FYI Derek Willis

[OHcatfan]

This blind love for Willis is simply because he's from KY, and it's ridiculous. The kid can't play D and is physically weak. 3 years with the program and he has shown no physical improvement. That's enough to show me that he doesn't have what it takes to succeed at this level. He gets the minutes he deserves.

 

[CatDaddy4daWin]

I believe Willis earned more PT with how he played in the 2nd half. The kid has improved so much from the first 2 years to this year. You can see it in how he rebounds, passes, and attacks. Really proud of the KY kid, he is on a Scott Padgett/Ravi Moss type trajectory and could be that glue guy later in the year who gets a key rebound/steal/shot that wins a game for us.

He will probably get a look at the NBA but may have a better chance at playing overseas. Regardless, I think he's getting the amount of time he deserves and he has really taken advantage of the chances he's gotten.

No need to dog the kid who has done nothing but give it his all while living out his dreams.

 

[poppycat]

Read slowly, Cal said he would have a long NBA career. Take your objection up with Cal. I never said he was projected.

Here is where you are supposed to use the cloned reply.
"I trust Cal.........Cal knows best.......that's why he gets the big bucks"

 

[BigBlueFanGA]

Here is where you are supposed to use the cloned reply.
"I trust Cal.........Cal knows best.......that's why he gets the big bucks"

My bad,

 

[EdNygma]

With nothing better to do, I ran a 40 min stat line on Willis
12.25 min per game
40 min would look like this
21.7 ppg
8.5 rpg
44% FG 33.3% 3PFG 100% FT 8-8
5 p fouls per game

Wonder if Willis could = Wiltzer in thr right system

Who is "Wiltzer"?

 

[UKrazycat2]

Who is "Wiltzer"?

Wiltjer's twin....Duh!

 

[rolaid]

Willis should play more because he can do more than other subs. We need more players that have basketball instincts not one dimensional players.

Unfortunately he is on Cal's one bad play and yanked list. Willis could help his cause if he would quit rushing his shot and start making open jumpers more regularly.

What he does give us is a wing who can run the court and handle the ball like a guard...we can push the ball better. He will feed the ball to Skal and other bits so we can actually play through the post some.

 

[Bkocats]

Wiltjer's twin....Duh!

his EVIL twin ---bwaahahahahhaha

 

[KentuckyWildcat4Life]

When Willis makes a mistake most of you here begin the "he's not good enough comments" however when Murray Briscoe and Skal makes a dumb turnover nothing is said.
Willis has contributed more this season than most of the five star talent we have on the team. I do agree he has flaws but everyone does. It sickens me to read all the hate against Willis here on this board.
As far as the ucla game we lost because of missed shots and not playing as a team. At least Willis contributed in his short time he played unlike the so called more developed players who played like they were on the special Olympics.

 

[Aike]

When Willis makes a mistake most of you here begin the "he's not good enough comments" however when Murray Briscoe and Skal makes a dumb turnover nothing is said.
Willis has contributed more this season than most of the five star talent we have on the team. I do agree he has flaws but everyone does. It sickens me to read all the hate against Willis here on this board.
As far as the ucla game we lost because of missed shots and not playing as a team. At least Willis contributed in his short time he played unlike the so called more developed players who played like they were on the special Olympics.

You got a problem with Special Olympics?

 

[throatpoker]

while living out his dreams.

technically his dream growing up was to be a UL cardinal

 

[poppycat]

Who is "Wiltzer"?

Wiltjer's twin....Duh!

Some folks know more about spelling and punctuation than they do bb, while some us know more about bb.

 

[Cats192]

There are a lot of guys in the nba and college that can score nicely in spurts but fall off as their minutes extend. You can't just extrapolate andnsay that's what he'd do in 40.

 

[RondoBaller21]

I agree with this. And I want Willis and Poythress both to succeed but It's hard for me to justify sitting Willis and playing Poythress right now. They both have flaws in their game that have really cost us at times but what Poythress does well he's not nearly as consistent at as what Willis does well while Poythress is more consistently bad at what he doesn't do well.

Cal just trusts Poythress more for whatever reason. I will say, Poythress absolutely saved us against UL and Wisconsin during our 2014 run. Maybe that just went a longer way with Cal trusting him than it has the fans.

So far Poythress has really struggled to finish at the rim like he did before the injury though. Maybe just needs a little more time.

Willis will never and I repeat NEVER play over Poythress. Poythress is the only guy on the team with strength, something Willis will never have.

 

[poppycat]

Willis will never and I repeat NEVER play over Poythress. Poythress is the only guy on the team with strength, something Willis will never have.

Willis will never play over Poythress...agreed
Willis will never play over M. Lee.
Poythress will never play 40 mpg
Lee will never play 40 mpg........
The question is who plays the 20/30 mins
that the 2 will sit on the bench..(or the 50 mins like the last game)

I do realize that Skal, Poy, and Lee could split the 80 mins.,
but Lee is the only one who plays like he wants that.

 

[Catapult]

Derek either can't or won't keep his man in front of him. If it's the former, then he's seeing all the PT he's likely to see. I hope he can because I think he can contribute on offense.

 

[CatsFanGG24]

Love how we feel comfortable playing guys that are offensive liabilities, but if someone is a little weak on defense, they must sit....

 

[KY Long Rifle]

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. He is getting some minutes this year. It is up to him what he will do with them now. When we play certain teams he will be the 7th man. Other teams it will be Matthews. He has his chance to speak.

 

[gakat3]

Briscoe and Matthews will continue to get majority minutes regardless of TOs, lack of assists, etc. They are Cals' favorites and as the season progresses it will become more evident. Willis will not average 8 minutes a game at seasons end. Cal just wants a slasher and he has them, end of story.

 

[WhiteCityCat1]

With nothing better to do, I ran a 40 min stat line on Willis
12.25 min per game
40 min would look like this
21.7 ppg
8.5 rpg
44% FG 33.3% 3PFG 100% FT 8-8
5 p fouls per game

Wonder if Willis could = Wiltzer in thr right system

hells bells that would make him an all American.

 

[doneitall]

I think what most pro-willis (myself included) are saying is that Willis is good enough that he can rest someone when they need a break. We know he is not an all-American but what he can do tho is give us a needed offensive weapon. He probally will never become another Cameron mills (who could never play defense either) that help win a national championship because he could do one thing and that is he could score the basket.

 

[Xception]

If Willis is from Idaho this thread doesn't exist .

 

[SilentsAreGolden]

Just as an aside, my sister was a party he was at last night. Something to do with a country singer or some such. She didn't know who it was for a while, but she's a UL fan. She said he was really nice. Said she heard him saying something about Cal ripping him for not dunking. I'm guessing it was in the UCLA game.

 

[doneitall]

Just as an aside, my sister was a party he was at last night. Something to do with a country singer or some such. She didn't know who it was for a while, but she's a UL fan. She said he was really nice. Said she heard him saying something about Cal ripping him for not dunking. I'm guessing it was in the UCLA game.

My guess it was when he went under the basket to do a reverse layup. He sure went hard to bucket and flushed one basket.

 

[ulismyman]

Why wasnt he in the gym practicing??? I mean we lost first regular season game since Moby was a minnow...no fun of any kind

 

[ala_kat2]

Willis plays better than Poythress. All Poy can do is dunk after catching it wide open underneath. Poy cannot handle the ball in traffic, and BTW, Poythress' man goes around him too. I love Poythress, but to get real, he just doesn't have good basketball skills.
Willis, on the other hand, moves well, shoots well, and passes well, and he can handle the ball almost as good as a guard. Many on here like to diminish his accomplishments by saying he's too weak or doesn't play good enough defense. Hogwash. He'd be starting for almost any other major program. But because Cal likes to favor his "babies" (the one and done's in his mind), he rarely plays an upperclassman unless it's dire straits, like he did Harrelson a few years back. And yes, Willis is a "Kentucky" boy, and he should be damn well proud of it. Some of you just can't accept the fact that he's as good as he is for whatever reason.

 

[katsrhot14]

I'm not saying that Willis is the answer for some of the issues but I would love to see him used on some of the high pick and rolls on offense. I would much rather have him setting the high screen up top than Humphires or Lee. They aren't scoring threats. Willis has the ability to set the screen and step out and hit the 3. I have more faith in him shooting the 3 than anyone else on this team! Use him like Tubby did with Padgett. Yes he doesn't play great defense. On the flip side his offense is far superior to anyone else that plays his position.

 

[Xception]

People don't trash Willis , it just appears that way to the ones who make Willis out to be Michael Jordan . Happens every time we get a Ky boy on the team , put Ritchie in . Cal needs every minute to develop the more talented freshman , you can't sit them on the bench and expect March success . The same posters try so hard to find what an elite player can't do and cannot say enough superlatives about a less talented local player . I wish Willis was as good as you guys make him out to be but of course if he was then he wouldn't be here , he'd be one of them one and dones .

 

[Montana81]

Yeah I don't see anyone trashing Willis either.

I just think he brings more to the table then Poythress right now.

 

[Cats192]

People don't trash Willis , it just appears that way to the ones who make Willis out to be Michael Jordan . Happens every time we get a Ky boy on the team , put Ritchie in . Cal needs every minute to develop the more talented freshman , you can't sit them on the bench and expect March success . The same posters try so hard to find what an elite player can't do and cannot say enough superlatives about a less talented local player . I wish Willis was as good as you guys make him out to be but of course if he was then he wouldn't be here , he'd be one of them one and dones .

I think the obvious thing that you're missing is this. If Cal played him more, he woulda been gone. Cal is holding him back, just like he has so many others. #FreeSamMalone

 

[Wildcat-in-STL]

The thing keeping Willis from getting 25 minutes is his defensive toughness and focus. He has spurts where he's playing awesome defense but then goes all high school and has a play or two where he slacks off and gets turned around to watch his man run right past him.

 

[loublue22]

play Mulder

 

[miracle7s]

I have never been a Willis fan, however this year where our entire team can't play defensive everything else he brings to the table he deserves to play meaningful minutes. Cal is obviously around him every day and maybe he is lazy, a troublemaker, or some other kind of negative influence on the team and that is why Cal doesn't let him play through mistakes like he does everyone else..... I will say this though I don't know if Cal has someone monitor and tell him or if he would care or not but I imagine Willis' girlfriend retweeting stuff that says Cal treats Willis like sh*t isn't going to help him.

 

[Xception]

I think the obvious thing that you're missing is this. If Cal played him more, he woulda been gone. Cal is holding him back, just like he has so many others. #FreeSamMalone

Willis is holding himself back , if he played better his time would go up . He admitted last year to being in love with a girl more than being interested in basketball . He also picked a school stacked with the most talent every year , this is not a problem with Cal .

 

[nickhorvathsuxazz]

Willis: too slow to guard a wing, too weak to guard the post. He can't do a whole lot about the speed thing, so if he's serious about getting playing time he's got to get in the weight room. I'm sure he knows this, so the fact that his body looks about the same as it did when he was a freshman tells me Derek isn't looking for an expanded role. If he's not sweating playing time, why should we?

 

[jarms24]

The Willis thing has nothing to do with him being from Kentucky. I echo the very same sentiment and I'm not from KY. It has more to do with he's a sniper, he's long, athletic, can play 2-4, and he plays with more energy than anyone not named Marcus or Tyler. So, it really has nothing to do with where he is from. I just wish Cal would loosen the leash a little bit and let him play through mistakes, instead of using those as an excuse to bench him and let the next burger boy be more inefficient with those minutes.

Willis is better than Poythress, and if not for Lee's dominance on the glass, he'd be better than him too.

Also, those per 40 stats are misleading. Production is almost certainly going to decrease with more usage. Granted, he'd still be putting up some great numbers.

 

[thecatsareback#8]

Jon Hood vs Derek Willis... Who ya got?

 

[poppycat]

Jon Hood vs Derek Willis... Who ya got?

Not funny........

 

[thecatsareback#8]

Not funny........

I'm generally intrigued by the answer because I remember the same arguments being made for Jon Hood. I even remember the per 40 min stats being broke down on this board.

 

[poppycat]

I'm generally intrigued by the answer because I remember the same arguments being made for Jon Hood. I even remember the per 40 min stats being broke down on this board.

I know that you know......Willis has shown more in 4/5 games this year that Hood did in a career.
Still not sure that Willis could defend a 7/8 spot in the rotation for the year.
My issue is that pt is being awarded to Fr on potential.....not earning it.
But that's Cal's way......who should argue? (nothing wrong with opinions either)