My Two Cents - Greener grass for Kyle Wiltjer away from the Bluegrass State

Kentucky has been known as a state that develops some of the best thoroughbreds in North America and that can also be said about the Wildcats.  But among the thoroughbreds is a Clydesdale and is name is Kyle Wiltjer.  He's been relegated to a background role for Coach Calipari's Big Blue teams the last two seasons but Wiltjer has recently been talking about leaving the program.  Can Ball Ray gives his thoughts on the situation in My Two Cents ...

In case you haven’t heard/read/seen in the last few days, American born Canadian Kyle Wiltjer has been thinking, openly might I add, oftransferring from Kentucky.  He thenrecently has said that he may stay. 

This then posses an obvious question for us basketball observers – should he stay or should he go?

In an era of college players seemingly leaving programs that are not offering them sufficient something for greener pastures elsewhere, this news is not particularly earthshattering.  This happens all the time.  In fact, when we (OK me specifically) hear about a player leaving a program I jump to one of two thoughts:  1) he’s run into situation that he can’t undo like a coaching change or kidnapping charges or 2) he’s under the delusion that he thinks he can see his name on the NBA Draft board better by playing marginally better at another school.  There are a few instances that may deviate from the abovementioned scenarios but by and large those are the two main reasons. 

This leads us to Mr. Wiltjer.  Why would he consider transferring from a perennial Top Five program when he’s playing enough minutes to make significant contributions?

Kyle Wiltjer is one of the better young big men in the NCAA.  There are some obvious things he’ll need to work out like strength and defense but he is offensively gifted and could easily be a star on any other squad outside of Lexington.  I think we can also safely assume that him playing against NBA First Round picks his last two seasons like Terrance Jones, Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Nerlens Noel in practice are a boost to his pro career prep.  He’s playing up a level so to speak in practice and will likely be doing so if he stays all four years. 

Despite all that, I think Wiltjer leaving Big Blue Nation would be warranted for him and his future professional career.

Players may have an inflated sense of what they can do on the court and this sometimes clouds their better judgment.  That and a potential set of people who are advising him as such can put players in bad situations that they may not recover from.  We’ve seen it all before and we don’t have enough space to put all the names down. 

For Wiltjer, he’s a former McDonald’s All American who is a polished offensive player at the college level and he has a very good sense of the player he is and wants to be.  He’s not rocked the boat at Kentucky and after a freshman year of benchwarming he showed that he can perform in extended minutes with what amounted to a team of thoroughbred horses to his Clydesdale.  He did average 10 points, 4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24 minutes of action last year.  On just about any other team in the land, he would be option one but one the Wildcats he’s option four with no real shot at being the go-to guy since Coach Calipari only recruits 5-star All American types.  He’s quietly towed the company line and played in the shadow of a few players, very good ones but still in their shadows. 

The bottom line is that no one would blame Wiltjer for leaving and any team lucky enough to get him would be over the moon.  They get a quality player and person.  

Of course his exit isn’t going to be simple and easy as the word Redshirt has been floated out there if he does stay at UK.  Would a Redshirt season do enough for him to transfer into a new player?

If we need an example of what a Redshirt year can do to player’s game we only need to look to fellow Canadian Kelly Olynyk.  Both are similar in size and skill sets.  Both are west coast white dudes who have good long distance strokes.  Both guys were playing marginal roles on their respective teams as sophomores.  Olynyk takes a year off, improves soimmensely that he blossoms into a college All American and is selected in theNBA Draft, in the Lottery no less, surpassing teammate Elias Harris who himselfwas a projected Lottery pick after his freshman season. 

Could Wiltjer become this same player that Olynyk became?  Of course he could.  Could he build his body and transform his overall game to make him a more complete player?  Hell yeah.  The only thing Kyle won’t be able to do is be option one on Coach Cal’s team.  There are too many more athletically gifted players that could take minutes from him, on any given game really, possibly relegating him to his current situation as option four. 

In my humble opinion, I think Kyle Wiltjer would be better off on another team for his last two seasons in college.  As a side note, Kyle's dad Greg thinks so too.  I think the constant influx of NBA level talent to Lexington is great to play against but he’ll never be able to truly explode out like he could elsewhere.  When he committed to the Wildcats out of high school I thought he’d never last the year and he proved me wrong.  Back then I thought he’d get jumped over and run by which his polar opposite game couldn’t compensate for and that would lead to him to bolt for anywhere.   After sticking out two seasons and showing that he can be a star I think he should leave.  I still think he’s a high major player and I think that he will have his pick of where he wants to go and the rumors have Gonzaga as a possible destination.  In the long run, wherever he goes doesn’t matter really, only that he goes. 

The grass will always be greener on the other side, particularly when you leave the Bluegrass State, right Kyle.