John Blanchette: GU’s Kyle Wiltjer begins transformation process

Just more than a month ago, Kyle Wiltjer carved out a blink – two, really – of viral fame on YouTube, where these things happen. One clip showed him making 70 of 75 shots from the 3-point line – astounding, if numbing – and the other was video evidence of a “world record,” a shot he launched from half court, behind his back, finding the bottom of the net.

He even did it again as if to prove it, H-O-R-S-E style.

Naturally, among the 76,000 mostly impressed viewers, there was one troll who just had to weigh in with all manner of disparagement in the comment section, attacking just about everything in Wiltjer’s game short of the color of his socks.

Sigh. This is why we can’t have nice things.

Well, that’s what they say, anyway.

But in truth, Gonzaga has something quite nice in Kyle Wiltjer here on the eve of the 2015 college basketball season – and different, too, from the player who reached out to the Bulldogs 16 months ago in what he defined as a “make it or break it” juncture regarding his basketball future.

The Zags knew they were getting a skilled addition – skilled more in the 70-of-75-from-3 sense and not so much in the behind-the-back-from-half-court sense. What figures to be revealed, either in Friday’s season opener against Sacramento State or as the season unfolds, is an overall game more befitting a player who stands 6-foot-10, and with aspirations just as outsized.

Presuming he can keep any game-night butterflies bottled up.

Wiltjer confessed to coach Mark Few that he actually battled a few nerves in the lead up to the Zags’ exhibition against Thompson Rivers College a couple of weeks ago – this from a guy who played in the 2012 NCAA championship game.

“I had to do a double-take on that myself,” Few said.

Explained Wiltjer: “I was just really excited to be out there – it’s been a long year sitting out.”

You’ll hear that from nearly every player who transfers from one four-year school to another and has to endure the noogie the NCAA doles out for the exercise of free will. But Wiltjer’s enforced hiatus had its own dynamic.

He had agonized through the summer of 2013 about leaving Kentucky – and with good reason, as he’d won a ring there and been named the SEC’s best sixth man. As he watched from GU’s bench in street clothes, he couldn’t help but feel he could help his new team immediately – nor could he ignore that his old team was playing its way back to the national title game, where perhaps a couple of 3-pointers could have turned back UConn.

But really, the hardest part had to be the modified boot camp he was put through by Travis Knight, the program’s strength and conditioning coach – even if it was the part of the equation that sold Wiltjer on transferring to begin with.

Wiltjer knew his success at the collegiate level – and future as a pro – would require him to change his body. What Kelly Olynyk had achieved at GU – turning himself into a first-round NBA draft choice with the help of a redshirt year – was persuasive, especially as that sort of ground-up, long-view development isn’t really part of the template at Kentucky.

So Knight got out his tools – medicine balls, bosu balls, weights, yoga – and set about “removing all the things about a body that was fighting itself.

“The expectations of what people have about what a redshirt year should produce almost never account for remedial work,” Knight said.

And in this case, he cautioned, those expectations need to account for the fact that Olynyk and Wiltjer are two different people.

In other words, mileage may vary.

“In their nature, Kelly has a much more aggressive mindset – he had no problem lowering his shoulder and knocking you over. Kyle is more crafty. He’s looking for more space and to create timing problems, length problems.”

Still, it was Wiltjer’s intention to diversify his game – nearly 54 percent of his shots as a sophomore at Kentucky were 3s.

“I needed a better strength level to play post defense,” he said, “and it just makes me that much tougher to guard outside if they have to worry about me sealing down low.”

Not that Kentucky particularly called on him for that dimension.

“They had Anthony Davis for things like that,” Few said.

The Zags will, though as Knight noted square pegs at Gonzaga are rarely pounded into round holes.

“Mark and the staff do a great job of letting guys be the players they are – recognizing their strengths and helping them grow into them,” he said.

So maybe it should be asked when we might expect that behind-the-back shot from midcourt.

“Maybe the first play on Friday,” Wiltjer deadpanned.

And then straight to a seat next to Few on the bench?

“If I make it, I’ll stay in,” he said, betraying a smile. “I just have to make it.”