The Great Expectations for Ty Walker
The more I study the intriguing case of Ty Walker, the more I’m convinced that his biggest accomplishment as a basketball player is an even bigger curse.
Walker, Wake Forest’s 7-0 sophomore, was a five-star recruit coming out of New Hanover High School ranked as high as the fourth best center in his class. And we’re not talking about the Wilmington Metropolitan area, or even the state of North Carolina. We’re talking about in the whole U.S. of A.
So why, people want to know, is Walker not dominating college centers? Why did he play only 42 minutes as a freshman and why did he get just 14 minutes in two romps past Oral Roberts and East Carolina?
The short answer: There are three other players on the Wake Forest roster 6-10 or taller who Coach Dino Gaudio feels are more physically, mentally and emotionally ready to help the Deacons win basketball games this season. And with Al-Farouq Aminu soaking up some of the minutes at power forward, there’s not even enough to go around for Chas McFarland, Tony Woods and David Weaver.
Gaudio wanted to redshirt Walker last season, but Walker was adament about playing. By this past October, he realized he had made a mistake.
“They offered me a redshirt and I feel as though I should have taken it,’’ Walker said.
But the longer answer entails Walker’s rate of maturation—both physically and emotionally—and the sometimes staggering expectations put on players who arrive at college far from the finished product. All freshmen have a lot of growing up to do once they reach college, Walker moreso than most. He weighed only 200 pounds, so he he was easy to push off the block.
“Last year I had the skill set, but I just didn’t have the strength so I wasn’t able to show it at all,’’ Walker said.
But an underdeveloped body wasn’t Walker’s only drawback.
“A lot of things with Ty, it was between the shoulders,’’ senior L.D. Williams said. “It didn’t have anything to do with not being good enough to play because he could have gone anywhere in the country to play. It was just about how he developed as a player mentally.’‘
Walker strikes me as a intelligent and passionate young man who may be too sensitive for his own good. He didn’t block out Sunday against East Carolina and the Pirates followed in a missed free throw. He immediately pointed to himself in the “my bad’’ gesture, and at least three times on the way back downcourt he cut his eyes to the bench for any signs of reproachment.
“Ty has been incredibly blessed from here down, Gaudio said, his hand at the level of his shoulder. “When he gets from here up – mentally tougher, which he’s getting – and when he can forget about the last play and worry about the next one he has a chance to be really good.’‘
Which brings me around to his greatest accomplishment—being a five-star recruit—being his great curse. I’ve always had a huge problem with people putting too much stock in recruiting rankings. I’m not saying they’re worthless, but whenever a main component of a ranking is not how good the player is but how good he might turn out to be then mistakes are going to be made. And they’re made all the time. Ty Walker scored 12 points as a senior at New Hanover. To say he was the fourth best center in America that season is far-fetched. He earned his ranking on potential. And truth is, when I watch Walker in practice I see a player who might someday grow up to be a great player. He’s incredibly long and his coordination is improving all the time. His innate sense of timing is as good as I’ve seen from a Wake Forest center. The two qualities make him a force as a shotblocker. And I, like many others following the Deacons this season, love watching him come into the game to see if he’s getting any closer to fulfilling the great promise with which he arrived at Wake.
But he’s having to deal with the realization he has yet to become what so many people expect him to be.
“When I’m on FaceBook, constantly people are on there asking `Why aren’t you playing that much? You deserve to play. You have the skills to play.’ ‘’ Walker said. “It’s something that’s just a patient process. You have to just wait your time. That’s what I’m here to do and hopefully this year I’ll be able to show that maybe it’s my time.
“And then my junior and senior year I can definitely have breakout years.’’