WKU Basketball: Looking Towards the 2019–2020 Season
It was only seven months ago.
It was only seven months ago.
The Hilltoppers were playing the Old Dominion Monarchs in the Conference USA championship game in Frisco, Texas. All of us were hoping that WKU could remove the sting of losing a heartbreaker in the conference title game against Marshall just the year before but sadly, the Monarch’s strong defense was too much for the young Hilltopper team and ended WKU’s season, 62–56.
Losing a conference title hurts but hurts, even more, when it happens two years in a row. Due to some of the bad losses they endured in the non-conference part of their schedule last year, the Hilltoppers didn’t have any postseason play.
All of us are hoping that changes this upcoming season.
Many things have already changed just in one offseason. WKU has lost six players in total from last year’s roster; most being due to transfers. But what the Tops lost to transfers was thankfully found in some new, just-as-talented players coming to the Hill to play next season.
Let’s take a look and see what all that change looks like:
Lost (six)
Jake Ohmer (transfer: Georgetown College)
Dalano Banton (transfer: Nebraska)
Marek Nelson (transfer: UTRGV)
Tolu Smith (transfer: Mississippi State as a walk-on)
Moustapha Diagne (grad transfer: La Salle)
Lamonte Bearden (graduation)
Gain (eight)
Camron Justice (grad transfer: IUPUI)
Kenny Cooper* (grad transfer: Lipscomb)
Eli Wright* (transfer: St. John’s)
Carson Williams (transfer: NKU, now eligible after sitting out last year)
Patrick Murphy (transfer: Martin Methodist College, now eligible after sitting out last season)
Isaiah Cozart (freshman: in-state)
Jackson Harlan (freshman: in-state)
Jordan Rawls (freshman: consensus four-star recruit from Tennessee)
Asterisk = still waiting on clearance from NCAA.
Also worth noting: Jeremiah Gambrell was redshirted due to being injured most of last season and will likely be healthy to play this season.
Sure losing players to the transfer portal isn’t a good thing but the players that head coach Rick Stansbury is bringing in are just as good, if not better, than those he lost. And I don’t mean that as a dig against any of players that transferred (all for different reasons) but looking at the talent coach Stansbury is bringing in as a whole, we should expect more from his team this upcoming year.
Players weren’t the only things that changed during the offseason as well. Coach Stansbury lost assistants Marc Hsu (now at DePaul) and Nikita Johnson (now at Austin Peay) but gained assistants Phil Cunningham and Marcus Grant (both previously at Troy) to add to his coaching staff. Both Cunningham and Grant have a long-standing relationship with coach Stansbury.
But the equally important factor for this season’s success isn’t just what has been added but what coach Stansbury returns.
Return (six)
Charles Bassey (14.6 PPG last season)
Taveion Hollingsworth (14.4 PPG last season)
Jared Savage (12.2 PPG last season)
Josh Anderson (12.1 PPG last season)
Matthew Horton (1.1 PPG last season, could potentially see bigger bench role this season)
Jeremiah Gambrell (0.8 PPG last season, as previously stated Gambrell only played in four games last season due to injury and should see more playing time this season)
According to my calculations, WKU should return six players that were responsible for 55 points of their offensive production per game from last season going into this year. That is definitely a good thing to have with four of the player's listed above-being starters from last year as well. So how will all these pieces fit together?
Considering it’s just early October, we can only speculate at what lineups Stansbury might use and what the offense will look like until Hilltopper Hysteria on the 17th but one thing you can count on is a more efficient and high-scoring offense.
In his season-opening press conference, (which you can find our recap of here), coach Stansbury said “We’re not going to score 71 points per game, I’ll tell you that” insinuating that this team will take a leap in their scoring production.
With the type of players coach Stansbury has brought in mixed with what he returns from last year, this should be the perfect mix of youth and talent, especially with scoring. You have that core of Bassey, Hollingsworth, Savage, and Anderson melding with newcomers like Camron Justice, Carson Williams, Kenny Cooper, and Jordan Rawls providing more depth to a team that will need a consistent bench to succeed this year.
If you read any of my articles from last year you probably caught on to how big of a deal I stressed having a consistent bench is. Last year, the bench was lucky to score more than ten points a game as a whole and that is something that killed the Tops last year. They would be lucky to have more than two players score coming off the bench last season but that should change this year.
Let’s say the hypothetical starting lineup for this year is Cooper, Hollingsworth, Justice, Anderson, and Bassey: that makes Jared Savage, who averaged 12.2 points per game and started all 34 games last year a potential sixth-man for this season. You also have someone like Carson Williams who averaged 11.4 points per game in his two years at NKU coming off the bench as well. And if Eli Wright is cleared that’s another wing threat with power 5 playing experience coming off the bench. Throw them in with freshmen Jordan Rawls, Isaiah Cozart, and Jackson Harlan and a healthy Matthew Horton and Jeremiah Gambrell and you already have a stronger bench than last year.
Even if Savage comes off the bench and still averages 12 points per game in the time he plays that’s more than the entire bench averaged last year per game as a whole.
Regardless of how the starting lineup turns out, coach Stansbury is bound to have at least one player who was previously a starter (either at WKU or another school) coming off the bench providing more consistency and leadership with the young guys on his team. The scoring shouldn’t end with his starters this year but should continue several players into the bench regardless of his rotations. That excites me a lot.
It also excites me that coach Stansbury will have more consistent three-point shooters as well. Having more sharp-shooters like Camron Justice (35% career three-point shooter), Kenny Cooper (shot 36% from three last year at Lipscomb), Carson Williams (shot 36% from three his last year at NKU), and Jordan Rawls (shot 34.9% from three for his AAU team) should help with shooting depth to go alongside the players already on the roster.
By potentially having more consistent shooting from deep, that should help things in the paint for the Tops as well. Considering three-point shooting was something that WKU didn’t really excel in last year, teams were more focused on trying to stop Bassey in the paint by double and sometimes triple-teaming him down low and forcing him to take a highly contested shot or left a someone open but then missing the shot.
With all the offensive threats that coach Stansbury should have on the court at all times, teams probably won’t want to risk doubling Bassey for the majority of a game. If they try to lock down on Bassey, that could leave a good shooter open. If they try to lock down on a good shooter, that could open up things in the paint for Bassey. Hopefully the team this year should be able to spread the floor more on offense.
And by spreading the floor, hopefully, WKU won’t look as stagnant as they did last year on offense. There were a lot of times last season where they were just standing around on offense with the ball for the majority of the possession and then notice how far into the shot clock they were and forced up a bad shot. Ball movement should hopefully be something that’s improved upon going into this season.
Defense wise, depth is one of the biggest things that should help them as well. It could mean that someone who was kind of a defensive liability *cough* Jared Savage *cough* could be subbed in for someone else that could be having a strong game or feed off of a size mismatch to help get some stops. One player that should make a huge defensive difference very quickly is Isaiah Cozart. Cozart finished his high school career with a Kentucky state record 716 blocks so having another shot-blocking presence to either go alongside or sub for Bassey should help keep the defensive presence strong.
By having more bench players he can trust, coach Stansbury should be able to have them run the floor a lot more too. I don’t know if Stansbury would ever run a full or even half court press that much but by having more players he could run them a little harder (especially in transition) and give guys breaks if they need them while keeping the defensive intensity up.
If everyone stays healthy (and clear of any dumb, extracurricular disciplinary issues) this team should be as talented top-to-bottom as any team coach Stansbury has had in his four years at WKU. And the expectations are as high as they have been in his tenure here.
Charles Bassey is back for another season and should have a fully healed knee. Taveion Hollingsworth and Josh Anderson will be in their third year and should take a step forward in their development and production on this team. There will be three seniors in Kenny Cooper, Camron Justice, and Jared Savage that should provide leadership and consistent scoring. Carson Williams is another factor on this team that should be an instant impact player. Jordan Rawls, Isaiah Cozart, and Jackson Harlan should make a big difference even as freshmen.
Failure to have any postseason with this caliber of a roster (along with the C-USA being a little weaker as a whole compared to what it normally is too) will result in some scrutiny. I’m sure there will be some growing pains due to the number of new players to get acclimated into the team but they’re talented enough to still make a difference.
Fans have sold out Diddle. Last season was the highest average attendance in E.A. Diddle Arena since the renovation in 2002. They’ve done their part and will continue to do so. It’s all up to the team and especially coach Stansbury now.
It’s time for Western Kentucky to get back to the promised land.
The stars are aligning and coach Stansbury has the players he can work with to hopefully break what feels like an eternity-long NCAA Tournament drought WKU has had. A few analysts, such as ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, already have the Tops as their Conference USA representative in their way-too-early NCAA Tournament brackets for 2020. And I believe this team has the potential to get there.
The biggest thing I hope that’s improved on is winning the games they’re supposed to. Losing on the road to Indiana State and Missouri State and then losing at home to Troy were unacceptable losses that killed any chance they had at getting an at-large bid to the NCAA or NIT Tournaments last year.
This year they only have three non-conference true road games at EKU, Wright State, and Rhode Island. These games will be tougher than the ones they had last year. EKU is a rival and you never know what can happen in rivalry games, Wright State was in the NCAA Tournament last year and they return two of their best players, and Rhode Island is usually one of the tougher teams in the Atlantic-10 Conference to play at so this team will have their hands full which should inspire them to show up which they didn’t against teams like Indiana State.
Home games against Arkansas, Belmont, and a neutral court Black Friday showdown in Nashville against a projected top-10 Louisville team should peak fan interest but they can’t forget about the home games against Tennessee Tech, Austin Peay, and a mid-season exhibition against Kentucky Wesleyan either. It’s easy to look ahead to harder teams but beating teams like those shouldn’t be optional.
While the expectations are high, so is the enthusiasm and excitement toward basketball season finally getting here. I am a firm believer that regardless of how other sports do, Western Kentucky is a basketball school at its heart and nothing will really change my mind on that.
Hilltopper Hysteria will be just a small taste of what is to come but I’m still ready for some Hilltopper basketball; even if it’s just the appetizer.
Stay tuned to the Towel Rack as we’ll have lots of preseason preview material to get you ready for the biggest make or break season in Rick Stansbury’s tenure.