Lady Toppers Finish Difficult Non-Conference at 9-6, Look Like Real CUSA Contenders

WKU had some question marks heading into the season, but this team has size, chemistry, and depth. Could they go toe-to-toe with Middle Tennessee for the CUSA title?

The Western Kentucky Lady Toppers made significant strides as a program last season, being one of the better teams in Conference USA and backing it up with a run to the CUSA Championship Game for the first time in five years.

Head Coach Greg Collins had never brought his team to the championship game as a head coach, although he was on staff since 2011 as an assistant until Michelle Clark-Heard left for Cincinnati in 2018.

In his sixth year, Greg Collins finally seems to have a roster with a little bit of everything. His other rosters have been young, or have been small, or have had chemistry issues. This year, it seems to be a pretty solid roster. There is definitely real size that could hang with, score, and athletically compete with anybody. There’s some youth, but there’s really good youth and there are experienced players at every position.

The Tops seem to struggle to rebound at times, and they seem to have massive inconsistency within games. Early in the season, the dropoff from the top six or seven to the rest of the roster was tangible. The Lady Toppers have shown significant progression individually since very early on. If WKU can minimize those two issues, the Lady Tops could separate themselves.

WKU played an extremely challenging non-conference with very few guarantees. In fact, there weren’t many where one could just look at the schedule and feel like a handful of wins would surely come WKU’s way. Miami (OH) was probably going to be a win, and then West Virginia State. Maybe Cornell? Other than that, no game was really anticipated as a walkover. Obviously, it figured to be more than three just by sheer odds, but Western could have easily gone 4-11 to start the season against the schedule they played. Instead, they probably could have stolen a couple more victories from their six losses instead of the opposite end of the spectrum.

WKU played 15 non-conference games this year. They had three very likely wins, then nine coin flips, and played three Power Five programs where they were not really expected to do much of anything. Even one of those Power Five matchups (Vanderbilt) was an unexpected nailbiter (77-74 at Vandy).

Now, the Lady Tops have definitely had some meltdowns, some entire quarters of horrible basketball, make no mistake.

However, the general feel of this Lady Topper team is a team with some chemistry. They seem to like each other. Last year and a few of the other Greg Collins era teams have seemed to have some drama. Why is that? I’ll let you speculate. Sometimes, you just have inexplicable chemistry issues. Sometimes it comes together when you least expect it. All indications thus far are that this team enjoys each other’s company, and more importantly, they seem to play hard together and complement each other.

WKU has played an above average level schedule. Lady Topper play-by-play man Reily Chestnut called it “one of the more challenging mid-major non-conference schedules” in the postgame show after the West Virginia State victory Friday night. Several teams WKU played have been in the NCAA Tournament within the last couple of years.

Consider the schedule for the Lady Tops and ask yourself where the break in the action was:

• W 70-64 vs Mercer (recent NCAA appearance)

• W 76-62 At Southern Utah (2023 NCAA Tournament appearance)

• W 62-56 vs Cornell

• L 74-77 at Vanderbilt (currently 13-1)

• W 63-43 at Miami (OH)

• W 63-45 vs Bucknell (perennial Horizon League contender)

• L 77-61 vs #16 Kansas State (neutral) (currently #11 and 13-1)

• W 62-50 vs Vermont (neutral) (Currently 8-6)

• L 90-77 vs IPFW (neutral) (currently 9-5)

• L 76-52 at Oregon State (currently 12-0)

• L 67-59 vs Ball State (perennial MAC contender; currently 10-2)

• W 72-68 vs Abilene Christian

• W 66-60 vs Nevada (neutral)

• L 69-68 at Missouri St (currently 7-3)

• W 97-39 vs West Virginia State (were averaging over 80 ppg and were a D2 NCAA Tournament team last season)

Again, where was the “gimme”? Obviously West Virginia State, but the way in which the Lady Tops dominated them showed their quality. How about this number? 64-12: The combined record for WKU’s losses. WKU’s wins are not as impressive in that respect, but WKU played a quality schedule and ultimately beat who they should have and did notch a couple of quality wins.

WKU has size, shooting, and depth. They have crafty leaders that can get buckets. They have closers. They have defenders. They play a style that will drive opponents crazy.

Now, the Lady Tops are not devoid of competition in Conference USA. FIU has not lost a game in December. Middle Tennessee is really good as always, including a double digit win at home vs Tennessee. No other Conference USA team has a winning record, it also every CUSA team has at least five wins in the non-conference portion of the season.

It is not that WKU is in poll position, but WKU has looked the part. They have good wins and solid performances. They have zero bad losses. This is the first time in the Greg Collins era that a team and roster just feels like there’s “something” about them heading into Conference USA play.

Watch out for the Lady Tops in 2024.

The Lady Tops open CUSA play at Liberty on Saturday, January 6 at 1 PM Central on ESPN+.