IS A RARE DEFENSIVE PRESENCE.
RICE USES DISCIPLINE, 3-POINT SHOOTING TO SLIP PAST WKU 81-78
Western Kentucky’s Dayvion McKnight was mixing it up, underneath the basket, with bigger players, teammates and foes alike.
In an instant, however, the WKU offensive catalyst hit the E.A. Diddle Arena floor, with a loud, resounding thud.
TO INJURED GUARD DAVYION McKNIGHT …
McKNIGHT WAS PUT ON A STRETCHER …
WITH ABOUT FIVE MINUTES TO PLAY.
WKU teammates Jairus Hamilton and Jamarion Sharp stayed with their fallen teammate, after officials stopped their Conference USA opener with Rice University with 5:14 left in the game on Thursday night.
Minutes passed.
Fifteen minutes, easy. Maybe 20. The Hilltoppers were trying to cool off Rice’s 3-point shooting game, but without McKnight, their leading scorer and team co-captain, it was going to be an uphill climb.
Western couldn’t make it.
RICE GUARD TRAVIS EVEE IN THE SECOND HALF.
Junior guard Travis Eves and the disciplined Rice offense took control when the Owls needed it, and while the Hilltoppers were game enough to keep it close, they failed when it mattered most.
Western Kentucky would lose its third straight game, dropping an 81-78 decision to Rice. The Hilltoppers will take an 8-4 overall record to Saturday afternoon’s Conference USA game with traditional rival Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
With veteran WKU head coach Rick Stansbury watching at home, sidelined with an illness, the Hilltoppers have found an early crossroads just seven weeks into their season.
FOR AILING RICK STANSBURY ON THURSDAY NIGHT.
Western is still looking for its first NCAA Tournament appearance under Stansbury, the former Mississippi State head coach, and the Hilltoppers’ struggles in the Conference USA Tournament have become a critical part of the narrative.
This season of promise — “I don’t like my team, I love my team,” Stansbury said in mid-November — suddenly is wraught with detours, doubts, and most of all, dread.
On November 26, 20 minutes after Western buried visiting South Carolina State 90-64 at Diddle, McKnight put it in the simplest terms possible.
NCAA TOURNAMENT SINCE THE 2012-13 SEASON.
“We’ve got a good team, once we’re all dialed in,” McKnight said. “We’re all on the same page. We have the same goal. Get to the (NCAA) Tournament.”
It’s still possible, of course.
But right now the Hilltoppers are definitely trending in the wrong direction.
“We’ve got to stay together,” senior WKU guard Luke Frampton said after Thursday night’s loss to Rice.
“We’ve got to do a better job of rebounding, and getting to the free-throw line,” teammate Jairus Hamilton added in the postgame press conference. “(Rice) got 14 3-pointers, and they came out with the victory.”
The Owls also hit 17 of 18 free throws, compared to WKU’s sub-standard 15-for-22 showing (68 percent) from the line.
HAD 10 POINTS, EIGHT REBOUNDS
AND FOUR BLOCKS AGAINST RICE.
The critical element for this WKU team, it seems, is the ability to handle some early success, and clearly establish player roles as the Hilltoppers move into conference play.
Now, with McKnight’s status up in the air, Stansbury and the WKU coaching staff may have to start over. That’s how much Dayvion McKnight, the rugged, 6-foot-1 junior from Shelbyville, means to the Hilltoppers.
After McKnight’s departure, the Hilltoppers showed a burst of energy, and Western tied the game at 75 on Frampton’s entry pass to Hamilton that resulted in a layup with 1:35 remaining.
“We were in position to win it,” said WKU associate head coach Phil Cunningham, filling in for the ailing Stansbury. “It’s a shame, we didn’t close the game out.”
But that’s where the Hilltoppers find themselves.
THE TRIGGER ON THIS LATE DRIVE TO THE BASKET.
Hamilton, who led WKU with 18 points, drove to the basket in the final 10, 12 seconds before giving the ball up to 7-foot-6 Jamarion Sharp, who was trailing the play.
Turnover.
Sharp’s primarily a defensive presence, of course, and he had 10 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots in nearly 37 minutes on the floor, which was probably a season high.
The Hilltoppers needed him, underneath, particularly after McKnight left the arena on a stretcher.
REMAINS A WORK IN PROGRESS.
Cunningham said the early prognosis was encouraging, and WKU disclosed that McKnight had been released from the hospital Thursday night after a series of tests.
The Hilltoppers will be a different team without him, even if it’s just a couple games or something.
McKnight’s going to do everything he can, to get back on the court. By the same token, the Hilltoppers can’t take any unnecessary chances, if they were to threaten the team as the calendar turns to January, 2023.
Western Kentucky limited Rice to 26 points in the first half, with the Owls shooting 22 percent from the field, including a 5-of-19 showing (27 percent) from 3-point range.
That all changed in the second half.
The Owls hit 9 of 15 shots from 3-point range, and combined with their prowess at the free-throw line, they were dictating the pace and flow of the game.
AND HAD 15 POINTS AND 10 REBOUNDS.
All five of Rice’s starters finished in double figures. Max Fielder, the Owls’ 6-foot-11, 235-pound junior center from Indialantic, Florida, was particularly impressive.
Fielder hit 7 of 10 shots, and led the Owls with 10 rebounds. He was an effective passer in the high post, which usually brought WKU’s Jamarion Sharp away from the basket, where he can make the biggest difference in any given game.
Even after the Owls’ Travis Evee hit two free throws, putting Rice in front 81-78 in the game’s final seconds, Western had an outside shot at making something happen.
TO GET UPCOURT ON THE INBOUNDS PASS …
PRETTY MUCH SEALED WESTERN’s FATE.
Instead, backup guard Jordan Rawls couldn’t handle Jairus Hamilton’s inbounds pass, which bounced off Rawls’ foot and beyond the baseline.
Rick Stansbury is looking to lead a team to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2009, when Mississippi State won four games in as many days in the SEC Tournament in Tampa, Florida. The Bulldogs knocked off Tennessee 64-61 in the championship game, but State was a No. 13 seed in the NCAA tourney, and Stansbury’s squad was bounced in first-round play, dropping a 71-58 decision to Washington.
Since then, Rick Stansbury has made it to the NIT four times, twice at Mississippi State, twice at Western Kentucky.
A similar result, with this collection of talent, isn’t going to cut it in March.
Dontaie Allen, the 6-foot-6 transfer from the University of Kentucky, played just four minutes on Thursday night, all in the first half. He missed several games with an eligibility issue, and Phil Cunningham said the Hilltoppers are trying to get Allen back in their normal rotation.
AT RICE ON FEBRUARY 16 IN HOUSTON.
Western Kentucky will play on the road twice in the next eight days, and MTSU (8-5 overall, 1-1 in Conference USA) probably believes they’ve caught a break with the game’s timing.
Next Thursday, the Hilltoppers will play host to North Texas (10-3, 1-1 in C-USA) before going on the road for successive games against Texas-San Antonio (6-7, 0-2) and UAB (11-2, 2-0).
SQUAD IN THE SECOND HALF.
“(WKU medical personnel is) doing a lot of checking on (McKnight) right now, to see what exactly happened to him,” WKU’s Phil Cunningham said after Thursday night’s loss. “He took a hard fall, a very hard fall, obviously.
“You all know he’s as tough as they get, so just kind of wait and see on that with Dayv.”
Wait and see.
Sounds like an impending crossroads to me.
Interesting to see what happens next. But Dayvion McKnight’s status leaves a lot of things up in the air.
Including the direction of the Hilltoppers.
PLAYER (7-FOOT-5) IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL.
ON JANUARY 5 TO FACE NORTH TEXAS.
TO THINK ABOUT AFTER THURSDAY NIGHT’s GAME.
ON THE ROAD FOR NEW YEAR’S …