Morning Stock Report: April 24, 2019
Well, that didn’t take long for the stock report to fall by the wayside for a couple of days, did it? It’s been over a week since our last…
Well, that didn’t take long for the stock report to fall by the wayside for a couple of days, did it? It’s been over a week since our last one but with the lead up to Easter and my preparing to go out of town (well it was two hours away and only for a day…whatever) some stuff fell by the wayside.
But, we’re back, so let’s take a look at who is hot and who is not surrounding WKU athletics.
Rising
WKU Softball
It’s always good to beat Middle Tennessee. It’s always great to beat them twice. It’s always euphoric to beat them three times, which is exactly what the WKU softball team did this week.
So uh, suck on that, Blue Raiders.
WKU now sits at 15–3, the best mark in Conference USA, in league play and 33–9 overall (the only team in the league to not have double-figure losses) a road trip to Louisiana Tech on deck for this weekend.
Basketball Recruiting
I’m about to give you a bit of a spoiler alert; recruiting is going to be both a Rising and Falling topic today. But, the good news, first.
The Towel Rack has a source that is telling us Alabama grad transfer Dazon Ingram, who announced he has made his decision on his landing spot, will be coming to the Hill.
He’s set to announce today at 12 p.m. CT. Either way, the Towel Rack will have you covered when the announcement is made.
The Toppers also played host, reportedly, to LJ Figueroa, a St. Johns transfer.
This move is…interesting. WKU assistant Mark Hsu is reportedly set to join the SJU staff, so it’d be odd to see that flip flop.
Figueroa, a guard, averaged 14.4 points, 6.4 boards and 1.7 assists while shooting 51% from the floor and 38% from three last year with the Red Storm. Rivals.com listed him as a four-star player out of high school.
As far as guys who have already committed to the Tops, WKU landed a Top 70 prospect in Jordan Rawls over the weekend. Perhaps you heard.
Per 247Sports’ Evan Daniels, Rawls is slated to reclassify to join Nick Ongenda, Isaiah Cozart and Jackson Harlan in the 2019 class. (More on this later.)
Golf
That’s right baby. We’ve got golf talk today.
Yesterday, the Hilltopper golf program competed in the C-USA championships and despite not taking home any hardware, they did mark their best finish as a league member, highest overall finish since 2014 and shot their lowest score in a conference tournament since 2008, shooting 873.
The Toppers also had three players — Billy Tom Sargent, Stuart Easton and Tom Bevington, tied for 10th individually.
Golf claps for you lads.
Falling
WKU Baseball pitching
I know, you’re asking yourself: “Are you guys really harping on this again?”
Yes. We sure are.
The WKU pitching staff has allowed six or fewer runs in eight of their last nine games and continue to hold the conference’s worst ERA.
Not just that, but they also got shellacked by Kentucky at Bowling Green Ballpark, a matchup and location the Tops usually can tame the Cats in, 15–4.
I don’t know what else to say, but it’s bad and it could be the reason the Tops miss yet another league tournament.
Basketball Recruiting
Remember how we talked about Rawls’ commitment and how he’ll be reclassifying to 2019?
Well, not so fast.
Rawls himself says he’ll most likely stay a member of the Tops’ 2020 class which a lot of people took as “Rawls will back out.”
However, if what we have sources tell us is true regarding Ingram and if the Tops land Figueroa, that’s simply too many players (guards, at that) to have on a 2019 roster that Rawls staying back one year won’t hurt. It actually might improve.
After this coming season, the Tops will say goodbye to Jared Savage, Moustapha Diagne and Matt Horton. (I believe Carson Williams will have two years of eligibility, but don’t quote me on that.)
All of that is to say that we’ve seen Stans get guys to reclassify to come in as immediate help (Nick Ongenda is the latest example) but he may be playing a bit of a longer game here.
I, personally, am not worried about Rawls decommitting after this remark and I hope you aren’t either.