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.”
11 Responses
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.
Mop the floor with them? You do realize UK beat St. John's this season?
I think it might be called improvement during the season. We don't have the talent or the coaching to do that.
Absolutely I do… that wasn't the st John's team I saw yesterday. Did you watch? Mop the floor
Unless there is problems why wouldn't you expect players back?? Kam will be the starter at the 3 if he comes back if he doesn't then that's fine too I'm sure we can upgrade the position. There are plenty of small forwards who would love to play at Kentucky. This is what makes me laugh. Do we need him? If he really wants to be here yes we want him back. If he even has any doubt about coming back then transfer. If he's been here almost a year and doesn't know what he wants to do then I would recruit the best I can at his position. Noah and Hawthorne will both play the 3 next year too. "If they both come back next year". It honestly wouldn't hurt my feelings if Moreno, JJ, Chandler, Jelly, Potter, Hawthorne, Mo, and Noah come back we have a great nucleus. If Kam comes back we have the 2-5 starters set in stone next year. We would just need 2 good point guards in the portal and another big and I think we have a potential national championship caliber team next year. I don't know what Lowe is going to do but I would still go after the best two point guards money can buy. I think a problem that players and coaches have are to many promises. Promising players starting spots and stuff should be over. You should have to earn your playing time. Potter is going to be much better than what people think he will. He will be a good role player next year. I think he will be the backup 5 behind Moreno if both of them come back. BG I'm sorry but unless he promises to actually get better I wouldn't want him back. BG just doesn't have the brain motor to thrive in basketball. A good center always blocks out and gets in position for rebounds. Florida players aren't more athletic than BG. They just outsmart him and actually laugh at him while they were doing it. I thought BG would be playing on Morenos level this year but clearly Moreno is much better than BG and is a freshman. If Moreno works on his rebounding and offense around the basket and his hands he could be a potential all conference type player next year. I also think Jasper Johnson hits another gear next year. Chandler will be the leader and leading scorer. We have a chance to have a great season next year if everyone who can come back does come back.
Terry in today's world the school has to basically offer him another contract to come back. Deal/scholarship he signed does not renew. His dad is saying Kam wants to stay but Pope has not said if he wants him to stay
He provided the expected roles and typically wasn’t a liability on the floor. Worked his tail off recovering from injury to play this season, something we usually don’t see here. In my book he’s a keeper, need to focus on getting a point guard and a second point/combo guard
with you Ken
Forget about getting two legitimate point guards from the portal. You
get one, if lucky. You aren't going to get another one to fight for playing
time. The primary reason most players join the portal is because they
aren't happy with the playing time at their present school.
If Barnhart has any Balls, he will clean house in the next week and start all over. Doubt if he can find a quality coach, but anyone would be better than Pope. The Ky basketball program is being destroyed, just like the country.
College basketball and recruiting is a totally different animal than it was a few years ago. As Larry said, you are not going to get two top point guards. You get one and then get one you hope you can develop or one that can give some breather minutes to other players. I think UK has done pretty well under the circumstances and the lack of effort from some players. UK did pretty good at the PG this year with Lowe and Aberdeen. The problem was no real backup for Aberdeen. Johnson never really panned out as a point guard or shooting guard. He really struggled with defense and hitting shots, so his time was very limited. I don't see him coming back next year. We were hopeful to have JQ as the starting center and Moreno backing him up and learning. That never panned out and it was very obvious that Garrison only gave effort when he felt like it. I don't see him coming back, either. Garrison should have been a leader on this team, but I do think there are some ego problems on this team along with some immaturity and trust between the players. I do think there is a huge problem between Oweh and the rest of the team.
UK lost 3 players that were supposed to contribute a lot of minutes. That means we have 3 players starting, that in reality they should have been coming off the bench. If you were bringing Chandler, Moreno, Jelavic off the bench, that would give this team a huge boost. But under the circumstances, they have all been forced to start whether they were ready or not. Pope may not be the developer I was hoping he was, so he may end up needing to change his philosophy on the game. The game he wants to play takes great shooters and experience in his system. Those are hard to come by in today's college basketball, so he needs to learn how to best use each player on his team to get the most out of them, drop the "system" and play the way your team plays best.