WKU Basketball: How Eli Wright will Fit into the Hilltopper program
On Thursday night, it was reported by Jon Rothstein that St. Johns transfer Eli Wright will transfer to the WKU Basketball program taking…
On Thursday night, it was reported by Jon Rothstein that St. Johns transfer Eli Wright will transfer to the WKU Basketball program taking one of the two available scholarships after the unexpected departures of Marek Nelson & Tolu Smith.
While Wright’s addition hasn’t been confirmed by WKU yet, we can assume that Stansbury is indeed adding the Owensboro native to the roster for two more seasons moving forward regardless if he is granted a hardship waiver to play during 2019–20 season.
So what kind of player is WKU getting with Wright? How will he fit onto the roster in 2019 & beyond? We’ll explore below
Eli Wright is a 6'4'’ 205 shooting guard that was originally a four-star recruit at Apollo High School in Owensboro before finishing his high school career at 22 Feet Academy (now defunct). In 2016 Wright chose to start his college career at Mississippi State, choosing to join Ben Howland’s first recruiting class over offers from Florida, UConn, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and WKU among several others.
As you can see from Wright’s brief senior year highlight tape he was a slasher that could run down the court and also play some defense as well. Those skills would show up in glimpses during his time in Starkville.
Wright would play two seasons for the Bulldogs, playing on a team that finished 16–16 during his freshman year and the 2017–18 Bulldog squad that finished in the NIT Final Four (same as WKU) before losing to Penn State.
As you can see Wright was a consistent rotation player for the Bulldogs but had trouble cracking a starting lineup that featured productive guards Quinndary Weatherspoon, Nick Weatherspoon and Lamar Peters. After a solid freshman season in which he averaged 3.5 points per game (including 40% from 3 point range)along with 1.6 rebounds & 0.2 assists in just 13.1 minutes a game, Wright almost transferred away from Starkville but decided to come back for his sophomore season.
During his sophomore season, Wright played slightly more 13.8 minutes per game and improved his rebounding numbers (2.2 per game)& assist numbers (0.9 per game) but his shooting numbers took a tumble (down to 40% overall and a paltry 21% from 3 point range) as he averaged just 3.0 points per game for the Bulldogs still playing behind the Weatherspoons & Peters. After that humbling season, Wright elected to get a fresh start joining Chris Mullen’s St. Johns program.
He had to sit out the 2018–19 season but seemed to be fully integrated into the program, even recording this get to know you clip last July.
Wright’s time was short in New York as St John’s unexpected switch from Chris Mullen to former Arkansas coach Mike Anderson caused Wright to once again look for another home.
With two years of eligibility remaining, Wright has apparently decided to play just 70 miles down the Natcher Parkway from his hometown of Owensboro. The next question is how will he fit into WKU’s crowded backcourt?
Talent-wise, Wright can stack up with anyone on WKU’s roster. He was rated anywhere from 65th (ESPN) to 92nd (Rivals) in the 2016 class. That would put him only behind Charles Bassey in the ratings pecking order with Josh Anderson & Jordan Rawls (60–100 range) roughly the same level of player in high school.
Rick Stansbury has been dogged in his pursuit of talented players since arriving on the Hill. Taking chances on multiple transfers with mixed results. Sometimes they’ve worked out great (Darius Thompson, Dwight Coleby) and others have hurt chemistry or underperformed (Desean Murray, Junior Lomomba). Wright seemed to be a team player at Mississippi State but any player that transfers multiple times definitely is a concern.
Wright projects to play anywhere from the two-guard to potentially a stretch four depending on WKU’s lineup at a given time. He’ll be competing with established players such as Jared Savage, Taveion Hollingsworth, Josh Anderson & Camron Justice as well as hungry freshman Jeremiah Gambrell and Jackson Harlan for minutes on the crowded wing should the NCAA grant Wright a hardship waiver.
Having five established players for two main spots (shooting guard & small forward) will prove to be a challenge for Rick Stansbury especially after playing with a short bench over the past few seasons. Talented players like Anderson & Hollingsworth aren’t going to just give up their minutes voluntarily and Wright will have to earn playing time over the course of the season. He’ll do that by playing hard defense and providing another shooter to the lineup (if he plays like his freshman self). Jared Savage seems to be the player most impacted by Wright’s addition as he’ll have to improve his shooting and defense to stay on the floor in 2019–20.
This ultimately is a good problem for Stansbury to have if he can manage egos (big if) and get the team to come together for the goal of the program’s first NCAA appearance since 2013. Having bodies to throw at teams will help his teams play more aggressive defensively and Stansbury will be able to rotate more according to matchups (except against bigger teams) this season. Being able to sit someone that is having a poor shooting performance or not playing defense will be a nice departure from recent substitution woes especially if the five listed above perform at the level we expect them to (the bench was often a black hole last season).
Wright not only adds depth for 2019–20 he’ll also help bolster a rotation that will lose Savage & Justice after the season. Having a three-headed senior wing combo of Anderson, Hollingsworth & Wright bodes well for WKU’s 2020–21 prospects as we hopefully will see the Hilltoppers trying to sustain a new run of excellence moving forward.
We’ll have to wait for Wright to be announced as a member of the WKU program and see if he’ll accept shared time after waiting three seasons to start. Should he live up to his pedigree, he’ll be an obvious upgrade over Marek Nelson (despite Marek providing much-needed size) and help WKU continue to favorably stack up talent-wise against its entire schedule. With the sky falling in Hilltopper nation after the recent departures, Wright could be a coup that we all look back upon as a crucial addition to the program.