WKU Basketball: Recapping Rick Stansbury’s Season Opening Press Conference
WKU Basketball just had their season-opening practice for the much anticipated 2019–20 season. After the practice Head Coach Rick…
WKU Basketball just had their season-opening practice for the much anticipated 2019–20 season. After the practice Head Coach Rick Stansbury spoke to the media.
Here’s what he said and some reaction to his words:
“It’s the first time we’ve had several guys that have played and are in still in our program”
“Continuity and experience with returning players helps everything”
This is the first-time program has been in this situation since he’s been there
“We didn’t want Tolu to leave”
“He didn’t want to play behind Charles (Bassey)”
It was the decision he made and he’s walking on Mississippi State
You’d like to have Charles over the person that left (if you had to choose)
It puts a finer line on injuries
Charles played 35 minutes a game last year
Brought Matt Horton came back, hopefully, he will help provide depth
“We need to see if Carson Williams can play the 5”
Isiah Cozart is farther along than we anticipated
He’s gotten better since he arrived on campus
Only time can cure some ailments for young players
With Charles Bassey, there’s no substitute for experience
He was only 17 years old last year
“Charles had a really good year for us last year. He took some possessions off last year but name a freshman that didn’t”
“He’s leaned down a little bit and is a little quicker than he was”
He’s still only 18 years old still younger than most freshman
No problems with Bassey’s Knee. (Stansbury knocked on the table)
He’s been good in September workouts
Still waiting on waivers from NCAA on Kenny Cooper and Eli Wright
Hopefully will know something on both within the next month
We’ll just have to wait and see on them
Anticipating Cooper getting his waiver
Gives you experience, he’s a high character guy
Has high expectations for returning guys and upperclassmen
Jordan Rawls is one freshman who’s ahead of the curve
Has a high basketball IQ
From day one he’s going to be thrown in there
Jordan came in a 160 something (pounds). He’s put on 10–12 pounds since arriving in August and it makes a difference for him
Justice, Cooper, and Rawls will all help with passing and shooting
Jeremiah Gambrell is back from injury and we think he can shoot too
We feel like we’ve addressed a lot of problems from last year
You can’t teach toughness (when talking about Carson Williams)
“He’ll give us some rebounding too”
Said that Carson is a little quicker than Justin Johnson was
“We want Kentucky players if they can help us win Championships”
Pro Day is a good thing, some schools can’t offer that
they’re great guys and good coaches to have on the staff (In having Phil Cunningham and Marcus Grant on staff with him again)
“We’ve got to score more points to give us more margin for error”
Shooting and making plays will help us do that better
We’re not going to score 71 points per game i’ll tell you that
Overall there were plenty of good tidbits to get out of the press conference. Here are my quick thoughts:
The fact that he’s selling experience and continuity should get everyone excited for the season. There will be very little room for excuses should they not click early
The Tolu Smith information wasn’t surprising but was interesting. For short term ceiling having Bassey for one more year is huge. Playing time was probably the biggest factor in Smith leaving.
Not having clearance on Cooper or Wright is the biggest thing hanging over the program at this moment. Having Cooper’s veteran presence at the point guard would obviously be better than depending on a reclassified freshman (Rawls) out of the gate.
His closing analysis about needing to score more was spot on. With the experience, talent, depth and hopefully shooting WKU can get their scoring average back up and they can start blowing out the inferior teams again.
While we’re in the throes of football season, we’re also greatly anticipating a make or break year for the WKU Basketball program. Stay tuned for several preseason pieces about the upcoming season as we wait for Hilltopper Hysteria on October 17th and the season opener against Tennessee Tech on November 5th.