Coming into today, Kam Williams had made only five three-pointers in Rupp Arena. Today, he finally made himself at home, going 8-10 from beyond the arc en route to a career-high 26 points in Kentucky’s 99-85 win over Bellarmine.
In Kentucky’s first ten games, Williams was just 6-31 from three, 19.4%. In the last three games, Williams has been on fire, going 11-17, 64.7%. Today’s performance improved his three-point shooting average this season from 35.4% to 23.7%. Williams’ eight threes were half of Kentucky’s 16, a new season high, and just one off the Pope era best of 17, set last season vs. Jackson State. His shooting was contagious, with Denzel Aberdeen also hitting four threes and Jasper Johnson three.
“I love Kam,” Mark Pope said afterward. “Eight for 10. I asked him to do that every night for the rest of the year.”
”Having my teammates have the confidence in me to go out there and make shots even when I am missing just makes me want to play harder,” Williams told reporters. “We have a great group of guys, and I cannot wait to go into SEC play.”
Williams’ eight threes put him in rare Kentucky air. The last Wildcat to hit eight threes in a game? Immanuel Quickley at Texas A&M on February 25, 2020. Williams is now tied with Quickley and six other Wildcats for fourth in program history in three-point field goals made in a single game. Jodie Meeks still tops that list with ten at Tennessee in 2009, followed by Tony Delk and Meeks again with nine each.
Kentucky 3-Point Field Goals Made, Single Game
RankMade 3sPlayerOpponentDate1.10Jodie Meeksat Tennessee1/13/20092.9Tony DelkTCU1/20/19969 Jodie MeeksAppalachian State12/20/20084.8Derrick MillerKansas12/9/19898Derrick MillerNorth Carolina12/27/19898Derrick MillerTennessee1/20/19908Cameron MillsFlorida2/1/19988Jodie MeeksTennessee State12/22/20088Eric BledsoeEast Tennessee State3/18/20108Jamal MurrayFlorida2/6/20168Malik MonkNorth Carolina12/17/20178Immanuel Quickleyat Texas A&M2/25/20208Kam WilliamsBellarmine12/23/2025
After watching Williams light it up in practice, Pope was happy to see him finally break through in Rupp Arena. Pope says it’s further proof that this group can shoot well, and maybe the start of that showing up during games.
“I think it was good for him to make them here in Rupp, but at the end of the day, I’ve just never been — I think I’ve told you guys this for the last two months, I’ve never been in a space where the numbers don’t actually translate. It’s just time. It’s just time and reps, and he’s an elite-level shooter, so it’s just his time. That’s all it is. Sometimes it’s the first day, and sometimes it’s the 60th day, but when you’re a really good shooter, you make shots.
“Our Noah [shooting system] numbers always translate into on-court performance. They always do that. It’s never had an anomaly where it doesn’t. And so this is how it should be. I guess I was kidding about the 8-10 every single night. Maybe every other night.”
Even if it’s every third night, we’ll take more performances like that.