Gonzaga senior Kyle Wiltjer is CBS Sports' Preseason Player of Year
Kyle Wiltjer averaged 16.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists last season while shooting 54.0 percent from the field, 46.6 percent from 3-point range and 78.9 percent from the free throw line. He led Gonzaga to a 35-3 record.
By
Gary Parrish
•
2 min read
Gonzaga recruited Kyle Wiltjer out of high school but lost him to Kentucky because, at the time, John Calipari seemed to get every prospect he wanted. The McDonald's All-American was part of a four-player class that ranked first nationally and also included Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague. They won a national title together. Then Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist and Teague entered the NBA Draft, leaving Wiltjer behind.
The next season was that NIT season.
Wiltjer played 23.8 minutes per game, then decided to transfer. And his previous relationship with Gonzaga's staff -- combined with a better understanding of how style of play can make-or-break a career -- is what led Wiltjer back to the Pacific Time Zone, where he's from, and into Mark Few's program.
Per NCAA transfer rules, he was required to sit one season.
So he did.
But he spent that year really, really working.
"I was just concerned with getting myself better," Wiltjer said. "I just wanted to focus on getting better and putting work in. And then I really believed good things would happen."
Kyle Wiltjer is the CBS Sports Preseason National Player of the Year.
He edged Oklahoma's Buddy Hield, Providence's Kris Dunn, LSU's Ben Simmons and Kentucky's Skal Labissiere for the honor because, collectively here at CBS Sports, we believe the 6-foot-10 forward is the proper choice when trying to identify somebody who will be great individually and on a nationally relevant team. After sitting out the 2013-14 season, Wiltjer averaged 16.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists last season while shooting 54.0 percent from the field, 46.6 percent from 3-point range and 78.9 percent from the free throw line. He led the Zags to a 35-3 record and WCC title. They lost to the eventual national champions, Duke, in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. It was a one-possession game with less than five minutes remaining.
"We really feel like we have unfinished business because we were right there in that game with Duke, and we could've made that Final Four," Wiltjer said. "But we came up short. And we have a bad taste in our mouths. ... It sticks with us. And it's going to drive us."
Wiltjer is one of only two consensus First Team or Second Team All-Americans from last season who returned to school, the other being Virginia's Malcolm Brogdon. So, in addition to the reasons previously stated, this honor makes sense for that reason.
Now the question is whether Wiltjer can also be the postseason Player of the Year.
As always, the answer is ... we'll see.
But assuming he scores and rebounds and shoots like he did last season, and assuming Gonzaga tears through the WCC again, there's no reason he can't. And, if happens, Wiltjer will join Adam Morrison on the list of Zags who have been National Players of the Year, and he'll be the second member of UK's top-ranked 2011 recruiting class to win the award.
The other, of course, is Anthony Davis.
"That would be wild," Wiltjer said. "That ... is wild."
