Rough translation
By Mike DeCourcy - SportingNews
Mike Decourcy
SportingNews.com
Bill Walker is ... een uiterst begaafde basketbalspeler, maar success in het universiteitsspel komt niet zonder moeite. Hij begint slechts nu met het process groot te worden.
Ask Bill Walker how often it feels like everyone around him is speaking a foreign language and he is delighted to see that you understand. "Whew ..." he says, an expression that needs no translation anywhere. "All the time."
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During practice, his teammates and coaches might as well be speaking Dutch. He understands a word here or there, but his arrival at Kansas State well into the season feels like touching down in Amsterdam after having taken only a few language classes. Others try to be patient, but there's only so much time they can wait for Walker to catch on.
It's likely there never has been a freshman quite like him. An athletically dynamic 6-6 small forward considered among the top recruits in the class of 2007, Walker learned in July he would not be eligible to play high school basketball in Ohio. He could have spent a year in prep school, but during the recruiting process K-State coach Bob Huggins presented Walker with this idea: graduate early and play for the Wildcats this season.
Walker became eligible December 16 -- and had a game December 17. One practice, one morning shootaround, and he was scoring 15 points in a comfortable victory over Kennesaw State. In fact, Walker scored in double figures four times in his first week as a college player.
"It's different from the high school level," Walker says. "Just the mental game. It's grueling, man. Sometimes it gets frustrating because you're thinking too much."
Wildcats fans who haven't seen their team in the NCAA Tournament since 1996 wonder when Walker will have this college basketball thing figured out. "They say it takes 21 days to make a habit," he says. "So I'm guessing 21 days. I hope."
Near the end of Walker's second college practice, Huggins holds a small, laminated card that lists K-State's calls for every situation: man-to-man offense, zone offense, inbounds plays. "This is what everybody else knows," he says, waving his hand across the face of the card. "This is what he knows," Huggins says, pointing to two items under man offense and one under zone offense.
Walker will catch on fast, though. He is bright and eager to learn -- or else he would not have dashed through an accelerated program to finish the requirements for his high school diploma in a couple of months, and he would not have already shown a grasp of many advanced defensive concepts in practices and games.
A winner of two Ohio state championships at Cincinnati's North College Hill with celebrated point guard O.J. Mayo, Walker hasn't been the most famous player on his team, even though he has been compared for years to NBA star Vince Carter. They have similar height, length and hunger to dunk the basketball. Carter was a better shooter at the same age; Walker's release is too low, and his shot tends to travel as a line drive. Walker, though, already has the strength, confidence and physical maturity it took Carter years at North Carolina to achieve. Walker is listed at 225 pounds, five more than Carter carries now.
It is no wonder, then, Huggins is eager to use Walker in his schemes even if he does not completely understand them. "The bottom line is we're all trying to win, and he probably gives us the best chance to win in the long run," Huggins says. "In my mind, he is -- I don't know -- one-twentieth of what he's going to be."
A day after his successful debut, Walker was at practice and getting frustrated by the daunting process. Early in a fast-break drill, he floated along the baseline thinking he'd score an effortless reverse layup. Instead, he was clobbered by 7-3 freshman Jason Bennett. Nobody calls fouls in a Huggins practice. "That's going to take some adjusting," Walker says. "You can't make plays when somebody's hanging off you."
Soon after, Walker tried to get revenge while playing defense in the post. Instead of playing soundly and fighting for position, he wrapped his right arm around Bennett and shoved him to the side as an entry pass arrived. Someone called it: foul. Walker responded, in colorful language, that it was his understanding no fouls were to be called. Later there was some sort of confrontation with a courtside chair.
Most any high school star will tell you the greatest obstacle in adjusting to college basketball is learning to play consistently hard in practice and games. That's a lesson in maturity Walker must master, and Huggins would love to teach it the way he would to any other player: loudly and emphatically. The coach restrains himself because he recognizes the unique nature of this circumstance.
"It's coming for 12," Huggins says, referring to Walker by his uniform number. "He's still processing everything, and you've got to let him get through all that. But his day is coming."
With no classes during the holiday break, Huggins is free, like any coach, to practice his team as much as he wants. The Wildcats already are working about 3 1/2 hours daily, between their court time and tape sessions, so Huggins isn't giving Walker additional tasks. He believes that would just produce "diminishing returns."
Walker's early numbers are so impressive -- 14.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 44.7 percent shooting, four consecutive Wildcats wins -- it seems he has everything covered. But Huggins demands more than stats. His players must defend; they must perform with intensity; and they better be selfless.
That has not been a problem for Walker -- the team does not have a true power forward, so he sets up in the post and assumes rebounding responsibility. But he is getting loads of attention and plenty of playing time without having paid much of a price in practice. Huggins is concerned this could be an issue but figures anyone who chooses not to accept Walker as a teammate doesn't want to win.
Forward Cartier Martin, who gave up his starting spot against Maryland-Eastern Shore to get Walker more minutes, does not expect it to be a problem. "There's no jealousy," Martin says. "We're looking to do big things, and we don't want that to hold us back."
Walker talks about his time at Kansas State as if it's a two-year mission. Because Walker did not graduate from high school last spring, the NBA says he is part of the class of 2007 and, under the new entry rules, off-limits until the 2008 draft. Walker could attempt a legal challenge but probably would not get a court ruling in time to be selected in June. A source close to Walker says that although he might announce he's exploring that option, he ultimately will return to the Wildcats as a sophomore.
That would mean an additional 12 months of Huggins and probably frequent reintroductions to the boundaries of his vocal volume. When Walker is a sophomore, his grace period will have long since expired.
"I wouldn't go to a less demanding coach, because I want to be great," Walker says. "Coach Huggins is going to get on me if I'm just coasting. That's what I want."
Bill Walker is ... an extremely talented basketball player, but success in the college game does not come without work. He is only beginning the process of becoming great.
In plain English, that's the truth.
