Walker's stats running higher

DePaul's media guide features a Q&A segment with each player.

Under the category, "People Tell Me I Look Like …," sophomore guard Will Walker responded, "Deron Williams."

While Walker bears a certain resemblance to the former Illinois second-team All-American, his college career also has begun to share a certain arc.

No, Walker isn't on the precipice of leading the Blue Demons to the Final Four or becoming an NBA lottery pick.

But, like Williams, his numbers have shown remarkable improvement from his freshman to his sophomore year.

Going into today's Big East battle with No. 23 Louisville at the Allstate Arena, Walker is on a run where he has averaged 13.7 points over the last six games.

That spree includes 11-of-24 shooting from 3-point range (45.8 percent) as the 6-foot combo guard acts more and more like the point machine he was at Romeoville and Bolingbrook high schools.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright gave Walker a career-high 35 minutes against South Florida on Saturday, and he responded with a career-high 21 points.

"I've always had a lot of confidence in Will on the offensive end," Wainwright said. "I didn't think he had that bad a year on the offensive end."

The numbers tell otherwise.

Wainwright hoped Walker could be his point guard from the jump and he started most of the preconference games, but he became an afterthought when the Big East teams came rolling in.

Walker finished the year with 3.3 points per game on 37 percent shooting from the field and 23 percent accuracy from 3-point range.

Starting with his 13-point effort in DePaul's opener at Creighton, Walker hasn't come close to sniffing those numbers all year.

He's averaging 9.0 points in just 18.6 minutes per game, a points-per-minute ratio that fits in just behind Draelon Burns and Dar Tucker.

"I worked real hard in the summertime to get my game better," Walker said. "I felt like I should be able to jell with this team much better. That's when I felt like I could do what I did in high school. Or, some of what I did in high school. I gained my confidence."

Don't think Wainwright hasn't noticed. Walker moves around the court like a guy who's shooting 45 percent from 3-point range according the stat sheet, but shooting 100 percent according to his heart.

"He's got a little bit of swagger to him and our team needs that," Wainwright said.

"He has really, really embraced his role and I think he has a chance to be a really terrific four-year player for us."

Louisville (18-6, 8-3) at DePaul (10-13, 5-6)

When: 8 p.m. at Allstate Arena

TV: ESPNU

Radio: WSCR 670-AM

The skinny: There's rarely a good time to play Louisville, and this certainly isn't one of them. Riding a 9-2 streak (capped by wins over No. 16 Marquette and No. 6 Georgetown), the Cards are beginning to live up to their preseason accolades. They showed up at No. 23 in the Associated Press poll Monday, but that might be too light for Rick Pitino's bunch. They're balanced (four double-figure scorers) and deep (nobody played more than 32 minutes in Saturday's upset of Georgetown). Expect freshman center Mac Koshwal to return to the DePaul starting lineup after coming off the bench against South Florida because he missed a study hall. He'll be challenged by a tag-team of blue-chip Louisville post players that includes David Padgett (10.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg) and Derrick Caracter (9.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg).

-- Lindsey Willhite