WKU Basketball: The Crazy Weekend that Was

Following last weeks news that Damari Parris’s scholarship wasn’t renewed and that assistant coach Shammond Williams had resigned from the coaching staff without any word official statement’s from WKU basketball, the Hilltopper faithful were left waiting for answers with a sense of anxiety heading into the weekend. An eventful and stressful weekend followed. Here’s a recap of what happened the past few days as we waited anxiously for Rick Stansbury’s Top 10 class to arrive on campus.

Thursday Night

After Damari Parris’ scholarship came open last Sunday, a new potential impact player for the last scholarship was revealed by Fan Rag Sports, College Basketball Insider Jon Rothstein:

Hawkins is a 6'8" forward that averaged 14 points and 6.5 rebounds on an Illinois State squad that shared the Missouri Valley Conference Regular Season Championship and was one of the last teams left out of the Big Dance. Fans were left wondering if WKU was a legit contender for an impact grad transfer that was headed to the ACC, and also was he really needed with WKU’s expected stacked front line? More breaking news was about to drop the next morning.

Friday

Friday morning started with a report from HoopDirt.com that Rick Stansbury had already zeroed in on a replacement for Shammond Williams’ spot on the staff. The report stated that Stetson assistant Nikita Johnson was set to replace Williams on staff. Johnson has over 20+ years of coaching experience at many stops including LSU, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette & Murray State. Stetson went 11–21 last season so we’ll see if will bring recruiting or X’s & O’s that were surely missing to WKU’s staff last season.

Several local and national media picked up the story and also confirmed HoopDirt’s report that Williams was officially gone, giving some insight on the situation:

The fact that WKU had already lost two assistants (Quannas White had left for Houston in April) from last season’s staff was already disconcerting, then HoopDirt added to their story announcing that veteran assistant Chris Cheeks had also resigned from the staff. Cheeks had joined Stansbury’s staff from Delaware shortly after he was hired. WKU now had zero returning assistant coaches from Stansbury’s initial team that went 15–17. Regional media quickly became aware of the news and they reacted accordingly:

As Friday went on, there was zero reaction or spin put out by the WKU basketball program, leaving many fans to wonder what the hell was happening and was the dream season to be about to become a big letdown before it even started. Injury was added to insult as one of WKU’s top 2018 targets removed the Tops from his finalists:

Montez Mathis is a Top 100 recruit in the next cycle that heats up during the July evaluation period. Stansbury’s future efforts were already dealt a blow due to the staff shakeup.

Message boards were on-fire as the fan base jumped to the worst possible conclusions before the whole story was hashed out.

As Friday came to and end, we were all left wondering what the hell is going on and why has there been no answers from the basketball program?

Saturday

Saturday morning, luckily, gave us a momentary reprieve from the craziness swirling around the basketball program. The Kentucky Kings, a quasi-alumni basketball team that included greats (A.J. Slaughter, Tyrone Brazelton, Jeremy Evans & Steffphon Pettigrews) from WKU’s most recent run of success were set to tip off in their 1st game of the $2 million, winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament. The Kentucky Kings jumped to a 50–39 halftime lead over the Citi Team and went on to close them out in a dominant 94–72 win.

The Kentucky Kings advanced to play the Tampa Bulls (a South Florida alumni squad) on Sunday morning.

The joy of that small victory was quickly dashed as Rick Stansbury’s now nemesis, Jeff Goodman, quickly fanned the flames of anxiety across the Hilltopper faithful:

Ever since Robinson’s commitment in June of 2016, fans have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. They, like everyone else that follows college basketball, wondered when Robinson would decommit and go to a more “prestigious” program. The first time fans exhaled was when Robinson signed his Letter of Intent at the last moment of the November signing period. The LOI is binding and Robinson can’t go somewhere else unless he wants to sit out a year to play. Fan relief was quickly quashed as a decommitment “ hoax” scandal happened less than a month after his signing. Ever since that news, Robinson had appeared to be happy with his decision and stated publicly that he couldn’t wait to arrive on WKU’s campus and was ready for a special things on the hill.

Despite being enrolled and the fact he can’t get out of his LOI without WKU letting him out, the rumors that persisted upon his Godfather’s dismissal were now officially out there with Goodman’s tweets. The fear of our crown jewel on the team that is supposed to put WKU back on the map never making it to campus put most of the fanbase on edge. Luckily the suspense was quashed for now as Goodman put out these tweets moments later:

The WKU faithfull now waited anxiously for Robinson and others (Josh Anderson, Jordan Brangers, etc.) to arrive and begin the process of building chemistry.

With Nikita Johnson’s reported hire and Ben Hansbrough’s recent addition to the coaching staff, there is one spot left to complete Rick Stansbury’s second staff. Late Saturday a report came out that New Mexico assistant Marc Hsu was offered the remaining spot on Stansbury’s staff:

Hsu had followed New Mexico coach Paul Weir to Albuquerque this offseason when they left rival New Mexico State. He is seen as an great recruiter helping the Lobos land four-star UConn transfer Vance Jackson and other talented players. There has been no official word if Hsu will actually join the staff but at least Stansbury had a plan upon his entire staff not returning this season.

Sunday

The Kentucky Kings were back in action Sunday morning against the Tampa Bulls. The Kings and Bulls played a classic. The Kentucky Kings led at the half.

Despite Jeremy Evans 20 point and 12 rebound performance, the Kings clinged to a two point lead with 5.3 seconds to go. Unfortunately, South Florida Alum, Solomon Hill had one more shot

The Kings represented WKU well in both games but they’re going to be left wondering how far they could have gone. Here’s the final score

Going into midnight in the eastern time zone (when I finished this piece initially), it looked no other basketball news would occur Sunday. Then, there were Snapchat posts from Robinson himself showing that he was in Bowling Green and on campus. Monday morning, Chad Bishop himself put the week long hysteria to rest

Quick Thoughts on the Weekend

• The news from the past week and the lack of response from the basketball program left a void that was filled with rumor, anxiety and more craziness. In the future, the program has to do a better job of calming the fans nerves in situations like this and as fans we should all let the cake bake and chill until official word breaks.
• Message boards are rampant with people that claim sources and knowledge that frequently gets refuted. Rumors such as “Bobby Knight being WKU’s next coach” and “Justin Johnson’s yearly transfer watch from the basketball program” are two of the big rumors that have percolated throughout the years on various WKU message boards. They can be a fun outlet for gossip, but I think that Chad Bishop gives solid advice here, especially when it comes to rumors:

• Losing all three assistants from last years team may not be as bad as many of us think. WKU finished a disappointing 15–17 last season, Rick Stansbury needs assistants that can help develop players and are more than recruiters (especially since Rick is more of a recruiter himself). The hard truth with last season was the fact that WKU was frequently unprepared in many games and didn’t gel as a team despite having more than enough pieces to be decent. Preparation, film sessions and scouting often falls on assistant coaches and those areas were all lacking last season. With an entirely new roster and a new staff maybe those issues aren’t a problem this upcoming season.
• Until Mitchell Robinson, Josh Anderson and others hit the court at Diddle for the first game, there will still be a segment of the fan base that will be on eggshells. Rumors will persist, and people will buy into these rumors. Let’s hope they all report today like, Jordan Brangers announced he would

• The Basketball Tournament is a great event that more fans should pay attention to. It was great seeing Evans, Slaughter, Pettigrew & Brazelton again show out. Let’s hope next year they can form a full fledged alumni squad (like USF did) and we can have a new July event to care about moving forward, instead of off court drama.
• With Robinson officially in the fold, we can now move forward as a fan base and look to reports from the Costa Rica trip to get us all amped up for the most talked about WKU basketball season in memory.

What do you think about the crazy events that transpired this past weekend? Do you think there is another shoe to drop? Let us know in a comment below, via twitter at @TheTowelRackWKU or on our Facebook page.