WKU Basketball: Where Do The Tops Go From Here?
For a second straight season, the Hilltoppers lost in a less-than-desirable performance in the Conference USA championship game, this year against Old Dominion, 62–56.
Losing the conference title twice in a row is most certainly heartbreaking for all Hilltopper fans but it’s still our reality we have to deal with.
While it would be easy for me to just write every single issue the team had this season and nitpick what caused this season to be such a letdown, I’d rather look ahead to see what happens now that the season is over as well as what needs to happen to help this team for next year.
Bassey’s Decision
One of the biggest things that will happen this offseason is what freshman center Charles Bassey decides to do.
As of right now, he’s listed as a late-first to middle-second round draft pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, according to four different mock drafts I’ve seen. Bassey averaged 14.6 points, 10 rebounds and 2.4 blocks on the year, making him one of the best freshmen centers in the country and earned him a spot as a finalist for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, along with being named Conference USA’s Freshman of the Year and a spot on the conference’s First Team.
Obviously it would be incredible and benefit the team greatly if he were to stay for another season, but money talks. We’ll take a deep look at Bassey’s pro stock later in the offseason but I imagine if things stay the way they do now, as far as where he’s projected to go in the draft, he may decide to go pro. And honestly, I wouldn’t blame him.
One of the most frustrating things to witness this past season was WKU’s struggle to get him the ball inside. Bassey shot over 60% from the floor on the season yet only got around eight shot attempts per game. While he was doubled and sometimes triple teamed in the paint in some instances, Bassey still could’ve gotten the ball more than he did this year and the offense looked extremely stagnant when they didn’t even try to.
Three Point Shooting
To me, the biggest thing missing from this season was three point shooting. WKU shot 32% from deep on the year and was one of their biggest downfalls.
Redshirt junior Jared Savage led the team in three point shooting with 80 made triples this year, but shot just 36% from deep. Savage was streaky at best this season but was still more consistent from deep than any other Hilltopper player.
Coach Stansbury would do his team a big favor by finding at least one more good shooter before next season. Whether it’s a grad transfer or someone like Carson Williams (who had to sit out this season due to transfer) or a healthy Jeremiah Gambrell, or even an improved Taveion Hollingsworth or Jake Ohmer becoming a better shooter, this team needs more than one consistent option to shoot the three if they want to win the C-USA next year and that wasn’t any more evident than it was against ODU in this year’s title game.
Say what you want about Jeff Jones and ODU but he knew exactly how to beat WKU and that was to force them to shoot threes. ODU ran a solid 2–3 zone defense most of the game, clogging the paint and surrounding Bassey, which forced several bad shots and turnovers including (at least) four shot clock violation calls on the Tops. WKU shot 4-of-18 (22%) from deep in the game and had 14 turnovers with several of them from being unable to break the Monarch’s zone.
Assistant Coaching
If Bassey decides to go pro, I really don’t see his guardian and WKU assistant coach Hennssy Auriantal sticking around.
If Stansbury were to lose him or another assistant coach in the offseason, I’d love to see him pick up someone who is a good X’s and O’s coach and/or someone who is good at working with guards.
One of the biggest surprises this year was the slump that sophomore Taveion Hollingsworth was in for most of the year. While he still averaged more points than he did last year with 14.4 points, he just didn’t look like the same explosive Tay we all saw last year. Sophomore slumps are real and I expect him to keep his word in this tweet and bounce back.
So if an opening were to occur and WKU gets a new assistant, I hope Stansbury would hire someone who can help all the young guards on this team improve and take them to the next level.
Discipline Off the Court
This season almost felt lost before it began.
Right at the beginning of the season, three different WKU players got in trouble off the court before the regular season started. Stuff like that can make a coach like Stansbury lose his mind and rightfully so. The worst part is that one of the players that got in trouble was grad transfer DeSean Murray.
Murray was supposed to be one of the leaders on the team yet ended up getting in trouble and eventually left the team after his playing time was reduced but another one that was forgotten about was JUCO guard Trevelin Queen, who was going to be a good shooter, left before the season began after enrolling. Queen ended up joining a New Mexico State squad that has won 30 games this season and has averaged 7.5 points per game for them.
I’m not gonna throw stones in a glass house but issues like this are disappointing for everyone involved. College players are already under a microscope without messing up off the court so once that happens, it makes them as well as the program look bad from the outside.
I know college students will be college students but I’d love to not see any issues like these keep reoccurring next season. Stansbury has done a solid job running his program even with these issues and has done a good job to nip them in the bud so I hope this is the last we see of these problems.
Stay Together
I really hope to see this team stay together through the offseason.
WKU avoided having a single player transfer in the offseason last year for what felt like the first time in a decade and I’d like to see that trend continue. While this year was a partial rebuild after losing three starting seniors, they retained several core players that have contributed and improved this season.
It would do wonders to keep this team together so they can continue to gain experience as well as keep a good team chemistry. Lose a bunch of players and it’s almost like starting from square one again having a bunch of new pieces try to figure things out in 31 games hoping to win a C-USA title.
Roster retention is a major key in today’s era of college basketball and I’m hoping Stansbury still has his core guys come back as well as (at least for now) three new Hilltoppers on the team as well.
While one can only speculate, things aren’t as bad as it seems for the Hilltoppers moving forward. They have three great recruits coming in as well as a strong core that should continue to improve after coming up short again this year so we’ll just have to trust the process and prepare ourselves for another wild ride in November.
