You don't give a shooter that much room. You have to be in their grill. 3-4 feet is a gift to a good shooter.
Willis now leading UK in 3 pt FG%
- Thread starter KWilt43atbuzz
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You don't give a shooter that much room. You have to be in their grill. 3-4 feet is a gift to a good shooter.
Plenty of room for criticism for every player on our team. Nobody is perfect every game out. That's why we pay Cal to find that mix that gets results. He's pretty good at it too. I'll just go with the flow.
He is 6'9...he doesn't have to be as close as Ulis. He needs to be better, but every time someone scores on him doesn't mean it was a defensive breakdown.
I agree, and I understand this is a forum and it's kinda the thing to discuss but idk why so many people think Cal is such an idiot? He obviously knows what the kid has more than we do.
its not just about getting a hand in a guys face. its about making the shooter uncomfortable. a hand up is nothing for a shooter. guys practice that and make them all the time. its about making the offensive player uncomfortable. willis has a hand up...but is so far back the shooter is fine with it.
not to mention its a simple IQ thing. the only way MSU comes back is by making 3s....so dont give them up. job 1 is to chase them off the three point line. if they make a jump shot, get a lay up, go to the line...whatever. harder to come back trading 2s.
defense isnt his thing and its never going to be. thats why cal has him playing a stretch four. he just has to be decent. he wasnt last night. played only 11 minutes gave up double digit points. cant have that.
not to mention its a simple IQ thing. the only way MSU comes back is by making 3s....so dont give them up. job 1 is to chase them off the three point line. if they make a jump shot, get a lay up, go to the line...whatever. harder to come back trading 2s.
defense isnt his thing and its never going to be. thats why cal has him playing a stretch four. he just has to be decent. he wasnt last night. played only 11 minutes gave up double digit points. cant have that.
One individual giving up 14 points in 11 minutes is beyond atrocious. That's 18.9% of the points allowed while accounting for just 5.5% of the total minutes played. At that rate, if he had played all 40 minutes, he would have allowed 65.45 points all on his own.
Well defended is a relative term. perhaps you would like for him to get right up on his man who will simply use his quickness to drive around him. The second video perhaps he did give a tad bit too much room but he still got his hand up and the state player simply made a nice shot. The 4th video Willis starts off in great position but state player uses a fake drive step to get Willis on his heals just a bit to create separation and then proceeds to hit a 3 again over the outstretched hand of Willis, just another good jump shot.
Willis is not a lock down defender nor will he ever be. Every time his man scores some on this board just lose their minds about his defense all the while every player on our team is giving up points to their man as the game goes along.
I am not even arguing for him to get more minutes but I was taken back a bit last night that he played well toward the end of the first half, but "gave up" a 24 foot three pointer at half and then didn't even see the floor in the 2nd until 6 minutes to go in the game. Willis and Dom have been overshadowed by much better and more gifted athletes their entire time at UK all the while being pretty darned good basketball players themselves. However, 5 star potential one and dones are allowed to make mistake after mistake and their leashes are a mile long. Willis and Dom both have had a leash about 1 foot long since they arrived which if you are looking to get maximum production out of any player that is not the way to go about it.
Its basically just defensive plus minus subtracted from offensive plus minus (think OPS in baseball), but it does indicate that he's a net positive.
He also was second (behind Lee) in true shooting percentage, which is a much better way to look at efficiency in shooting. Now, with the small sample size just means he's making the most of his offense when he's on the floor. extended playing time could drag that down.
If Willis is one dimensional............what are Lee & Poy........at least he can do 1 thing right
Is he the best player on the team..........not be any means, but everyone wants to knock the kid's defense, when everyone else in consistently beaten on defense.........what make him different. How many WIDE open layups did State get last night that the guards gave up
For me, these Willis discussions have about as much chance of finding a consensuses and resolution as the Political or Religious arguments on the Paddock.
Speaking only for myself. I think Willis is a good player and it is good to see a KY kid playing for UK. What is tiresome to me is people thinking Cal "has something against Willis" over and over and over.
I believe Cal is doing what he thinks is best.
Edit to add: I think Derek is trying his best and so is coach Cal. It is what it is.
Speaking only for myself. I think Willis is a good player and it is good to see a KY kid playing for UK. What is tiresome to me is people thinking Cal "has something against Willis" over and over and over.
I believe Cal is doing what he thinks is best.
Edit to add: I think Derek is trying his best and so is coach Cal. It is what it is.
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I remember, I also remember him saving a terrible pass from going out of bounds a few minutes before that. I guess he's just even Steven.
In 11 minutes worth of playing time. That's a whopping 1.3 points a minute. Also, that doesn't even take into account the rebounds he fails to grab or the slow rotations and missed assignments on help defense.
Willis is on the floor because he's the only big we have right now that can stretch the defense.
Willis definitely gets more pub than he deserves on here. There are a couple of reasons for that. I'll just state the one to avoid anymore drama with him, but 1. He is from KY. If he was from TN, he would not have the defenders he does...that much is for sure. He would also not have the detractors he has because they'd not care or have anything to debate as the defenders would melt away. He'd hardly be talked about. We saw this same thing with people like Hood (Lol), Carrier (lmao) and so on...KY boy effect. I think Willis is better than those two I listed obviously, but still just a solid role player, and there is nothing wrong with that.
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anon_9qtxg60vqzy0y
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Therein lies the problem. I just linked 4 videos. There are PLENTY more. Why do you think Cal doesn't play him more? Cal's not stupid, if he's got a scorer, he's gonna run with him. But not if he gives up more than he scores. Pretty simple. The kid plays matador defense.
just wait until next year when the willis faithful are posting weekly threads about him not getting any playing time since he isnt going to play at all.
Has anyone mentioned Murray gave up as many as he made, Sword went to the locker room with two jocks, his and Murray's. Maybe Murray needs to come out when Cal takes the air out of the ball
That's mostly non-sense. Bottom line is the coach prioritizes defense VERY VERY high. Come to grips with that and you won't be so confused. Willis will not get more time till his defense improves and his defense is far behind Poythress and Lee.
Just to show you how meaningless that is, did you see Ulis do the same thing twice in the Miss State game?
That one where Murray got beat is his fault. It was a straight line to the basket. Murray did not make him stop or even slow down. Lol at somebody blaming Willis because he did not block the shot from the weak side. Murray gets beat several times every single game. Everybody on this team does.
Now I am going to try and not post in this thread again. My head still hurts from the idiots last night.
He probably shouldn't get much more time than he is now. But don't expect players to figure out defense on the bench.
In-state fans may be clamoring on to Willis too much, but it's immensely better than those who don't understand how in-game minutes work, and how much they're worth.
Willis is doing a pretty good job coming along. Sorry he's not Ron Artest yet.
In-state fans may be clamoring on to Willis too much, but it's immensely better than those who don't understand how in-game minutes work, and how much they're worth.
Willis is doing a pretty good job coming along. Sorry he's not Ron Artest yet.
So you are going to bash Lock for not being able to stop one of the best big men in college that year? Tough audience.
yep, and Cal keeps saying that.
You're being too charitable. He's not a bad defender like others are bad defenders - he's much worse. If you're driving 55 in a 40 and I'm driving 95 in a 40, we're both speeding. But one of us is just speeding and one of us is something else. The play at the end of the half - I knew that would set Cal off. It was a combination of not being aggressive and not knowing time and score. There were only 4 seconds left as Newman used the screen. All he had time to do was take a jumper. Willis needed to close on him hard - if he goes around you, great, now he only has time to rush a shot. Guarantee if that happens and the kid somehow makes it, he doesn't get nearly the tongue lashing from Cal.
He's an offensive weapon on a team that gets stagnant offensively. The opportunity is there to get more minutes. He doesn't have to be great on D - he just can't be awful. Which is what his coach keeps saying, but for some reason you guys won't listen.....
The defense argument is much more acceptable when we have teams like we normally do where defense is a strength and he is the weak link. But this year our team defense isnt very good beyond ball pressure. Everyone had break downs so id rather utilize his offensive skill set. Which I believe Cal is doing right now.
Now if Briscoe continues to find his stroke and Poy can consistently give 10-15 then Willis becomes less needed on offense and minutes will decrease again.
Now if Briscoe continues to find his stroke and Poy can consistently give 10-15 then Willis becomes less needed on offense and minutes will decrease again.
Lm
It's been said but worth repeating, 3 pt shooting is not a gimme like some are acting, it takes some talent to make them if you all can remember the grumbling we made when Murray and Ulis were shooting their bricks awhile back. And look at it this way if Willis was guarding someone like Briscoe at the 3 pt line we would be saying that Willis was a defensive wizard, lol.
It's been said but worth repeating, 3 pt shooting is not a gimme like some are acting, it takes some talent to make them if you all can remember the grumbling we made when Murray and Ulis were shooting their bricks awhile back. And look at it this way if Willis was guarding someone like Briscoe at the 3 pt line we would be saying that Willis was a defensive wizard, lol.
Don't think Willis is a great defender by any stretch but a couple of those 3's last night he had his hand in the shooters face and they were deep. Sometimes that is all you can do. It won't happen but I am at the point now where I feel like maybe Willis should get all Skal's minutes.
There aren't plenty more from that game...the problem is you didn't treat your judgements equally....Murray beat off dribble = Willis fault...Willis beat off dribble = Willis fault.
Jumpers in Willis eye = blown defense
Jumpers in "player X eye" = good shot
He needs to play better defense...but the truth is that he usually hits the court when Poythress/Lee are in foul trouble or Briscoe is taking a break/out for FT shooting, therefore the defense is weaker anyways...not much help behind him - and yes, he could use the safety net of shot blocking behind him.
Those 3's can't be counted against Willis. if thats what you call bad defense then you need to take it up with Cal because thats how Cal teaches our bigs to play on the wing.
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