Western Kentucky a formidable foe for Griz

[IE]

Western Kentucky, West Virginia - same difference, says Montana men's basketball coach Wayne Tinkle.

That comparison alone should be enough to get the attention of the Griz and their fans as the Hilltoppers come to Dahlberg Arena on Wednesday night.

West Virginia is the team that waxed the Griz 73-56 on Thanksgiving Day in the Old Spice Classic.
Western Kentucky (7-1) is the fifth-ranked team this week in collegeinsider Mid-major poll. The Griz (3-4) began the season ranked in the same poll, but fell out this week.

The Hilltoppers compare favorably to the Mountaineers on a couple of fronts. First is their length. Western Kentucky starts 6-foot-6 Benson Callier, 6-9 Jeremy Evans and 6-8 Daniel Emerson across the front, with 6-5 Courtney Lee in the backcourt. Even at 5-11, WKU point guard Tyrone Brazelton will have a three-inch advantage on his counterpart Bryan Ellis.

Also like the Mountaineers, the Hilltoppers shoot the trey very well, connecting on 43 percent of their attempts for the season. In their last outing, a 78-55 win over Eastern Kentucky, they were 15-for-22 from long range.

?They're very effective from the 3-point line,? said Tinkle, whose Griz have allowed their opponents to make 47 percent of their 3-pointers. ?They're athletic as well and like to put you on your heels. They have guys who can get to the rim and draw and kick.?

Lee leads the Hilltoppers in scoring at 17.9 points a game. He was 5-for-5 from downtown in the win over Eastern Kentucky and is shooting the trey at a 55 percent clip.

?He's an all-around great player,? Tinkle said. ?They're talking about him being a first-round NBA draft pick. He can shoot and put it on the floor. He's one of our main focuses.?

Senior Matt Dlouhy will start out guarding Lee. Dlouhy did an admirable job of checking Boise State's Coby Karl on Sunday, although foul trouble limited his minutes.

?He has some good length,? Tinkle said of the 6-6 Dlouhy. ?He's done a real nice job defensively. He's turned into a solid hard-nosed defender.?

Brazelton is the only other Hilltopper averaging double digits in scoring at 10.5 a game. Ten players average three or more points and those same 10 average in double digits in playing time.

?They play 11 guys consistently,? Tinkle said. ?You can't take them for granted, they're all capable.?

That depth helps the Hilltoppers stay fresh in their pressure defense, both full and half court.

?They want to force you into bad decisions or quick decisions,? Tinkle said. ?They get it turned up on the defensive end. We're going to have to do a good job of handling their pressure, turn the ball side to side and run our offense. We need to make them defend longer than they want to.?

Western Kentucky also likes to double-team the ball once it enters the low post, Tinkle said.

?We have to be ready to make quick moves,? Tinkle said of Griz post players Andrew Strait and Jordan Hasquet. ?Andrew and Jordan have to make some plays.?

With two home wins this season, the Griz are now 27-3 over the last three seasons in Dahlberg Arena.

?I'm glad we have them at home,? Tinkle said. ?Our guys have bought into protecting our house. It's not the easiest thing to do when you're playing quality teams like we're playing. You can't take anything for granted. We have to make sure we're playing Montana Grizzly style of basketball.?



NOTES: Griz wing Austin Swift tweaked his calf again, an injury that limited him to six minutes against Boise State. ?He should be ready, but to what extent I'm not sure,? Tinkle said. ...

 

[Drew]

Good post IE. I've been looking for poster's insight to this game as I feel the Hilltoppers should get this game today.

 

[IE]

Tops facing tough tests

Rout leaves Western 7-1, but meaty schedule will gauge progress


The Toppers' 78-55 victory over Eastern Kentucky Saturday continued their dominance of their cross-state rival.

Four of the Toppers' next five games, however, feature teams that accomplished something Western hasn't done in four years: they all made the NCAA Tournament.

Montana, Southern Illinois, Tennessee and South Alabama all played in the Big Dance last season.

The teams' postseason experience, as well as their combined 20-9 record this season, are what coach Darrin Horn was looking for in an early-season schedule.

"This is what makes for a quality non-conference schedule," he said. "At the end of the year, these are the games that are hopefully going to turn some heads."

The Toppers play at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Montana, which Western beat, 72-46, in Diddle Arena two years ago.

The Grizzlies return all five starters, and 10 players overall, from a team that advanced to the second round of the tournament last season.

Despite its 3-4 record, two of Montana's losses have come at the hands of Big East and Atlantic Coast Conference schools, West Virginia and Virginia Tech, respectively.

Montana is led by junior forward/center Andrew Strait and senior forward Matt Dlouhy.

Strait is averaging 15 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, while Dlouhy is scoring 12 points a contest on 49 percent shooting, 42 percent from long range.

The Toppers have started the season 7-1, their best start under Horn since the 2004-2005 squad started 10-1.

Junior forward Courtney Lee continues to be the go-to man for the Toppers, averaging 17.9 points per contest and shooting a staggering 55 percent from three-point range.

Lee also has been nominated to both the Wooden Award and Naismith Award watch lists, which recognize college basketball's player of the year.

Western's biggest strengths thus far have been the productivity of the bench and the ability of the team as a whole to shoot the ball well.

Ten players average double-digits in playing time each game, and Horn has said he is proud of the team effort being shown this season.

"We want it to become known that that is just how we play," he said. "We play with energy and effort, and it is our goal to never be outmatched in those areas. It's the little things like toughness and pride that make a good basketball team."

Following tomorrow's game, Western returns home to play Southern Illinois on Saturday.

The Salukis return 11 players from last year's one-and-done tournament team.

The Toppers then travel to Tennessee on Dec. 16.

The Volunteers edged Winthrop, 63-61, in the first round of the tournament last year before losing to Wichita State.

The Toppers host North Texas on Dec. 19 to open Sun Belt Conference play, and defending conference tournament champion South Alabama comes to Diddle Arena three days later.

Senior guard Benson Callier played down the hype of the upcoming games.

"I prepare the same way for every game," he said. "We approach every practice with the same intensity and that carries over to the games."

That intensity was evident Saturday when the Toppers used several big runs to pull away from rival Eastern.

Lee scored 22 and junior guard Ty Rogers collected 15 as the two connected on 10-of-11 three-point attempts.

The 15 total three-pointers made by Western was one shy of the team-record 16 the Toppers hit in last year's 97-89 win over the Colonels.

"It's big anytime you shoot that well from the three-point line," Lee said. "It wasn't anything against them, but we got a lot of looks and that's just how it falls."

Horn said he is pleased with his team's ability to shoot the ball, and he likes the possibilities that come with a team that is athletic as this year's.

"This is the first team I've had here where everyone on the floor can pass, catch and shoot," he said. "We've been getting not just open shots but good shots, and when you do that there's potential for good things to happen."

 

[IE]

Western Kentucky preview

COACH AND PROGRAM
Western Kentucky has made impressive strides in each of Coach Darrin Horn's three seasons. This year, however, he would be content to take a baby step -- figuratively speaking, anyway.
That's because Western Kentucky ended up being the last team scratched off of the NCAA selection committee's board last spring. The Hilltoppers were 66th in a 65-team race toward Madness despite a 25-point loss to South Alabama in the Sun Belt Tournament championship.

If guard Courtney Lee hadn't broken his hand during the league tournament -- he continued to play but his shooting suffered and he didn't play in the Toppers' NIT loss at South Carolina -- WKU might have been awarded an at-large bid even via a more competitive loss to the Jaguars.

In hindsight, being No. 66 has been good for a little publicity. And the Hilltoppers, who weren't watching the selection show with any real anticipation, didn't die a slow death as things unfolded.

"It kind of surprised me when I heard we were the last team off the board because we weren't really even being discussed [by the pundits]," Horn said. "Then when I looked at some of the other teams that got in, I was kind of surprised they hadn't discussed us more. It was disappointing in one aspect, but at the same time I think that recognition from the selection committee reaffirmed what we're doing here."

Western Kentucky went 23-8 last season, including a 12-2 Sun Belt record to win the league outright. It won 15 of its last 17, beat UAB and Virginia, and had an RPI of 56 on Selection Sunday.

The Hilltoppers must replace explosive scoring guard Anthony Winchester (18.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 81 three-pointers) and explosive post defender Elgrace Wilborn (8.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 78 blocks), and they will have to find their new groove while taking on one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country.

Western will play five teams that were in the 2006 NCAA Tournament, including defending national champion Florida, in its first 11 games. The Toppers also play UAB, Montana, Southern Illinois and Tennessee during that stretch, as well as visits to Georgia and Nebraska. When factoring in defending Sun Belt Conference champion South Alabama, WKU will play seven games against NCAA Tournament teams and eight contests against schools that qualified for the postseason last year.

"The nice thing about our schedule is that a bunch of those road games are being returned," Horn said. "Everything is either neutral sites or straight up home-and-homes. The one thing with Tennessee is that our home game with them will be in Nashville.

"It's probably not a smart schedule for a young coach. I probably could schedule 23 or 24 wins if I was trying to, but I want to grow this program."



PLAYERS
Courtney Lee (17.4 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 2.6 spg), a 6-5 junior, highlights what should remain an outstanding backcourt. He shot .408 from the three-point line last season (62-of-152) and also made 84.7 percent of his free throws (110-of-188).
"The best indicator of future performance is past performance, and Courtney has always responded to challenges," Horn said. "Whether it was learning to play harder at this level or becoming a better defender, he's always taken the next step. I expect he'll continue to do so when opponents focus on him more this season without Winchester here."

Lee led the team in rebounding (189), assists (86) and steals (77), and was second in scoring (522). He probably won't lead in assists again, and he might not lead in steals either, although not for a lack of effort.

But Horn signed a junior college point guard, 5-11 junior Tyrone Brazelton (18.3 ppg, 4.8 apg), who clearly has him excited. Brazelton was an NJCAA first-team All-American and the NJCAA Region 16 Player of the Year last season at Missouri State-West Plains. He led his team with 66 steals, and size didn't prevent him from grabbing 4.2 rebounds per game. He also made 76 3-pointers.

"Tyrone is a guy you like pressuring the ball," Horn said. "He has really long arms and he's crazy quick. He can break people down and he's terrific in transition.

"He's a little bit like Antonio Haynes. He's not as explosive offensively, but he's a much purer point guard."

The backcourt also has 6-5 senior Benson Callier (8.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg). He made 43.8 percent of his three-pointers last season (42-of-96), which was second in the league and ninth best on WKU's single-season list. Callier started 19 times and averaged 19.3 minutes in 31 games.

"Benson just needs to improve his consistency," Horn said. "If he becomes more consistent, it'll seem like he's taken a giant step. There were games he won for us almost single-handedly last season."

Ty Rogers (7.2 ppg, 43 three-pointers) is a 6-3 junior who started 22 games last year. Other guards in the mix include 6-1 sophomore Orlando Mendez-Valdez (2.8 ppg) and 6-2 sophomore Desire Gabou, a native of France who redshirted his first year last season. Horn said Gabou could be the team's best natural defender on the ball, and he anticipates Mendez-Valdez making meaningful contributions.

"I believe Mendez-Valdez can give us some good stuff," Horn said. "He was really making strides last year when he broke his foot." Another experienced guard is 6-4 senior Butch Jointer (3.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg).

The frontcourt is more iffy, although Horn likes 6-9 freshman Jeremy Evans and fellow newcomer Raed Mostafa, a 6-8, 220-pound junior who averaged 13.3 points and 5.8 rebounds last season North Dakota State College of Science. Mostafa, who's from Berlin, Germany, helped NDSCS to a 51-16 record the last two seasons.

"He's a smooth player who'll give us some maturity and a variety of tools," Horn said.

Evans, an Arkansas native, averaged 25.6 points, 11.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks as a senior at Crossett High School. He has an 84-inch wingspan.

"He's athletic and long and he can shoot it," Horn said. "He's going to be a good shot blocker at some point. The challenge right now is that he's a freshman who is probably 185 or 190 pounds."

Horn returns a pair of 6-7 juniors in Boris Siakam (3.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg) and Mike Walker (2.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg) and 6-7, 230-pound sophomore Daniel Emerson (3.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg). Walker started the first four games last year. Emerson appears to have the best chance among the trio for a considerably expanded role.

"We won't have a shot-blocking presence like we did with Elgrace Wilborn back there," Horn said. "But we're going to be much deeper, more athletic and a better defensive team. There shouldn't be as many mistakes in there to erase."



BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS
BACKCOURT: A
BENCH/DEPTH: A-
FRONTCOURT: B-
INTANGIBLES: A

Horn, who helped recruit Dwyane Wade to Marquette, has quickly elevated Western Kentucky back to its lofty mid-major status. The Hilltoppers have been to back-to-back NIT Tournaments, losing last year in the opening round to eventual champion South Carolina. WKU won its NIT opener in 2005 against Kent State.

Rebounding looks like a potential concern. Winchester and Wilborn averaged nearly 12 between them. The frontcourt will get a baptism by fire against Florida. Nonetheless, it should be an invaluable learning experience.

If the Hilltoppers remain a good rebounding team, they very well could end up participating in that other postseason tournament this year.

 

[Drew]

Alright IE...what is your take on this game (if you don't mind me asking)

 

[IE]

passing on the game myself...

 

[Drew]

Fair enough. Thanks for the hard work.:thumb: