Mo Williams with his son Mason. (UK Athletics Photo)
Mo Williams has yet to be available to Kentucky media members but the new UK assistant men’s basketball coach did spend time on FanDuel’s Run It Back this week with joining Chandler Parsons, Michelle Beadle and Lou Williams.
Williams is a former NBA All-Star who played 11 years in the NBA and won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. He’s also a former college head coach who jumped at the chance to join coach Mark Pope’s staff — and his son, a point guard, has signed with the Cats as well.
Pope needs a recruiter and Williams obviously is embracing that role based on the high profile players he’s been to see play recently.
“It’s going out and doing what I do best. I’m able to go out and get in homes and recruit the best players,” Williams said on Run It Back. “Ultimately, that’s to play at the level we played at for a number of years.”
However, I liked his confident, optimistic outlook about next season even if the roster does not appear that strong overall. Of course, Kentucky is still looking for more pieces for the 2026-27 season and also hoping/praying that Malachi Moreno is back for another year.
Parsons, a former Florida player, asked Williams if Kentucky was “loaded” for next season, the new UK assistant coach quickly said yes with an honest qualifier.
“Obviously, we still got a couple more spots to fill,” Williams said.
Williams also explained why he gave up his head coaching job at Jackson State to join Pope’s staff, especially since UK lost 14 games last season.
“I was a head coach for the last six years. Being a head coach, you’re able to run your program. You’re able to recruit. I was at an HBCU, so I paid it forward,” Williams said. “But at the same time, we’re competitive, and we want to be in a position to compete for a national championship.
“That was my decision to leave a head coach opportunity to come and be an assistant coach at Kentucky to build something special, to have an opportunity to win a national championship, which we have all the resources in the world to accomplish those goals.”
One Response
We do have all the resources to accomplish not only a national championship but we should be on the cusp of a national championship every year with the money we can spend on a roster. We should have no problem not only bringing in the best talent from high school recruiting, but we should also be able to basically get whoever we want in the portal. With Calapari he put high school recruiting first and then he would fill in the rest of his roster with what is needed. If he could have balanced it out 50/50 between the two he would find his recipe for success. Pope puts 90/10 transfer portal over high school recruiting not because that's what he wants to do but because he doesn't tell high school kids what they want to hear. To go 0/50 on top 20 recruits since he's been at Kentucky is a alarming number. I think all Kentucky fans wanted Mark Pope to succeed and he won alot of us over after his debut season. The thing nobody talks about is his first year we had 7 super seniors. This will never be done again because that was because of the covid year. All the covid year players are gone and Pope is still going after backups on the west coast. I do believe that Morton will be a solid player. I also think the backup center from Washington who is in his 6th year will also surprise alot of people. If he can have a injury free season he might just challenge Moreno for the starting spot. We didn't have a player of his caliber last year. He's a upgrade from BG and Jelly. I can see him average 8ppg 8 rpg 2.5bpg. that's in backup minutes. If Moreno goes to the NBA Frank will start here at Kentucky and N'Diaye or Potter will be his backup. I also think McBride starts. He too will surprise alot of people because he can shoot the 3 at nearly 40%.. He is a upgrade from Mo-D. I do believe this team can compete for a championship if we get the best shooter in college basketball.