Hilltopper Preview

We're all very excited about the arrival of the MAC Football Championship on Friday, but there is a little business to be conducted before that.  The men's basketball team will suit up tomorrow to take on the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers from the Stroh Center.

WKU has been in the NCAAs the last two seasons, both times as a #16.  Last year they put a fright into Kansas before falling.  The teams have rekindled a rivalry of sort in recent years.  Back in the day, the two schools from Bowling Green played regularly.  WKU won games in 2010 and 2011, including a game at Anderson Arena.

The past two seasons WKU has gotten hot around tournament time, but this year they are expected to be pretty good.  They were picked to win the Sun Belt in the conference's pre-season poll, and picked to finish 3rd by espn.com.

They brought four starters back from the team that made the dance last year.  And they are off to a pretty good start this season, at 4-2 against an all D1 schedule.  They lost @Wichita State (no shame there) and @Marshall (possibly one they would like back), and have four home wins to date, including a decent win over UNC-Wilmington.  They have yet to win on the road this year and do not have a signature win, really.

This is a team built on defense.  They are allowing only 61 PPG and .91 points per possession, which is among the top 30 teams in D1 so far this year.  They guard the shot very well...teams are shooting 41% and 29% against them.  They are good on protecting their offensive boards and force turnovers on 22% of possessions, which is average but very good if you are defending the shot that well.  They do foul a lot, so if BG was making some free throws, that would certainly help.

On offense they are struggling.  Their .93 points per possession is lower than BG's (admittedly Earlham-aided) rate for the season.  (In all fairness, BG's schedule has been tougher than WKU's). They are shooting 39% and 28%, and making turnovers on 25% of their possessions.  They do a good job on the offensive boards and they draw fouls as often as they foul.

They literally have 2 scoring threats.  TJ Price is a 6'4" JR who is scoring 16 points a game on 42% shooting in a 3-heavy shot mix.  George Fant is a 6'6" JR who is scoring 13.5 PPG on 55% shooting.  He also leads the team with 5.8 rebounds.  The next leading scorer for WKU gets 5 points a game.

Both players are also averaging more than 3 fouls per game.

They have a couple strong rebounders, both of whom get around 5 rebounds per game.: Aaron Adeoye (6'7") and Brandon Harris (6'1" Sr).

This is a youngish team.  They have only 2 seniors that play regularly.

I am interested to see how this one goes.  BG has typically played well at home, and this is probably a more winnable game than South Florida.  I would expect a foul-fest, but maybe BG has corrected that based on results in the last game.  I think the game will be low scoring and if BG can break anything free at all on the offensive end, I would think they have a shot at this one.  On the other hand, if BG is playing typically on the offensive end and not executing at defense, this could be a long game.