Mark Pope praised the defense of Kam Williams, who was getting up shots with Steph Curry this week

Kam Williams transferred to Kentucky from Tulane labeled as a 3-and-D wing archetype. He was putting in work on the first part of that this week out in California.

Williams, rocking his UK gear, was in attendance at Curry Camp to improve his game by learning from the greatest three-point shooter of all time and the host of the event, Steph Curry. Octagon Basketball, which represents both Curry and Williams (along with former Wildcat forward Bam Adebayo) as clients, posted a video Friday of the two working out together at the camp in The Bay.

That’s a pretty good shooting teacher to learn from for Williams, who shot 41.2 percent from deep as a true freshman at Tulane in 2024-25 on 4.6 attempts per outing. He has a long way to go, though, if he wants to ever get on par with Curry, who has shot 42.3 percent from distance on 9.3 attempts per outing across his 16-year NBA career with the Golden State Warriors.

But learning from the shooting master himself is certainly a good start.

There isn’t much concern about how Williams’ shooting skills will translate from playing at a mid-major to a Blue Blood, but getting up to speed on the other end of the floor is going to be a much more daunting challenge.

Williams was a more-than-capable defender on the wing in the AAC last season, even averaging a combined 2.5 steals/blocks per game for the Green Wave. But how will that translate to the SEC and Kentucky’s hellacious non-conference schedule? His new head coach is eager to see it in action.

“Kam Williams came in here as an elite, elite, elite-level shooter,” Mark Pope told Matt Norlander this week on CBS Sports’ Summer Shootaround. “By the end of the summer, we’re like, is he gonna be our top defender? Our second or third best defender? He led us in DIM numbers, which is a Defensive Impact Metric for us. He was tied for first in blocked shots. He was fourth in rebouning. He’s got a chance, we’re really, really excited about him.”

Williams started 28 of 33 games played for Tulane last season on his way to making the AAC All-Freshman Team. He averaged 9.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per outing on shooting splits of 48.5/41.2/76. Clocking in at 6-foot-8, 190 pounds with plenty of athleticism, he has the physical traits to live up to being a true 3-and-D threat. We already know about the shooting; the defense is next to catch up.