WKU Basketball: Toppers to Tip Off Against The Huskies
It’s here it’s here it’s here! The regular season is finally here as the Hilltoppers are set to take on the Huskies in Seattle.
It’s here it’s here it’s here! The regular season is finally here as the Hilltoppers are set to take on the Huskies in Seattle.
Lets ride.
Game Info
Time: 9:30 p.m. CT
Location: Alaska Airlines Arena | Seattle, Wash.
TV: ESPNU
Radio: The Hilltopper IMG Sports Network
The Hilltoppers are already coming into this one shorthanded as they’ll be without the services of highly-touted grad-transfer Desean Murray as he didn’t even make the trip cross-country.
With that being said, if WKU’s game notes are to be believed (which, to be fair, they’re basing just off of Saturday’s lineup), Marek Nelson will be slotted into the line up to take Murray’s spot. Nelson is a serviceable player and one I really enjoy watching; while his stats wont jump off the page, he brings a spark to the floor and has the experience from last year. I trust Marek in this spot.
It also wont be an easy task for WKU as the Huskies return four of their leading scorers from last year in Jaylen Nowell (16 points per game), Noah Dickerson (15.5 ppg), David Crisp (11.6 ppg) and Matisse Thybulle (11.2 ppg).
When any one of those guys aren’t on the floor, the Huskies area familiar unit, as they return a P5-high 95.9% of minutes played from a season ago.
While Washington is solid defensively, they do play games close; they averaged a score of 74.6–73 last season.
In my Q&A with UW Dawg Pound, I posed a potential high-scoring final score that had both teams near, if not in, the 90’s. I know the Toppers lost the services of Justin Johnson and Dwight Coleby, who were #1 and #5 in scoring, respectively, but I refuse to believe Josh Anderson will only average 7.4 points again. I also expect Taveion Hollingsworth to take a big step forward with his scoring, plus the addition of Jared Savage from deep and Charles Bassey down low, as well as a (hopefully) more consistent Jake Ohmer and I like the Toppers chances of running up the scoreboard this year.
We can sit here and talk all day about this and that, but the truth is, I just want to see what this team looks like. I want to see what they can do against a high-caliber opponent (Washington enters this one as the #25 team in the land).
A lot of things could happen, but it’s just game one. There’s a lot of basketball to be played so don’t take anything that happens tonight as gospel.
Having said that, let’s have a good time.