Kentucky Basketball played its first exhibition game Friday night against Little Rock, with the Wildcats earning a 69-49 victory. It was not Kentucky’s best performance, as the team struggled with ball security and committed 19 turnovers, but the Wildcats looked better in the second half.
One player who stood out was incoming freshman point guard Mason Williams. The coaching staff and players have been raving about Williams throughout the summer, and he showed why against Little Rock.
It helps when
his dad, Mo Williams, is an assistant on the coaching staff, previously played in the NBA, and won an NBA championship. However, Mason Williams made an impression of his own, finishing with 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting, three assists, three steals, and two rebounds.
The 4-star guard delivered an impressive performance, but head coach Mark Pope was frustrated with his play at times.
“He’s probably our most steady guard, and I was just frustrated out of my mind,” Pope said after the game. “That is the beauty of a freshman point guard. He’s got a really high ceiling, and we actually need him. It’s a real gift to him that we don’t have time to wait for him.
“He’s gotta come now, and he’s capable, and I’m really challenging him, and I’m coaching him really hard right now, because I have big expectations for him. If we are going to be really good, he’s gotta be really good.”
As for Williams, he understands why Pope became frustrated with him during the game and did not take offense to it.
“I know that if he wasn’t (mad), that means then he wouldn’t care. That means he would want me to be buried at the end of the bench,” said Williams. “I want him to yell at me. He yelled at me in the second half. I don’t remember when, but he yelled at me pretty hard.
“I just looked at him in his eyes, and I took it like a man. Just be coachable. That shows that he really truly cares, and I want to play for a coach that really truly cares and that wants me to be great.”
Despite Pope’s frustration, Williams’ main goal is to help Kentucky win.
“Coach has never said it to my face, but if he was to say, ‘What do you want to do for the team right now?’ I would say, ‘Win.’ Like, there is nothing else I want to do. Whatever it takes to win, that is what I want to do,” said Williams. “If he told me to, ‘I gotta defend 24/7; we don’t even need you on offense,’ I would try my hardest to do that. It’s not my strength to sit down and guard, but I would try my hardest to do it.
“I just want to win at the biggest level.”
Even though this was Williams’ first college exhibition game, he knows he played well but still has work to do to meet Kentucky’s standards.
“I think I played good. I think for the Kentucky standard, I don’t think I met it, but taking it to the game, it was nothing. It was just another game,” he said.
If Williams’ performance against Little Rock is any indication of what is to come, this could be just the beginning of a promising career at Kentucky. The young guard has plenty of room to grow, and the future looks bright.
