The Kentucky Wildcats got their exhibition slate started with a 69-49 win against Little Rock on Friday. One player in particular was absent from the stat sheet and that was Kam Williams, who was held out of Friday's game against the Trojans as he inches closer to a return after last season's injury that required offseason surgery.
As we get closer to the start of the regular season on Nov. 2, Mark Pope was asked about Kam Williams, who continues to make progress towards a return and has been practicing in a limited role without a boot or scooter for his foot. Here is the latest on Williams' status straight from Mark Pope.
"Kam had imaging again today. It was extremely positive. And so he's on course (to a return). We're cautiously optimistic because we've already been through this once, but on this second surgery, the success rate remarkable. Like, the data on it is a remarkable rate. ...We're hopefully talking about several weeks to a month right now and not months and months. It's been a longtime coming."
Pope then went on to detail the behind-the-scenes of Williams' progression as of late.
"He had a really good workout today. He was running and jumping in a very, very controlled place, but as we've all seen together with Kam, we have to proceed really cautiously and we're not gonna rush it. This is gonna be a long-term recovery, but when he gets back, he's gonna make a massive difference for us."
Last season, before Kam Williams' injury in January, it felt like he was on the verge of a breakout. A few weeks ago at UK Media Day, he told Kentucky Wildcats On SI that it's all about picking up where he left off in that moment. "At that time, the confidence was going as high as it has been in the whole year, and that happened. So I mean, it took a took a toll for a little bit, but try to pick up where we left off at that moment."
Kentucky is going to be getting Williams back sooner rather than later it sounds like.
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