Will Cherry: Creating Spark

http://www.montanakaimin.com/sports/will-cherry-creating-spark-1.2791025#.T0UWKHmiamB

Will Cherry: Creating Spark



Montana Grizzly point guard Will Cherry ends every practice with a perfect shot.

"If I swish it and it even touches a little bit on the back of the rim — I can't leave the gym," he says.

The 6-foot-1 junior adopted this routine via first-year assistant coach Jonathan Metzger-Jones and it has paid dividends.

Cherry is having his most productive offensive year, shooting a career-best 50 percent on field goals while averaging a team-high 17.5 points in Big Sky Conference games.

Montana, which is in second place in the Big Sky with a 12-1 record, owes part of its success not only to the Oakland, Calif., native player, but its Oaktown coach as well.

Jones, who was an assistant at the University of California, Santa Barbara the past three years, accepted head coach Wayne Tinkle's job offer for this season largely because of Cherry.

"Knowing that we were going to have a very talented group, which included this very good point guard from my hometown that I would be able to easily relate to — it helped play a role in me feeling comfortable enough to leave a good situation coaching at UCSB," he said. "Guess you could say that Will recruited me instead of vice-versa."

Either way, the Oakland duo has formed a special player-coach bond this season.

"He grabs me every day after practice and we do a competitive shooting drill," Jones said. "We shoot free throws and we can't leave until he makes a certain number of shots. The last one has to be a swoosh too; never leave the gym on anything but a perfect shot."

The extra shooting drills with Jones, coupled with sessions last summer when he wouldn't leave the gym until he made 500 shots, are parts of a promise Cherry made to Jones last year.

"When (Jones) first got here, he pulled me into his office," Cherry said. "He was like, ‘Are you willing to get your shot better? I'll help you, but are you willing to put the work in?'"

Cherry's numbers this season prove his answer to Jones was a resounding, "Yes."

His freshman season, Cherry shot only 17 percent from 3-point range and 54 percent from the free throw line, compared to this year where he's shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc and 79 percent from the charity stripe.

While his offense has drastically improved, defense has always been a staple in Cherry's game.

This season, the Californian is tied for sixth in the nation with 68 steals.

"I don't think there is any question that Will's defensive skill set is what helps us get wins more than anything else he does," Jones said. "He has the ability to completely disrupt what the team is trying to do."

Cherry's outstanding defense was a huge factor in Jones' attempt to recruit Cherry to play for the Gauchos while he was still a coach at UCSB in 2009.

Cherry, who was then a senior for a McClymonds High School team that went 33-0 and won a California state championship, sat down in the Warriors' gym and discussed scholarship offers with Griz assistant coach Bill Evans, as well as coaches from the University of South Florida and Santa Clara.

Evans asked Cherry to come to Missoula the following weekend for a recruiting trip and Will accepted, not thinking anything would come of it.

"The first 10 minutes coming in from the airport on the freeway, (Missoula) was nothing what I thought it was," Cherry said laughing. "I thought it was going to be a bunch of hicks, cowboys, horses in the middle of nowhere, no mall, no anything. But when I got to town, I was like ‘this is a nice little city.'"

The Grizzlies' lone Montana native on the roster, Derek Selvig, says that his teammate has adapted to life in Montana.

"He says we don't have some of his favorite restaurants, and he can't get the fresh new Jordan's right when they come out," said Selvig, a 7-foot senior forward. "But I get him back when I take the guys out to shoot clay pigeons. They can't seem to catch onto that."

Cherry & Co. will take their 20-6 record into Dahlberg Arena on Thursday at 7 p.m. when they play the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.

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Great story, will gets me fired up and im just a fan sitting in sec 211, i couldnt imagin how it would be if i was on the floor playing beside him

Its funny to think of derek and will up in the mountains shooting shotguns haha!

You can see the fire in Will's eyes before games. He always gives us courtside fans a nod or wink when we compliment him on a great play. He wants people to notice how hard he has worked to get his offense in gear. I pity the guards that start a game by talking smack to him, it just puts him in a different frame of mind and he lets them know when he is embarrassing them. Believe me it is fun to watch him in action.

Since I have nothing of substance to contribute to the discussion (other than Will Cherry is one hell of a good player and fun to watch) I will pick on the Kaimin -- which is always in fashion. The proper way to refer to a person with a hypenated name is to treat it as a single name. I was reading and they mentioned "Jones" and so I had to backtrack to figure out how a "Jones" crept into the conversation. I suppose I have been around enough people with hyphenated names such that referring to Metzger-Jones as just Jones didn't really cross my mind. To be fair, it is somewhat of a style issue but trust me that people who hypenate their names don't consider it to be two separate last names. And since Metzger-Jones is a Griz coach then this is at least some relevant.

Yes, I am being "that guy"...

Say, did I mention that Cherry is one hell of a good player?

by DCBruins on Dec 5, 2010 11:56 PM PST in Basketball

Just when you thought the weekend could not get any worse it did. UCLA lost to Montana 66-57 and it was not really that close. The box score is here. Maybe Fox Sports did us a favor not televising it live so most Bruins could hear the score and not watch it. Kudos to Montana. They played smart and packed in their zone and collapsed when the ball went inside. However, I think Reeves Nelson and Joshua Smith both played so badly I hope something they were sick or something. (uclaluv said Smith may have been sick.) But even if they were, it became obvious tonight this is a team without a leader or an identity. Everything was pathetic and no one wanted to do anything about it. Next are five observations on the loss of the Montana game I attended.

1. I realize we were hungover from the SUC loss and it is finals BUT there were only 30 or so students there. It is the worst showing from a student section in the 25 years I have been coming to games. The alumni cheered more. Sorry students, you can take a 2 hour break from studying to cheer on your Bruins. That was pathetic.

2. We have abandoned "push it". Montana was the team that ran tonight. UCLA made no effort to run the entire night. Even when down by 15 late in the game UCLA was content to pass it around the outside. What happen to push it CBH? This team needs easy baskets and made no effort to get them on the run.

3. Tyler and Smith are such teases but not leaders. Smith has played his two best games against our toughest opponents but other times has looked like he is a very raw freshman who can't hit the rim on a layup attempt. He was 1-8 tonight and those were all close shots, many of which he missed badly. Smith needs to dominate.

Honeycutt was content to shoot threes and was not a factor. Honeycutt should dominate games like this and not settle for threes. Honeycutt also had 0 assists. Honeycutt, if you want to be a pro, you must dominate games and be a leader at this level. That does not mean you have to score all the time but it does mean that you have to be a factor and not have people wondering "Is Honeycutt on the floor?"

4. What the heck happen to Reeves? Reeves was the guy who DID want to shoot on this team and did go for rebounds. After the half, CBH obviously planned to pound into to Reeves with the first plays and Reeves got point blank looks at the basket . . . and missed. I am not sure the last time he dunked. Since the first half of the Pacific game, Reeves has been terrible. His first shot was blocked and for the rest of the game, he just couldn't make a layup.

5. Montana outrebounded us. Everyone knew we were going to have some problems this year against good guards such as Villanova's but when VCU and Montana's inside guys dominate us as they did at times something is seriously wrong. CBH was subbing like mad trying to find the right combination and even went small with Reeves or Lane at Center and Honeycutt at power forward but we could not stop anyone inside. We should have a huge physical advantage here but we don't. This is an area of major concern.

These were not my original five points but there is so much wrong with tonight I could go on for a while. But the point is this team's needs an identity and a leader. Nothing Montana did tonight was a surprise, taking advantage with a quicker PG, packing in the zone, etc. However, we have too much talent to lose this game at home. CBH has to decide whether this team is going to push it or not. Someone (logically Honeycutt) has to step up and lead.

Until then we will be a team with BS moral "victories" looking for an identity.

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Will Cherry played well at California. I don't think his ankles were 100% healthy against the Long Beach State kid Ware, but Will competed. He his having a great Junior year.

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In conference play, Cherry is shooting 50.4% from the field, 43.9% from 3-pt range, and 82.4% on free throws. Against Hawaii, he was 10-13 from the field and 3-5 from 3-range.

I love watching him play.

It's not very often that you get a player who is a major contributor for four years in a college career.

Will has been a great addition to the program, and will hopefully be remembered long after his time as one of the great players for Montana. (That all being said with one more year left!)

So 3 years into his career, who is with me about him having a legit shot at the NBA? I have been on his NBA bandwagon almost from the get go, and it started with me seeing his defense, and leadership. I know the diehard egrizzers will recall me being on this early.

Thank you for proving me right a few years later Will.

Should we start considering Jamar's chances making it too?

NBA, or not, what great players each are. Anthony Johnson, Will Cherry, and Kareem Jamar, will go down as the players getting the GRIZ on the map for being a guard producing school. Speaking of Anthony Johnson, his role in Cherry's development is large as anyone's role. I hope when Will's time as a GRIZ is over, he give kudos to Anthony Johnson.

The game plan Tinkle put together with AJ and Cherry, could not have played out better. Tinkle hit the nail squarely on the head, in this case.

Thanks for all you do as GRIZ, Will.