For just the second time this season, Kam Williams knocked in a pair of three-pointers for Kentucky.
The first instance came all the way back in mid-November, when the Tulane transfer shot 2-4 from deep in a blowout win over Eastern Illinois. The second occurred on a much larger stage against a significantly stronger opponent. Williams went 2-5 from deep on Saturday in a massive Kentucky win over St. John’s. He came into that game shooting just 21.2 percent from deep on the season, a far cry from the 41.2 percent clip he finished with last season as a member of the Green Wave. He finished with 11 points in the victory over St. John’s
“Just keep shooting,” Williams said Monday about his mindset. “Can’t really say too much after that.”
Williams models his shooting approach after Steph Curry — the greatest three-pointer shooter in the history of basketball and his personal favorite player. “He misses a lot of shots too, but he’s gonna keep shooting them,” Williams added. Being confident as a shooter is key. He’s never fully lost that confidence, but he’s beginning to figure out why the shots just haven’t been falling so far this season.
“I would probably say I was just rushing a little, thinking that the defender was closer than he is,” Williams said. “As I keep shooting, I gotta realize I’m 6-8, a lot of people not gonna block my shot for real. I just have to not try to rush, take my time, shoot the same shot that I’ve been shooting.”
Williams went 63-153 from beyond the arc as a true freshman at Tulane across 33 games played. That’s nearly two makes per contest at an impressively high percentage. His role at Kentucky isn’t nearly as large as it was at Tulane (32.4 MPG last season compared to 18.7 MPG this season), but last season was more than enough of a sample size to trust that his shot-making would eventually come around.
Hopefully, St. John’s was just the start of a new trend.
“He works hard. He’s been one of the best shooters all summer, so I’ve been believing in my boy forever,” Jayden Quaintance said of his teammate. “Especially when we got that momentum going, seeing him kinda find himself again, that’s been great to see. And I know it’s a lot more coming, for sure.”
Shooting is what he does best, but as we’ve talked about since the St. John’s win (and for most of the season), Williams is more than just a shooter. Even when he’s not knocking down open looks, he’s been able to stay on the court by excelling on the other end of the floor. Head coach Mark Pope has praised Williams’ defense throughout the season. Williams was terrific again against the Johnnies’ stout frontcourt. He’s a confident isolation defender, someone who uses his size and length as a deterrent.
“Keeping my man in front. We guard our yard,’ Williams said of what he does best on defense, noting that he also thrives in being a help-side defender and trying to generate deflections.
“He’s been a super huge impact player, especially defensively,” Quaintance said. “Blocking shots, being in gaps, just kind of impacting the defensive side of the ball, so he’s been really good for us. Even trying to get to the rim, make plays for teammates, he’s been a huge player for us.”
Williams went for nine points and two rebounds in 24 minutes during a win over Indiana earlier this month. He followed that up a game later with his performance against St. John’s. His play is slowly trending in the right direction for the ‘Cats.