WKU Basketball: Grading the Tops Last Week

Now at four losses in a row after significant leads in each, are the Tops reeling or is it just circumstance?

WKU Basketball is on a four game losing skid. After losing to Louisville and South Carolina on the road, the Tops started out Conference USA play with an up-and-down performance against the Rice Owls. Then the Tops doubled down with the most unforgivable sin of them all: Losing to Middle Tennessee.

In name, losing to Rice is a disaster. But keep in mind, Rice has a nice record with a nice performance against Texas under their belt, albeit in a close loss. Rice has some really good players, and a really, really unique player in Max Fiedler. He’s gone with the homeless look for the 2022-23 season, but the big man plays a really interesting point-center type of role. The entire offense runs through his decision-making. He leads the team in just about everything besides points and threes.

Much like a majority of 2022-23 has gone so far, WKU got out to an early lead, blew it, and battled the rest of the game, ultimately falling by three in the final minute.

Western has this weird “on again, off again” type of flow to their games. They can look like a Sweet 16 team for a stretch of ten minutes, and then they will look like, as my four-year-old would say, a bunch of “bingahocka” the next. Much like “bingahocka”, the Tops’ random lack of ability in the middle of games is completely inexplicable.

It’s clear Hilltopper Nation is beyond frustrated. We’ve seen more “I’m through with this crap” than a live feed to a divorce court lately. So let’s step back and break it down. What’s going on? Did Rice just play well? Is it the players? Is it the coaches? Was it the Dayvion McKnight injury? And what about that near-mirror performance against Middle?

I think the best way to break it down is just take a look at everything and give it a grade and see where we stand after that.

Grading the Keys to Victory

Demon Possession: D

The thought behind this was just seeing unquestionable consistent effort from the Tops on the night. Were they diving on the floor? Were they getting the crowd involved? Were they staring at the ball hoping someone else grabs it? Did they bang the ball off of the opponents’ body for an extra possession? I think WKU absolutely did that for most of the first half, and the scoreline showed it. Western held Rice to 22% shooting in the first half. I think anyone with a concept for basic basketball knows that kind of shooting percentage should win you games. However, there were moments even in the first half, and certainly in the second, where WKU was clearly the less intense team. Were they not trying? No, but they absolutely did not match the intensity of Rice. When Dayvion McKnight went down, that seemed to spark them, and they made up the full seven points they were down before floundering at the end. But where is the fire in the moments the situation doesn’t motivate you and you should just be latently motivated to be great?

Fiedler on the Roof: C-

Western really did a good job on Max Fiedler, Rice’s big man, in the first half, but the second half was a complete display of really pretty basketball from him. He ended up with a double-double and a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. Yep. That’s pretty much what he does. Most alarming, though, he doesn’t come close to averaging 15 points and ten rebounds. That was just bonus this game.

Guard the Perimeter: F

Once again, a WKU opponent shoots less than 40 percent from the field, but the opponent shoots just well enough from three to take the game. In this one, Rice shot better outside than inside. I’ll be honest…I thought WKU was out on the shooters for the most part, but Western just doesn’t come at the opponent with intensity on the outside. It’s almost like token pressure in the backcourt. You’re not really doing anything but just hoping they mess up. It’s the same thing as the token pressure concept, except it’s literally the most important thing to do in modern college basketball besides guard the rim from dunks and layups. And what does WKU do? They generally go up flatfooted, maybe raise an arm, and are clearly taught to completely avoid any risk at fouling a shooter. I’d rather see some more fouls in exchange for more intensity.

There’s a problem with the passive approach: If you’re not messing people’s rhythm up, even if they’re crappy shooters, they’re in rhythm, or they can get in rhythm with a few easy shots. Rick always comments something like, “Well, he had made two threes on the year and he steps in and made three in the first half. Exactly! You’re allowing him to. Western HAS to do something besides what they’re doing against the three. This has plagued Rick Stansbury’s teams at Western for years. Part of it is philosophy, which I don’t care about as much. Rick likes to pack the paint but not foul, an interesting combination. It generally works, but you allow teams to potentially beat you if they get hot from three. Fine. Whatever.

Regardless of that, there’s still a factor of how you are taught to guard the three and how much effort you put into affecting shots after you’ve gotten out of position and how close you are to the shooter. Mark Jackson is famous for saying “hand down man down” on three pointers. Why? Because it makes it more difficult for the shooter to make a shot if he’s got something to look at besides just the basket. Far too often, Western is not ready to defend shots. They defend “territory” inside the paint, so to speak, but not shots over the top.

Make it Ugly: C-

The first half, Rice was a mess. So props. However, what did Western do to adjust? The game didn’t record and I forgot to check, so I honestly can’t go back and break down what they did defensively on every play. But it felt like just the same thing over and over. There was no pressure. There was no obvious changeup in thought process. Rice started making some shots and playing with some juice, the offense started functioning through Fiedler, and the mojo got going and the Tops sputtered down the stretch. Also, what consistent fire did theTops really show? There was some there, so let’s not completely discount their enthusiasm. This was probably the most fire WKU has shown in some time, to be honest. Interestingly, Rick Stansbury didn’t coach this game. Correlation or no? I have no idea. Maybe they were inspired to do it for Coach.

Regardless, there was some fire. Jairus Hamilton was all over the court, as he frankly does more than anyone else on this team. Night in and night out, you can count on Jairus to make a “wow” effort play. He’s really stepped up his effort this season without question. But the rest of the team was just kind of there at times. WKU often has rebounders in the paint, but the offensive players are moving to the ball while WKU stands flat footed around the rim. Who is more likely to get the rebound?

Concentrate on the Vowels: C+

The Tops actually held Quincy Olivari in check. He did get 14, but he had to it on 3-of-15 shooting with six turnovers. That’s a really good job. However, Travis Evee had a wonderful game, scoring 24 on 13 shots, six rebounds, and a slightly positive assist-to-turnover, although he did commit four turnovers in the game. Let’s be fair here: Western did a decent job on these guys, so this is a passing grade. However, it’s barely passing and other people stepped up. They also still got their points, so Rice did not really suffer offensively.

Individual Player Grades

Dayvion McKnight: A+

Just out of love for a scary moment, Dayvion gets full marks. In basketball, it’s really rare you see people really taken out on stretchers, but it happened Thursday and it was disconcerting. With what happened on Monday Night Football, it just seems ludicrous to do anything but tip your cap to the effort Dayvion puts out there every night. People can complain about his defense, but his offense is nothing to sneeze at. Dayvion McKnight is not the problem with WKU Basketball.

Emmanuel Akot: B

Akot has kind of fallen off a little bit the past few games, but he still contributed a lot to the box score while committing only one turnover. Eight points, six rebounds, and five assists is a nice, solid line. However, Western needs him to be more explosive on the scoreboard. In WKU’s losses, Akot averages a shade over ten points per game. He averages over 12 on the season. There’s a marked difference when he plays well and when he doesn’t.

Luke Frampton: B+

What’s frustrating is the individual grades seem fine. As individuals, WKU plays pretty well for the most part. Then you break it down and can’t really point to any one thing for why they keep losing. Frampton is no exception. He only had one turnover, produced, drew charges, and didn’t make any seriously foolish mistakes that I can recall.

Jairus Hamilton: C+

Honestly, Jairus had a heck of a night (18 points, seven rebounds, four steals)…except some really, really bad, uncharacteristic, very badly timed turnovers. But the man played his guts out for the Tops. I’d say he was the only WKU player that definitely played 100% all night. Sure, he messed up big time in some big moments, but he deserves a passing grade just for production and effort. Jairus seems to be the lone player on this team consistently “hungry” to win, regardless of the moment or the opponent. The fact that we can question whether they really were engaged in the first conference game of the season after getting embarrassed two games in a row is unfathomable. That blame did not lie on Jairus Hamilton.

Jamarion Sharp: B

Again, where was the poor performance? As we go through, no one really had a bad game? Jamarion had a line of 10-8-4 (blocks) with a couple of steals and only a couple of turnovers in 37 minutes. I think he still needs to work defensively on not biting on every pump fake, but as we go through, there’s not much blame to be passed around individually.

Jordan Rawls: D

To only play 18 minutes and put up eight shots and have a line of 6-1-3 (assists) and two turnovers, that’s really detrimental to the team. Rawls is a distributor. Why is he shooting so many shots? That’s not his game. Unfortunately, he didn’t play to his strengths in this game, although it’s been nice to have him actually get meaningful minutes this season.

Khristian Lander: D+

I think Lander does bring a layer to the Tops. He’s certainly unafraid to shoot, but he definitely has some flaws. One thing that stands out statistically over time that manifested in this game is his propensity to foul a ton for someone who plays 12+ minutes per game. In this game, he had three fouls, for example. He’s also not particularly shooting the ball well yet this year, although he is above 30 percent from behind the arc. Hopefully, he will go the way of Khalil McDonald and be the shooter he’s supposed to be when it counts. Lander has had some moments where he’s looked like a nice piece, and then other times, he’s looked like a player still trying to find his way in college basketball. You’d love to see him get hot and lay off of fouling so often and he’d be a really good, positive impact every time he stepped out there for the Tops.

Everyone else: I wouldn’t know, because they were only given a total of 12 minutes

Once again, here we are week one of conference season, and WKU has magically whittled down to a seven man rotation despite having enough talent to go 11 deep. Do they need to go that deep? No, but the top ten are all different and could start if they had to. It’s very frustrating to see the player with the best post moves on the entire team (Fallou Diagne) get two minutes for no reason. Why did Jamarion Sharp get THIRTY SEVEN minutes? Didn’t we talk about not playing him as much so he’s rested later in the year? It’s not healthy to get 37 out of the tallest player in college basketball.

How about Tyrone Marshall, a guy who can do everything and does nothing but play his guts out and put stats up on the board. Even in a paltry six minutes, he took a good shot, grabbed two boards, and had a foul. That’s not the best example of his production, but all he does is produce. He’s had a double-double off the bench already this season. Why is he not playing? How about Dontaie Allen, a guy who could go off at any time, he makes a three and grabs a rebound, and plays zero minutes in the second half? Why? He couldn’t spell Frampton for another five minutes?

This is the number one gripe about Rick Stansbury: He WILL NOT play his bench when times get tough. He WILL NOT trust players outside of the top six or seven. This is completely 100% a choice not to play the bench. And for what reason? You have zero shot at an at-large. What are you killing your players in January for exactly? Oh also a little bt-dubs…you’re better in non-conference than you are in conference. I wonder why that is? Maybe it’s because you PLAY YOUR PLAYERS. And if Phil Cunningham was told by Stansbury to keep those three out, then good on him for doing his job. However, if it was his choice to not play them and he had the green light, then I don’t think he’s the in-house solution some people think he is.

Dontaie Allen scores six points per game in ten or so minutes of action. He’s an explosive player. Why would you keep him from getting a chance to set the stadium on fire once per game? If he doesn’t have it, let him have his eight to 12 minutes. When he catches fire, give him close to 20 if you want.

Team Defense: C

It was a tale of two halves, of course. It was an A+ in the first half and a stone cold F in the second. So average it out and I guess you get a C. It’s frustrating, because it’s not like WKU just plays AWFUL defense and the other team is wide open in the lane. They generally clog the lane and most teams don’t get easy buckets underneath. But WKU puts such a focus on packing the paint that they completely leave people open to feast on the outside. And here’s the other thing about this team: Rick Stansbury’s philosophy is winning the free throw battle decisively. Well, guess who fouls a lot and doesn’t shoot well from the line themselves? This team.

Team Offense: C+

WKU was productive enough offensively to be in this game. Rice was just really good on their end. Now, here is the concern: Rice’s defense is really not that good, but WKU still struggled at times offensively. It’s frustrating to have the pieces there and just not put them together.

Overall Chemistry: F

For whatever reason, this team has the exact formula to look like a heck of a team and then wilt. This team thus far does not, for whatever reason, make any sense as a unit. They look fine individually. You’ve got the scorer in McKnight. You’ve got the presence down low. You’ve got wings that can shoot. You’ve got ball handlers. You’ve got pretty good defensive players. You’ve got guys that can rebound. But when they come together, they just haven’t shown us that they can click into place together and make some noise. It can still happen, but it’s obvious the current rotation does not produce greatness.

Coaching: D

I’ll just say this: WKU came out motivated. I think they had more juice, more outward emotion, and more sustained effort than some other times this season. However, it waned far too often. Part of that is the makeup of the roster and personality mixes. The other part is coaching and getting and keeping your players engaged and ready to play forty minutes.

Also, unless he was specifically told to only play seven men when it came down to crunch time, what happened once again? WKU essentially played seven players. Count it at eight since three players played an additional 12 minutes. Can anyone explain why Fallou Diagne is being benched? Is he a big baby? Not performing in practice? I honestly don’t know. But the man shoots over 50% from the floor 46+% from three, and has the best set of post moves on the entire team. It looks like he does foul a little much, but then again, doesn’t Lander? Please tell me how Jamarion Sharp and Fallou Diagne are not a compatible combination of big men that should get near equal playing time? Diagne brings offense at good size. Sharp brings defense and excitement at incredible size. Why the crap is he not getting PT?

Also, Tyrone Marshall. All the man does is stuff the stat sheet. He shoots well inside and out, makes free throws, rebounds, steals (fourth on the team), doesn’t turn it over, and plays really hard without fouling? I challenge someone to figure out his +/- and tell me it’s not excellent. I dare you.

How about switching up defenses? How about spelling anybody in the second half? These are all classic Stansbury mistakes. The lone credit goes to the fact that we did see some juice and effort, and I think Cunningham also didn’t do anything absolutely idiotic in terms of burning timeouts (or not calling one despite a 20-0 start) or putting out an idiotic lineup or calling a defense that no one understands.

Grading the Tops vs. MTSU

A virtual carbon copy of the game against Rice, WKU got out to a quick lead, held a decent margin at halftime, and came out in the second half and couldn’t stop the opponent, falling 65-60 to the Blue Raiders.

Understand the Context: D

My thought process here was basically being aware of the moment. Both Middle and WKU lost Thursday, so both teams should have been highly motivated to scratch and claw for a W or they would be through the first full week of C-USA and be on the board with a losing record. Did WKU play this game with an unquenchable fire? You tell me. Also, within the game, did WKU take advantage of Middle’s terrible first half? Absolutely not. What if Western had gone in to halftime up 33-19 instead of 27-19? Also, what happend the moment they came out of halftime? The Pony Girls were ready to go and WKU was still tying their shoes. You have to anticipate you’re going to need to scratch and claw in the second half and step up your excellent defense from the first half, especially given what just happened two days prior. What happens? WKU gets outscored by 13 points in the second half. Awareness: Non-existent.

Know that Middle is Really Good: F

I mean, Middle looked like Biff’s face in every Back to the Future movie for a half. Then all of a sudden, guess what? The Blue Raiders showed up and stormed the Tops and WKU didn’t know what hit them. WKU thought it was in control, and BAM. Things went south. About 100 miles. And the Tops didn’t know what hit them.

Get Frampton Loose: C+

Honestly, this is one of the more frustrating Keys in hindsight, because frankly WKU did what they were supposed to here. They got him the ball. He just went 2-for-7. Whose fault is that? Not the other players. Unfortunately Luke just didn’t make what he was supposed to or perhaps this game ends differently. Also Luke is generally very good when he does get the ball to involve his teammates and not turn the ball over. He didn’t even do that against Middle. Therefore, C+ even though the execution was there to get him open just because he didn’t “cut loose” like he could have.

Don’t Be Done With Diagne (pr. “Junn”): F

3:46.

Is that how many minutes a 6’11” big man that can create his own shot and make threes should be playing against a team with mediocre size and a lack of elite ability to defend the three? You tell me. That’s garbage. He has lost minutes for what reason, exactly? HE AND AKOT ARE YOUR POST WEAPONS and biggest offensive matchup problems! USE THEM!

“Shoot tat ball”

Rick Stansbury is famous…? Infamous? Whatever you wanna call it…for crediting other teams for being able to shoot. “Games often come down to who’s gonna step up ‘n make some shots. It’s a fine line ‘tween winnin’ ‘n losin’.” Well, shuckeedern, chief! How does 40% from the free throw line sound? 40% percent shooting? Only nine turnovers and you could only muster 60 points? Middle was not going to come in and score 70, and WKU just couldn’t muster enough of a system on offense to overcome what amounted to a really nice shooting half from the MUTS (52%). But 52% shooting is not untouchable. Let’s say leave that as is. Fine. WKU just needed to shoot in the mid-40s and make some freebies and this game would have been the Tops’ game ten games out of ten. Western should have won this thing by double digits, easily. Instead they lose, and it wasn’t close at the end, not being within a possession in any of the last four minutes.

Individual Grades

Dayvion McKnight: B-

Obviously Dayvion still contributed and kept WKU in the game. 12 points and six assists means he accounted for about 1/3 of the WKU offense. Unfortunately, he was not on his best shooting performance, especially considering he didn’t even attempt a three pointer and still struggled to put the ball in the basket. This was not his best game offensively. However, he took incredible care of the ball and played a factor despite possibly still recovering from his injury against Rice.

Emmanuel Akot: B

A solid performance offensively, Akot was the lone Topper that shot really well from the floor. However, his points were not as impactful as you would hope, because Western was eight points down on Middle when he was in the game. He also had three of the Tops’ nine turnovers. Unfortunately a nice night gets knocked down by some mistakes.

Luke Frampton: F

I think Luke might somewhat agree with this analysis. Maybe he’d give himself a D-? But ultimately, bad shooting, no assists, two turnovers, and only two rebounds in 30 minutes? Yeah he took his normal charges, a true artist there. And two steals. This is the Luke Frampton we’ve rarely seen this season, and it’s really hard to overcome a guy that’s shooting really bad from three that is being emphasized as the guy who needs to step up and get some buckets. I don’t blame him. This was just circumstance. He’s been really good for WKU this season. But dang, did he pick a bad time to lay some bricks.

Jairus Hamilton: B

The lone starter with a zero or better +/-, Jairus was his normal solid self, avoiding turnovers, producing some offense, and providing some hustle plays. The one thing he did not do this game was come down with several rebounds. In a game WKU got murdered on the boards, Jairus pulling down a few more honestly could have swung the game in the other direction. Nearly four boards under his average, three rebounds in 31+ minutes is paltry for a man with Power Five length on a 6’8” frame.

Jamarion Sharp: C-

I hate to dog on the big man and give such a negative score, but Jamarion was a liability in this game. Other than his eight rebounds (nice job) and four blocks and drawing several fouls on the opponent, Jamarion Sharp was ineffective. Three points in 31 minutes and 1-of-4 from both the line and the field? Just in the shots he took, he had 12 potential points, coming away with only three. That’s rough. Just not a good outing at a time when WKU could’ve used a big post presence to scare MTSU away from what felt like several third and fourth opportunities to score on the offensive glass. Offensively, Middle was able to work around him and find ways to get to the rim.

Khristian Lander: C

Although he had a couple of nice passes for assists, he was also 1-for-6 from the floor. You can’t come off the bench and throw up bricks and be very effective. But he was overall a decent piece because of some minor positives here and there.

Tyrone Marshall: B

This guy produces something every time he goes on the court. This time it was a few points, a few rebounds, and some other stray nice things and only one turnover in thirteen minutes.

Dontaie Allen: B

This guy is explosively capable of getting off his shot. Five quality shots in a little over ten minutes is a unique ability to get your shot off. Could he stand to see some more minutes? I think so. Three rebounds in that amount of time is productive, as well.

The other guys: A+

Fallou Diagne and Jordan Rawls didn’t get more than their generous allotment of four minutes apiece. However, they were a combined +3 on the Blue Raiders in eight total minutes. Jordan Rawls played 18 minutes last game. Why did he get less than five? Diagne is the biggest mystery to me on the entire team. Why isn’t he playing significant minutes?

Coaching: D

At this point, it’s laughable. The last four games, WKU has started out great and crapped themselves ever since. WKU was up eight at the break, and should have been up more. Sure, the defense was excellent first half. What about the offense? WKU shot nearly half of its shots from behind the arc in the first half. Why is it Stansbury teams lose track of reasonable offensive strategy? You have to drive it to the hole or pass it to the block or something to get some decent offensive balance.

WKU was good defensively against MTSU for the most part, especially in the first half. The parade of threes is getting old, though. WKU has to try something different than just having a hand out and raising it when an opponent goes up for a shot. Offensively, though, you have got to find some kind of way to help your team get over 60 points when they only commit nine turnovers. All Middle did was play 2-3 zone most of the night. You can’t figure out how to penetrate a 2-3 zone with a point guard who likes the elbow and a big man who likes the lob? That should be easy money to figure out. Thought bubble: What if against a 2-3 zone, Dayvion McKnight puts himself at the strong side elbow? That would be immense pressure on the defense. Hear me out. Akot/Lander runs point. Dayvion gets ball at elbow. Dayvion can shoot, drive, or pass from the middle of the offense and help the Tops get easy shots from inside the paint. Eureka.

Overall Grade for the Week: F

I mean, ultimately you played two tough teams and lost close ones, but guess what? Conference USA is just good. You’re going to have to outmaneuver yourself to contention this year, and unfortunately, this is not the year to have a subpar X’s and O’s guy at the helm. WKU has thrived in C-USA on just being more talented. Well, that’s not the case anymore. So what does WKU do with this conundrum?

So far, against one of the weakest schedules in the country with zero top 100 opponents so far (that changes Thursday vs. UNT), WKU is a pedestrian 8-5. Given two of those wins are against non-Division I opponents and the Tops have lost four in a row, all of which they were favored in but one, losing these two has virtually flattened any serious hope of contending in Conference USA. If you can’t beat the average, you’re not going to beat the top very often.

That may be a ridiculous reaction, because in all seriousness, in a 20 game conference season, two games probably don’t really matter. However, the way in which WKU did it is just gutwrenching. Western had leads in the last four games of at least eight points. Some of those leads existed in the second half. All of them resulted in L’s.

Why is that?

It’s really hard to put a finger on what is really going on. Suffice it to say, though that this team is massively unerachieving. Against this schedule, WKU should be nearly undefeated. In fact, despite obvious flaws, they nearly were undefeated until losing to now 2-13 #348 NET Louisville to start the four game skid.

Here’s what’s scary about dropping two to Rice and Middle, one of which was at home: If you can lose to those two schools, you can lose to anyone. C-USA is too good this year. The Tops get UTSA Saturday in San Antonio, so hopefully they can win against a bad team. They get FIU at home, which should be a double digit win. Will it be? After that is FAU at home, a near top ten NET team at the moment. Then it’s on the road to La Tech, an incredibly tough place to play.

I could keep going.

The only “cupcakes” in C-USA this year are UTSA and FIU, and guess what? Even they had winning records in their non-conference. Everybody else is as good as WKU or better at the moment. This is going to come down to coaching and jelling. Right now, WKU isn’t getting good measures of either of those.

Losing these two sets a hierarchy that WKU is middle of the pack at best in C-USA. That can change by winning five in a row and knocking out the top three contenders in the next five games. But how realistic is that? First of all, regardless of how good WKU is, winning against three top 65 teams in a row is tough in any year. Compound that with the fact WKU can’t finish and it’s really an uphill battle.

WKU needs to hold serve at home and win half of their games on the road. They blew that against Rice. They lost an opportunity at Middle. If the Tops can squeeze this one out against UNT and win at UTSA, the Tops are back to pretty even with preseason expectations.

Lose one this week and the Tops are in deep trouble. Lose two this next week, and Rick Stansbury may be out the door by the end of January.