.9 points and 2.5 rebounds in 20.0 minutes per game in his first season with the Wildcats. Pope has referred to him as one of UK’s best defensive players on multiple occasions, and the Kentucky coach repeatedly predicted that his 3-point shooting would pick up as the season wore on.
As a freshman at Tulane last season, Williams shot 41.2% from deep on 4.6 3-point attempts per game. He’s shot 34.8% on 3.6 long-range attempts per game this season. After that 8-for-10 performance in UK’s win over Bellarmine last month, Williams was 7 for 21 (33.3%) on 3s in six SEC games.
According to the player metrics at EvanMiya.com, Williams has been the Wildcats’ third most valuable performer this season, behind only Otega Oweh and Malachi Moreno.
Kentucky’s next game is set for 9 p.m. ET Tuesday at No. 15 Vanderbilt.
