Kam Williams reveals advice Mark Pope, staff gave him when he transferred: 'If you won't shoot, somebody else will'

Kam Williams was Kentucky‘s first commit out of the transfer portal this offseason. On paper, he fits the mold of what head coach Mark Pope is looking for in an incoming player.

Williams labels himself as a shooter while on the court. His 41.2% 3-point percentage last year during his freshman season at Tulane backs up this claim. Averaging just under two made 3-pointer per game for the Green Wave, the advice Kentucky head coach Mark Pope and his staff gave Williams was simple.

“He always tells me, ‘Shoot the ball. If you’re a shooter, shoot the ball,'” Williams told BBN Tonight’s Maggie Davis in his first sit-down interview since becoming a Wildcat. “The staff tells me the same thing. In practice, sometimes I might pass up a few. If you won’t shoot, somebody else will.”

Mark Pope’s offense is predicated on all five position players being able to shoot from anywhere on the court. He expects to have his 6-foot-8 wing to shoot at an elite level the same way his 7-footer or point guard should. Williams appears to fit that mold on

As a freshman, Williams averaged 9.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game for Tulane. Despite having respectable numbers as a true freshman, Williams said that he feels underrated when he’s on the court because of the shooter label that’s been attached to him.

That’s why Mark Pope said that there’s so much “untapped potential” in Williams. At 6-foot-8, he’s able to space the court with his length while shooting the ball at a lethal clip. Pope said that he sees NBA potential in Williams.

These comments come just one year after receiving little interest from major college teams during his high school recruitment. He’s since played himself into a top-100 player in this year’s NCAA transfer portal rankings.

“It was only like six or seven of them for real,” Williams said of the number of offers he received. “So I just took the best opportunity for me because Tulane, they had the play style that I like, so I took advantage of that opportunity. It opened the doors to an opportunity like this.”

Williams joins Reece Potter, Jaland Lowe, Mouhamed Dioubate, Jayden Quaintance, Andrija Jelavic and Denzel Aberdeen as the cast of incoming transfers to the Kentucky program. Fans will get their first look at Williams and the rest of the new-look Kentucky Wildcats when they host both Purdue and Georgetown in exhibition games in October.