The Western Kentucky men’s basketball team will get an unexpected late-season shot at one of the top teams in the country.
The Hilltoppers will travel to Houston to take on the highly-ranked Cougars at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Fertitta Center in a game nationally televised on ESPN2.
“Opportunity-wise, we just felt there was a lot more to gain than there is to lose,” WKU coach Rick Stansbury said. “As a coach and as a player and everybody else – hey, you want to play against the best and no question they’re one of the best teams in the country, and on their home court I think they’ve won 20-plus games in a row there. They’re No. 6 in the NET. It’s very obvious it’s a great challenge for us, but at the same time a great opportunity.”
The game was announced late Sunday afternoon, but had been in the works for some time. The Hilltoppers were trying to get a game scheduled a couple of weekends ago, according to Stansbury, but the American Athletic Conference sent the Cougars to Wichita. Cancellations led to returned communications between the two programs, and Stansbury said, “I don’t think there’s a lot of takers that want to come to Houston right now and we were one of them.”
That’s because the Cougars are 18-3 overall and 12-0 at home – a 90-52 beat down of Cincinnati on Sunday moved the program’s winning streak to 22 games at the Fertitta Center – and ranked 12th in the latest AP poll, 10th in the coaches poll and sixth out of 347 teams in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, rankings, which are used as the primary sorting tool for selection and seeding for the NCAA Tournament.
“As a player and as a coach, when you get an opportunity to play against the best, it brings out the best and the worst in you,” Stansbury said. “I don’t think we get a lot of shots – and I don’t mean this to be negative, it’s just the truth – our guys going into a lot of Conference USA games, there’s not a lot of opportunities like this where you get juiced like this, if that makes sense.”
WKU enters at 15-4 and on a six-game winning streak, including Conference USA series sweeps of Marshall, Middle Tennessee and Rice, but the Hilltoppers have had three of their last four scheduled series called off, the latest of which was a series at North Texas scheduled for last weekend.
The Hilltoppers moved up a spot in the latest NET rankings to 75th, and Thursday’s matchup presents an opportunity to move up further. C-USA’s North Texas (72) and Marshall (69) are ahead of WKU in the NET rankings. The Hilltoppers swept the Thundering Herd, and also have victories over Memphis and Alabama, which rank 61st and eighth in the rankings. WKU also fell to West Virginia late in the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, S.D., and at Louisville. The Mountaineers and Cardinals rank 15th and 53rd in the NET rankings. The Alabama game was another late addition to the schedule, as were the games against Memphis and West Virginia, after plans to originally play in Nebraska’s season-opening bubble event fell through less than a week before it was scheduled to begin.
“I think it’s very obvious – you go win and you’re in (the NCAA Tournament) if you don’t fall off the cliff the rest of the way,” Stansbury said. “That’s kind of the way we look at it. There’s a lot more to gain than there is to lose. No one expects us to win. The NET’s a six. I would think, win or lose, our NET should get better probably.”
Two of Houston’s three losses have come in the last five games, however, but the Cougars recently returned senior forward Fabian White Jr. from an ACL tear suffered last May. White, who Stansbury calls “their alpha dog” and “a guy that gives them that mojo a little bit,” had just three points and one rebound in eight minutes of action in the team’s 68-63 loss at Wichita State, but had a near double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes the next time out against Cincinnati.
The Cougars are led by the trio of guards Quentin Grimes, Marcus Sasser and DeJon Jarreau, who all average double-figure scoring.
Despite losses in two of its last five games, Houston is still beating teams by an average of 18 points – the third-best mark in the nation behind only No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2 Baylor. Its scoring defense is second nationally at 57.6 points allowed per game, its field goal percentage defense is tops nationally at 36.4% and its 3-point defense is third at 26.5%.
Houston averages 76.5 points, and takes advantage of second-chance points with its 15 offensive rebounds per game, which is the second-best mark in the country. The Cougars have a plus-nine rebounding margin, and are led by 6-foot-7 redshirt senior forward Justin Gorham’s 9.6 per game.
“(Offensive rebounding) is the one thing that makes them as good as they are,” Stansbury said. “They average almost 16 offensive rebounds a game. The first shot they’re OK at – two guys can really shoot it in Grimes and Sasser – but their second and third shot they’re great at. That second shot from 3-pointer off an offensive rebound is one of the best shots you can shoot, so they get several of those.
“They’re going to send four guys to the backboards, and that’s just who they are. There will be some bigger teams you may play, but there’s probably no more athletic, hard-playing teams than Houston. That’s what makes them special.”
WKU is coming off an 89-66 shellacking of Rice where it played its most efficient game of the season offensively. The Hilltoppers shot 56.5% from the field and made 14 of 28 3-pointers – its most made 3s in a game since making the same number in a win over Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 1, 2015. WKU is averaging 75 points per game and allowing 69.4, and has shot 44.8% from 3-point range in its last five games.
Star center Charles Bassey leads WKU at 18 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game. Taveion Hollingsworth adds 13.9 points and Josh Anderson 10.2. Freshman point guard Dayvion McKnight had 18 assists and no turnovers in the Rice series, and now has the fourth-best assist/turnover ratio in C-USA.
The Hilltoppers are 1-3 all-time against Houston, including 0-1 on the road. The teams last met in WKU’s 74-72 home loss Feb. 9, 2010.
WKU is scheduled to follow Thursday’s games with home series against FIU and Old Dominion, with the two games against the Panthers scheduled for Sunday and Monday – a move from the original Friday and Saturday dates to fit the game against Houston.
WESTERN KENTUCKY (15-4) AT HOUSTON (18-3)
6 p.m. Thursday, Houston, Texas
Probable starters
WESTERN KENTUCKY
Taveion Hollingsworth, g, 6-2, sr. (13.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg); Dayvion McKnight, g, 6-1, fr. (5.5 ppg, 3.7 rpg); Charles Bassey, c, 6-11, jr. (18.0 ppg, 11.7 rpg); Carson Williams, f, 6-5, r-sr. (7.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg); Josh Anderson, g, 6-6, sr. (10.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg).
HOUSTON
Marcus Sasser, g, 6-1, so. (14.5 ppg, 2.1 rpg); DeJon Jarreau, g, 6-5, r-sr. (10.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg); Quentin Grimes, g, 6-5, jr. (16.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg); Justin Gorham, f, 6-7, r-sr. (8.3 ppg, 9.6 rpg); Reggie Chaney, f, 6-8, jr. (4.9 ppg, 2.8 rpg).
Television
ESPN2
Radio
Hilltopper Sports Network
Coaches
Rick Stansbury (97-56, fifth year; 390-222 overall), WKU; Kelvin Sampson (157-63, seventh year; 657-333 overall), Houston.
Series record
Houston leads the series 3-1 (The Cougars won 74-72 on Feb. 9, 2010, at E.A. Diddle Arena).
Last time out
WKU won 89-66 at home against Rice on Feb. 13; Houston won 90-52 at home against Cincinnati on Sunday.{&end}
