Just three months from Big Blue Madness, the official tipoff to the 2011-12 Kentucky basketball season, UKAthletics.com writers Eric Lindsey and Guy Ramsey will be profiling UK’s five newcomers, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Anthony Davis, Kyle Wiltjer, Marquis Teague and Ryan Harrow,  in a CoachCal.com exclusive series. Next up is Wiltjer.

Kyle Wiltjer is somewhat of a movie buff.

Living just a few minutes away from a video store at his old house in Portland, Ore., Wiltjer used to run up the street and rent films at least once a week. Wiltjer would pop in the movies, sit back and marvel at art as its put into action.

At that stage in Wiltjer’s life, Steven Speilberg, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino were at the top of their games mastering their craft. It seems only natural that a movie buff like Wiltjer would be into at least one of them.

Turns out he’s into a different kind of film. Growing up, Wiltjer was much more interested in watching Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan recreate classics.

Born after the prime of Bird and Johnson’s career, and with only a few memories of Jordan’s historic run in the late 1990s, Wiltjer didn’t let time affect his chance at seeing some of basketball’s legends. Instead, he rented film after film, watching, learning and studying the game’s greatest players.

When Wiltjer talks about them and some of the players he used to watch growing up, his eyes widen and his voice perks up. Just about every basketball player has a player they looked up to or emulated, but Wiltjer has quite the list.

In addition to Bird, Johnson and Jordan, there’s Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Kevin Love and even Arvydas Sabonis (Wiltjer admits his admiration of Sabonis derives from his unabashed love for the Portland Trailblazers).

As much as you can call an 18-year-old a historian of the game, that’s exactly what Wiltjer is. He’s an astute follower. When Wiltjer discovered YouTube, he ditched the films for highlights and amateur mix tapes. It’s not uncommon for Wiltjer to watch YouTube highlights seven nights a week.

Wiltjer has used the mental reels of film to his advantage in his rise to one of the top incoming freshmen in the country. While the average fan watches a basketball highlight in awe, Wiltjer studies it and applies it to his game like a sponge soaking up water.

“I try to pick up and practice moves I get from those tapes,” Wiltjer said. “I loved how skilled Larry Bird was. He just didn’t miss in his highlight tapes. My favorite clip is when he scores like 40 points all with his left hand. I thought it was pretty unbelievable that he could play with competition like that and do something like that.”

Wiltjer credits his archive of game tape with helping him develop one of the most dynamic set of moves in the country. At 6-foot-10, 239 pounds, Wiltjer possesses the skills of a shooter, the craft of a point guard and the power of a forward.

His efficient, beautiful moves in the post with his back to the basket are what make him so good, but his ability to run the floor and pick and pop are what make him so dangerous. Some are calling him the most skilled big man in the 2011 class.

“I feel like I’m a versatile player,” Wiltjer said. “I can go in the post and have a lot of post moves. I can also take bigger defenders out on the wing because I feel like my shot opens up a lot of opportunities. I can change my game against different players. I’m a good passer, so if they throw double teams, I’m good at distributing it. I’m always working on every part of my game because you can’t be perfect at everything. I just try to work on a lot of skill work because it makes me tougher to defend.”

If it sounds like an old-school game, Wiltjer has no problem calling it that. After all, he is one of the few players in the nation who has mastered the lost art of the hook shot.

Wiltjer’s father, Greg Wiltjer, introduced the hook shot to his son in the fifth grade. Greg put Kyle through the George Mikan Drill, a drill designed to help big men develop rhythm and timing for rebounding and scoring, as well as the NBA legend’s unstoppable ambidextrous hook shot.

An unpopular move in modern basketball, Wiltjer was resistant to what he thought was an inferior move, but his father pushed him through it anyways. The move is paying off now.

“I used to wonder why I was doing it, but these last few years I have brought it out in games a little more,” Wiltjer said. “It is a pretty tough shot against more athletic guys because they can’t really block it. My dad pretty much taught me that because that was basically his main shot back in the day.”

Wiltjer calls his father his mentor “on and off the court” and credits him just as much as the film studies with developing his game. But the relationship between Kyle and Greg is a little bit more than your average father-son bond.

Greg Wiltjer was actually a pretty good ballplayer in his own time, playing with the Canadian national team after a collegiate career at Oregon State. Greg Wiltjer played against the U.S. national team in the 1984 and 1992 Olympics and faced the likes of Jordan, David Robinson and Patrick Ewing.

Always the student, Wiltjer has seen plenty of those tapes as well.

“He couldn’t shoot the ball well at first, but as his career passed, he got better and he developed so many moves in the post,” Wiltjer said of his father. “He’s taught me pretty much all of them.”

Even at the ripe age of 52, Greg Wiltjer can still play ball. Kyle says Greg plays all the time and can still get up high enough to dunk.  The father-son basketball duo has resulted in some pretty legendary backyard battles at the Wiltjer residence over the years, and even now, Greg, at 6-foot-11, still gives Kyle fits.

“He won’t back down from me,” the younger Wiltjer said. “The first couple times I beat him I thought he let me win. He beat me the other day in “HORSE” and he keeps talking about it.”

In a day and age when positions are so defined and players thrive on specialized skills, Wiltjer possesses a bag full of tricks. Overlooked because of his height, Wiltjer surprised everyone but himself by winning the 3-point contest at the McDonald’s All-American Game in early April.

“This sounds cocky, but I wasn’t really surprised,” said Wiltjer, who played in both the McDonald’s All-American Game and the Jordan Brand Classic. “I practiced on it the whole week leading up to it. … The whole all-star game process was amazing. I wish I could go back and do it again. It was an amazing feeling playing on that stage and it was an honor being invited to those events.”

How Wiltjer’s game translates to the college level is still a hot topic of debate. The return of Terrence Jones and Eloy Vargas, along with the addition of 6-10 Anthony Davis, gives UK plenty of depth in the frontcourt, but none of those players are a true center like Josh Harrellson played a year ago.

John Calipari’s system allows players to play out the traditional roles of positions, which should benefit a versatile player like Wiltjer, but a roster that includes Davis, Jones, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Darius Miller, players who can swing to a number of positions, creates an intriguing situation for Wiltjer.

“I really like this team because I feel like everyone is different and I feel like we can have a lot of combinations on the floor,” Wiltjer said. “Hopefully I can bring a high skill set and try to do my part. I really like the four position because it gives you the option to step out or post, but I’m ready to do anything for the betterment of the team. I just want to do whatever coach wants me to do. However he wants me to play, I’ll do it.”

Either way, Wiltjer fully expects to come in and make an immediate impact, even if some are overlooking him. Although he’s the lowest-rated player in Kentucky’s 2011 signing class, he was a consensus top-25 player.

On most other teams he would have been the gem of the recruiting class. At Kentucky, he’s just another weapon.

That begs the question, why come to UK? Why not go to another school where the chance for immediate stardom is more likely?

“During my whole career I’ve tried to surround myself with the best players,” said Wiltjer, who chose UK over North Carolina, Wake Forest, California, Texas and Gonzaga. “Even when I picked my high school, no one thought I would even get minutes. I just like to prove people wrong. You get better in games, but you really get good if you’re playing against the best every day in practice because it pushes you being around that high of a level. Going against the best brings out the best in you, plus it’s fun.”

Like the legends he used to watch as a kid, Wiltjer welcomes the spotlight. Flourishing at the game’s biggest stage under the one of the sport’s most recognizable coaches is one of the big reasons Wiltjer felt so at home in Kentucky, a cross-country trip away from his native Portland.

“I love basketball, I’ve done it my whole life and I want to be on the biggest stage,” Wiltjer said. “It’s an honor to be in this environment and this kind of basketball town. I’m ready for it.”

For more on Wiltjer, check CoachCal.com on Saturday for a few additional notes.