Kam Williams has never been one to shy away from sharing his feelings. He’s confident in his ability on the floor and says what’s on his mind away from it. Ohio State’s redshirt junior sharpshooting guard has certainly never been one to lack confidence.
But there is one thing that has Williams feeling a little uneasy of late: the thought of a shooting contest against Buckeyes assistant coach Chris Jent.
“When he demonstrates a drill it seems like he never misses,” Williams said of Jent on Thursday. “I might have seen him miss two shots so far and he shoots the same form every single time.
“I’m kind of nervous if he asks me to do a little shooting contest because he really does not miss at all.”
A season ago, Williams didn’t miss much either despite what was an up-and-down season for Ohio State that resulted in the program’s first missed NCAA tournament since 2008. The Baltimore, Maryland native shot 43.7 percent from behind the 3-point line for the season and a blistering 51.5 percent from downtown in Big Ten games — tops in the conference.
But despite the massive growth from Williams between his first year and last season, the Buckeyes struggled as they were one of the youngest teams in all of college basketball a season ago. With Williams and Ohio State’s other top-five scorers from last year returning, however, the expectation is that the Buckeyes will return to contending in the Big Ten and be back in the NCAA tournament, as well.
“We try to move forward from [last season], but we’re also not going to forget it,” Williams said. “We don’t want to be in the same position that we were last year so we take that into account every single day when we work out or whatever it is that we do.”
Within the program, Williams is known as one of Ohio State’s hardest-working players. “Any free time I get, I try to get [to Value City Arena] as much as possible,” he says. When former teammate D’Angelo Russell made some remarks last season about a questionable work ethic with some of the older players in Ohio State’s program, Williams was the one player Russell singled out as always wanting to be in the gym with him.
Those results clearly paid dividends as Williams upped his scoring average from 5.4 points per game as a freshman to the 8.3 he averaged last year as a sophomore as he was one of the top reserves in the Big Ten. His minutes increased, as well, going from just 14.3 per game during his freshman season to 21.9 last year.
The hope now for the Buckeyes, of course, is that the rest of the Buckeyes’ core that returned follows his lead and the results come with that.
“We’re not happy at all with where we ended and that’s all the motivation that we need to become better players and expand our games over the summer,” Williams said. “That’s the big key for us motivation-wise. We feel like if each player gets better individually when we all come together it’ll just fall into place.”
The Buckeyes returned to campus over the weekend as summer classes began Tuesday. Ohio State’s four-man 2016 class is also officially in Columbus to begin its career and while Williams said he hasn’t had the opportunity to work out with the newcomers yet, it’s important he, Marc Loving, Jae’Sean Tate and the rest of the Buckeyes’ veterans make sure the new guys know what is expected at this level.
“We try to stress that when they first get here, the first couple of weeks, the little things,” Williams said. “Be on time, have your shoes tied and shirt tucked in when you walk in the gym.
“That stuff can take you a long way and it’s just simple discipline.”
So the most important summer of Ohio State basketball in recent memory is officially underway as the Buckeyes look to bounce back from a disappointing season that seemed to be the low point in what has been a few underwhelming seasons in a row.
And when a reporter asked Williams what it was like to compare his summer to that of other students who get to vacation around this time of year and go on trips to the beach, he could only smile.
“I wish,” Williams said with a laugh. “But I’m focused on just getting better and focused on the task at hand and bringing the Ohio State culture back to the program because that’s what we’ve been lacking these last couple of years.”
“We haven’t really done anything and that’s what’s burning inside of me,” he continued. “Since I’ve been here I haven’t accomplished anything so that’s everything I need to just get in here every day.”
