WKU Basketball: Position Preview — Frontcourt Bench

Last season, the Tops only had two true big men (6’9" or taller) on their roster. Now, they have depth and multiple options for the…

Last season, the Tops only had two true big men (6’9" or taller) on their roster. Now, they have depth and multiple options for the frontcourt. Let’s see who will come off the bench to make a difference in the paint.

Freshmen

Outside of Charles Bassey, Tolu Smith has been one of the new forwards on the roster that has been highly praised by Rick Stansbury. At 6’10" and 240 pounds, he’s the second biggest freshman on the roster and was considered by many to be a “steal” for Stansbury and WKU.

Smith was a McDonald’s All-American nominee but spent his last year of high school hoops in Hawaii, which is why he was overlooked by many other schools.

It’s basically common knowledge at this point (especially after Hysteria and the open scrimmage) that the frontcourt starters will be Desean Murray and Charles Bassey but Smith has potential to be a really good player to come off the bench and pick up where they left off.

The only problem is that Smith is still trying to overcome a foot injury he acquired in the offseason. While the details of the injury have not been disclosed, he was in a boot most of the summer. Despite the setback, he has been rehabbing his way back to the court since then and was able to play in the Pro Day scrimmage but did not participate in the Hysteria scrimmage.

Juniors

Another new addition that is sure to help the forwards, especially the center spot, is JUCO transfer Matthew Horton.

At 6’11" and 235 pounds, Horton will be able to bring in some experience to the roster and most like play the center spot while Bassey is on the bench. He showed a lot of promise at Hysteria (although defense was non-existent) and also the open practice averaging 10 points in each. Horton is someone you should be able to count on while Bassey might be in foul trouble.

One thing from last year that was highly noticeable was when Dwight Coleby was off the court. His post presence wasn’t replaceable due to the lack of depth on the roster in general but especially with the big men. Stansbury was essentially forced to play small ball because all the talent he had was with the guards and also because Diagne was very raw mostly due to him not eligible to play until January.

Now, with someone over 6’10" and eligible to play from the get-go, Horton should be able to help give WKU complete, full games with a true big man under the basket.

Redshirt Juniors

The sole returning frontcourt player from last season is also a player who has undoubtedly improved in the offseason: That would be Moustapha Diagne.

Last year, Diagne only played in 20 games and tallied a total of 11 points for the whole season due to not being cleared until January. He seemed to have struggled at times which was mostly due to the lack of playing time (last season was his first season of actual Division-1 level play) and never really had any big moments.

But in perhaps the biggest offseason surprise, Diagne has improved tremendously; especially with his shooting. While he didn’t show out too much at Hysteria, Diagne had 23 points and seven rebounds in the open scrimmage game which included him shooting 6-of-9 from three.

Yes, you read that right: Diagne hit SIX three-point shots.

I was expecting him to improve but not like that. By adding a consistent outside shot, he should likely see time at the power forward position and not the center just so Stansbury could hopefully let him use that refined shooting ability more.

With a full offseason of improvements, actual playing time in his bag, and no more eligibility issues, Diagne should be good to go for this year and could become vital to Stansbury’s rotation.

Wildcard

Wanted to add this just to cover all my bases but it’s not entirely out of the question that Stansbury could use sophomore Marek Nelson at the four some this year. I will cover Nelson more in depth in the next article with where he’ll most likely be used but if Stansbury wanted to go small ball he could be used at the power forward spot to provide some more athleticism and speed but still with some height (6’7) but with some true big men on the roster now, I think it would be unlikely.

It will be interesting to see what Stansbury’s rotations will actually look like but at least he’ll actually have some depth and more than seven players to choose from this season. I personally believe WKU lost a few games last year due to the lack of frontcourt depth so with a full roster with multiple big men, hopefully that will help them compete for an entire 40 minutes without fear of losing players due to foul trouble and also with the overall talent to put games away.