Lady Topper Hoops: Tops in Early Hole after Dropping first Two Conference Games

Western Kentucky women’s basketball has looked much improved. The Lady Toppers were decent last year, ultimately making a nice run with a…

Western Kentucky women’s basketball has looked much improved. The Lady Toppers were decent last year, ultimately making a nice run with a couple of wins in the Women’s NIT after looking questionable early in 2018–19.

In 2019–20, the Lady Topper came out looking like a team possessed to reverse its misfortune, starting out 4–1 against five preseason conference champions. The Tops also beat quality teams like Ball State and Oklahoma in December.

The Lady Toppers had an eight-day break, and since beating Ball State, WKU has looked shaky, to say the least. Western barely beat Samford, a below-average team, albeit on the road on December 15. Three days later, the Toppers traveled to Purdue, a team that is now 11–4, a quality team, but not necessarily a Big 10 team that should be feared as an unstoppable force. WKU lost by 17, only scoring 50 points.

Unlike last season, WKU actually struggles scoring. The defense is not the issue, but now the offense is more inconsistent than the defense.

This Week’s Results

Ultimately, WKU was heading into Conference USA looking like one of several favorites with teams like Old Dominion, Charlotte, Middle Tennessee, and UAB. Western was the top dog in the conference according to the RPI (41) before losing to two bad teams this week. What’s amazing is Conference USA has four teams currently in the top 60 in the RPI, so there are huge implications for each conference game this season. There could absolutely be some at-large bids on the table for someone that can stand out in C-USA.

Thursday at North Texas: 54–61 L

This was a shocking result. North Texas is not a top 200 team, and the 41st best team in the country goes in a lays an egg, being down as much as 19 in the third quarter. Western held as much as an 11 point lead in the second quarter, before completely melting down and allowing a 30 point swing in a matter of 16 minutes.

When looking at the stats, it’s fairly simple to see why WKU struggled. Almost no one besides Raneem Elgedawy did anything of note. Nearly getting a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds, Raneem continues her incredible junior season.

It seems three players stuck out as the negative difference for the Tops. In a total of about 28 minutes played, Sherry Porter and Alexis Brewer combined for 0–9 shooting, four fouls, two assists, and four turnovers. They were absolutely struggling Thursday, combining for a +/- of -14 on the night in limited minutes. Brewer by herself was -12.

In a bizarre statistic, Fatou Pouye started, played nine minutes and recorded absolutely zero stats. No fouls, shots, or anything else besides being on the court. One would guess that’s not what Greg Collins is looking for in his starters.

Frankly, this was a disastrous start for WKU. WKU then had Rice up next (who they lost to) and now have UAB and Middle up this next week. Without this win, WKU could start 0–4 and almost kiss a first-round bye goodbye as well as an at-large bid in one fell swoop.

Saturday at Rice: 65–73 L

Rice (7–6, 2–0 C-USA) is surprisingly not that good this year. Ranked near 200 (#183) in the RPI, the Owls are a very marginal team or at least have shown that thus far. However, starting out 2–0 in C-USA as the preseason favorite surely rights the ship a little bit. However, according to precedent, WKU probably should have won this game Saturday.

Again, Collins is experimenting with his lineup. Against UNT, he started Fatou Pouye, who literally did not produce a single statistic in nearly nine minutes. This game, he started Myriah Haywood, who played 11 minutes, missed three shots, fouled four times, and had a block. Yikes.

I’m not sure why Sherry Porter is not starting like she did all season. I know other players (Pouye, Haywood, Brewer) are pushing for portions of her playing time, but Sherry has been a consistent offensive (and defensive) presence for WKU this year. She has finally blossomed as a legitimate scorer. Now he’s messing with the lineup and I’m afraid maybe he needs to back off and go back to what was making you a top 50 team early in the season.

Sherry played 23 minutes against Rice, shooting 1-of-5, 2-of-4 from free throw, only scoring five points, and producing nothing much more than fouls and a few points inefficiently while playing more than half of the game. Only one Lady Topper finished with a positive +/-, and that was Fatou Pouye who finished at +1. She played 17 minutes, shooting 1-of-4 with two turnovers, so even that was a bit of a fluke.

Elgedawy and Givens were excellent, scoring 23 and 15. Also, Whitney Creech was highly efficient, having a 3.5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and dropping 14 points in on ten shots.

However, the three-star producing was not enough, and WKU now has a new struggle to score enough points. This game marks three games in a row WKU has not scored more than 65. Western scored less than 65 once beforehand at #9 Louisville on November 5. Clearly, the Tops have hit a funk offensively.

Up Next

WKU comes back home for the first time in nearly a month, facing UAB in the Education Day game. 5,000 local kids will pack Diddle at 11:00 Thursday in a game that will be extremely crucial for the hierarchy of the entire conference, as well as a game that WKU simply needs to stay in contention.

UAB is a solid team this season, currently in the top 135 in the RPI. However, they’re plenty dangerous and have recent success in C-USA. After UAB, Middle Tennessee comes waltzing into town with 3'3" Head Coach Rick Insell in his blue Radio Flyer wagon and his handy dandy step stool so he can use the big girl sink in the locker room.

Middle is very good and finally looking like the team it should have been if Rick wasn’t busy complaining the past few years. They’re 9–5 (1–1 C-USA) against a brutal schedule that has already included a recent split with two very good C-USA teams (Charlotte and ODU are both top 50 teams), UK (loss), Auburn (Win), Gonzaga (loss), Arizona State (loss by one), Belmont (loss), VCU (Win), and TCU (Win).

That is a ton of quality experience (and wins) the Blue Raiders bring in to Diddle Saturday at 2 PM.

In all seriousness, WKU is in dire straights if the Lady Tops can’t find a way to get at least one this week. If WKU starts C-USA play at 0–4, they can almost kiss a bye in the C-USA Tournament goodbye. Life doesn’t get easier for Western after this homestand. They’ll travel to Old Dominion and Charlotte after that.

Honestly, if the Tops could somehow end up 3–3 after all of that, that is an absolute home run. Potentially, WKU could start 0–6 in conference if they do not play well within the next two weeks.

It’s a scary, precarious time for the Lady Toppers because they did not beat North Texas. Rice is understandable, but WKU faces the gauntlet early and then things slack off. With that loss to UNT, there goes the only “bunny” game down as a loss.

Unfortunately, if Western is sitting at 10–6 at the end of conference play, they could already be eliminated from earning a first-round bye. The Lady Tops must get themselves together and play like the November version of the Tops and not December and early January.

Unfortunately with the top of the conference being so good this season, they could play as well as they did early in the season and still lose several games. The Lady Toppers need some luck and a sense of urgency to not drown in a whirlwind of bad timing and misfortune.