Kam Williams says he will win every shooting contest at UK. (UK Athletics/Chet White Photo)
It’s not a huge surprise that Kam Williams says Koby Brea is his favorite Kentucky basketball player because like Brea, Williams considers himself a shooter.
Brea was one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters the last two years at Dayton and then UK last season and Williams, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Tulane, was a 41 percent shooter from 3 last year — and hopes to be even better at UK on a more talented team.
Tuesday during his first media session at UK, I asked Williams just how good a shooter he was?
I shoot every day, so I try to shoot my best number. I don’t really know what the number is, but I really work hard a lot at shooting, so I feel like I’m a pretty good shooter,” Williams said.
Does he think he’ll surprise UK fans and others with how well he shoots?
“I would say that most people might kind of doubt the numbers or whatever, but I’m not really worried about the outside noise,” Williams said. “I know what I’m capable of, so I’m gonna just try to exceed my own expectations.”
Williams is already looking forward to the 3-point shooting contest at Big Blue Madness.
“I think I am gonna win every single shooting contest we have. It’ll be me, and Trent (Noah) will be my best competition,” Williams said.
He paid attention to Brea before he had any idea he would be transferring to UK.
“I really like how he fit the playing style over here. I really watched him a lot before I ended up coming,” Williams said.
Williams averaged 9.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game last season. However, his upside is so big that some 2026 NBA mock drafts are projecting him as a first-round choice.
Williams doesn’t think shooting will be the problem for UK — which set a single-season record with 341 3-pointers last season — like some fear.
“I would say no one really has to worry about [shooting], because we work hard every day, even when the cameras aren’t around,” Williams said. “Everyone definitely puts in a lot of work to shoot the ball, dribble, play defense, stuff like that. So on paper, it looks like that, but don’t worry about the paper.”
Williams said not only can Noah shoot, but so can freshman Jasper Johnson and junior Jaland Lowe.
“Everyone on the team can really shoot for real but it’s just kind of disguised. Everybody can really shoot. Mo (Dioubate) can even shoot, but the numbers may say something different, but he can shoot the ball.”
Williams quickly found out that coach Mark Pope expects him to shoot — and shoot often.
“I’ve had a couple of instances in practice where I didn’t shoot it because I went to kind of like iso the ball,” Williams said. “He (Pope) got on me — I’m not going to say what it was — but he told me to be confident and shoot the ball. That’s what he brought me here for.”
Williams is also hoping to pick up a few pointers from UK alumni playing for La Familia in The Basketball Tournament (TBT) in Memorial Coliseum starting next week. Last year La Familia players practiced and worked out with UK players and most expect that to happen again.
“I’m excited to play a lot of ex pros. Some are still pros. Some are not, but really just they’re all great basketball players, and I don’t really know everybody on the team, but I will find somebody that I can try to pick up on habits that I could use in my game,” Williams said.
2 Responses
He was considered one of the best shooters in the transfer portal. Averaging almost 5 attempts per game shooting over 40% means your a incredible shooter. Anything over the 40% mark means your a elite shooter. I forgot what Reed Sheppard shot from 3 but I do remember it was close to 50% that's what made him a top pick in the draft. The great thing about Williams is you can play him in positions 1-4. At 6'8" he could also be a great stretch 4 because he is also a great rebounder. His defense is his most underrated quality because like we will see this year he crashes the passing lane like Reed Sheppard. If I could tell you one player that his game reminds me of its a bigger Reed Sheppard. That's why he's on mock drafts in the first round. If we reach at least the final 4 I can see Oweh, Lowe, JQ, Aberdeen, and maybe Garrison( if everything clicks this year for him) in the NBA draft at the end of the year. Jelavic is also someone to watch with the wave of foreign players over American players. What's crazy to me is the Europeans are years ahead of the Americans. Not to be racial but I'm talking about the NBA is full of imported players. They have actually caught up with American basketball and is getting drafted over American college basketball stars. Can anybody tell me why that is? I know they practice more but as far as the game of basketball do you really think they are that far ahead of American basketball. If this is true which it looks to be true. Jelavic could be the nose underrated player on the team.
This team will be fine when it comes to shooting and shooting 3 as well. The defense and rebounding will be much improved. We play some quality opponents before SEC play begins. Quaintance will be fully plugged in by then too. Jelavic is the only question mark, but we will be fine without him; dangerous with him. I look for Garrison and Noah to have breakout seasons. Things have come full circle…we agonize through football season and kick ass in basketball…like Kentucky teams do.