2011-12 Player Review: #33 Derrick Wilson

With the season wrapped up, it's time to provide the bookend for the Player Previews we wrote to start the season. We'll take a look back at what we thought about each of the Marquette players back in November and see if we did a good job of prognostication. We continue our climb up the list of minutes played this year by moving on to freshman guard Derrick Wilson.

Hit the jump!

What We Said:

Minimum Expectations: The departure of guard Dwight Buycks means there is playing time available for a point man. However, junior Junior Cadougan elevated his play at the end of the 2010-'11 season and appears to be the favorite to serve as the starting point guard for the next two seasons. As the only other natural point guard on the roster, I would expect to see Wilson provide some minutes off the bench to spell Cadougan. He could see his playing time increase if he's able to handle his point guard duties in the half-court offense by aggressively attacking the opponent, limiting turnovers, and creating for others.

In My Wildest Dream: The recruiting report on Derrick Wilson states that he already boasts a Big East body and has the skill set to be a solid on-ball defender. Since Buzz has already been quoted as saying that Wilson is the best freshman on ball defender he's had at Marquette, he could be called upon early to guard other Big East point guards. If he is able to put to rest any doubts about whether he can be a true point guard, he could challenge Cadougan's starting spot by the time the Big East season rolls around.

In My Worst Nightmare: Assuming he doesn't transfer in December, leaving the team with only one point guard, the nightmare scenario for Marquette would be that Wilson is forced to play extended minutes in his freshman year because of an injury to or the ineffectiveness of Cadougan. Aside from that, I believe Wilson will be able to use his freshman year as a learning opportunity as he strives to become the point guard of the future for the Marquette Golden Eagles.

Something happened here. As the season started, Buzz Williams was excited to have Derrick Wilson on the team, as evidenced by that on ball defender line in the quoted section above. As could be expected, he earned playing time with his defense, averaging 13.5 minutes through the non-conference section of the schedule, including his first career start against Wisconsin when Junior Cadougan was suspended. But somewhere along the line, Wilson went from good enough to start for Cadougan and play 20 minutes in the Kohl Center to not getting off the bench at all against Georgetown & Pitt and only breaking the 10 minute barrier twice in conference play. One of those was a 20 minute outing in the suspension riddled West Virginia game, where Buzz really didn't have a choice in the matter.

So what happened? Given the offensive power of the other players available for Marquette, I have to think that Wilson's near complete lack of interest in shooting the ball (0.5 attempts per game) couldn't have played a part. Did his defense not improve from the start of the season? Did it get worse? Was Buzz ultimately happier with Todd Mayo adding defensive intensity to his obviously well rounded offensive game?

Even if his minutes decreased as the season progressed, there's a lot to like about Derrick Wilson's season. First and foremost is his assist to turnover ratio. Wilson finished at 2.67 to 1, which is great for a guy who's still getting used to all of his teammates. This was mostly helped out by Wilson's spectacular ability to take care of the ball, as he only committed nine turnovers all season long. As long as he can keep the that assist ratio intact as he gets a chance to play more, he's going to fit in just fine with Marquette fans.

Best Game: I'm tempted to say the West Virginia game because of the three rebounds and three assists while trying to keep Marquette close in the first half. But that was Wilson's only game with more than one turnover, so I feel like that would be undercutting the point about how great he is at protecting the ball. Instead, we'll go with Green Bay. He had three rebounds, six assists, no turnovers in 14 minutes of action. He also drained both of his free throws, which he struggled to do all season (47.1%).

Season Grade (1 is Worst Nightmare, 5 is Minimum Expectation, and 10 is Wildest Dream): Based on what we set out at the start of the season, I have to give Derrick Wilson a 4. With his minutes dwindling as the season rolled on, he wasn't quite the reliable backup to Junior Cadougan that we had hoped to see at the start of the season.