Buzz Williams believes Kentucky is good enough to win the national championship

Buzz Williams knew he was going to have his hands full against Kentucky on Tuesday night, and not just because star point guard Wade Taylor IV was sidelined. It was the defensive end that was going to give him fits. His Texas A&M Aggies had the challenging task of slowing down Mark Pope‘s high-powered offense, which came into the night ranked third nationally.

Williams needed more than two hands to handle the Wildcats.

After overcoming a slow first half, Kentucky played like Kentucky in the second half, ultimately earning an 81-69 win over the Aggies. The Wildcats shot 60.9 percent from the field after halftime, recording 11 assists on 14 made baskets en route to scoring 46 points. It certainly wasn’t always pretty against Texas A&M’s Top 15 defense, but the response after such a slog of an opening 20 minutes more than impressed Williams.

“They’re good enough to win the national championship,” Williams said postgame of Kentucky. “I think they play with great spirit. I think their coach has a phenomenal spirit. I think how he leads is the appropriate way in 2025.”

While talking about Jaxson Robinson’s impressive game, Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams says Kentucky is good enough to win the national championship. pic.twitter.com/OwGDK5lhGu

— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) January 15, 2025

Hearing something like that said out loud by an opposing SEC coach is different than the average fan saying it. Is this Kentucky team — Pope’s first in Lexington — truly, really, actually good enough to win it all?

What once felt like a pipe dream back in the spring is slowly becoming a real possibility. A 5-0 record against AP Top 15 teams is a good way to justify a deep postseason run. The second-best offense in the country (UK moved up a spot in KenPom’s rankings following the Texas A&M win) is another.

I’ll be pumping the brakes on talks of banner number nine for now. The defense still needs some improvement. But every huge Kentucky win makes me pull back my foot just a sliver. Maybe this Kentucky team is good enough to win it all. Pope finds ways to get it done and his peers have taken notice.

“I really enjoyed studying it,” Williams said of Pope’s offense. “I know that sounds condescending. I mean it in the most respectful way. Really good players, a lot of variety to the skill as you know. But I think the utilization of the talent and the skill considering the newness of the coach and his staff and the players. That’s really difficult to do.”

It’s still mid-January and plenty of tough basketball awaits in this hellacious league known as the Southeastern Conference, but title talk is a fun conversation worth having at this stage in the season.

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