WKU Basketball: What We Learned In The Tops’ 66–62 Loss To Middle Tennessee
Last night’s loss to the Blue Raiders wasn’t what you’d call “fun.” The Tops put together a strong final five or so minutes, but outside of…
Last night’s loss to the Blue Raiders wasn’t what you’d call “fun.” The Tops put together a strong final five or so minutes, but outside of that, they were barely able to keep the game within 10 points, and looked at times lost, sloppy, disinterested and all of them together.
I said it in my recap last night and I stand by it today — last night’s loss is what I’d consider a “good,” loss. Let’s be real, WKU had no business being within two points inside the two minute mark, but yet, there they were.
The fact that MT couldn’t put the Tops away when they had a chance isn’t a mark against the Blue Raiders, it’s a mark for WKU. The defense, outside of stopping Nick King, was strong and was what kept them in the game.
Having said that, let’s take a deeper look at what exactly we learned in the Tops’ loss.
The Tops’ offense isn’t the same without Darius Thompson
We’ve been telling you for nearly a month now that this is Darius Thompson’s team, and never before in a more painful way was that clear last night.
I’d also like to take this time to apologize to Darius — I said some things in the moment on Twitter I didn’t entirely mean last night, and I don’t want him…or any of you…to get the impression that I don’t like him as a player. It’s far from the truth. I love him as a player.
But, if reports are to be trusted, Darius played last night with a sickness and he wasn’t at all productive for the Tops. In the first half, he logged 14 minutes and had three rebounds and an assist to his statline. In the same half, WKU shot an abysmal 36.4% from the floor, three total assists and had 22 points on the scoreboard.
In 16 second half minutes, those numbers went on the upswing. Darius finished with four points, three assists and seven rebounds while the Tops shot 52.6%, had six assists and scored 40 points (WKU outscored MT in the second half 40–37).
It may sound like a marginal difference in Darius’ total play, but it isn’t a coincidence that in the half that saw him have better numbers, WKU also had better numbers.
Josh Anderson is still a work in progress
A lot of people thought Anderson was going to hit the floor and begin droping 15 points immediately (and, that debut against Marshall didn’t help that perception). That, unfortunately, hasn’t been the case, and we should have been a bit more realistic in our expectations.
I know I’ve said this a ton, but it continued to be true last night — Anderson seemed to be playing ahead of the game to where he was committing errors (I hesitate to use the phrase “forced” errors). The two instances I’m thinking of are:
The couple times when Anderson tried to go for the block, succeeded, and had what looked to be a fast break if he hadn’t committed a foul
When he went up for a dunk and instead of forcing himself to the basket, he took his time to get there, which resulted in the ball being blocked and no basket being had
The good news for Tops fans is this is the closest Anderson has looked to being game ready. Give him one game, maybe two, before we start expecting the moon and the stars. He’s almost there.
This was more about MT playing desperate than WKU looking bad
You have to go back to Feb. 2016 for the last time MT lost consecutive conference games (which, WKU was apart of). Actually, that isn’t as long ago as I would have thought, given their recent history.
Anyway, the Raiders were coming off a pretty bad 10 point loss to Marshall. They were hungry, upset, and the Tops were unfortunately the next man up and got the brunt of it.
But, as I mentioned earlier, the Tops didn’t really get the brunt of much. They got nearly 30 points dropped on them by King, but other than that, the defense looked good, the Tops found ways to score despite going on multiple elongated droughts of not hitting a field goal and, when it was all said and done, lost a game by four points that they should have lost by about 14.
The Tops will see MT again. It’ll be another close game, but the emotions won’t be as one-sidedly high as they were tonight.
As I said on Twitter,