Dez Willingham

[LA_Mustang]

While thumbing through the Athlon College Bball mag I found an interesting note on Dez in K-State’s preview (I guess at press time he was still a Wildcat).

on K-State’s backcourt:
“The torch goes to a group of sophomores headlined by Dez Willingham, who missed six games with a separated shoulder in December that nagged him the remainder of the season. He had started eight games and compiled a 3.4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio before sitting against Iowa State on Feb.25.”

That’s impressive to have a 3.4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio as a true freshman in the Big XII with an injury. A four-star combo guard will be a nice addition to this team next year. Our backcourt should be very strong.

[Charleston Pony]

gotta love the look of next year's back court with Dez, BHop & Roberts. If anyone else steps up, we could see a lot of 3 guard looks next year.

[PonySnob]

Hopefully Roberts gets his shooting touch sometime soon. Wasn't he 1-8 from the field at Tulsa? He has yet to really light it up shooting the ball and am not sure he has even made a 3pt shot yet. Did he do most of his scoring in high school driving to the bucket or shooting it?

[Hoop Fan]

Roberts will be okay, he has a pretty good release on his shot. He was a good 3 point shooter in high school, but he is also a slasher. It looks to me like he is just rushing his shots a bit, which is not uncommon for a freshman. The college game is much faster to state the obvious. For what its worth, I think Big Ike is rushing his shots way too much also and is a better shooter than what he is showing.

As for next years backcourt, it should be dyn-o-mite. Roberts is getting alot of experience and Dez can play. Our problem next year will clearly be frontcourt depth and experience.

[LA_Mustang]

Both. Roberts had a bad shooting game against Tulsa but if you’ve ever seen him play, it's obvious he can shoot the ball. In fact, while being selective in his attempts he's actually leading the team in 3pt % (3 of 7 - 43%) and leading the team in FT % (17 of 19 – 90%). He's the most polished scorer we've had at SMU in some time and he’ll only get better with experience. Remember, he's still suffering from a nagging injury that occurred before the seaosn started.

[PonySnob]

Remember, he's still suffering from a nagging injury that occurred before the seaosn started.

Doesn't it seem like our promising freshman players always have some sort of injury that hampers their performance in their first year with SMU?

[LA_Mustang]

When I was typing that last sentence I knew you were going to comeback with that response. You're way too predictable, Snob.

[PonyPride]

Both. Roberts had a bad shooting game against Tulsa but if you’ve ever seen him play, it's obvious he can shoot the ball. In fact, while being selective in his attempts he's actually leading the team in 3pt % (3 of 7 - 43%) and leading the team in FT % (17 of 19 – 90%). He's the most polished scorer we've had at SMU in some time and he’ll only get better with experience. Remember, he's still suffering from a nagging injury that occurred before the seaosn started.

The knee still bugs him.
And now he's got a hurt shoulder. And he's still contributing to the team with defense, etc.

[PonySnob]

When I was typing that last sentence I knew you were going to comeback with that response. You're way too predictable, Snob.

I am not sure it was really a "comeback" - it is a very unfortunate truth that our program seems to often have.