Lady Tops: WKU Sweeps Final Home Stand, Clinches 2 Seed in Conference USA Tournament Next Week

In a year that started dismally, the Lady Toppers have arisen from the ashes of a 3-6 non-conference, confirming a high seed and setting themselves up ideally for postseason play.

Wow.

The Western Kentucky Lady Toppers have overcome a bad start, youth, and a lack of size and somehow sit in a confirmed second place finish in Conference USA Women’s Basketball.

If you had told me that after Western lost to Cornell and Cal Baptist, I wouldn’t have bought it. Would you have?

Greg Collins’ seat was really starting to heat up. Inheriting a program that he was already completely aware of after being on staff for several years before graduating into the head coaching job, Collins’ tenure has frankly been incredibly underwhelming. Despite the tough issues, he is showing progress, and nabbing a two seed is an important breakthrough for the Lady Tops.

Setting the Stage

After Michelle Clark-Heard left for Cincinnati after the 2017-18 season, Collins was left with a decent roster with some good to great players. He may not have had the wealth of talent that was there the year before, but he had plenty. That season, the Tops did go 20-15, so that was a decent result. But they did need two upsets to get to the final 16 of the WNIT that year. That run saved any kind of serious ire to be drawn in his first season. That was a decent result, and it should have catapulted the Tops into contention for an NCAA berth the next season.

In 2019-20, Collins got the Tops to a 22-7 record, and COVID cut everything short. Western was set to be a three seed in the C-USA Tournament, and other than a really good Rice team, WKU was probably the best of the rest. We’ll never know exactly, but from what we know, this was an acceptable outcome for that season.

2020-21 was an absolute nightmare for the Lady Tops. One of the players was stuck in her home country. Raneem Elgedawy, who also happened to be the only legitimate, developed scorer and low post presence, did not play until she was able to come back to the states in the middle of the year. WKU ended up 7-16 on the year, one of the two worst seasons ever in Lady Topper history record-wise, and the Lady Tops were not that competitive even after Elgedawy showed up. This really put Collins immediately in trouble. However, he did show signs of keeping the team together, and honestly, the circumstances that this team had to deal with were ridiculous. Collins was given a pass, although his rope got incredibly shorter after this debacle.

Last season, WKU pulled some things together, won 18 games, and climbed out of disaster mode. Certainly season-to-season, there was improvement from the last one. WKU had some talent, but the Lady Toppers absolutely floundered in the first game of the C-USA Tournament, losing handily to UAB. Western was not invited to the WNIT, and frankly Western fans mainly wanted to see some postseason success. I think that was the main thing to see, to kind of get to where you shoud be. Western was the four seed out of the East Division, but they had the fifth best record overall. UAB was 8-10 in conference and Western was the favorite. Western should have at least won one game last season, and honestly it wasn’t unreasonable to hope WKU could have made it past La Tech in the quarterfinals. The early loss really set some fans off, and I think he really received some heat.

Coming into this season, Collins finally kept some players on the roster, something he had struggled with in years passed. WKU has a nice young core, and it’s turned out the Lady Tops have some really good young talent. That young talent did take some time to develop, but by January, the Lady Toppers were starting to look like a team rounding into shape. WKU was 3-6 in non-conference, and looked like they were headed for getting their coach fired.

Something clicked in late December, and the Lady Toppers, picked to be a modest sixth place, stormed into conference play, establishing themselves as the second best team in the league. In early December, if a poll had been taken on which WKU Head Basketball Coach would be fired by the end of the season, I think everybody would have said Greg Collins.

At the time, Rick Stansbury had one loss and Collins was 3-6 heading in to a tough starting schedule in C-USA. But Western came out against Rice on the road and somehow beat them. That was a complete and utter shocker. WKU did lose two tough ones to Middle Tennessee and North Texas. However, Western would then reel off five in a row, setting themselves up at 5-2. They did then lose to Charlotte in an eye gouger of a basketball game. Then Western once again got back on the right track and reeled off four more. At 9-3, Western was now a legitimate contender, and a ranked MTSU had actually lost two in a row, giving Western a chance to beat Middle and set themselves up as the top dog in C-USA. Western would lose fairly handily to Middle, although the beating wasn’t completely embarrassing.

From there, the Lady Tops really struggled to rediscover their footing a little bit. Western barely beat Charlotte, lost by 18 to Rice at home, and lost to La Tech on the road. Instead of Western using those three games to confirm their position in C-USA and consolidate second place, WKU was sitting with a battle on its hands to maintain its second place. In fact, Western had allowed UTEP and Rice to legitimately threaten a 2 seed that seemed like a foregone conclusion in mid-February.

In atypical Collins fashion, the Lady Tops did not squander the late season opportunity. Western drew UAB on the road, a team that inexplicably had one loss in the non-conference and is dead last in C-USA. This is a capable team, and Western just smacked them around and strutted back to Bowling Green. In a huge moment, Greg Collins finally showed us that he could pull something together.

Now WKU had put itself in prime position in a winner-take-all matchup at Diddle Arena Thursday. The winner would take home the two seed, and the loser would have to hope and pray for Rice to lose a game they probably would have not lose Saturday at home against FIU in order salvage a three seed.

WKU Finishes Season Sweep of UTEP, Wins Tight Battle, 62-59

Heading into the game, it was hard to know what to expect. UTEP is a quality team. They have some big bodies. They have a lot of length. Good individual players. This was unlikely to be an easy task.

Well, WKU came out like a team that knew it was the better team. They took control, and honestly controlled the tempo of the game. The only way UTEP was able to hang in was by using their size inside, something the Lady Toppers really can’t do much about. WKU tightened up the interior defense, while also making some outside shots and getting easy buckets off of turnovers.

Although the lead never ballooned above ten, WKU certainly did pretty much control the game from the tip, up until the fourth quarter. In the fourth frame, UTEP made their move. Hanging around all game, which definitely was an issue exacerbated by the Lady Toppers, UTEP clawed back in and near the end of the fourth quarter, had actually taken the lead briefly.

With 30 seconds remaining, UTEP took the lead on one of the few good calls all night. Freshman Karris Allen was caught a little too deep in the lane and fouled Jazion Jackson of UTEP. Jackson would swish her two free throws, and WKU would call a timeout and endure its only deficit for a total of six seconds, as Karris Allen was given the chance to redeem herself. On a nice set play by Collins and his staff, Allen rose up and nailed a 16 footer from the elbow to take the lead for good.

WKU would miss a couple of free throws (a disturbing downward trend for the Lady Tops), but ultimately, the Tops found a way to fend off an excellent UTEP team to clinch the two seed.

Despite clinching the two seed Thursday, WKU continued its positive momentum by handling North Texas on Senior Night in honor of their two equipment managers (The Lady Tops have only one underclassman and zero senior players.) in yet another comeback victory.

Down as many as 11 at 23-12 with 2:02 remaining in the first quarter, WKU finished the game +20 in the 32 remaining minutes. Western really had to battle to earn the lead, but in a back-and-forth third quarter, WKU established relative control. Although neither team held a lead larger than four points in the quarter, by the end of the third, WKU had a one point lead. The back-and-forth continued through the first half of the fourth quarter, when Alexis Mead dished it to Karris Allen to put the Lady Tops up five at 65-60. Western would not let the Mean Green get any closer from that point forward.

WKU would win its final home game 76-67, continuing momentum heading into Frisco.

What the Two Seed Means

First of all, WKU is going to be the second favorite to win C-USA, something that they haven’t done under Greg Collins, and something that puts them in excellent position to play more inferior opponents.

Secondly, what it does the most is avoids the one team you do not want to face unless you have to: Middle Tennessee. Middle is ranked and only has four losses on the year, although they did lose two games in conference play. They’re not invincible, but everybody knows it’s Middle against the field and Middle is probably favored over the collection of the entire field.

Everyone else in Conference USA is vulnerable and has shown complete inconsistency week to week. Even WKU has laid some eggs, especially offensively. Well, Western will get to play the winners of the 3, 6, 7, 10, and 11 seeds. That’s much better than, say if they lost to UTEP, likely playing the 1, 5, 8, and 9 seeds. Honestly, there’s probably more room for chalk in Western’s side of the bracket than on the other side. Middle will have to face a team in the semis that is only one game into the tournament. Western could easily face a team in the semis that has already played two games to Western’s one.

This is just a really good strategical position to be in.

Karris Allen Scores 30 Total Points Over the Weekend

Freshman Karris Allen scored 14 points against UTEP and followed it up with 16 against North Texas. Allen has been steadily increasing her minutes and output, but this past weekend, she played like the best player on the team.

If WKU wants to be successful, the Tops are going to need its shooters to make outside shots, and they’re going to need some kind of inside presence. Once you get tired, you cannot rely on your shooting and midrange game. You have to have some kind of ability to get to the cup. Karris Allen can both shoot and be an inside presence. She’s a nice piece. She’ll certainly need her other teammates firing on all cylinders to really threaten Middle, Rice, and others that may be able to claim a legitimate shot at winning C-USA.