Darnell Wilks

If there has been one freshman who has been left out of the mix this season as the other five have all tested their skills it’s Darnell Wilks, who's probably the best pure athlete on the team.

“Darnell’s biggest transition is learning how to be a perimeter player,” said UC coach Mick Cronin. “He’s not strong enough right now to play on the interior in the Big East.
“He’s a guy that I wish I could give more playing time, but we’re playing more guys probably than anybody in the Big East right now so he’s kind of caught in a numbers crunch. But I haven’t changed my optimism about his potential.”

Wilks originally committed to UC as part of the 2008 class, so he would have been a freshman next year as part of the class that includes Yancy Gates and Cashmere Wright.
But when he completed the academic work that made him eligible this year, he and Cronin decided to let him take the spot that originally belonged to Jason Henry when Henry didn’t qualify academically.

Wilks understands that he could have been playing every game this season on the high school level instead of sitting on UC’s bench, but he believes he’s learning more about the game this way.

“The way I look at it, what else could I have learned from high school?” he said. “I’m all right with it. I just come out and try to do as well in practice as I can.”

Cronin said the UC coaching staff considered redshirting Wilks this season and there’s a chance they could decide to go that route next year, depending on how much he improves during the off-season.

“Darnell is a guy I always felt needed time to develop,” Cronin said. “He was a guy that had great athleticism but he was going to have to transition into a perimeter player. The key with him is to make sure he continues to work on his skill level.”