Kentucky Basketball: Willis, Gabriel Key to Cats’ Season
By Chad Adams
Kentucky Basketball: Off to a hot start and a number one ranking, the Cats are rolling. But a deep tournament run might just depend on the continued development of Derek Willis and Wenyen Gabriel
Alright, you’ve got arguably the best backcourt in the country, a near unstoppable threat of speed and athleticism that is tremendous off the bounce and downright lethal in transition. Inside, you’ve got a budding man-child of a center, a 6-10, 260-pound bruiser with wide shoulders, a three-guard’s motor and a svelte jump hook. At 6-0 on the season, you’re also the No. 1 team in the country. So what do you do? If you’re Kentucky coach John Calipari, you create a two-headed monster to help complete the puzzle.
Imagine, if you will, a perfect compliment to the sensational quartet of De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Isaiah Briscoe and Bam Adebayo. You’ll need some size to hit the boards, but also the stroke from 3 to play as a stretch 4, opening up the lane for the trio of dazzling dribble drivers, as well as the occasional post for the eventual lottery pick center. This player will need to be 6-9 or so, be able to run the floor like a deer with this team, get down and defend, including the ever-constant switches to quicker guards on the pick-and-roll, and be able to live without the offense going through him. That means occasional spot-up 3s on the kick, goal cuts for lobs, offensive put backs and transition dunks.
Calipari has achieved just that through six games, with our mystery player averaging 14.6 points and 9.1 rebounds per game in 39.5 minutes of play. Shooting 53.52-percent from the field, with seven made 3s, 21 assists and 16 blocks, it’s this stretch four that will play a pivotal role for a deep run in March.
Don’t see this Cat in your stat sheet? That’s because it’s two players, not one – the two-headed monster of Derek Willis and Wenyen Gabriel.
The beauty of their combined play, in a sense, is that they do it in different ways. Gabriel with his knack for getting 17 offensive boards this season, trailing only the bigger Bam and Isaac Humphries. Willis, meanwhile, has 11 blocked shots on the season, tied for team high with Adebayo. Put a big body into the lineup to help on the glass, Willis will get free for a 3. Go small, Gabriel will beat you on the glass. Get back late on defense, either of them will rock the rim from a lob from Briscoe or Fox.
And one only need’s to look back to the first game of the season to see what Calipari is building. After running Gabriel as a starter leading up to the opener against Stephen F. Austin, the head coach, on a gut feeling, inserted Willis into the lineup at the last minute. The move paid off big, as Kentucky’s young team got off to a rocky start in their opener in Rupp, and Willis steadied the ship, scoring seven of the first nine, 10 within the game’s first 4:18, and 15 overall to go with five boards and three blocked shots.
“We started him based on the fact that I just didn’t feel comfortable starting the first game out of the gate with four freshmen on the court,” Calipari explained afterward. “He proved me right.”
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One would assume he also proved a point to Gabriel as well. But Cal was just getting warmed up.
“We’ve still got some issues at the four,” Cal said following the Canisius game. “Most of the guarding and rebounding. So now, the questions is, do you play Bam at four and let one of those other kids play five? And let Bam guard the four and rebound. And now you either go with Isaac or Sacha and you go to a big team, and let those other guys play some three? Because you’ve got, we just cannot have one position that’s not guarding, that’s not rebounding the way they should.
“Whoever defends better and rebounds, between Wenyen and Derek, I’ll play,” Cal said later in the interview.
As Cal often says, the playing time is earned in practice, and who wouldn’t love to be a fly on the Craft Center wall to watch these two battle during practice for those coveted minutes. As the games rolled on, proof of Calipari’s methods started showing up in the play from the four spot, as Gabriel and Willis each began to make strides defensively and on the boards.
“I thought Wenyen was great today,” Cal said following the Michigan State game. “Wenyen was the high motor, hands on balls, tipping balls, made his jumper. … He’s one—three steals, two assists, no turnovers. Wenyen Gabriel is a 6-10 wing and he keeps getting better and better.”
“Derek Willis was better than Wenyen (Gabriel) today, but Wenyen ends up with 10 points, seven rebounds, four assists and one turnover and I’m saying he wasn’t that good,” Cal said following Arizona State. “Well, it was more defense. I thought Derek was better.”
The competition continues. The method to Cal’s madness. The key to Kentucky’s March Madness.
Calipari knows very well what he’s got in Gabriel and Willis, and his demands upon the players are clear to them as well – defend and rebound. Never was that more clear to the viewer than when watching the ASU game, when Calipari repeatedly gave Willis or Gabriel the hook after getting beat on a straight line drive, leaving a known 3-point shooter or failing to get a defensive rebound.
The result was a tremendous amount of high-level basketball from the four spot. Willis out-hustling a Sun Devil player, diving to the floor for a loose ball. Gabriel running the floor in transition, receiving a ridiculous pass from Malik Monk for a reverse jam. Blocks, steals, rebounds – high-level basketball. And it will only get better.
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For the remainder of this season, most of the highlights will go to Fox leading the break, or Briscoe finishing at the rim, or Bam muscling in the paint, or one of who knows what kind of phenomenal play from the human highlight reel that is Monk.
But when March rolls around, and the Cats are in a dog fight for their tournament life, don’t be surprised if it’s the two-headed monster of Willis-Gabriel that makes a key play. A deflection, a rebound, a 3 from the corner.
And that might just make all the difference.