WKU Basketball: Position Preview — Backcourt Bench

Out of the entire roster, perhaps the deepest position would once again be the guards. Thankfully for head coach Rick Stansbury, there’s…

Out of the entire roster, perhaps the deepest position would once again be the guards. Thankfully for head coach Rick Stansbury, there’s enough diversity within his guards that he could have a unique matchup for just about any team and situation that could be effective. Let’s see who will hold things down for the second unit.

Freshmen

Out of just about all the new guards on the roster, none of them are quite as unique as Dalano Banton.

Standing at 6’8", Banton is a four-star recruit from Canada that will be a nightmare to try to defend. He can drive to the basket with ease and also has incredible length on defense.

In WKU’s exhibition game against Campbellsville, Banton held his own at the point guard spot in his first action as a collegiate player and had nine points with six rebounds and four assists in 26 minutes. He was extremely quick in transition and had a couple of nice dunks.

Banton has a ton of potential to be a great guard this year and could even get 10 points or more off the bench as he continues to learn and gel with this team. He got a little lost on defense at times but you would expect a little bit of that in his first ever college game. Once he learns, he will be a deadly two-way player.

The other freshman guard on this team that you definitely shouldn’t forget about is Jeremiah Gambrell.

No one is really talking about Gambrell as much because of a leg injury he obtained in the offseason that required surgery and he isn’t going to be able to play until at least January.

I’m not entirely sure if he’ll end up playing this year (he could be redshirted and if other guards stay healthy, he may not need to play) but he should end up becoming a great player once he’s healthy.

When Gambrell is healthy, he’s a high percentage shooter with great passing and ball handling skills. He was originally committed to play for Baylor but Stansbury was able to sway him to come to Bowling Green. If we see him at all this season it would probably be at the point with limited minutes.

Sophomores

One player who has worked extremely hard this offseason was wing player Marek Nelson.

Last season, Nelson averaged 2.6 points per game with 1.6 rebounds. He averaged nine minutes per game but did play in all 38 games, mostly due to the lack of depth on the roster.

Nelson definitely looked the most green out of all the freshmen from last year but this season should yield much better stats than last year despite the roster being filled with more guards.

At 6’7' and 190 pounds, Nelson is more versatile than some of the other guards on the roster. He would (in my opinion) do best at the three but Stansbury has used him at the four a little bit as well. Nelson has the speed and athleticism of a guard but still the height and size of a smaller forward.

Against Campbellsville, Nelson played 13 minutes but was only able to get two points. While he didn’t contribute much in that game, you can still see the improvements he’s made. I think he’s really close to breaking out as a great wing player for WKU.

The other returning guard from last year that will likely come off the bench but is still capable of making some big buckets is Jake Ohmer.

Ohmer’s heroic three-point shooting, most notably in the Battle 4 Atlantis, helped WKU win some early games despite only having seven scholarship players. He had a lot of flashes of greatness but kind of tapered off as the season progressed. He still averaged 5.6 points last season and played in 37 games.

Three-point shooting is definitely his specialty and in the Tops exhibition game against Campbellsville, he had eight points (2-for-3 from downtown) and started the game due to the suspension of Taveion Hollingsworth.

If Ohmer can get back to being a consistent three-point shooter for the Tops this year, that will help them tremendously. He still has the shooting talent to be a late game/closer type player to have on the court to either make a big shot or get fouled and make some easy free throws (he shot almost 80% from the stripe last year).

Also hoping he makes at least one dunk, hopefully at home, causing the entire sold-out crowd to go into an uncontrollable frenzy that would be unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the history of E.A. Diddle Arena.

Wildcard

One thing I’m not entirely sold on is Lamonte Bearden being a starter once he’s eligible to return in January.

Obviously he started in several games last year and averaged 11 points but with him missing part of the season and depending on how well the starting lineup used before he’s available does too, I’m not sure if it’s worth trying to change just to fit him in again.

Of course, one other thing to add into the equation is some disciplinary issues that have happened with Hollingsworth and Anderson here at the very beginning of the season. I hope that’s something that coach is able to nip in the bud without it happening again later this season but if one of them (or someone else) messed up big time, that could hurt WKU until Bearden is eligible.

I personally like the idea of Bearden being a sixth-man type player and depending on how some of the younger players like Banton does could determine a lot. If Anderson starts at point and averages a bunch (say around 14 points) and Banton gets to where he can get at least ten points and plays 20+ minutes per game, where will Bearden fit in?

It will be interesting to see how everything will pan out but I still see Bearden’s experience and leadership being used, especially once we get to March so having him back will help more than anything else.

We’ve already started to see what some of these “role” players will be capable of this year and it’s definitely looking promising. This year’s team will be as deep and talented as any WKU team we’ve seen in a really long time so look for them to contribute early and often this season.