After draft express released some negative comments about UK big man Nerlens Noel, Coach Cal quickly responded with a couple of comments of his own :
Had a chance to talk with some NBA personnel who watched some of our guys at the adidas counselor game this weekend, guys who are watching and working with the players. They told me Willie, like he’s been in practice this summer, was an absolute beast. He was aggressive, extremely coachable and played with confidence. They said Kyle looks stronger, quicker and more explosive. I’m told he missed some shots in the first games, but I’m not worried about Kyle missing. Just like last year – and like he did Sunday – he’s going to hit a lot of big shots for us. Of course, I was really interested to hear about Nerlens because we haven’t had a chance to work with him yet. My question was, was he one of the best prospects there? They said absolutely. We haven’t had the chance to add anything to his game yet – no conditioning, no weight training, no individual attention – but they loved him because he was so coachable, so smart and picked up everything in a short period of time. In Willie’s case, we’ve 16 one-hour workouts with him, so we’re seeing a different Willie than the one we saw in high school. Wait until we get Nerlens on campus to do the same thing
