Dustin Wills


I knew he would be a project when I signed him, but I was hoping that he wouldn't be this much of one.

I signed Wills to be a small forward.  Here is what I knew about him when I signed him:

Dustin Wills (441)
Athleticism -- 81 (low)
Speed -- 15 (high, ???)
Rebounding -- 23 (high, ???)
Defense -- 81
Shot Blocking -- 10 (high, ???)
Low-post -- 13 (high, low-high)
Perimeter -- 13 (high, high-high)
Ball Handling -- 13 (high, high-high)
Passing -- 11 (high, low-high)
Work Ethic -- 57
Stamina -- 85 (low)
Durability -- 39
FT Shooting -- B-


This is a D3 player, so I saw the opportunity to turn Wills into a SF with every single category at 30+ once he fills his potential.

Problem is that the potential didn't fill like I was expecting, even knowing that the redshirt would somewhat hinder growth.  Just to preempt a question that might be asked once you see the 3.9 GPA, I didn't give him much study hall, relatively speaking.  I gave him 12 minutes 1st semester which I don't think is out of line with the HS GPA and then dropped that to 6 minutes for 2nd semester.

I wasn't expecting much out of Wills after his redshirt season.  But looking at him, I'm not sure I can play him.  And if I were to play him, where I would do it.

And maybe he can play right now.  He has elite athleticism (81 puts you in the top 25 for D3) and the defense is elite as well.  Not sure how much the lack of speed would penalize him, but he might be good enough now to be an asset on the defensive end.  I honestly don't know, I have zero experience with a guy like this.

I'm still optimistic that with his work ethic, that he will develop into a good player.  But it looks like it might not be until he is a Junior, or (yikes!) maybe not until he is a Senior.

In the meantime, how exactly to I play (or not play) Wills?  I try to have my SF two seasons apart at all times, so typically I would expect Wills to play about 16 minutes a game as my freshman backup SF while the Junior starting SF plays 24 minutes.  But I don't know if I could get away with it.

So ... do I play Wills?  Bench him?  What position does he play?  (And frankly any other advice you guys might have)

He'd be a hell of a lock down defender if that one on one man option were part of the game.  Maybe some minutes as a pf / c option.  But he's seems to be lacking that one other good skill (REB / LP / SPD) that would really help.  Maybe 8 minutes or so a game could help him develop.  I'd split the low post rebounding and passing as the high minute practice stats, but thats me.  I'd use him as an inside option, rather than a true SF, at least for 1 season.  Season 2 you could focus more on the outside part of the game, ball handling and per. 

Admittedly I don't have a great deal of experience to go on, but hope that thought process helps a little.

Play him at backup PF. How much practice time did you give him for conditioning and reb? I would have loaded both categories at 20 with the aim of playing him at PF or a slow reb based sf. 

For D3, that kid is really good.  I'd set his 3point distro to -2 and just let him draw fouls.  With a B- in FT shooting, he might just surprise you at the line.

He plays SF, preferably on the floor at the same time as two very good rebounders at PF/C. His distro is 0/1, as you should minimize the times he touches the ball until he develops further.

Frankly, if I had a player like this, I'd probably have maxed out his rebounding and conditioning PT in the hopes of making him a more legit post player (SF, but maybe even some PF) who, with the additional playing time, could then transition to well-rounded development.

As is, 16 minutes against some better teams might hurt you some, especially against a press, because he'll turn it over some even with low distro and he can't board well enough yet to play PF (IMO). Against the weaker teams though, let him run extra minutes, because the D will be a benefit and the TO shouldn't hurt as much. You can probably get him close to 16 minutes on average by stealing 8-12 minutes against the good human coaches/teams and 16-20 against the sim teams.

WE doesn't improve as fast as a redshirt, so even if you can get this guy 10-12 mpg next year, he'll probably improve around 60-70 points instead of 30.  he'll be much more useful by his sophomore year.  hell, even if you don't play him next year as a freshman you'll still get another 30 point increase out of him.

as many have mentioned - with that speed, he might have to be a 3rd string PF for the upcoming year.  you might be able to play him at 2nd string SF when a team has a very slow SF.

I don't think there's any way you can put him at PF.  He will get throttled on the boards.  Your team is good enough that you can start him at SF against bad teams, let him play defense, and still win without a problem.  He can be a backup SF in games where the other team's backup SF isn't overly fast (especially in the zone).  I say get him 10 mpg and some starts and see where he goes from there.  I don't know why people have this need to find minutes just for freshmen just to develop them.  If you are a long-term, make-the-NT-every-year team, odds are you aren't going to be playing freshmen much anyway.  He can still develop into a nice player, even with limited minutes next season.

Thanks for the input thus far.  To quickly answer the questions/comments raised:

• Practice was divided very equally, primarily to get the ratings above 20.  I was afraid if I neglected a category, the slow growth in the teens might cause problems if I wait a season or two two develop.  So practice was approximately 10 conditioning, 9 in the others except for 7 in low post and perimeter.  For what it's worth, I kept conditioning so low because his athleticism and stamina were maxed the day he showed up on campus.
• If I play him as backup PF, he'd be my second off the bench option.  I do have three good options for post players already.  That might make plugging him in a bit easier.
• I won't need to start him at SF.  My team has a pretty good Junior-to-be that should be fine.  Although right now he only has 73 stamina so I'm concerned about who fills in the other minutes.  I do question, if he can be the backup SF -- although if not, I'm not sure that the other option is.
• Isack, I'm not looking to find minutes for my freshmen as a general rule.  In fact for the reasons you note, I try to avoid it as much as possible.  But when it comes to my SF, I try to make sure they are always redshirted and spaced out two class years apart.  So every other season I recruit a SF, redshirt him, and then he becomes the backup SF as a Freshman and Sophomore while taking the reigns as a Junior.  Every now and then I will have an extra guard I can put ahead on the depth chart, but that's not the case for next season so the plan (or at least the original plan) was to put Wills as backup SF which normally means 15-16 minutes per game.

slow growth occurs when the category is in single digits, not teens. Teens is when growth picks up and hits normal. 

he should play sf when he is ready, he isn't ready yet. i would use target minutes and put him on the 4-8 minute setting. this will allow him a few minutes a game, and his stats will slowly improve. you have enough depth, so he isn't needed just yet.

Yeah, I wasn't really directing that at you, KU.  It was a general comment.  I see people constantly playing frosh who are worse than their soph+ counterparts.  Presumably it's to get growth, but I just don't understand it. 

My main point was that it's not really a big deal if he doesn't get a ton of PT this year.  Regardless, I think he will be fine against a lot of guys.  You may just have to shift a guard when you play teams with quick SFs.  Fact is, you can set your starter to "getting tired," and even with 73 stam, you should be able to get 25 quality minutes out of him.  If someone is playing slowdown against you, it could be even more.

And maybe he'll have a nice offseason jump, you never know.

Posted by uglyskunk3 on 6/16/2011 5:25:00 PM (view original):
he should play sf when he is ready, he isn't ready yet. i would use target minutes and put him on the 4-8 minute setting. this will allow him a few minutes a game, and his stats will slowly improve. you have enough depth, so he isn't needed just yet.

You notice that I'm trying to figure out what to do next season?  Allen is just about wrapping up.

I'm only returning 8.  The way I see it, I have three guards who are fine, three bigs who are also fine, one small forward who is ok, and then Dustin Wills.

The way I see it, I don't have depth which has me wondering how/if/where I use Wills.

Posted by tianyi7886 on 6/16/2011 5:12:00 PM (view original):
slow growth occurs when the category is in single digits, not teens. Teens is when growth picks up and hits normal. 

I don't think this is correct.  Although we might be speaking different languages here.

The single digit growth is super-slow.  And what was "fixed" in the update that prevents single digit high potential players.

But the teens are still slow.  Just not as slow as single digits.  It's based around the bell curve still so at minimum it is slower in theory but I also think you notice the difference as well.

For me, I don't think growth becomes "normal" until it gets to around 27-28.

Don't want to get too sidetracked by this.  Bottom line is that I wanted to give minutes to all the categories since they were all high potential and I want to be able to make use of them all as a small forward.