How Wichita State’s Darral Willis grew from awkward freshman to scoring star

Scoring mystified Darral Willis not too long ago, a circumstance that seems impossible given his current status as Wichita State’s rapid-fire go-to guy.

“He had a hard time making a layup as a freshman,” Madison (Wisc.) Memorial coach Steve Collins said. “It looked like a newborn giraffe, his body was going so fast and he just wasn’t coordinated.”

Willis, now a junior at Wichita State, remembers it the same way. When he went to Madison Memorial, everyone told him tall people play basketball, so he tried.

“I was struggling,” Willis said. “I had so many different shot forms that I didn’t know how to shoot the ball. Before high school, I didn’t play much basketball unless it was out on the back courts, with chain nets.”

On Sunday, Willis will start for Wichita State (11-3, 1-0 Missouri Valley Conference) against Bradley (6-8, 1-0) as his team’s top scorer. After Wednesday’s 25-point, 10-rebound performance at Indiana State, he is the first Shocker with two double-figure points and rebounds games in a season since Cleanthony Early recorded four in 2013-14.

Willis, a 6-foot-9 forward, is now a supremely confident scorer, possessing a soft left-handed touch out to 15 feet, quick post moves and the willingness to run the floor.

While his defense is improving, scoring is what makes Willis go early in his Shocker career. He averages 12.5 points and is shooting 56 percent from the field. In the past six games, all as a starter, he averages 15.5 points and 7.8 rebounds.

When Willis gets the ball, he is decisive and ready to shoot. Like Early, his scoring skills cover up defensive shortcomings as he learns WSU’s system and demands.

“He’s definitely confident,” sophomore Markis McDuffie said. “The first day I met him, he was all about action on offense.”

WSU coach Gregg Marshall doesn’t see Willis as a finished product. He can still see some of the awkwardness in Willis’ shooting form and moves. Some of that may help him against defenders who aren’t used to guarding lefties.

“He has an interesting shot, but he’s perfected it,” Marshall said. “His offensive game is not something you’d draw up. It’s kind of herky-jerky. I’ve always said lefties are hard to guard.”

When Willis arrived at WSU in June, his defensive skills and interest seemed negligible. His job at Pearl River (Miss.) Community College was to score and rebound. He did that well enough to earn third-team NJCAA All-American honors. At WSU, he needed to dramatically improve his defensive concentration and effort.

“When he came in, he was 100-percent offensive focused,” Marshall said. “We’re trying to get that to 50-50 and we’re probably at 70-30. But he can put the ball in the basket and we needed that. We need a guy that can score like that and he’s already become a better defender.”

Willis, Collins said, started to improve as a junior in high school and took big strides during the summer before his senior season. That paid off with an All-State and conference player of the year selection. His improvement came from hours in the gym, working with trainers and Memorial assistant coach Mark Newburg, who played at Wisconsin.

“We got him working with the right people,” Collins said. “He’s always had really good touch around the basket — he’s got a guard’s touch.”

Willis liked soccer and football as a youngster. He settled on a basketball for physical and practical reasons.

“I saw that basketball could take me a lot of places and help me and my family out,” he said. “So I was trying to get better and get to the next level.”

This story was originally published December 31, 2016 at 10:03 AM with the headline "How Wichita State’s Darral Willis grew from awkward freshman to scoring star."