WKU Basketball: Hilltopper Hysteria Shows Gilmpse of 2018/19 Promise

Diddle Arena was full of excitement Thursday night as the public got its first look at the 2018/19 men’s basketball team for this year. So…

Diddle Arena was full of excitement Thursday night as the public got its first look at the 2018/19 men’s basketball team for this year. So let’s see what some of the biggest takeaways are.

Bassey

I’m really skeptical that Charles Bassey is actually a human being. Hysteria is always a laid back, show off your stuff kind of scrimmage for the players but even with that in mind, Bassey was impressive.

He wasn’t getting too crazy with extreme dunks or anything but during the shoot-around he was draining three point shots. And I don’t mean made a four out of like 20 shots. I mean that he was very consistent from deep. Every C-USA school should be on notice.

Starters

The white team was what we assume as the starting line up and it proved to be no shock whatsoever. It consisted of:

• Josh Anderson

• Taveion Hollingsworth

• Jared Savage

• Desean Murray

• Charles Bassey

Lamonte Bearden was on the red team along with Dalano Banton, Jake Ohmer, Marek Nelson, Moustapha Diagne and Matt Horton. Tolu Smith and Jeremiah Gambrell were unable to play due to injury. The Red team did beat the White team but Bassey still finished with 17 points and six rebounds.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was Horton getting 14 points but the White team didn’t guard him too much so he slammed home some solid dunks to get a good reaction from the crowd

Chemistry

Despite a a lot of new faces, these players seem to gel together well in a lot of ways. Seeing the way they dance and embrace each other is something I think is important and will eventually translate to the court in time.

One of the things coach Stansbury said when addressing the crowd was that he really likes this team and that they’re a great bunch of guys.

Overall Reaction

I was impressed despite a lot of sloppiness in the actual scrimmage game. This team has a lot of potential to do some big things once all the new faces start to contribute and mesh with the returning talent of last season.

The full scrimmage, in case you missed it or want to see it again, can be seen below.