Calipari, teammates marvel at Derek Willis’ emergence as UK’s top rebounder
- Thread starter preacher_tom
- Start date
Its the same in anything you do hard work pays off, they all need to come out focused and not take a play off and good things will happen. Willis turning the corner reminds us of Josh Harrellson, he wasn't going anywhere till Calipari pushed him let Kenny Payne make a project out of him, he and Willis have both been created out of necessity.
Think Bout it...DW has all the necessary attributes to be a great rebounder:
Size: 6'9. Check
Long arms: over 7 foot wing span. Check
Leaping ability: Guy has some serious hops. Check
Big hands: DWs hands are enormous. Check
Wirery: Willis has a slim build which allows him to contourt his body in traffic and go get rebounds.
Nose for the ball: have you seen that honker?!
Size: 6'9. Check
Long arms: over 7 foot wing span. Check
Leaping ability: Guy has some serious hops. Check
Big hands: DWs hands are enormous. Check
Wirery: Willis has a slim build which allows him to contourt his body in traffic and go get rebounds.
Nose for the ball: have you seen that honker?!
Seriously may be working his way in to a 1st rounder, has all of the tools and is putting it all together right now.
You are out of your mind if you think Derek Willis is working his way into the 1st round of the NBA draft. Willis is playing because Labissiere, Humphries, and Lee couldn't deliver. Calipari had nowhere else to turn, and Willis is taking full advantage of his opportunity. That's the kind of courage and effort we want from our upperclassmen. However, the title of this thread is a fair assessment. While Willis remains a defensive liability and a streaky shooter, the area of obvious improvement is his hard work to win inside rebounding position. I'm not sure that I have ever seen a player make such a large fundamental improvement as a rebounder over a 1 month period of time. It's amazing. It won't translate to the NBA, where big bodies and high level athleticism dominate. But it is making a huge difference for this team at a critical point in our season, and it's good to see. Willis is a 4 year player who will have his hands full with Adebayo, Gabriel, and SKJ next year. Will be interesting to see if Willis can play at this level against Kansas on the road. Big test today for Derek, who can still be exploited on the defensive end by stronger and more athletic bigs.
Not out of his mind at all. It's the Cal effect. Just look at the players that have been drafted since Cal has been here. We've had players drafted that would have never been drafted anywhere else simply because of the hype of playing for Cal. It's definitely possible if Willis keeps playing this way with his size that he could absolutely work his way into the late first round draft. Maybe no where else, but definitely could here!
