WKU Basketball: Position Preview — Backcourt Starters

WKU’s backcourt was pretty young in 2017/18 but still flourished as their young guards gelled and got more playing time. Now, with a year…

WKU’s backcourt was pretty young in 2017/18 but still flourished as their young guards gelled and got more playing time. Now, with a year under their belts, I look for them to contribute big things for the 2018/19 season. Let’s see who those playmakers might be.

Before I delve into everything, I’d like to use this time to acknowledge the fact that this offseason has been one of the best WKU has had in an extremely long time. I say that for the fact that not a single player returning from last year’s roster transferred from the Hill.

In this modern era of college basketball, players switch schools like I switch between my favorite restaurants in Bowling Green. Transfers have killed a lot of the potential and depth past WKU teams could’ve had so retaining an entire recruiting class is a major blessing.

If you don’t believe me, go to literally any recruiting site and look back to Justin Johnson’s recruiting class of 2014. Even the year after that, and the year after that, and so on until this year: retaining every freshman player (and every other player outside of the seniors that graduated) is something that hasn’t happened in years!

That shows that the players are bought in to not only the coach and the program, but the team as well. That’s one of the things that excites me the most in 2018/19.

Now let’s take a look at who those players are.

Point Guard

Last season, Lamonte Bearden started in 33 games and averaged 11.8 points and 3.4 assists but his grades started to slip in the spring and it will cause him to be ineligible for the first part of the season. Thankfully for coach Stansbury, guard depth is something he has a plenty.

With Bearden ineligible for the first part of the year, I would look for sophomore guard Josh Anderson to start at the point for the Tops. Anderson missed the first part of last year due to the NCAA dragging their feet to clear him to play but that didn’t stop him from averaging 7.4 points and 2.5 rebounds in 23 games.

Anderson is also the player that we have heard has improved the most this offseason. He has said to have improved his shot so with more weapons added to his arsenal, he could become even more of a factor on offense. Anderson had been a very strong defensive player already so with him becoming a more well-rounded player, the sky is the limit for him next year.

Shooting Guard

Taveion Hollingsworth came to the Hill like Julius Caesar: He came, he saw, he conquered.

Hollingsworth came in and broke almost every record that existed for a freshman which included most points (506), most minutes played (1,312), and most games started (37). He averaged 13.3 points and 3.4 rebounds and even had two games where he dropped 30 points (against North Texas and Oklahoma State). Needless to say, he’s gonna be one of the top contributors on this year’s team, even as a sophomore.

Coach Stansbury said that Hollingsworth may help share some of the weight at the point guard spot with Anderson and Banton until Bearden is back but I still imagine that he will play in his normal two spot most of the time.

Honestly as talented as Hollingsworth is, it doesn’t really matter too much as to whether or not he plays the one or the two, he’s still gonna come in and be one of the key leaders next season.

Small Forward/Wing

It’s finally time for a homecoming on the Hill. Jared Savage is now eligible to play after sitting out last season since transferring to WKU from Austin Peay.

The Warren Central grad averaged 8.1 points and 3.6 rebounds in two years as a Governor and even went to the NCAA tournament in 2016/17. He was an important player for the Governors and started 28 games his last season there and he will be just as important to this WKU team.

Savage is the most experienced guard on the roster outside of Bearden so having his leadership in Bearden’s absence will help keep things together for this team. He is a reliable three-point shooter (he shot almost 38% from deep at Austin Peay) so look for him to make some big buckets when they are desperately needed.

WKU as a whole only shot 35% from three last season and had a few games where they made less than two shots from deep as a team. Despite some bad shooting, the precious-to-many three-pointer streak did survive last season and now stands at 976 games with at least one three-pointer made since March 15, 1987 which is tied fourth in the nation with Arkansas but behind UNLV, Vanderbilt, and Duke (UKY did lose theirs last season though lolol).

WKU did lead the country in two-point shots attempted (1,596) and two-pointers made (869) according to Sports-Reference.

But with a sharp-shooter like Savage now able to play, along with their returning guards that have improved, I’d look for the Tops to make more threes next year.

As a whole, the backcourt for WKU is possibly the strongest it has been in several years. With more depth, talent, and experience you should see some exciting things from this group of young guns and plenty of buckets to come.