{"id":887074,"date":"2026-10-18T22:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/887074\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T22:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T22:54:10","slug":"mark-pope-has-high-hopes-for-mason-williams-who-says-he-did-not-meet-the-kentucky-standard-in-exhibition-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/887074\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Pope has high hopes for Mason Williams, who says he did not meet the Kentucky standard in exhibition opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky Basketball<\/a> played its first exhibition game Friday night against Little Rock, with the Wildcats earning a 69-49 victory. It was not Kentucky\u2019s best performance, as the team struggled with ball security and committed 19 turnovers, but the Wildcats looked better in the second half.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The 4-star guard delivered an impressive performance, but head coach Mark Pope was frustrated with his play at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s probably our most steady guard, and I was just frustrated out of my mind,\u201d Pope said after the game. \u201cThat is the beauty of a freshman point guard. He\u2019s got a really high ceiling, and we actually need him. It\u2019s a real gift to him that we don\u2019t have time to wait for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s gotta come now, and he\u2019s capable, and I\u2019m really challenging him, and I\u2019m coaching him really hard right now, because I have big expectations for him. If we are going to be really good, he\u2019s gotta be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Williams, he understands why Pope became frustrated with him during the game and did not take offense to it.<\/p>\n

\u201dI know that if he wasn\u2019t (mad), that means then he wouldn\u2019t care. That means he would want me to be buried at the end of the bench,\u201d said Williams. \u201cI want him to yell at me. He yelled at me in the second half. I don\u2019t remember when, but he yelled at me pretty hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Pope\u2019s frustration, Williams\u2019 main goal is to help Kentucky win.<\/p>\n

\u201dCoach has never said it to my face, but if he was to say, \u2018What do you want to do for the team right now?\u2019 I would say, \u2018Win.\u2019 Like, there is nothing else I want to do. Whatever it takes to win, that is what I want to do,\u201d said Williams. \u201cIf he told me to, \u2018I gotta defend 24\/7; we don\u2019t even need you on offense,\u2019 I would try my hardest to do that. It\u2019s not my strength to sit down and guard, but I would try my hardest to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to win at the biggest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though this was Williams\u2019 first college exhibition game, he knows he played well but still has work to do to meet Kentucky\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

\u201dI think I played good. I think for the Kentucky standard, I don\u2019t think I met it, but taking it to the game, it was nothing. It was just another game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If Williams\u2019 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentucky Basketball played its first exhibition game Friday night against Little Rock, with the Wildcats earning a 69-49…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":887075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,575,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-887074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=887074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/887075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=887074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=887074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=887074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}