WKU Basketball: What Went Right and What Went Wrong in WKU's 1-2 Run in the Northern Classic

The Hilltoppers led at halftime in every game in Montreal but return to the U.S. with just one win after a disappointing MTE showing.

WKU 72, Bowling Green 65

Box Score

WKU 77, Canisius 85

Box Score

WKU 67, UNC Asheville 77

Box Score

Western Kentucky won just one game of their three-game MTE in Laval, Canada, defeating Bowling Green on Black Friday but falling to Canisius and UNC Asheville on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, to close out their weekend.

We’re reaching that point in the season where trends are starting to become solidified when it comes to knowing more and more what this WKU team is and isn’t. Once again, the Hilltoppers took a lead into the halftime locker room. Once again, they struggled in the second half. Once again, three point shooting wasn’t great. Once again, three point defense wasn’t great, either.

After a midweek duel against Campbellsville Wednesday, the “meat” of the Tops’ non-conference schedule begins, a stretch that should solidify a bit more what this year’s WKU team appears to be.

But, there’s plenty of time to discuss that. For now, let’s talk about the weekend that was.

Big Picture

There’s no way to sugar coat it, the results over the weekend were disappointing. Especially coming off encouraging performances against Wichita State and Murray State, the vibes were good entering Laval.

They’re, undoubtedly, less good as the team returns stateside.

But here’s the thing: In year one of a new head coach and an 80% turnover in the roster, things were always going to be rocky and the season was always going to come down to getting hot in Huntsville in March.

There were truly zero expectations for this WKU team. Depending on who you spoke to, they didn’t think the Tops would win a single game! Okay, that might be a bit of a stretch, but there wasn’t a lot of preseason hype for the team, and some of the early-season wins started to build some up.

You’re okay to be disappointed with a 1-2 effort against the teams the Tops played. You’re okay to expect more. But there’s no need to over react.

“This team sucks.”

“20 wins is the max for this team.”

“Totally demoralizing weekend.”

If not verbatim, these are just some of the shades of feelings around the Hilltoppers I saw expressed across social media this weekend. And again, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but allow me to put into perspective: What were the expectations for this year’s team? What were your expectations for this team?

If 20 wins is the max for this year, with a team that turned over 80% of its roster in the first year of a new head coach, I’ll take that every day of the week.

Does the team suck? Possibly, though they led Wichita State at the half and won at Murray State, something more talented teams of the past couldn’t do.

It’s not even 10 games into the season yet. Things will work themselves out. And if they don’t, cool. Again, it’s the first year of a new regime and all the pieces aren’t in place yet.

But it’s too early to jump to conclusions. Let’s get through the run next month of EKU, Buffalo and Wright State and see how we’re feeling then.

What Went Right

Wow, didn’t mean to hop on a soap box there. Let’s talk about the actual basketball, shall we?

Don McHenry is becoming, you might say, that dude. He led the Tops in scoring in two of the three games, scoring 17, 16 and 10 points (in order) over the weekend. He also is becoming the “as he goes, the Tops go” barometer, with his statlines looking quite beefy in wins and a little lackluster in losses.

Take the bookend to the weekend.

Against the Falcons, McHenry not only led the Tops with 17 points, but also led the team with three assists and contributed five rebounds while committing just two fouls.

Versus the Bulldogs, to accompany his 10 points, he recorded just (“just”) three rebounds and an assist while committing four fouls in 20 minutes on the floor.

Both against Wichita and Murray, it felt as if McHenry wanted to reach another level of his game so badly, that he was forcing things and not finding success on the floor because of it. If he can ease into being on the floor (something that’ll start at the top with Lutz), he might truly become the guy for the Hilltoppers this year.

What Went Wrong

Seven games is more than enough evidence to show the Hilltoppers have a real problem this year: Closing out games.

The Tops have won every first half this season, taking a lead into the halftime break in seven out of seven opportunities. They’ve only won four games.

Still over .500 at this point in the season is by no means a bad thing or indicative of poor play. But it is a troubling trend.

In the opening 20 minutes of games this year, the Hilltoppers are outscoring their opponents rather handily, 278-229 (roughly averaged out to a 40-32 halftime lead). In the second half, the Tops are the ones getting outscored, 289-270 (rough average: 41-39)

Against Division I opponents, the combined second-half score is 224-179, against WKU, and the worst second half of the season was put on display against UNC Asheville, when the Bulldogs trounced the Tops, 46-29, in the closing frame.

If there’s a theme this morning, it’s “It’s too early to really be too concerned about anything,” so I’m trying to keep that in mind here. But it’s troubling. It’ll be more troubling if it continues into the middle of next month and a seven-point halftime lead at Buffalo turns into a 13-point loss. Then, I might start to truly panic.

But, for now, it’s just something to put on your radar. The Tops are struggling to close out games…

…but there’s plenty of time in the season for that to be fixed.

Red Threads

Some final thoughts on the weekend as you mosey on back to your normal lives after the Thanksgiving weekend.

• In the way McHenry saw his point total decrease over the weekend, Jalen Jackson saw his numbers go up in each game: He scored just two points against BGSU, netted 10 against Canisius and led WKU with 14 against UNCA. I’ve yet to actually see him in action, so I’m looking forward to Wednesday.

• It was not a good weekend for Dontaie Allen, who after going 3-5 from the floor (10 points) against the Falcons went 0-9 in the final two games. He also fouled out against the Griffins and committed three against the Bulldogs. Hopefully Campbellsville can be a get-right game for him.

• Twitter tells me Rodney Howard didn’t have the best weekend, but the box scores say otherwise. He reminds me of a mix between Dwight Coleby and Charles Bassey. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone else, but it does to me, and he’ll be one of the keys moving forward for the Tops.

• I’d like to take nothing away from not only the teams that competed this weekend, nor the Northern Classic itself, nor the opportunity for the Tops to visit one of the world’s great cities. But, I really hope Lutz is more active moving forward about joining some more interesting (or, at the very least, more widely available) Thanksgiving tournaments. It might take another year or two for the Tops to get in a position to be seen as a desired candidate for those fields, but I remain hopeful that the days of mid-major only Thanksgiving trips are, mostly, over.

• I usually have much more to say, but as I was unable to watch any of the games all of these takeaways were via the box score. I leave you with this: Remain patient. Again, there is no pressure if the Tops only win 12 games this year or if they wind up winning 23 games this year. The expectations are literally nothing: 2023/24 is, was and always will be about establishing the culture under Lutz, and any immediate success that comes with that is an added bonus.