WKU Basketball: Opinion - Isn't it Time?

WKU Basketball has lost three of four, dropping the Tops to a tie for seventh. Western is going to have to battle to even wear a home jersey at all in the C-USA Tourney.

Western Kentucky Basketball is at its lowest point in the Rick Stansbury era. Even the lackluster 2016-17 yielded a higher RPI (at the time, the NET rankings did not exist) than the 2022-23 WKU Hilltoppers currently stand. Western is currently sitting in eighth place, currently hoping for a tiebreaker against FIU, who split with WKU on the season.

Now, Western actually sits likely to match its 8 seed from 2016-17 (give or take), Rick Stansbury’s first year on The Hill after he had to gut Ray Harper’s roster due to scandal. Even with that hodgepodge team, Rick Stansbury saw more success than this year’s team is on pace to do. And this season, he is going to have to battle to match that season’s results. And keep this in perspective, too: Conference USA had 14 teams at the time, so finishing 8th in that season was a much higher standing than finishing 8th or 9th in a league of 11.

WKU is a bottom dweller this season. Let’s call it what it is.

For whatever reason, WKU is just not a good basketball team. Against a schedule that didn’t feature a powerhouse mid-major juggernaut or a ranked team (besides in conference), a schedule that featured some very beatable Power Five teams, WKU is 15-14 with two wins against Division II schools and several other pattycakes padding the numbers.

In Conference USA, Western has absolutely floundered, currently sitting at 7-11 and needing two road wins to (with help) land as high as a six seed. To do that, according to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index, WKU has around a 1-in-4 chance to win one of their two remaining games. That doesn’t mean anything when it comes to reality, but it does mean Western is going to need to play incredibly well to even split the next two.

Despite the numbers, given WKU’s inconsistency, there’s no way to predict if WKU will pull the rabbit out of the hat or if they will lose these last two and enter C-USA play on a three game losing streak. The Tops are so inconsistent that Vegas must have lost and gained a fortune trying to guess what violent momentum swing WKU would take next.

What’s frustrating is this was supposed to be THE year for Western Basketball to get it done. Yeah, C-USA looked (and is even moreso) daunting, but WKU has the horses. I stand firmly by the preseason assessment that WKU is one of the two most talented teams in the league. Now that UAB has proven to also not be head and shoulders above the league (although winning 9 of 10 shows they’re rounding well into shape), WKU’s confirmation as the most talented at minimum holds some water. Including Luke Frampton, who went down due to injury, Western has 10 players that would/could probably start on most other teams in C-USA. If we want to argue, at least nine players would and could and for the most part have started for this team.

Western is the tallest team in the country per minute played. Western has a shoe-in All-Conference player, a shoe-in National Defensive Player of the Year Finalist, a 6’8” starting point guard/wing that can handle all five positions, a Power Five transfer starter, a Power Five transfer who comes off of the bench, a near 7-footer who can shoot 40%+ from 3, a 6’8” former transfer from Maryland with a true Power Five body with length, a player who was compared to Stephen Curry at Davidson, and a JUCO transfer that no one really thought would contribute that has ended up being a weapon and stat stuffer off of the bench.

To argue that WKU is talentless is ridiculous. Believe it or not, you’ll see people on messageboards arguing that WKU somehow doesn’t have enough talent. Ludicrous. Even if you want to argue that point, certainly, Western is not inferior to a single C-USA team talent-wise. Please tell me how some other team in C-USA is definitively more talented. The talent is there to be as good as anyone, and that frankly goes outside of C-USA, as well. The current starting lineup goes 7’5”, 6’8”, 6’8”, 6’7”, 6’1”. Subs come in that get taller than that at some positions. Who in America can offer a taller lineup at each position? Which teams could offer four starters 6’7” or taller at all? Just that alone, plus the fact that Western’s entire lineup is littered with athleticism, should put WKU near the top of the Conference USA standings automatically. They should at least be competitive, right? If they were second or third, fine. But they are guaranteed no better than sixth with help.

There’s obviously a disconnect, and it’s inexplicable. Why can’t WKU get it together and be who they should be? At minimum, the Tops should be a top 100 team that is considered one of the few favorites to win C-USA.

Here’s the thing, though: Rick Stansbury is in his seventh year at WKU. Yes, he’s won plenty of games. He’s had incredible moments, beating several ranked teams, making a historic run to the NIT Final Four in 2017-18, and creating national headlines by bringing in the likes of Mitchell Robinson and Charles Bassey to little old Western Kentucky. He’s also brought in other four star talent, some of which worked and some that didn’t.

“Give eem credit. He stepped up ‘n made some (regular season) shots.”

But despite all of the good, there has been a good amount of bad, and a great deal of mediocre.

I’ll get to it…Isn’t it just time to move on from Rick Stansbury? Barring the supernatural, WKU is not making the NCAA Tournament. If they do, I think Stansbury gets another year to prove that it was all bad luck and he has broken through and can now be a consistent big-time winner. Some even disagree with that. However, if he makes the Tournament, I feel like 95% of people will want to keep him. That’s been the whole issue! Other coaches have made the tournament with lower seeds. In fact, WKU has not been the odds-on favorite entering the vast majority of its conference tournament wins. With his ability to recruit, winning in big moments late in the season has been the problem. He would have solved his own problems by coming through once in seven years. And heck, the spectacular ways that his teams have gone out of the way to lose boggles the mind if you really break it down.

Otherwise, it’s just getting old.

Western will get the fans excited every year, doing something spectacular. Then it will just vanish in the biggest moments late in the season and the Tops will lay an absolute egg and fizzle out.

It’s been seven years recruiting the absolute best talent in the conference year after year. When do we get the goods?

The Timeline

Even in coach Stansbury’s first year in 2016-17, he cobbled together a roster that featured several big-time transfers, a couple of which ended up being 1,000 point career scorers by the end of the season. What happened there? These were fairly quality players, and they produced an 8 seed and losing in the first round to UTSA. It looked like they didn’t want to be there that game. Good on him for getting the team together enough to be competitive, but the Tops didn’t even hold serve as the favorite in the first round game, and they did have some talent on that team.

In 2017-18, coach Stansbury assembled a roster much like 2022-23, where everyone in the world looked at WKU and said, “Wow!” Western had assembled a true dream team. We’re talking national attention. Well, all of that crumbled and nearly half of the roster, including 5 star freshman Mitchell Robinson, left the team in a matter of weeks, right before the start of the season. That left WKU with a cobbled together lineup, a couple of players fighting for eligibility, and a coach that needed a break to come his way.

2017-18 became that, ultimately leading to a remarkable NIT run to Madison Square Garden. However, prior to the historic NIT run, Western was also handed a Marshall team in the C-USA Championship Game that Western absolutely should have spanked. They didn’t, playing directly into Marshall’s hands but nearly winning anyway. Instead, they went to the NIT and granted, had massive success. I guarantee you everyone would have rather made the NCAA Tournament, though. This was the first of three consecutive heartbreaks in the C-USA Championship. Rick got an overall pass for the championship game misstep, and that was completely reasonable at the time. It was early in his career at Western and people are allowed to make mistakes.

In 2018-19, McDonald’s All-American Charles Bassey came to The Hill. He was incredible, and Western finally had a real big man that could provide a double-double on any given night. This guy was the real deal, and Western had something going with Charles Bassey. He was the best all-around center since Chris Marcus. He was the best post defender since Jeremy Evans. He was the most highly touted recruit since Jim McDaniels. Unfortunately for that particular year, Old Dominion had a perfect storm of a roster and coach combination, and ODU edged WKU in the conference championship game. ODU overcame Western three times by an average of four points that season. This season was also the year that WKU had multiple top 25 wins, but also had 14 losses, several of which were just inexplicable when comparing WKU’s ability to perform at certain times.

I think 2018-19 was a turning point for some fans. Some people started waking up to something being off with Rick Stansbury. And I know there are going to be some people that are going to view this article and really anything written by me as a witch hunt, that I’ve been on the prowl to watch the Stansbury era fail since 2017-18. For those that believe that, why would I want that? I want the guy to succeed, but honesty forces me to also say this: He hasn’t.

I would seriously love have a conversation with anyone that believes the Rick Stansbury era has been a stone cold success. You may be in support of Rick Stansbury, but if you’re a true Western fan, knowing anything about our proud history, how could you be utterly thrilled with this current setup for Western Basketball.

Sarcastically, I say…perhaps by 2018-19, many of us saw this snowball building, wondering if anyone would notice that there was a common theme: Western plays to its opponents level, and due to mismanagement and odd, archaic beliefs, WKU fades in the moments that really matter. After 2018-19, WKU now had two championship appearances, both duds, both with opportunities and shoulda coulda wouldas. Still, this was only his third year, right? He’s building. He’s got players. Let’s just give him time! He’ll come through! And then a few whispered under their breath, “He better win soon, though.”

So 2019-20 came and went. Charles Bassey blew out his leg. COVID ruined this potentially golden opportunity despite the Bassey injury. 2020 absolutely felt like the year that Western should have won the regular season championship. No team held a freaking candle to Western talent-wise, even without Charles Bassey. Instead, Western just…blew it against North Texas to lose Conference USA’s regular season title to the Mean Green. It turned out the tournament was canceled, and UNT was considered the official C-USA Champion of 2020. This season was one of forgiveness, a pass, for basically everyone, Stans included. Western may well have taken that year and broken the then seven year seal on the NCAA Tournament door, but they didn’t get the chance.

So it left Western fans even more frustrated with the unknown. Was that our year? I remember we were borderline considering going to Frisco as a family. I’m glad we decided not to in hindsight. But another Rick Stansbury team looked good early, faded late, and walked into a C-USA Tournament with a really good seed but minimal momentum. We’ll never know, but I would venture to guess, given the track record, Western would not have broken through.

2020-21 was a redemption year, a massive opportunity. The stars had aligned. Many players of the Rick Stansbury era had come and gone. Western had a really solid roster this year, with a healthy Charles Bassey, Taveion Hollingsworth, Josh Anderson, Luke Frampton, Dayvion McKnight, and Carson Williams. Conference USA was generally down, with several of the major programs graduating/losing key players and coaches over the past two seasons (ODU, Middle, Marshall). The major WKU drama from this year was Kenny Cooper being screwed out of eligibility despite us being told that he should be cleared at some point. Anyway, they finally came through and won a regular season championship. However, frankly, they benefitted from a shortened schedule and one of the easier roads skewed by COVID cancellations. Nonetheless, the Tops did it!

Western beat UTSA and UAB, controlling most of the important moments in both of those games. Then Western drew what should have been an inferior North Texas team who had to play an extra game. Instead of North Texas looking like the team playing its fourth team in four days, Western looked like the tired, worn out squad with no energy. Maybe playing all of conference play with six players wore them down to end the year. Then again, UNT didn’t play very many players, either. WKU started out down 17-0, and to their credit, battled back, cutting the lead to 11 at halftime and ultimately taking a seven point lead with 2:57 remaining in regulation.

In what now feels extremely familiar, Western melted down a seven point lead, even having a chance to win at the end after North Texas nailed a three, only to turn it over and actually give North Texas a chance to win in regulation. Then in what is increasingly not surprising at all, Rick Stansbury’s team was inferior in overtime. Was some of this luck for UNT? Yes! Missed free throws, made three to tie, turnovers forced. But it’s just a pattern over and over and over. And Western had zero business needing to hold UNT to 14 second half points. Western shouldn’t have needed overtime. Western had its chances over and over. They had their perfect team (besides depth). And they just couldn’t do it. No excuses. Utter failure.

After this loss, a majority of Western fans finally kind of woke up to the idea that maybe all of these issues had to do with Rick Stansbury not being great at his job. At this point, it was five years, three championship appearances, two of which he was favored, and favored in each game that he lost. The team looked at times like they weren’t ready. The players were the ones having to accomplish incredible feats in order to even be in these games. The coach seemingly wasn’t doing much besides not screwing up once they were down. But why were they down in the first place? Why was UNT spotted 17 points in a row in a championship game without calling a timeout? There were so many questions, and finally, some Western people had enough. Many have publicly said these things, so it’s not bizarre for me to claim that as fact.

To finish up the summary here, after the 2021 C-USA Tournament, Western was finally starting to see the effects of not making the tournament. It was a little harder for the elite recruiter that Rick Stansbury is to bring in remarkable talent. There wasn’t the huge splash. Taveion Hollingsworth actively chose to just move on. Fans were not as engaged, and in combination with lingering COVID fears, attendance suffered. Josh Anderson stuck around, and by a true miracle, Western applied for an exception for veteran Camron Justice to be given an extra year. Somehow the Tops charmed the NCAA into granting a waiver. Imagine if he had not been given a waiver. He was added to the team after the season started, having resigned himself to starting his coaching career. He came out his first game and was one of Western’s best players, bringing steady experience on a team that still couldn’t manage to win 20 games.

Western had its typical non-conference performance, looking average at times, while at others, beating Louisville and Ole Miss. After Ole Miss, Western was flirting with at-large contention. Then Western got slaughtered at UK, and for some reason, the wheels came off, starting C-USA play 2-6. Under extreme pressure from growing resentment, Rick pulled off a miracle starting in February, winning seven in a row in conference, jumping into contention and taking advantage of a weak Eastern Division. Western was 9-6 heading into a game at MTSU. Middle had surprised everyone, busting out to a remarkable 21-7 record heading into the game. They were 12-3 in C-USA play. Well, against the biggest rival with a chance to really jump into the conversation and continue momentum, Western laid a big stinky egg in Murfreesboro, losing by 17 to the arch rival. Western would then follow that up with two wins against Marshall to finish the season.

So Western goes on this huge run, is somehow 19-12 overall and gets the de facto 4 seed and earns a first round bye. This truly was one of Rick Stansbury’s best coaching jobs up to this point. Somehow he had salvaged a nightmare. Yet what happened against La Tech in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament? Western, with all of the positive momentum, having won nine of ten games, just absolutely crapped the bed. They looked like one of my church league teams trying to buy a basket. And Western still had its chances in that game and just didn’t do anything to cash in. All of that awesome momentum was completely destroyed, and Western had its worst C-USA Tournament result since 2017.

This year, you know the story. Rick Stansbury got everybody excited, recruiting some truly incredible players, and keeping all of the major players that were possible from a team that massively underachieved last season. I mean, Rick really looked like he had assembled the Group of Five “Dream Team” with this batch of players. On paper, it rivaled the squad he assembled before Mitchell Robinson left WKU prior to 2017-18. This time, HE KEPT EVERYBODY TOGETHER! It all worked out and looked like a team of destiny that would FINALLY break through. I mean, even some of the greatest Stansbury critics decided to give this year a chance once everybody made it to the exhibition game. People were actively campaigning to get people to buy tickets. We bought into it ourselves. I truly believed this was the year, and if he screwed up this year…surely everybody would see that it really is time to go, right?

Well, you know where we now stand. Western is sitting on a battle for eighth place Thursday night on the road at UTEP. Yeehawwwww, Toppers! That’s exciting. Against a pattycake schedule, Western started out with a nice 8-1 record. Then in typical Stansbury fashion, things had to change. Western absolutely soiled itself against Louisville, an ACC team that literally has four wins, folks. They finally got their first quality win last week. They’re sitting on their worst season in the history of their program by far, and what did Western do? Instead of confirming that Western is not little brother anymore and should be considered a peer, the Tops proved they are DEFINITELY little brother in the eyes of college basketball fans in the state of Kentucky and really anyone nationally, as well. Then the Tops lost to South Carolina, another very winnable Power Five opportunity. Western then proceeded to lose three more games in a row to start conference play to complete their first of two five game losing streaks. Western would win three, and once again would begin yet another five game losing streak. Western won three in a row once again, lost two, won one, and lost to UAB Saturday night in a depressing second half performance on Senior Night.

Frustratingly, the last several losses were completely winnable, one of which went to overtime. Western has had two opportunities in overtime this season. Anyone care to guess how many points Western has scored in overtime this season? Over/under 10? Take the under. Try two points in ten minutes of overtime this season.

Saturday’s performance against UAB was a coronation of mediocrity. Western hung around for a half, but UAB was just the better team. Frustratingly, UAB used a fairly rudimentary 1-3-1 zone. The only signifcant wrinkle to it was they would dissolve into a 2-3 some, and a few times, they dissolved into man-to-man. But the 1-3-1 wasn’t even that good. Once the Tops broke through the “3” in the middle, they could slice and dice. The problem was, Western really could not figure out a simple 1-3-1, and basically lost because they couldn’t figure out a zone that is used extremely often in Conference USA.

Why don’t they know how to beat a press, and why can’t they handle a pretty simple half court trap?

Have Some Pride, Topper Fans

I’ll say it again: This is not a witch hunt.

This a plea. A call for sanity.

Don’t you long for the days of Johnny Oldham? Carlisle Towery? Clem “the Gem”? Big Mac? Craig McCormick? Tellis Frank? Darnell Mee? Ralph Willard? Chris Marcus? Courtney Lee? OMV? George Fant and T.J. Price? If you’re a true Western fan, at least a couple of those give you goosebumps and/or flashbacks. If you think hard enough, you might get emotional. You should get emotional.

That is the Western I grew up watching. This decade of doldrums sickens my stomach. I still love the players, and I even respect the end of Ray Harper and all of Rick Stansbury’s tenures. But unlike Ray, who was not given an extension and was forced to recruit with no safety net, Rick Stansbury somehow “earned” enough respect to get a couple of extensions, probably citing his recruiting class as the reason that Todd had to extend his contract. Sure, that would be a good reason if this actually worked out and Western was on track to be guaranteed at least an NIT berth without needing another win, therefore by definition flirting with an at-large bid and a surefire top 100 team. But that has not come to fruition, and Western may even struggle to stay in the top 200 if they lose these last two, although presumably, at 170, they likely won’t fall that far given two games against respectable C-USA opponents, one of which will be a Quad 1 game.

Good things have happened under Rick Stansbury. However, the nice things pale in importance to the “bad”, “frustrating”, and “mediocre” that has come out of this era of Topper Basketball. Other than recruiting, regular season wins, conference championship appearances, and NIT success, Rick Stansbury is far inferior to his predecessors in everything else. He hasn’t cracked through to the NCAA Tournament, the only coach to never do it in (tied for) the second longest tenure. He is 0-3 in championship games. In every game except one of his five C-USA Tournament losses, he was favored. He has never upset more than one seed line above him in the conference tournament. He also has had tons of moments to prove an incredible coaching acumen, and I think it’s incredibly fair to say that there have been far more questionable circumstances than there have been “wow” coaching moments. His substitution patterns, or lack thereof, are abhorrent at times. He even does this with this year’s current roster. He can go nine deep, and to his credit, he does play nine players. However, two of them each game will not get ten minutes of action. Why?

Some may want to argue whatever point they want to argue, but as I’m sitting here writing this, someone posted a picture of the Big Red Barn, talking about how their grandparents would hang their feet down from the upper level and watch the Tops in the 1960s. What was the standard back then? What was the expectation? It certainly was not to fart around for a decade with a few championship appearances and zero NCAA Tournament bids. Heck, back then, it was almost impossible to make it and they would make it once every couple of years! For whatever reason, Rick Stansbury came here and promised to take WKU back to the NCAA Tournament, and he just hasn’t done it. AND somehow, a portion of the fan base has just accepted our fate as an also-ran.

Somehow, it’s ok to have not made it to the NCAA Tournament for over ten seasons in a row IF we make it this year. Is that really ok? Do y’all realize he is 70% of the reason for that drought? We’re aware of that, right? Three years of Ray Harper, and seven years of Rick Stansbury. 7/10=.7x100=70%. Do the math. It’s mostly been under his “remarkable” leadership. On top of it, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. This program is in the worst spot it has been by all metrics this season that has ever been in his tenure with the most talent ever.

Quibble at the talent if you want, but Dayvion McKnight has the most career assists of any 1,000 point scorer in WKU history. Jamarion Sharp is a perennial National Defensive Player of the Year candidate and leads the nation in blocks for the second year in a row. Luke Frampton could have stayed at Davidson and been the next Stephen Curry. Dontaie Allen came off of the bench until Frampton was injured and has scored 20+ points three times in five starts. Emmanuel Akot is a 6’8” point guard that can guard five positions and started on an NCAA Tournament team last year. Jairus Hamilton is a proven offensive weapon. Fallou Diagne barely plays and is 6’11” shooting over 40% from three. Tyrone Marshall produces like crazy. Khristian Lander is yet another Power Five transfer that can play any of three positions and can shoot. Jordan Rawls started as a freshman on a really good team, transferred out, came back, and has earned a borderline starting position if he could avoid distractions.

All of this talent and WKU can’t get it done. Who is that on? Ultimately, it’s on Rick Stansbury and the coaching staff to find a way to get it done.

Is Rick Stansbury a bad man? Absolutely not! By literally all accounts, not one person can say a bad thing about him. Even his former players who transferred out and/or graduated love him. Some tried to (and two have) come back (Jordan Rawls and Camrom Justice). This is not a character issue. It’s a performance issue. Is relative competitiveness enough at WKU? I challenge anyone with that opinion wholeheartedly.

Every single coach that has ever coached here has taken his team to the Big Dance within five years of arriving on The Hill. Each WKU Head Coach has either won a game in the NCAA Tournament or has made multiple appearances (with the exception of Gene Keady, who was only at Western for two seasons and lost in overtime in his one appearance), so even if Rick Stansbury were to win the Conference USA Tournament this season as an 8 or 9 seed, he would still need to win a game to get on par with everyone else historically. To get to the general standard of making it around half of the coaching tenure, he would need six tourney appearances in a row to match that standard.

If we allow Rick Stansbury to make it to an eighth year after a year like this, where is this thing going but crashing into the side of The Hill in spectacular fashion?

Whether you like it or not, it’s time to pull the plug.

Rick Stansbury has done enough to show that this team has some kind of life, and it’s two games from the end of the regular season at this point. So let’s let him finish the season, obviously. If he does not make it to the Big Dance, it’s time to call it good.

If Todd can work some kind of “Coach Emeritus” type of title and pay Rick to stick around and be an ambassador and avoid paying Rick half a million or more to walk for nothing, fine. But I’m pretty sure this gets ugly one way or another. It may not seem ugly, but behind closed doors, hearts will be broken and relationships will be severed.

It’s a brutal business, and I don’t envy Todd Stewart’s position. However, this should be a no-brainer. Pay the buyout. You’ll make it back in hope and renewed enthusiasm. Let’s go get a coach that is hungry and ready to prove himself. If he moves on because of success, that’s really good for WKU. If he stays despite success, that’s even better. If he duds out, what else is new? Just don’t give him seven years’ grace!

It’s time. Buckle up. Everyone may transfer. That tends to happen. I hope some would stay and finish out and help bring Topper Basketball back to where it belongs. If not, I don’t envy the next coach’s first few years. But if the new man is right for the job, he’ll get it done. We know that an above average coach gets it done at Western. The role of finding him is on the powers that be.

It’s time to put our big boy/girl pants on and put things back in position to succeed on a national level. It will be hard, but wouldn’t you rather it be hard to contain your excitement during an NCAA Tournament run than worry about a hard decision to preserve or not preserve a failed reign at the head of WKU’s most prominent program?

The debate should not be about whether he is a nice man. It shouldn’t even be about whether he deserves it. The debate should be, “Is Rick Stansbury going to fulfill his promise to bring WKU back to national prominence?” If the answer is in any way“no” or “I’m not sure”, it is absolutely time to move on unless you think every coach should get eight years to produce fruit.

Think about it. Reflect on it. Then take your stance, Topper fans. No matter your conclusion, demand excellence at WKU.