Mark Pope explains why Kam Williams didn't play much against Alabama

Kam Williams played just six minutes in the first half and didn't play the first ten of the second half.

Dec 20, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Kentucky Wildcats guard Kam Williams (3) reacts after a basket against the St. John Red Storm in the second half at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Kentucky basketball suffered yet another embarrassing loss on the season Saturday when they faced Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa, but this loss was different from the others: Kentucky was fully healthy, which wasn't the case for their other previous embarrassing losses.

The Wildcats were first fully-healthy against Indiana, outside of Jayden Quaintance, who then made his debut against St. John's. In those games, Kentucky seemed to have found some identity as to what to lean on to win games. In those games, one player in particular played a key role. That player was Kam Williams. Against Indiana, the 3-and-D wing played 24 minutes, pouring in 9 points, clearly also a key part in holding the Hoosiers to 4-24 from three. He followed that up against St. John's by being pat of a key lineup that helped spark a big 14-0 run in the second half that helped Kentucky pull away. Similar to Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Williams played 7 minutes in the first half in Atlanta, but finished the game with 20 minutes on the floor, where he had 11 points, including two threes and going 5-6 at the free throw line,

It's worth noting Williams didn't see the floor in the second half until 10:01 left, where Kentucky was down 17 points, still unable to cut into the lead. In that 10 minutes on the floor, Kentucky shrunk the deficit to single digits twice, but team-wide execution blew the comeback attempt. Bottom line is, Williams is a major role player on this Kentucky team and is a part of one of the team's most successful lineups, which only saw the floor together for one minute. That lineup? Jaland Lowe, Otega Oweh, Kam Williams, Mo Dioubate, and Jayden Quaintance.

Jaland Lowe,
Otega Owuor,
Kam Williams,
Mouhamed Dioubate,
Jayden Quaintance

Played most of the second half against St. John’s together (including a 10-0 run) and led Kentucky to a win and a major comeback.

Tonight, that lineup played for 1 minute together.

— Dylan Ballard (@DylanBallard_UK) January 3, 2026

What was the reason behind Williams being limited in Saturday's 15-point loss? Let Mark Pope explain. Part of it was due to trying a taller lineup, Otega Oweh playing so well (which doesn't make sense when you think about the lineup we discussed above), who finished the game with a team-high 22 points, and also, Pope says Williams isn't taking full advantage of opportunities when his name is called: "We’re searching a little bit in that sense. We were trying to work on a bigger lineup that wasn't super functional today. (Otega Oweh) was giving us a huge lift, but there will be ways that we can work Kam in. Kam also needs to be more aggressive and take advantage of the opportunities he has."

The same guy that is part of a key lineup that is the reason Kentucky surged past St. John's, and the guy that came into Saturday coming off of a performance where he hit eight threes did not get much of an opportunity against Alabama, even if he wasn't taking advantage of what he did have. Mark Pope has an interesting lineup debacle on his hands.