WKU Notebook: Tops Prepping for Orlando
Mike Sanford spoke to the media yesterday before the Tops make final preparations to head to Orlando to face off against Georgia State in…
Mike Sanford spoke to the media yesterday before the Tops make final preparations to head to Orlando to face off against Georgia State in the Cure Bowl.
Below are some quick-hit highlights from the media availability, as well as some other notes around WKU sports.
“The December 20 signing period has completely changed things for recruiting.”
Chad Bishop asked Sanford about how the recurting is going for the Tops, who are believed to have the top recruiting class in C-USA for the 2018 class. Sanford said he spent the finals week going to 20–22 home visits across close to seven states.
He also mentioned the importance of being able to host December official visits while the team is preparing for a bowl game.
Finally, he didn’t say how many he expected to sign on Dec. 20, but Sanford said the hope (both for him and with a majority, if not all, D1 teams) is for a majority of the class to take advantage of the early signing period.
“So far, we’ve been fortunate. We haven’t been susceptible to any of the moves happening across the landscape of college football.”
Sanford wasn’t committal one way or the other about what changes would come to the Tops’ coaching staff, but he seemed to be in the mindset that most changes would come via other schools poaching current coaches. We’ll see how long that stays the case.
“He was a warrior this year.”
When asked about Cam Echols-Luper, Sanford was pleased with his performance throughout the season, as he played with a bit of a nagging injury that’ll wind up taking him out of the bowl game.
As Brad Stephens tweeted out after the presser yesterday, linebacker Daeshawn Bertram is no longer with the program. Sanford said it was due to a host of factors.
While Bertram wont be participating in the Cure Bowl, Marcus Ward will be! Sanford confirmed that yesterday as well.
Moving away from football, the WKU basketball info department had this fun stat for everyone yesterday before the Tops tango with Wisconsin.
Not only has that trio combined for a near 50% combined shooting percentage from deep, but Hollingsworth (54.5%) and Nelson (50%) are both shooting even or above even from deep. Ohmer isn’t left in the dark though, he’s hitting deep balls at a 40.5% clip, having made a team-best 17 (he’s also taken a team-most 42 threes).
The Badgers will be a man down against WKU on Wednesday, and for the rest of the year, as they lost freshman Kobe King to knee surgery.
It’s been a while since we’ve hit you with a ProTops Primer (and for that, I sincerely apologize), but things are going very, very well for Courtney Lee.
He’s turning in a career year, averaging 12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists through the season’s first 26 games.
Our pals at Daily Knicks have a fun breakdown of how he’s getting it done.