WKU Basketball: What Dontaie Allen’s Commitment Means for Rick Stansbury and WKU

Allen opens the door for other high level transfers and recruits to commit to the Tops to try to finally get WKU over the hump.

Photo by Jordan Prather | kykernel.com

WKU fans, admin, and heck, even the players and coaches in the program know that it’s time to get over the hump. WKU has had some close calls to greatness, but hasn’t quite picked up before the call hit voicemail since 2013, when Ray Harper took the Tops to the Round of 64 as a 16 seed.

Well, I think landing a former Kentucky Mr. Basketball and one of the big time transfers in the entire country counts as a nice splash for a #golfclap from even the most unenthusiastic member of Hilltopper Nation. The news is huge for WKU to land a Kentucky boy (born and raised) in Dontaie Allen. A former top 75 recruit, consensus 1st team All-State, and the aforementioned award for best player in the state of Kentucky in 2019, Dontaie Allen guarantees WKU will have two former Kentucky Mr. Basketball’s on the roster, something that has been a mainstay characteristic of WKU Basketball since Taveion Hollingsworth committed in 2017. Since that moment, at least one Mr. Basketball has donned the red and white. Cam Justice and Carson Williams, along with current roster member and recently honored as one of the five best players in Conference USA as a sophomore, 2021-22 First Team All-C-USA Dayvion McKnight.

Obviously landing a huge name in the early stages of offseason recruiting allows Rick Stansbury to now go into homes and gyms of other young men, and he has legitimate reason to walk in and be able to tell recruits that the Tops need a piece or two to get over the hump, and son, I know you’re that piece that we need. Much like the Mitchell Robinson commitment in 2017 (more on that below), WKU was able to bring in other serious pieces after his commitment and it set WKU up to attract several four and five star recruits later in the Rick Stansbury era.

The Backstory

Rewind back to March. WKU struggles to do anything against Louisiana Tech and peters out in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament, losing in a hideous basketball game, 59-57. For the sixth year in a row under Rick Stansbury, WKU’s season ends in bitter disappointment.

But that’s not the entire narrative.

Rick Stansbury inherited a disaster of a program, having to kick three starters off of the team the moment he walked in the door due to off the court controversy and allegations of criminal activity. Besides the horror of the nature of allegations, WKU had zero returning guards from the jump.

So that first season was basically cursed. WKU was an 8 seed, didn’t even make the quarterfinals, losing in a game that felt like an overdue funeral the entire game to UTSA in the opening round of the 2017 Conference USA Tournament. But even in that first year, Rick Stansbury showed an ability to attract high level transfers, getting three guys (Pancake Thomas, Que Johnson, and Junior Lamomba) that played at a high level at good programs.

The next season, Rick Stansbury got a huge splash, landing consensus five star Mitchell Robinson. He also landed a ridiculous number of other very good players, a mixture of JUCOs, transfers, and really good looking high school recruits. Western seriously looked like a top 25 team with tons of depth after an impressive trip abroad to Puerto Rico. Well, all of that melted after Mitch got cold feet, went a little crazy, and left campus and declared for the NBA Draft. Then huge chunks of the rest of the roster fell apart, and WKU was left with less than ten players by the beginning of the season, and two of them weren’t eligible to begin the year.

All things considered, WKU salvaged that season and nearly made it to the NCAA Tournament with a mad scramble putback rimming out from Lamonte Bearden, falling to Marshall, 67-66. Several great things came out of that season. To be short, legends Taveion Hollingsworth and Josh Anderson started their careers, several more high level transfers came in and were centerpieces, Justin Johnson’s incredible senior season was one to remember (with an unforgettable pregame proposal and first half of Senior Night), and an NIT Final Four appearance for the first time since 1954.

At the end of 2017-18, Western Basketball was at its highest level since 2013, when they made the NCAA Tournament. And the talent level was as high as 2008 and 2009 when Courtney Lee, Jeremy Evans, and Orlando Mendez-Valdez (among many other future pros) were on The Hill.

For 2018-19, the big news was Charles Bassey, another high level five star player. This time he showed up and almost made it to the NBA in his freshman season. He was great, and clearly an interesting prospect, but ultimately he made the right decision to return to Western. WKU would lose to a really good Old Dominion team that season in another close affair in the championship game.

2019-20 was another excellent year. WKU would lose Charles Bassey to injury in December. Then despite the loss of Bassey, WKU was in position with an opportunity to win a regular season championship, mysteriously looking discombobulated at North Texas and throwing away a lead late to ultimately lose that opportunity to represent C-USA as the top seed and guarantee an NIT berth that season. Then again, COVID hit and wiped away any chance of postseason play for the Tops. Games were cancelled the night after the first round games were played. Heaven only knows what was in store for that tournament, but ultimately the end both on and off the court was gut wrenching.

2020-21 was an interesting feeling. Now working on five years in to the Rick Stansbury era and coming off of COVID cancellations, Western fans were itching for something to really boast about since 2017-18. Sure, there had been really nice Power Five wins, but WKU still hasn’t gotten to the mountaintop. Well, 2020-21 was an interesting year for everyone in the country. COVID ruined a lot. Ultimately the season happened, and WKU earned the top seed, winning its first regular season championship in the Rick Stansbury era.

However, who would WKU draw other than a red hot, pissed off North Texas team coached by the undersized dominant force whisperer, Grant McCasland in the finals? North Texas had been the team to beat WKU out for the C-USA regular season title the season before, only to be told they had to go home hours before they were supposed to take the court in their quarterfinal game. North Texas started out that championship game on a 17-0 run. WKU would ultimately fight back and take as much as a seven point lead under three minutes to go, only to melt it down and allow UNT exactly what it needed to take it to overtime and seal the deal in the extra period.

So WKU loses its third championship game in a row.

What does Rick Stansbury do? He cobbles together a lineup for 2021-22, although much more flimsy this time around. Betting (and losing) on a Hail Mary, Keith Williams—who was probably going to be the C-USA Player of the Year—was ruled ineligible by the NCAA for declaring for the NBA Draft. WKU thought they had prior precedent and could point to other situations that were allowed to slide by, blah, blah, blah, and ultimately he was ruled ineligible. Zion Harmon, a high level Kentucky kid who nearly won Mr. Basketball in 2021, has severe personal issues and never plays a minute. Those were two presumed starters

So WKU’s season was very interesting. Senior transfer Jaylen Butz was actually supposed to be the most interesting piece of all of the players that actually saw the court, but 7’5” Jamarion Sharp took his job, Butz barely played in conference play, and Jamarion Sharp was ultimately a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, as well as a finalist for the Lefty Driesell Award, another defensive honor.

WKU had some really nice pieces, including a wonderful revelation in Cam Justice not only coming in as a surprise roster addition, but also coming cold off of a job in the real world to nearly lead the team in points. But ultimately, after battling back from down 2-5 in conference play to earn a bye in the tournament, as mentioned above, WKU’s offense didn’t show up once again in the limelight, this time shooting so bad that they couldn’t even overcome 20+ turnovers by Louisiana Tech.

How Good Is Dontaie Allen?

Well, first of all, not to douse the excitement, but we honestly don’t completely know how he’ll translate at WKU. First of all, he’s a really nice sized guard at 6’6” that can shoot. So assuming he’s what he’s been before, he’s a decent athlete with long arms that can shoot and do everything on offense. Most notably in terms of concerns, he is not known as a great or even good defender. He’s also not known for superior athleticism, so perhaps playing at WKU gives him a chance to show his skills off while not facing SEC level athletes night to night. A huge key to his (and WKU’s) success will be his contributions defensively and just working on his explosiveness athletically. He must improve there.

But he’s also a guy that has singlehandedly won an SEC game (at Mississippi State 1/2/21). His team was down 15 on the road and he dropped in nearly all of his 23 points in the second half. For some reason, he was great against Mississippi State to end the season in the SEC Tournament, as well, scoring another 23 points and nearly dragging his team to the next round.

In high school his senior year (before an ACL injury), he was averaging 46 points per game. Despite not finishing his senior season, he still ranked 11th all-time in points and 22nd in rebounds in Kentucky state basketball history.

So in terms of potential, the man knows how to score, he’s had some really good experience at a high level, he’s got experience on an NCAA Tournament team, he’s played on big stages in general, and he’s hungry to succeed and has a good demeanor. Again, we don’t know what kind of impact he will have coming out of the gate, but with three years of eligibility left, his ceiling could be as high as one of the best to ever put on the red and white. Regardless, he is a massive improvement in terms of overall talent and scoring ability.

What Dontaie Allen Means for WKU

Allen is a huge piece. Without question, if WKU’s roster is just what it is right now, the Tops can compete once again for a conference championship. If WKU could get some backcourt depth, the sky is the limit. At the moment, Western looks to actually be deep enough in the frontcourt to be really solid there. With Jairus Hamilton seeming to return barring a late announcement and two 6’7”+ JUCO bodies, WKU has some legitimate height: 7’5”, 6’10”, 6’10”, 6’8”, 6’7”, 6’6”, 6’5”, 6’4” as the tallest eight players.

Position 3-5 seem to be locked up pretty well. Dayvion McKnight is an obvious point guard that will be elite. If he improves his turnovers and keeps raising his overall production, he could be a borderline All-American. But who backs him up? Who would be even the starting shooting guard right now? Jordan Rawls? These are questions to be answered.

But to sum it up, it is likely four starters for next season are on the roster. And that’s no disrespect to former Topper and boomerang transfer from Georgia State Jordan Rawls, either. He could very well be the fifth starter. Or Luke Frampton could fill in as the starting shooting guard, although that’s not his natural position. But even if Rawls is a worthy starter, WKU desperately needs backcourt help. Right now it stands at Dayvion McKnight, Jordan Rawls, maybe a Luke Frampton (if necessary), Elijah Hughey, Noah Stansbury, and Tyler Olden. Hughey didn’t play, Stansbury didn’t score, and Olden played a total of ten minutes all season in 2021-22.

But Allen signing now opens the door for bigger names to truly consider the Tops. Now that a true Power Five talent that plenty of people know something about has committed to be a Topper, it’s a much easier argument when you show you’ve got real Power Five size and four potential shoe-ins for All-Conference consideration (McKnight, Allen, Hamilton, and Sharp) and you really do need a really good shooting guard or versatile point guard or two. Any guard with experience would probably be no lower than second off of the bench for his position if he were added to this current roster. Western is now a couple of pieces from once again looking like a behemoth on paper. Right now they look like one of the C-USA favorites once again. Add a splash at the 1-3 positions (especially 1 & 2) and WKU is now looking at being big, deep, and good.

EDIT: Allen really has experience as a shooting guard, but at 6’6” with questionable ball handling skills for a 2 guard, he could easily play anywhere from the 2 to 4 spot depending on who has subbed in and out. Regardless of whether he plays the 2 or 3, WKU still needs to shore up the 1-3 spots, especially with Jairus Hamilton announcing his transfer on April 14. Jairus could have slid down to the three and Allen could have played the two and that could have been your starting lineup. Now that Jairus is gone, once again, the Tops need some decent sized men that can handle the ball.

It’s Go Time

The Tops are now looking for a few more “dudes”. Some of those recruits that haven’t given the Tops the time of day now should seriously consider what being a Hilltopper could do for their careers and their draft prospects. History shows that players on teams that make a national splash at whatever conference level get seen by pro scouts both overseas and at home.

There are plenty of examples of players on teams that were successful at WKU that got great chances to continue their athletic careers (in multiple sports). Courtney Lee (2008 22nd overall), Jeremy Evans (NBA Slam Dunk Campion), and Charles Bassey (current Philadelphia 76er) were all drafted in recent memory. In addition, players like Orlando Mendez-Valdez, AJ Slaughter, Justin Johnson, and Steffphon Pettigrew had incredible careers overseas. Even role players like Ben Lawson and Anton Waters are still playing overseas. George Fant is arguably working on being the most successful Topper Basketball alum ever, and he was an undrafted free agent in football.

At WKU, Rick Stansbury’s graduates generally can go professional if they choose to. So there is plenty of opportunity for WKU to make a legitimate argument for anyone to come be a part of WKU Basketball. The tradition is rich, but so is the current soil.

It’s go time for Rick Stansbury and his staff. There is not a more crucial moment in his tenure than this offseason, especially now that he’s made a big splash in Dontaie Allen. This is his sixth year, and it’s time put the pieces together and get that NCAA Tournament berth. Regardless, the expectations for this team should be through the roof. With any other additions at all, the ceiling of possibilities only rises for the Tops.

If I’m a recruit sitting at home or on campus at my current school looking at offers from the transfer portal, why would I not consider WKU regardless of my circumstance? Rick Stansbury is going to give me an opportunity to be on a roster with great players, and he’s going to put me in position to get my talents seen on an international level.

Once again, Rick Stansbury wins the offseason.