WKU Basketball: Toppers Aim To Snap Losing Skid to Middle Tennessee
The Hilltoppers are back home and back in action and in the midst of their first four-game winning streak of the campaign as they welcome…
The Hilltoppers are back home and back in action and in the midst of their first four-game winning streak of the campaign as they welcome in the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders for the latest 100 Miles of Hate on the hardwood.
Game Info
Time: 7:00 p.m. CT
Location: E.A. Diddle Arena | Bowling Green, Kentucky
TV: CBS Sports Network on Facebook Watch
Radio: The Hilltopper IMG Sports Network
WKU is in search of their first win over MTSU since a 78–72 decision in Murfreesboro on February 25, 2016. In that span, the Raiders have won four straight, have gone to two NCAA tournaments (winning a game in both) and have bounced in and out of the Top 25.
The Tops…well, haven’t.
But, for the first time in a while, the shoe seems to be on the other foot in the Red Towel’s favor, with the Tops as heavy preseason favorites instead of MT for the first time in a couple of years.
The season didn’t start kindly for the Raiders — MT rattled off a 13-game losing streak at one point in the season and enter with an 8–17 overall record and a 5–7 Conference USA mark.
But, over their last four games, they’ve been on a bit of an upswing, winning three of their last four which included the season’s first three-game winning streak (granted, it came in a back-to-back against UAB and a home game against Charlotte).
In the most recent four-game stretch, MTSU is outscoring the opposition 67.8–62.8; logging an offensive output close to their season-average (66.4 ppg) and drastically improving on their defensive scoring (entering tonight, the Raiders’ are allowing 73.6 points per contest).
However, MT hasn’t been great away from the Murphy Center. In fact, the Blue Raiders have one road win — the second of their back-to-back against the Blazers.
MT is, for all intents and purposes, a three man offense with Antonio Green (18.0), Donovan Sims (11.0) and Reggie Scurry (10.9 points, 6.0 rebounds) running the show and leading the team, in some order, in just about every offensive category.
This is, on paper, a game the Hilltoppers should have no struggles with. MT’s best statistic in conference play is three-point percentage (sixth-best in C-USA at 35.3%) and they matchup poorly in places WKU should find a bevy of success: They allow the second most rebounds and blocks while logging the sixth most in the former and are dead last in the latter (in conference play).
The Hilltoppers are without head coach Rick Stansbury for their next two games, at least, as he continues to recover from back complications but WKU has responded well with him not being on the bench over their Texas swing, and with a rockin’ Diddle (giggity), it shouldn’t be much different.
But, I’m still weary of saying it’s a sure fire thing that the Tops will blow the Raiders out of the water. I mean, you play to win the game and yadda yadda, but I still have visions of Missouri State, Indiana State and FIU still dancing in my head.