Kam Williams' shooting numbers finally translated into a game

Kentucky has struggled mightily shooting the ball from three-point range this season. It has forced them to find other ways to win games, and that's with their intensity and aggressiveness on the defensive end. Against Indiana, the Wildcats shot a Mark Pope era low of 3-15 from three, following that up going 4-16 against St. John's. But, the shots finally started falling on Tuesday in Rupp Arena against Bellarmine, and it was headlined by one player, Kam Williams.

It was Kentucky's offense that carried them to the win, or more specifically Kam Williams, as their defense lacked effort all game, giving up 85 points to a 260th-ranked Bellarmine squad. Mark Pope has talked before about his team's shooting numbers in practice not translating into games. His Wildcats have been shooting very well in practice, but they have yet to show it up until Tuesday. "Listen, by the end of the year, I think we're going to be really dangerous shooting the ball. I do. I've never have been on a team where the where the Noah (shooting) numbers don't actually eventually transport their way into games. I just have never seen that," Pope said last week. "We have guys that are doing that consistently in the mid 70s (percent over time) that have not exploded onto the scene in games yet, but they do. And so that's just a matter of time."

Well, against Bellarmine, Kam Williams' time came as he made eight of Kentucky's 16 made threes on the day, which was good for the third-most made in a game in program history, including the most since Immanuel Quickley's eight threes during the 2019-20 season. Pope was excited to see the work finally translating, especially someone with as good of a shooting ability as Williams.

"I think I've told you guys this for last two months, I've never been in a space where the numbers don't actually translate. It's just time. It's just, it's just time and reps, and he's an elite level shooter in it, so it's just his time. That's all it is. Is, sometimes it's the first day and sometimes it's the 60th day, but, but when you're a really good shooter, you make shots. It's that, you know, like our Nolan numbers always translate into encore performance. They always do that. ...I was really proud of him. It was fun to see him make shots. Our guys did a great job, they were hungry to find him after they knew he got hot. And I think we're going to see a lot more of that from Kam. That's who he is."

Williams will look to carry over that hot shooting performance into SEC play, because if they can add that with their ability to win games in the trenches, that will bode well and add another dimension to this Kentucky team at full-strength.