PonyFans.com

A little birdie told me that we are in on a possible Big XII transfer who is close to Coach Tubbs. It is conditional on him fulfilling some academic credits, but will possibly be eligible for next season. Not official yet, but close. Keep your fingers crossed.

If the potential transfer is talented and fits SMU's system then I hope the little birdie knows what he is chirping about.

Chirp...chirp. the birdie does know what he is singing. BTW, the transfer is GOOD.

Former DeSoto star Willingham picks SMU

Guard played one year at Kansas State; will be eligible next season

09:25 PM CST on Sunday, November 7, 2004

By CALVIN WATKINS / The Dallas Morning News

UNIVERSITY PARK – Dez Willingham said he wanted to come home.

Willingham, a DeSoto product who left Kansas State after his freshman season, said Sunday he will enroll at SMU to play basketball.

Willingham, SportsDay's 2002-03 area player of the year after his senior season at DeSoto, is attending Mountain View College and said he's on track to have sufficient hours to become eligible for the 2005-06 season.

Willingham, a 5-11 guard, will have three years of eligibility at SMU.

"Since I was little, I've always known Coach [Jimmy] Tubbs," said Willingham, who also considered TCU and North Texas. "My dad played for him at Kimball, and once I saw he was getting the job at SMU, that seemed like an ideal place for me."

Willingham is the first area player to commit to SMU under Tubbs, who was hired to replace Mike Dement in March.

At Kansas State, Willingham started 11 of 22 games as a freshman and averaged 4.4 points per game. Willingham said playing in an uptempo offense appealed to him. Kansas State employs a more conservative approach.

E-mail [email protected]

I guess the rumor was true. For all of those wondering when Coach Tubbs would land a local stud, today’s the day. Here’s how the recruiting services had Dez ranked his senior year (2003):

Rivals – 75th ranked player in the nation/4 stars
Insiders – 12th ranked PG in the nation/4 stars
He had offers in HS from K-State, UConn, Tennessee and Miss St.

I saw Dez play a couple of times at DeSoto and I watched the 5A state championship game on tv. He was the best player on a VERY good state championship team.....I believe he was the state tournament MVP. He’s very quick and can flat out score the basketball. He should thrive in Coach Tubbs system.

Welcome Dez and congratulations to the SMU coaches.

Did anyone see him play at KSU?

At Kansas State, Willingham started 11 of 22 games as a freshman and averaged 4.4 points per game. Willingham said playing in an uptempo offense appealed to him. Kansas State employs a more conservative approach.

4.4 avg??
Why did he only start 1/2 the games - KSU is not a good bball school..

just curious.

Since he is eligible for the 05-06 season, it will be interesting to see how much time since BHop will have been starting for 3 years at the PG position.

K-State had three senior guards (all junior college transfers) last year. Two ended up being their leading scores and the other lead the team in assists.

Dez was one of two highly recruited freshmen at K-State. The other was forward Cartier Martin, high school teammate of Derrick Roberts at Houston Nimitz. Here are last year's stats:

Dez:
G-GS- 22-11
min- 17.9/game
pts- 4.4/game
FG%- 36%
3pt FG%- 37%

Martin:
G-GS- 20-3
Min- 18.9/game
Pts- 6.9/game
FG%- 39%
3pt FG%- 35%

Dez was sought by UConn, Tenn, K-State, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
That should tell you something about his talent.

He was the MVP of the Texas 4A championship tourney in Austin.

He was the MVP of the Dallas area his senior year of high school.

He dislocated his non-shooting shoulder in December last year at K-State and had to wear an awkward brace the remainder of the season but still started half of K-States games and mainly distributed the ball.

Don't forget that B-Hop will be a senior next year and Dez will have 3
years of eligibility.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Here is an article from a Kansas newspaper talking about Dez leaving
K-State.
vvvvvvvvvvv
Posted on Tue, Aug. 24, 2004

Guard's departure surprises KSU coach

Wildcats left with freshman at point guard after Dez Willingham leaves program.

BY JEFFREY PARSON

The Wichita Eagle

Kansas State point guard Dez Willingham had recovered from surgery and spent the spring and summer in Manhattan, working out with teammates.

So when his father, Kenneth, called K-State coach Jim Wooldridge eight days ago to inform him that his son might not return, it could not have caught Wooldridge more off-guard.

"I was totally shocked," Wooldridge said. "I had no idea that Dez had even entertained this type of thought."

Wooldridge talked to Willingham "two or three times last week," but he could not convince the 5-foot-11 sophomore to return. On Monday, Wooldridge officially announced Willingham was no longer on the team.

"I really felt like we had a good relationship," Wooldridge said. "So when we talked, the tone was of two people with mutual respect for one another. Ultimately, it came down to his desire to stay close to his mom and dad outweighed any commitment that he would have to Kansas State."

Wooldridge said Willingham, 18, expressed a desire to play at a junior college near his hometown of DeSoto, Texas. Messages left for Willingham were not returned.

Willingham would almost certainly have been the Wildcats' starting point guard this season. He was a key member of K-State's heralded recruiting class last year, choosing the Wildcats over schools like Connecticut, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Willingham started the opener last season, the first first-year freshman to do that at K-State since Paco May in 1995. He helped take the Wildcats to a 7-1 start before dislocating his left shoulder on Dec. 22.

K-State lost its next game 93-52 at UMKC. The Wildcats finished 14-14.

After missing five games, Willingham was never fully healthy and played the rest of the season in a bulky brace. He eventually had surgery on the shoulder in April.

More than his averages of 4.4 points and 2.8 assists last season, Willingham showed the potential to be an excellent outside shooter and overall floor leader.

If he reaches that potential now, it will be somewhere else.

"The timing of it is the most frustrating thing," Wooldridge said. "We started school two days after finding out he was having second thoughts. Had we known sometime earlier, we might have been able to work something out."

Instead, freshman Clent Stewart is most likely K-State's starting point guard. Generously listed at 6-foot-4, Stewart helped lead Tulsa Union to Oklahoma's Class 6A state championship earlier this year.

He moved from shooting guard to point guard last season, in part to prepare for his college career. His intelligence won't be a question, as he was an honors student who turned down offers from Stanford and Vanderbilt.

"I've always had a good feeling about this kid," Wooldridge said. "The only down side to looking at Clent for the position he's now in is that he's young. But I don't question his ability to play that position and play that position very well from a maturity or ability standpoint."

Another newcomer, junior-college transfer Fred Peete, could also see time at the point. And plans to move junior Schyler Thomas, a former walk-on, back to shooting guard will most likely be scrapped.

The good news for the Wildcats is they will have extra time to prepare for this season. They will play four exhibition games in Vancouver, British Columbia on Oct. 8-12, which also allows them 10 extra practice days prior to the tour.

The Willingham news has been greeted with wide-spread cynicism among K-State fans, including many predicting Wooldridge's 51-65 record at K-State will not get any better.

"People might think the season's over, but I don't believe that to be true," Wooldridge said, "and I don't think the remaining players in our program feel that way."

Football kickoff changed -- K-State announced that the Sept. 11 football game against visiting Fresno State will be nationally televised by Fox Sports Net, Channel 34. The game will now start at 11 a.m.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Parson covers Kansas State sports. Reach him at 268-6398 or [email protected].

This article from the Dallas Morning News gives more background about Dez and others who were after him and why he left Tennessee.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The Dallas Morning News
June 14, 2002

DeSoto standout finds right fit
Author: TODD WILLS

Edition: SECOND Section: SOUTHWEST Page: 4M

Dez Willingham remembers the night after it happened. The smooth-shooting DeSoto point guard went out in a game against Mansfield and poured in 29 points. He was motivated. He was angry. He was hot.

It was the story that was circulating a thousand miles away in Knoxville, Tenn. It involved Willingham, a 5-11 junior point guard, and Dane Bradshaw, a 6-3 junior shooting guard from Memphis. Both of them wanted to go to Tennessee. Rumor was that Tennessee was only going to take one guard and would take the first one to orally commit. Bradshaw committed first, Willingham soon after that.

Tennessee accepted both commitments. Bradshaw's mom, under the impression her son was going to be the Volunteers' next point guard, also raised a stink, according to Willingham's father, Kenneth.

Six months later, Willingham is going to Kansas State.

Thus ends the strange saga of the courtship of Dez Willingham, who thought -happily - that he had put the recruiting process to rest when he committed to Tennessee last December. In January, his father pulled the commitment after a story on the Internet said Tennessee was rejecting Willingham's decision. Buzz Peterson and his coaching staff vehemently denied that story and, at first, patched things up with Willingham.

It wasn't enough to keep Willingham from looking around, with Tennessee and eight other schools - Baylor, Oklahoma, Colorado State, Stanford, Mississippi State, Texas, Kansas State and SMU - still in the picture.

It was time enough to decide on Kansas State.

"The whole situation made me more patient," said Willingham, who is sidelined from basketball for two more weeks after fracturing a bone in his right foot. "It made me rethink everything."

What he found was what so many other college athletes are focusing on now - what he believes, and what the Kansas State coaches surely told him - a place to play right now.

"The earlier you play, the earlier you reach your goal," said Willingham, who isn't shy about saying he has professional - NBA - goals. "Right now, I want to try and play early instead of going through something and sitting on the bench for two years."

Kansas State needs a point guard. Larry Reid, a second-team All-Big 12 pick, graduated. Nick Williams, a sophomore from Mansfield, was thought to be a choice to move from shooting to point guard, but he is transferring.

The Wildcats signed junior college transfer Frank Richards last fall, the likely starter for 2002-03. They signed two more JUCO guards this spring, one a point guard - Tim Ellis (6-3) - and another a combo guard, 6-4 Jarrett Hart.

Add it all up, and that leaves a huge opening for a young point guard. Willingham, who also saw the chance to play in the Big 12, gobbled it up.

"This gives my family a chance to get to see me play," he said.

The Willingham family - father Kenneth, mother Kim, sister Kelly plus Dez's girlfriend Britahney Gardner - liked the town of Manhattan and also voted on Kansas State after a visit last weekend.

"It's not too big," Dez said. "It has everything you need."

That, of course is a mall, places to eat and a basketball gym - plus a coaching staff he feels comfortable with, which he found in Jim Wooldridge and his crew.

"It's a good fit," the elder Willingham said. "He had too many schools to go through this stuff. He wanted to get it done early. It was starting to wear on him."

Dez Willingham's focus now is on getting healthy. He wants to be healed in time to go to the Nike All-American Camp on July 5-10 with his summer team, Texas Top Prospects.

He already is thinking about his senior year at DeSoto, especially after last season, when the Eagles bolted out to start the season and fizzled in district to become perhaps the best team in the state to miss the playoffs.

"We'll be playing hard, I'll tell you that," Willingham said. "We'll be diving for loose balls."

And there won't be any distractions like last January, when DeSoto's season unraveled - as did Tennessee's recruitment of Willingham.

"It probably was a distraction," Kenneth said. "My kid is at school, and he's calling me about what he saw on a Web site. He's not supposed to be worried about a commitment. Maybe it was the wrong program if a parent is down there running it."

It might be the first area standout but it wont be the last.

Nice find by Coach Tubbs. This is great news for the future.

Way to go, Coach Tubbs! This sounds like a great start to the pipeline of local kids. Keep it up!