Hilltopper Notebook: Recapping This Week in WKU Athletics, Previewing Football vs. Jacksonville State
Instead of 5 or 6 articles, let's make it simple this week. It's Black Friday. I'm not going to ask our staff to crank out 1,000 articles. Let's recap the week, and everybody have a Happy weekend!
So much happened this week, it’s a holiday weekend, and I’m feeling a little notebook action. Instead of breaking down every single game in a separate article, or going sport by sport, let’s just break down a little bit of everything.
Enjoy, Topper fans!
Last Weekend
WKU Football Loses at Liberty, 38-21
One that particularly stings like the mountain air of Lynchburg, Virginia, Dad (David McCay) and I actually went to this game in the foothills of Kentucky’s neighboring commonwealth.
The Hilltoppers actually started out up 7-0, but conceded 21 straight points to go in the locker room down two scores. They had plenty of opportunities to at least be more competitive in this game, but that never came to fruition.
WKU’s offense, defense, and special teams have all regressed, and WKU has gone from what most considered the conference favorite at the end of October to now needing help to even make the conference championship game, which will be hosted by Jacksonville State regardless of this week’s results in Conference USA play.
Western Kentucky now finds itself needing to beat undefeated (in CUSA play) Jacksonville State in Bowling Green and hope that Sam Houston beats Liberty tonight. Otherwise, WKU will find itself sitting at home on championship Friday instead of hosting Jacksonville State like they should be doing.
WKU Volleyball Wins it All Again
There are a few things in WKU world that we know will happen:
WKU football fans trickle out of interest throughout the year, everyone’s attention starts to shift from football to basketball in November, and Lady Topper Volleyball wins a championship. Be it regular season, tournament, or both, WKU Volleyball is a winner, and you can book it every single year.
Despite a lack of a complete roster all year, Head Coach Travis Hudson injuring himself mid-year playing recreational volleyball, a young team, and an incredibly merciless non-conference schedule that rendered WKU desperate to win the Conference USA Tournament championship in order to dance in March, they did their job.
This time, and this season for that matter, WKU did not have it easy. They had several matches in Conference USA that could have gone either way, but despite the adversity and despite a young team that found itself in the middle of the year, here we are, and WKU will be looking at another attempt at an NCAA Tournament run.
The Lady Toppers will not be favored to do their usual this time, though. They will face a higher ranked opponent in the first round, and possibly to the tune of a top 16 seed. They may possibly get lucky and sneak in above the bottom 16 teams, but that’s a tough ask, considering the Tops are #42 in the RPI and are absolutely not guaranteed anything but a spot in The Dance.
Regardless, this team is absolutely capable of a run, played good competition in the non-conference, and has more size and potential than any other WKU Volleyball team may have ever had.
Good luck, ladies!
Lady Topper Basketball Defeats North Dakota, 74-69
Let’s not spend a ton of time on a straightforward win at home against a team the Lady Toppers should have beaten, but let’s take a moment to realize the history that is being made in this early non-conference slate:
Western Kentucky Women’s Basketball was 5-0 and after this game, and goes on to defeat Tennessee State Wednesday to go undefeated in the month of November. This win against North Dakota solidified only the sixth time in program history that a Lady Topper team started 6-0.
Topper Basketball is Legit in 2024-25
Men’s Basketball Falls at Kentucky by 19, but Impresses on the National Stage in a True Road Game
Something UK cowers to do as per usual, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers actually have the basketballs to play on the road. Going to the unfriendly, gigantic barn that is the Kentucky Wildcats’ burrow (that they never have to leave), Rupp Arena, Western Kentucky had every opportunity to take one lying down.
Instead, the Tops hung around with the Kentucky Wildcats, a team that sits undefeated and ranked in the top ten. Now, does anyone really look at the WKU results and bat an eye? Maybe not, but make note of this: WKU hung with a national championship contender and had a real chance to win with 11:54 left in the game.
Down 57-51 after a Julius Thedford (my goodness, kid!) and-one, the Tops were within ten points under ten minutes when finally the floodgates opened and UK surged forward to the eventual final tally, 87-68.
The encouraging part of this whole result is how it happened. WKU did not play well offensively. And yes, of course, UK had a lot to do with that. However, Western was wide open several times, had some odd bounces, and really did about as bad as they could offensively within the context of what was available.
Defensively, WKU held UK to barely 40 percent shooting, and they had to surge to do that. According to plenty of offhand comments, this was the second-worst UK had looked all season, and the only other opponent that fared any better than Western Kentucky was Duke.
If WKU fans aren’t encouraged, and if regional south central Kentucky basketball fans are not impressed, they’re not paying attention, or they are determined to write off the Tops.
This was deeply encouraging, and WKU finally has a couple of performances (Lipscomb) against good competition that can vouch for the Tops being a legitimate Conference USA championship contender.
This team can play defense, and if they protect the rim at all defensively and find some offense, they could dance once again in March.
Lady Topper Basketball 6-0 for the Third Time Ever in Program History
This one, I did not see coming. A Lady Topper program with legitimate nationally relevant history, this Lady Topper team after over a half decade of underachievement under Greg Collins is the team that starts rewriting WKU record books, albeit the November ones.
The Greg Collins era has been littered with relative mediocrity. It’s early in the season, and the Lady Toppers are absolutely bolstered by a fairly soft schedule. However, this team has size and has stars, and give them full marks: They’re undefeated unlike 300+ other Division I teams in women’s college basketball.
This is an interesting Lady Topper team. I said from the moment they announced an entire list of additions of gigantic forwards and centers that this would allow WKU to compete with bigger teams, and they can now dominate down low against anyone without competitive size. Instead of being inferior down low, the Lady Tops have legitimate size that can score, rebound, and defend.
With Destiny Salary, Alexis Mead, Acacia Hayes, and Josie Gilvin all returning, the Tops returned experienced star power, as well.
With McKenzie Chatfield coming out of the woodwork to be a significant contributor and Zsofia Telegdy dominating down low offensively, the Tops have ten or so players that can do some kind of combination of scoring and defending.
WKU’s Division I opponents are a combined 12-20 thus far, with no Power Five opponents and few contenders in their respective conferences. However, the consistency and the fact that WKU has not really struggled to control a game yet is impressive.
December’s slate of competition ramps up significantly, with only one game on the calendar that should be a guaranteed win (Kentucky Wesleyan), three games that could be pretty even (vs. Miami of Ohio, at Wichita State, vs. Nevada in Maui), and then two Power Five games away from home (vs. Oregon State in Maui, at Kentucky).
Let’s see how all of those results shake out, but WKU just needs one more win out of six games to be above .500 headed into conference play. That is an absolute win given the level of expectation heading into the season.
Previewing the Weekend
The Main Event? Or the Absolutely Pointless Bowl, Sponsored by Flea Land?
So it’s interesting cranking out an article right before Sam Houston and Liberty play tonight. If Sam Houston does not beat Liberty tonight, this football game against Jacksonville State is bowl game positioning and “momentum” and “pride” for both teams.
Jacksonville State has locked up a spot at home in the Conference USA championship game. They may just go through the motions, sit people not completely healthy, and choose to rest their best until next Friday, because they’ll be playing either Liberty, Sam Houston, or Western Kentucky at home regardless of this game.
They did their job.
Western Kentucky did not, and now WKU needs Sam Houston to beat Liberty in the “Can’t Really Pass Worth a Crap Bowl”. If Liberty wins, they will play Jacksonville State, winning in a three way tie with WKU and Sam Houston, having beaten both teams in the regular season. WKU gift wrapped a path to the championship losing 12-7 to La Tech a few weeks ago, and now Liberty has one game to win and championship pedigree to defend.
They may not pull it off, but the Liberty Flames, who have looked like Conference USA’s third or fourth best team all year, all of a sudden seem to playing well, able to do what they want in the running game, and will pose a legitimate threat with the biggest stars in Conference USA the rest of the season.
Dad freaking GUM IT.
Anyway, if Sam Houston wins, it’s now up to WKU to win on Senior Night in the freezing cold of Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Feix Field Jack and Jackie Harbaugh Club Randy Lee Press Box Tim Ford Weight Room powered by Warren RECC fueled by Powerade clothed by Nike Stadium. And don’t get distracted by the stupidity in the last sentence: Even if Jacksonville State is taking it easy or not that focused, they’re still the conclusively better team right now, and the game conditions (sub-40 degrees and windy) should absolutely favor the Gamecocks on Saturday afternoon.
The Moonshine Throwdown is BACK
That’s right. Those cowards at Marshall finally manned up and scheduled the Tops, and it’s time renew one of the most exciting rivalries in recent memory. Marshall crushed WKU’s dreams in 2018 on the hardwood after WKU crushed Marshall’s in 2014 on the gridiron. A rivalry with multiple bunches back and forth, this game should spark enough interest that WKU Basketball should have a raucous atmosphere inside Diddle Arena Saturday at 7 PM. Hopefully, WKU fans will have just witnessed the Tops clinch a conference championship appearance in football, and the natives will come in ready to warm up from a cold but successful battle on the gridiron.
This should be a good one, and hopefully the Tops confirm their recent performances with a comprehensive win against a rival the Tops should beat at home.
Lady Tops Against Miami of Ohio Sunday in Diddle Arena
With both teams playing fairly soft schedules with a combined one loss (Miami of Ohio is 4-1), neither team likely knows what they have yet this year. This is an interesting barometer game for sure. Both teams are at minimum decent and are coming off of disappointing seasons. Both programs have had good to great success in the last few decades. Of course, WKU has significantly more history, but that means nothing, and a lot of that means nothing, frankly.
But this is an interesting game, and (Joe Biden voice) by the way, can we talk about the 10,000 Sunday games this non-conference season? Why in the world has WKU decided this was a good idea? This was clearly planned, and it really makes it hard to attend for someone like me. Get out of church, wolf down some food, and come in and forsake nap time for the girls in order to watch an uninteresting matchup. I love the Lady Toppers, but the Lady Toppers do not deserve horrible crowds simply because of the time and day of the game.
I get it, but I don’t like it. One hopes this experiment is deemed as failed, because we’ve found ourselves missing a few games because of the weird timing.
Summing it Up
I love this time of year. Football is wrapping up, basketball is in the air, and Volleyball is prepping for another NCAA Tournament run. Even if one thing or another hasn’t gone your way this season, at least it’s a sensory overload of awesomeness.
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GO TOPS!!!!