Greetings from a WKU Fan...

[cincydave8]

I come in peace. I checked around the website to see if fans from other teams were allowed to post but was unable to find an answer. If other team fans are not allowed to post or if this is the incorrect forums….my bad!

I thought I’d share a quick break down of the Hilltoppers, as I always enjoy when fans from other teams post these write ups.

First off, I expect WKU to lose and probably by double digits. I live in here in town and have been excited to see my boys play in person since this game was announced last year. Typically a game like this would have a WKU fan bus but since WKU football plays at home for the C-USA Championship on the same day fans are picking to attend that game over this one…obviously.

Real quick history of what’s going on with the Hilltoppers:

In 2008, we went to the Sweet 16 and in 2009 we missed the Sweet 16 due to a game winning lay-up from Gonzaga at the buzzer. At the end of 2008 our RPI was 37. Coach Darrin Horn left for South Carolina and we hired Ken McDonald. He basically destroyed the program. By 2011, our RPI had fallen all the way down to 223! He was fired halfway through the 2011-12 season. Our current Coach is Ray Harper. He comes from the Div II and NAIA level where he did nothing but win National Championships. He’s also a WKU guy who most likely would never leave for more money. Under 3 full Harper years our RPI has been improving from 183 to 181 to 138. But there’s a civil war brewing in our fan base. A lot of people are sick of losing and “rebuilding” and if Harper doesn’t make the NCAA or at least the NIT this year his seat could become very hot, as opposed to just warm right now.

Last year’s team won 20 games before losing to UAB at the buzzer in the C-USA tourney. UAB went on to beat Iowa State in the big dance. But, we lost 70% of our scoring off that team. This year’s squad has 9 new guys. We’ve looked great at times but downright terrible too. Which most fans expected with such a high turnover. We beat American East favorites Stony Brook and MAC favorites Central Michigan. We also only lost by 5 at Belmont, where Belmont has only lost 4 times in the past several years. Of course, we have two pretty bad losses to Drake and Duquesne. We also play EKU on Wednesday night. There’s a potential and hope that this team could end up being very good…just might not be able to put it together until January. We’ll see.

Players to watch:

Chris McNeal – Freshman point guard…runs the point really well and hardly turns the ball over.

Nigel Snips – Senior forward who’s gone off this year. One of our best players and leading scorer.

Justin Johnson – Sophomore big. He has a so much potential to be something special. One of our best players. Currently averaging 16 ppg / 8 Rebs per game.

Chris Harrison-Docks or CHD – Junior guard. Comes off the bench and can score and score plenty but seems to come in waves for him.

Fred Edmond – Jr college guard. Has great potential and plays his butt off but appears to be lost from time to time, hopefully he'll adjust to D-1 play soon.

Aaron Cosby is averaging 30 mins a game and 10 points per game and Ben Lawson is a 7 footer who can block nearly any shot but isn’t very strong.

This WKU team score and score quickly and they’re also strong at rebounding and shot blocking. But can struggle defensively and with free throws. This will obviously be the biggest test so far the Tops and like I said earlier, I expect a Xavier win.

Thanks for reading and see you Saturday at the Cintas Center and probably Listermans too. I’ll be happy to do my best and answer questions…if any.

Our board: http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=468&f=3574

[UCGRAD4X]

I come in peace. I checked around the website to see if fans from other teams were allowed to post but was unable to find an answer. If other team fans are not allowed to post or if this is the incorrect forums….my bad!

I thought I’d share a quick break down of the Hilltoppers, as I always enjoy when fans from other teams post these write ups.

First off, I expect WKU to lose and probably by double digits. I live in here in town and have been excited to see my boys play in person since this game was announced last year. Typically a game like this would have a WKU fan bus but since WKU football plays at home for the C-USA Championship on the same day fans are picking to attend that game over this one…obviously.

Real quick history of what’s going on with the Hilltoppers:

In 2008, we went to the Sweet 16 and in 2009 we missed the Sweet 16 due to a game winning lay-up from Gonzaga at the buzzer. At the end of 2008 our RPI was 37. Coach Darrin Horn left for South Carolina and we hired Ken McDonald. He basically destroyed the program. By 2011, our RPI had fallen all the way down to 223! He was fired halfway through the 2011-12 season. Our current Coach is Ray Harper. He comes from the Div II and NAIA level where he did nothing but win National Championships. He’s also a WKU guy who most likely would never leave for more money. Under 3 full Harper years our RPI has been improving from 183 to 181 to 138. But there’s a civil war brewing in our fan base. A lot of people are sick of losing and “rebuilding” and if Harper doesn’t make the NCAA or at least the NIT this year his seat could become very hot, as opposed to just warm right now.

Last year’s team won 20 games before losing to UAB at the buzzer in the C-USA tourney. UAB went on to beat Iowa State in the big dance. But, we lost 70% of our scoring off that team. This year’s squad has 9 new guys. We’ve looked great at times but downright terrible too. Which most fans expected with such a high turnover. We beat American East favorites Stony Brook and MAC favorites Central Michigan. We also only lost by 5 at Belmont, where Belmont has only lost 4 times in the past several years. Of course, we have two pretty bad losses to Drake and Duquesne. We also play EKU on Wednesday night. There’s a potential and hope that this team could end up being very good…just might not be able to put it together until January. We’ll see.

Players to watch:

Chris McNeal – Freshman point guard…runs the point really well and hardly turns the ball over.

Nigel Snips – Senior forward who’s gone off this year. One of our best players and leading scorer.

Justin Johnson – Sophomore big. He has a so much potential to be something special. One of our best players. Currently averaging 16 ppg / 8 Rebs per game.

Chris Harrison-Docks or CHD – Junior guard. Comes off the bench and can score and score plenty but seems to come in waves for him.

Fred Edmond – Jr college guard. Has great potential and plays his butt off but appears to be lost from time to time, hopefully he'll adjust to D-1 play soon.

Aaron Cosby is averaging 30 mins a game and 10 points per game and Ben Lawson is a 7 footer who can block nearly any shot but isn’t very strong.

This WKU team score and score quickly and they’re also strong at rebounding and shot blocking. But can struggle defensively and with free throws. This will obviously be the biggest test so far the Tops and like I said earlier, I expect a Xavier win.

Thanks for reading and see you Saturday at the Cintas Center and probably Listermans too. I’ll be happy to do my best and answer questions…if any.

Our board: http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=468&f=3574


I certainly don't speak for this board but posters from apposing teams are generally welcome and respected as long as they are as informative and reasonable as you seem to be...and frequent Listerman's.

I chuckled a bit at your comment about Harper being "a WKU guy who most likely would never leave for more money" - but here's hoping.

I like the name Nigel Snips - sounds like a character from a british sitcom about a London hair salon.

Lots of new faces will take a while to gel so your January prediction is sound - but as long as it is after this weekend.

Thanks for the info - looking forward to the game.

[Masterofreality]

Yes, you are welcome Cincydave8. Thanks for the write up. I've always liked Western very much, in fact I applied to go to school there, but, it was my second choice after Xavier. I date back as far as when Ed Diddle was coaching them and Clem Haskins played for them. When they built their arena back in the early 1960's it was a palace and one of the nicest ones around.

Good to see us playing each other, and I'm sure you'll be treated well at Cintas. Good luck.

[X-band '01]

Coach Darrin Horn left for South Carolina and we hired Ken McDonald. He basically destroyed the program. By 2011, our RPI had fallen all the way down to 223! He was fired halfway through the 2011-12 season.

What - coaches get fired for not recognizing 5-on-6 situations in the endgame?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0r0RNqeUWw

But seriously, thanks for the write-up and don't be a stranger!

[X-band '01]

And yes, that is a familiar face at the beginning of the video - Derrick Gordon was a freshman at Western KY at that time. Transferred to UMass and is now a graduate transfer at Seton Hall.

[Porkopolis]

Welcome. In addition to being a Xavier grad, I have a degree from Marshall. So I'm already familiar with WKU and think this game will be a great measuring stick for you. I'm glad you get to see your team in person and wish you luck in the football game; there might be more points than in the basketball game!

[GoMuskies]

I'm still a bit sore at you guys for not finishing the great comeback against UCLA in the '08 Sweet Sixteen. It would have been much more fun to play the Toppers in the Elite Eight, win or lose.

[xubrew]

I really like Ray Harper. Truth be told, I'm a little surprised WKU hasn't been finishing at, or at least near the top, of the standings every year. Having said that, as young as the team is, I think it would be a mistake to heat up his seat too much. Experience can equal improvement, and WKU may be closer than they think to a top forty team that doesn't need to win the automatic bid. I do think it's a season away, though.

[GoMuskies]

Harper was the tits at KWC. Of course, he was also cheating.

[XUGRAD80]

My TV guide shows the WKU-EKU game tonight (Tuesday) @ 8pm on Direct TV channel 608...FCS. I was planning on watching it.....is the day correct?

My daughter attended WKU for the 1st semester of her freshman year, but got homesick and transferred back here to Cincy St. and NKU. I really liked the campus down there and BG is a nice small town. Good luck in the Conference-USA football title game.

[Masterofreality]

My TV guide shows the WKU-EKU game tonight (Tuesday) @ 8pm on Direct TV channel 608...FCS. I was planning on watching it.....is the day correct?


Yep. EKU/WKU is on FCS at 8 tonight.

[MauriceX]

What - coaches get fired for not recognizing 5-on-6 situations in the endgame?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0r0RNqeUWw

But seriously, thanks for the write-up and don't be a stranger!

Wait... how did I never hear about this???

Sorry if this is old news, but did the NCAA ever do anything to address this??? That is crazy!!!

And yes, thank you for the write up! It is much appreciated!

[xubrew]

Wait... how did I never hear about this???

Sorry if this is old news, but did the NCAA ever do anything to address this??? That is crazy!!!

And yes, thank you for the write up! It is much appreciated!

I was watching live. If there's such a thing as a 'secondary' team, WKU is one of mine. Yes, the NCAA addressed it. I'm paraphrasing, but they basically said "We're sorry. Our bad."

[MauriceX]

I was watching live. If there's such a thing as a 'secondary' team, WKU is one of mine. Yes, the NCAA addressed it. I'm paraphrasing, but they basically said "We're sorry. Our bad."

Wow. Situations like these make me wonder how often officials actually have conferences like this:


https://youtu.be/jDBQr9rOVTo?t=8s

[waggy]

What would the NCAA have to do with it? Doesn't the school or conference employ the officials?

[SemajParlor]

Didn't Courtney Lee hit a game winning shot for WKU in the tourney? Did I make that up?

[Strange Brew]

I come in peace. I checked around the website to see if fans from other teams were allowed to post but was unable to find an answer. If other team fans are not allowed to post or if this is the incorrect forums….my bad!

I thought I’d share a quick break down of the Hilltoppers, as I always enjoy when fans from other teams post these write ups.

First off, I expect WKU to lose and probably by double digits. I live in here in town and have been excited to see my boys play in person since this game was announced last year. Typically a game like this would have a WKU fan bus but since WKU football plays at home for the C-USA Championship on the same day fans are picking to attend that game over this one…obviously.

Real quick history of what’s going on with the Hilltoppers:

In 2008, we went to the Sweet 16 and in 2009 we missed the Sweet 16 due to a game winning lay-up from Gonzaga at the buzzer. At the end of 2008 our RPI was 37. Coach Darrin Horn left for South Carolina and we hired Ken McDonald. He basically destroyed the program. By 2011, our RPI had fallen all the way down to 223! He was fired halfway through the 2011-12 season. Our current Coach is Ray Harper. He comes from the Div II and NAIA level where he did nothing but win National Championships. He’s also a WKU guy who most likely would never leave for more money. Under 3 full Harper years our RPI has been improving from 183 to 181 to 138. But there’s a civil war brewing in our fan base. A lot of people are sick of losing and “rebuilding” and if Harper doesn’t make the NCAA or at least the NIT this year his seat could become very hot, as opposed to just warm right now.

Last year’s team won 20 games before losing to UAB at the buzzer in the C-USA tourney. UAB went on to beat Iowa State in the big dance. But, we lost 70% of our scoring off that team. This year’s squad has 9 new guys. We’ve looked great at times but downright terrible too. Which most fans expected with such a high turnover. We beat American East favorites Stony Brook and MAC favorites Central Michigan. We also only lost by 5 at Belmont, where Belmont has only lost 4 times in the past several years. Of course, we have two pretty bad losses to Drake and Duquesne. We also play EKU on Wednesday night. There’s a potential and hope that this team could end up being very good…just might not be able to put it together until January. We’ll see.

Players to watch:

Chris McNeal – Freshman point guard…runs the point really well and hardly turns the ball over.

Nigel Snips – Senior forward who’s gone off this year. One of our best players and leading scorer.

Justin Johnson – Sophomore big. He has a so much potential to be something special. One of our best players. Currently averaging 16 ppg / 8 Rebs per game.

Chris Harrison-Docks or CHD – Junior guard. Comes off the bench and can score and score plenty but seems to come in waves for him.

Fred Edmond – Jr college guard. Has great potential and plays his butt off but appears to be lost from time to time, hopefully he'll adjust to D-1 play soon.

Aaron Cosby is averaging 30 mins a game and 10 points per game and Ben Lawson is a 7 footer who can block nearly any shot but isn’t very strong.

This WKU team score and score quickly and they’re also strong at rebounding and shot blocking. But can struggle defensively and with free throws. This will obviously be the biggest test so far the Tops and like I said earlier, I expect a Xavier win.

Thanks for reading and see you Saturday at the Cintas Center and probably Listermans too. I’ll be happy to do my best and answer questions…if any.

Our board: http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=468&f=3574

Welcome CD. Hope you enjoy your visit to X as much as I've enjoyed my visits to BG/WKU! Please stop by anytime.

[MauriceX]

What would the NCAA have to do with it? Doesn't the school or conference employ the officials?

Chalk that one up to a brain fart. I was going for "governing body that oversees officials" and just jumped to NCAA without thinking. I guess it would be the conference. I did some research and found the response from the Sun Belt. It was exactly as XUBrew described, just from a different source.

Link (http://wkuherald.com/sports/article_27dc65a0-38e9-11e1-8f47-001a4bcf6878.html)

[waggy]

Brew blames the NCAA for global warming.

[OTRMUSKIE]

Every teams fans are welcome here. You don't even have to be knowledgeable. 100% of my post are based on zero knowledge.

[XUGRAD80]

Every teams fans are welcome here. You don't even have to be knowledgeable. 100% of my post are based on zero knowledge.

But there are CERTAIN fans, from CERTAIN schools, that HAVE worn out their welcome.....

I wouldn't expect that from someone from WKU though. LOL

[cincydave8]

Thanks everyone. I know about fans from other schools not being welcome. A lot of fan bases to do not like WKU, I'm glad to see so many of you do. I hope it stays that way after Saturday.

The classic 5 on 6 game. That was the straw that broke the back from McDonald. But play had been terrible up that point and the fan base was in complete revolt. They started selling $1 tickets for games and were still only drawing about 2,000 fans (Diddle Arena holds 7,500). He was basically a lame duck coach anyways.

The 2008 UCLA game was a fun second half and I would have loved to move on to play you all in the Elite 8. I think we came back from 20 down to cut the lead to 3 but we just didn't have an answer for Kevin Love inside. Courtney Lee lead that team but it was Ty Rogers who it the game winning shot on OT against Drake in the first round.

I clearly meant the EKU game was Tuesday as most of you figured out. If you watched the game I think you saw some of what I mentioned, especially how this team can score. We started the game on a 21-2 run. But we were lucky to win over our old rivals from EKU. We were 14/26 from 3 point land and our PF Johnson hit a desperate 3 at the end to win. Fun stuff.

[Always Learning]

Cincy Dave, you brought back great memories. The first I ever knew about WKU was in the '54-'55 season season when we won a double overtime game that snapped a 80 plus game home winning streak of the Hilltoppers.
The legendary Ed Diddle never seem to contract with "our" official named for the game, but luckily when ours didn't show, there was a local guy who brought his gear to the game and was happy to fill in. Thus, a secret to the long winning streak.
That was "back in the day" and the WKY school officials were always most hospitable and after the game hosted us with the finest Kentucky bourbon and sent us home with wonderful Kentucky smoked hams. We were a "big deal" school that scheduled them H&H.
Then there was the night in South Bend when a Washington Post writer, the Enquirer's Paul Ritter and I were having dinner following WKY's win in the first round of the NCAA (24 teams back them) and earned a ticket to play Kentucky in Athens, Georgia in the Elite Eight. The Washington fellow opined that UK would easily advance. Paul and I explained to him there was no way, that WKY, and everyone one who ever cheered for WKY had been waiting since the early days of Kentucky statehood for this chance, and they would kill UK.
They did!
A historical note here. In '59-'60 Frank Pinchback became the first Black to ever play vs WKY in Bowling Green. And the only other Black in the boilding that night was the janitor. The Fieldhouse, as was all of Bowling Green, was segregated. By the time of the WKU-UK game, both schools featured Black players, Daniels for WKY and Spivey for UK.
Wish I still had one of those Ed Diddle red towels !
Go Xavier

[cincydave8]

Thanks for the stories Always Learning. Clem Haskins and Dwight Smith became the first black athletes to integrate the Western Kentucky program in the Fall of 1963. This put Western Kentucky at the forefront to integrate college basketball in the Southeast. 1966 NCAA championship game, in which Texas Western College (UTEP) coach Don Haskins started five African-American players. The Miners beat favorite Kentucky 72-65 to win the 1966 NCAA title. The team's victory inspired the 2006 movie Glory Road. That same year Western lost to Michigan by 2 in the elite 8, had Western won, we would have faced that all white UK team with a WKU team that started two black players. How great of a story that would have been.

Oh and there's no love between UK and WKU. They refuse to play us ever since we beat them in Lexington back in 2001.

[drudy23]

What - coaches get fired for not recognizing 5-on-6 situations in the endgame?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0r0RNqeUWw

But seriously, thanks for the write-up and don't be a stranger!

How can an official let this go for more than 15 seconds? The fans on the floor and in the first row were screaming at the ref that there were six players on the court, and one guy was obviously unguarded the whole time...and no one stopped the game?

[cincydave8]

Hey all. I just wanted to stop by one last time. We had a great time at the game. We sat up in 209 and enjoyed talking with fans to our right and behind us. Several other Xavier folks we talked to mentioned the history of WKU basketball and were very complementary. I did stand up and applaud when WKU came back out on the court for the 2nd half and I think someone told me to sit down...but that's to be expected and one silly comment doesn't take away from everyone else being friendly. Good luck the rest of the season.

Of course you didn't have to beat us by 30. Sheesh. I thought we'd be more competitive but just fell apart in the 2nd half. We have a lot of questions going forward and Coach Harper's seat is going to get very warm if he doesn't right the ship soon.

[Masterofreality]

Good luck going forward Dave. Western Kentucky has a long term, loyal and supportive fan base and I love the school. as I mentioned before, I applied there but couldn't turn down the lure of Xavier.

Your in a much better league now and your football team boat raced Southern Miss and will play in the Miami Beach Bowl. Hope you guys roll that lousy AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC team USF. Thanks for stopping by!!