WKU Basketball Shines in Exhibition Blowout Over Montevallo, 93-65

WKU controlled the game from the tip, for the most part steadily increasing the lead throughout the game.

Western Kentucky Men’s Basketball has absolutely done everything it could to catch the attention of a Topper fan base that is torn between an impressive offseason, a coach that has consistently made WKU a winner but has never cashed in on the biggest opportunities, and the frustration of having not made the NCAA Tournament since 2013 despite rarely being out of contention in Conference USA (and the Sun Belt in 2014).

3,011 fans made it to Diddle Arena Wednesday night, a pretty decent crowd on a church night for an exhibition game against an opponent that I would venture to say 50 people in that stadium knew anything about before Googling. I certainly Googled. Never heard of Montevallo. Apparently they’re in the literal central part of Alabama in a town of 7,000 people.

So what did the Tops put on display Wednesday? Is it something fans want to see? Was it interesting? High flying? Intense?

I would say the general consensus seems to be the Tops probably accomplished about a 7 out of 10 on the scale from “disaster” to “I can’t believe how excited I am for this team!!!” Is that fair?

I believe WKU did a nice job showing the fans that were there how good this team could be. They did some diving on the floor, like when Luke Frampton dove after the ball, somehow saved it on the sideline with a defender grappling for it, and got an assist out of the deal on a Jairus Hamilton and-one. That was a heck of a moment. WKU shot 49 percent from the floor, 40 percent from three, and 70 percent from the line. Those are all nice. They passed the ball.

Also, this team is absolutely incredible to look at. They are HUGE. And it’s not just Jamarion Sharp. Fallou Diagne is a legit near 7 footer coming off of the bench. Dontaie Allen, a 6’7” guy, blends in with the rest of the team when he’s out there, although he could have been a center for Ray Harper. All players that will play significant minutes are 6’1” or taller, but more importantly, WKU has seven guys that are 6’6” or taller. The Tops should be the biggest team in Conference USA, but also certainly boasts the most athletic roster on paper, as well. UAB may have more experience and overall solid, proven players, but the Tops have several previously labeled four and five star players sitting on the roster.

In addition, WKU played pretty hard all night. WKU did not defend the three well, despite Montevallo not making it to 30 percent from downtown. That was not an indication of reality, and the visitors from central Alabama did have some wide open looks. Perhaps a better shooting team could have made this a closer one. Also, despite holding the Falcons to 34 percent shooting overall, they probably had more quality opportunities than that shooting percentage suggests. This was not lockdown defense by any stretch. There was definitely room for improvement defensively, and offensively, Rick did absolutely nothing to show his cards on how he plans to run offense with his myriad options. Why put that on film, after all?

The main thing was WKU didn’t do a Louisville, but also showed some flashes of brilliance, controlled from tip to buzzer, and overall showed everyone that this team has a ton of potential.

The Pieces

I think this WKU team definitely has the potential to be a serious opponent for anybody. It’s not just 7’5” Jamarion Sharp. Duh, he’s big and athletic. But if you only have one dude that can give you problems, that’s something teams can work around. What about Fallou Diagne, a 6’11” backup center that comes in to spell Jamar and provides explosive offense inside and out? He displayed the ability to shoot the three, the midrange, and showed an ability to make a post move or two. 6’10” Darrius Miles may get some minutes, and he looks impressive, having lost 75 pounds.

Then at the four spot, there’s Jairus Hamilton, a 6’8” guy with Power Five length and skillset that can play multiple positions. There’s Tyrone Marshall, a 6’7” “lunch pail” type of guy that just gets things done that you don’t notice until you start accumulating some thoughts…hey who did that originate from? Tyrone Marshall is a good pickup, too. And he can shoot.

On the wing, Luke Frampton provides a surprising 6’5” body that can really shoot the ball. Dontaie Allen is a guy with a proven track record of showing up in big moments and explodes to do things nobody thought was possible. He was off the mark Wednesday, but he did still show some flashes of his potential, putting up six shots in only 17 minutes and scoring eight points, albeit extremely late in the game.

At the two guard, unbelievably, stands 6’8” Emmanuel Akot. This guy could literally play and guard every position on the floor. He played point guard at Boise State on a really good team. He had a moment where a guard from Montevallo took him one-on-one. Incredibly, he stayed in front of him and shut down the guy’s attempt to do anything and he passed the ball back outside. There were a lot of really nice moments from him on both sides of the ball as he finished in double digits with ten. He looks every bit as advertised. Can you say “mismatch”? Not many teams in America will have a 6’8” guy that can move, shoot, pass, and defend like he can.

At point guard is a plethora of options. The height ends at the two position, but 6’1” Dayvion McKnight is obviously the main guy at the point guard position. Second, in a bit of an upset, seems to be 6’2” Jordan Rawls over IU transfer Khristian Lander, who stands at 6’3”. Both could play point, and both could back up other guards and wings if and when they were needed to. For now, Jordan Rawls seems to have picked up where he left off before transferring from the Hill a couple of years ago.

Western does have some other players, and they all played Wednesday. Elijah Hughey, Tyler Olden, Noah Stansbury, and Jaylen Dorsey are your other players on the roster. Shoutout to Elijah Hughey for staying on with the Tops despite being the 11th or 12th man on the roster. I think he has potential to develop himself.

And the theme for a lot of these guys is that they have a ton of room and time to grow. Because of COVID, anybody that’s been around since 2020 has an extra year if they want it. We say it every year, but if this core could just stick together and not get tempted by the NIL deals and the desire for a “better opportunity”, they all could benefit tremendously.

They could be the core that brings WKU back to national prominence. Western is not a completely irrelevant program, but it would shut up the naysayers by just breaking through and showing not only C-USA, but also the entire college basketball world, that WKU is a high major program, as Rick Stansbury himself likes to say.

Final Thoughts

Overall, to bring it back to Earth, I think Western looked pretty good against Montevallo. There are no serious alarm bells going, but for me, there are some concerns I know some others will likely see and hear about. Defensively, WKU will have to be better guarding the three and adjusting how to handle potential shooters. Every player, coach, and commentator that I heard talked about defending the three as a point of emphasis Saturday against Georgetown College.

I think the other thing is consistent effort. It’s an exhibition. It could be very easily the case that we see the incredible performance that rocks our world Saturday against Georgetown College. It’s not that WKU wasn’t trying or playing hard. They definitely were, but a sign of a special team is its focus and lack of inconsistency. Most of the time, a special team shows signs of a special bond, a special focus, and/or some kind of spectacular feat, whether it is shooting 60 percent from three as a team, scoring 110 points, winning by 50 or 60, or just simply blowing everyone in the arena away with the “wow” factor, special teams generally show warning signs of said specialness.

Let’s see more of that juice as the Tops head into game number two in exhibition play.

Overall, like I said, it was a good display, but I don’t believe anyone left that exhibition feeling way more excited than they felt coming in. It was status quo or so. It was a very good, “check that box off” type of performance. If I’m WKU, Rick Stansbury is asking for sellouts. How do you guarantee one? Blow everyone away. Make someone cuss when they see the box score.

Let’s set the bar at a high level and then come down if things are too intense for an exhibition against Georgetown. I would love to see the Tops absolutely blow out Georgetown and walk away, beaming from ear to ear, knowing they had something special brewing. Make everyone in that stadium know something is going on in Diddle.

And hopefully this last part hasn’t come across as complaining or anything. In terms of my personal outlook, I’m all in on this team and I’m expecting to break through. It’s time to reap the rewards of seven years of work for Rick Stansbury. He’s got his extension. He’s got his players in place. He’s got a dream team and they’ve actually shown up to play a game. Everyone is healthy.

Go get it, Rick. More importantly, go get it, Tops!