Red Towel Roundtable: 2019 New Year’s Resolutions

Welcome, everyone, to 2019! A new year, 365 days worth to make the best out of everything and time to look in the mirror and set some new…

Welcome, everyone, to 2019! A new year, 365 days worth to make the best out of everything and time to look in the mirror and set some new goals for yourself.

Personally, I want to read more, be better with money and write more for the site (I’d say “write more,” in a more general sense, but I already pen about 15 posts a day for my day job).

However, what about for the Hilltoppers? What is there to strive for as each program takes a look in the mirror? At the outset of 2018, I set some new year’s resolutions for each program. We will take a look at how each team fared later this week, but this year instead of my running the show, I asked our writing staff to give me one of their predictions of their choosing.

Some are micro, some are macro, but almost all of them are achievable. (And, as you’d expect, some are a bit more serious than others.)

Fletcher Keel

On the surface, my resolution for WKU in 2019 may seem like a copout, but I promise it isn’t because the path for meeting it varies across the board: In 2019, my resolution is for each program to reach the postseason.

For the two basketball squads, that means playing your best ball in March, take home a tourney title and try to make a run in the NCAA’s. The Fella Tops have proved they can play with anyone in the country but they don’t play like that every night. The Lady Tops are still growing in year one of Greg Collins and are waiting to break out.

For Tyson Helton and the Chrome Domes, a return to postseason play will be very much welcome after missing a bowl for the first time since 2013 (when WKU was snubbed after finishing second in the Sun Belt), especially if the on-field product is as exciting as we all think it will be.

For Travis Hudson and the volleyball team, it means a regression to the mean (in a good way). 2018 was a rebuilding year, despite the team still notching 20+ wins, they were ousted from the C-USA tournament in the first round and didn’t make the NCAA tournament. A return to postseason play means a return to dominance for one of the best and, recently, consistent programs in the country.

For the baseball Toppers and Lady Toppers FC, it’d mean a return to playing meaningful games late in the season for a first time in sometime. For the baseball squad, last year was a great step in the right direction before a sharp fall off at the end of April — a strong 2019 season could land them in the C-USA Tournament for the first time since joining the league and could be an even bigger first step if the program wants to get back to the days of Top 25 rankings and being competitive. The Lady Tops’ soccer team is in the midst of a two-year postseason drought, losing the final game of the 2017 season, eliminating them from the tournament, before winning just five matches this year.

Reaching the postseason would mean something entirely different for nearly each program. While some are more feasible than others, each squad must look to improve on what can be seen as a disappointing 2018.

Jared Rosdeutscher

Out of all the things I’d like to see WKU do for next year, it’s for coach Tyson Helton to give Kevaris Thomas a shot at being the starting quarterback.

I will fight for Thomas to be the guy until I see consistency or improvements from either Davis Shanley or Steven Duncan, despite Thomas playing limited snaps last season, all but one of which was a run play.

I believe Thomas has the wheels and a big enough arm to be able to contribute and thrive in an offense like Helton will run. Thomas has a cannon and can make some deep passes, plus he’s 6’4” and 250 pounds so he’s a pretty big guy and hard to bring down when he’s running (his sole touchdown last season was a run against Charlotte).

I will probably make a big article making the case for Thomas closer to football season but if he works hard enough this offseason and is given a shot at starting for the Tops, I feel like he would be ready for the challenge and could put up some big numbers under Helton next year.

Ross Shircliffe — Consistency

My new year’s resolution for 2019 is for the basketball team; live up to the talent potential that the team has repeatedly displayed but haven’t been able to capture on a night to night basis.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you would have told me that WKU basketball would have escaped non-conference play with wins against West Virginia, Arkansas, Wisconsin and Saint Mary’s and would have an almost nonexistent shot at an at-large bid, I wouldn’t have believed you. This is due to the inconsistency that the team has shown against lesser heralded opponents.

WKU simply needs to show up and take every opponent seriously. WKU will no longer have any marquee names on their schedule and they will now have a target on their back after last season and being the preseason favorite to win the league. WKU needs to take Charlotte or FIU as seriously as they do North Texas, Old Dominion or Marshall. If the team does that, plays consistent defense and is focused on their mission of returning to the NCAA tournament, then the sky is the limit, if they continue to play down to their competition then we’ll once again be watching the Tops scramble for an NIT berth at best.

Devin Stewart

So countless people every year consider following a resolution and every year by March they have forgotten their resolution and have returned to eating Big Mac’s and complaining about losing weight. So least to say, I am not a fan of resolutions but I am a Topper for life, so I’m setting up these guys for a successful season.

Basketball team needs to dominate everyone, and put down the weed

It’s obvious that these guys are young, but that’s no excuse. Especially when there are teams *cough*Kentucky*cough* who year in and out have freshman who take them to the tournament. This season so far, WKU has completely dominated the stronger teams (Arkansas, West Virginia, Wisconsin) but they stumble when it comes to playing lower conference teams (Missouri State, UCF, Indiana State, etc). So here’s to hoping that the Wisconsin win will push these young guys into dominating conference play and get a conference berth.

Off the court: Stay away from Kentucky Street apartments and PUT THE WEED DOWN.

Lady Toppers need y’all to show up

Last year on RedOUT, I gave the Lady Tops some grief because they played really weak teams. Not this year; they have truly shown us that they can run with the big dogs. They haven’t won any of these games (#2 Notre Dame, #9 Oregon State, #5 Louisville, #13 Iowa) but wow, these ladies have guts because they didn’t lay down when facing these teams. My resolution for this team isn’t really for them, but more for the fans: Show up. These young women are playing awesome and I am predicting them to finish toward the top of the conference. There will be some close games for them in the future and there’s nothing better than an energetic home crowd to add the Sixth Topper.

Off the court: Keep it up Lady Toppers, we salute you.

Baseball team goes to the tournament, or bust

So I played baseball in little league and was on a 13-year-old travel team. That’s all my baseball experience. I was never a huge baseball fan. I only followed the Yankees because Derek Jeter was my favorite athlete. When I was at WKU, I never followed the baseball team.

SO with that knowledge; MY resolution is that the baseball team makes the college playoffs. Good luck guys. (ed. note — Devin means, of course, the NCAA tournament)

Football team goes 7–5

Last season, we predicted that a successful season would be 8–4. We figured — four easy wins, four no chance wins and four toss ups. Well, we all know how that ended up.

3–9 and a new coach later, my resolution for this team is 7–5. Most people would say 6–6 is more realistic, however I go big or go home. But we will just have to see as they have a lot of challenges ahead of them. Three quarterbacks who are easily startable, bendable like a twizzler defense and a team considered “rebuilding” by previous coach Mike Sanford.

I’m not setting a resolution this year, I will keep my money and save the gym membership for another year. But the Tops can do all these, and maybe more.

Jacob Keith — Stay at home if it’s later than 2:00 A.M.

Take it from me Toppers; nothing, and I mean nothing, good happens after 2:00 a.m. Unless you count puking on your shoes, slicing your hand open on broken glass, and getting stitches at 5:00 a.m. “good”. If that’s the your idea of a good time, then by all means stay out till the break of dawn.

Matt McCay

Win a single championship in any sport in 2019. WKU has quickly gone from champions in everything to possibly winning nothing this school year. Volleyball always wins and didn’t. Football was horrible. Men’s basketball was a favorite and now looks sketchy. Women’s basketball feels bleak. Baseball: LORD NO! Softball? Soccer? Track and Field? It’s possible, especially with budget cuts, that WKU could go the entire 2019 calendar year without a championship in any sport. No one is the favorite right now. Let’s see one, Tops. Please!!!