Kam Williams played in all three SEC Tournament games last week and hopes he is wanted back at UK next season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
He missed almost two months after breaking his foot against Texas on Jan. 21 but sophomore forward Kam Williams made his return to the basketball court for Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Now he’ll get his chance to play in the NCAA Tournament this week, something he didn’t get to do his freshman season at Tulane.
The 6-foot-8 Williams played 17 minutes and hit a 3-pointer in the first round win over LSU last week. He got 13 minutes in the second round win over Missouri and hit another 3-pointer. Coach Mark Pope limited him to seven points in the loss to Florida since it was UK’s third game in just over 48 hours.
“Coach Pope told him not to be afraid to shoot when he played. He said to let it fly,” Greg Williams, Kam’s father, said. “
Williams is averaging 6.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game and shooting 35 percent from 3 with 26 3-pointers. He’s also a 95 percent shooter at the foul line as he has made 19 of 20 tries.
While Pope is glad to have Williams back playing, many UK fans are wondering if he will be back next season.
“We never think about anything until the job is done. You lose focus if you do that,” Greg Williams said. “He needed to focus on this year if he wanted to play this year.
“The gap between this season being over and the next season is about six months, so you don’t want to think about that now. We never think about next year until next year but the plan is to be back at Kentucky unless something else happens.”
Greg Williams is realistic about could transpire in the next few months with the transfer portal opening and Pope trying to reconstruct another roster.
“Kam is 20 now. When he was in high school he leaned on us (parents) a lot. Once you have experienced a year of college basketball the questions you ask coaches are different. We are leaving all that up to him,” Greg Williams said. “He will look at his experience with Kentucky and coach Pope and decide what needs to happen.
“You can want to be here but does Kentucky want you to be here? This has not been the season anybody wanted and trust me not the season that they (UK players) wanted. They want to finish on a strong note. They still have goals and aspirations. And they are still looking for (national championship) number nine.”
One Response
As I watched multiple conference tourney yesterday its painfully obvious we need upgrades all over the court.. The St John's team I saw yesterday would mop the floor with UK. Pitino has them playing serious basketball as they destroyed Uconn. Duke is Duke .. Who knows what the roster is going to look like but 2 legit options at point guard is a must. Can UK get better ? Absolutely. Will they? Who knows . 1st year roster under pope was decent especially it had to be done so hastily. This latest one pretty weak. Year 3 he better get it together.