{"id":22465,"date":"2026-10-20T17:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/?p=22465"},"modified":"2026-10-20T17:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T17:18:51","slug":"tops-lifting-off-wku-mens-basketball-faces-bowling-green-state-in-tuesdays-exhibition-game-at-diddle-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/?p=22465","title":{"rendered":"TOPS LIFTING OFF\/WKU men’s basketball faces Bowling Green State in Tuesday’s exhibition game at Diddle Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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JUNIOR SWINGMAN TEAGAN MOORE
AND THE HILLTOPPERS WILL FACE
BOWLING GREEN STATE ON TUESDAY NIGHT
IN AN EXHIBITION GAME AT DIDDLE ARENA.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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THIRD-YEAR COACH HANK PLONA: ‘I THINK WE’RE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION …’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Third-year Western Kentucky men’s basketball head coach Hank Plona and his returning trio of WKU starters met with the media on Monday morning at WKU’s historic E.A. Diddle Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general consensus?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hilltoppers are equipped to do something special in the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WKU will open its season with an exhibition against Bowling Green State University on Thursday evening, with a 6:30 p.m. start time set for the Diddle Arena floor. The Hilltoppers will have one more exhibition game, on Sunday against tradition-rich Indiana University in Evansville, before opening its season on Monday against former OVC rival Morehead State University, also at Diddle Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think we’re moving in the right direction … it takes time, to come together offensively,” Plona said at Monday’s press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WKU COACH HANK PLONA.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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THE HILLTOPPERS FINISHED 17-15 LAST SEASON.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Plona succeeded former WKU head coach Steve Lutz after the Hilltoppers broke an 11-year drought of NCAA Tournament appearances in the 2023-24 season, moving one seat over on the Tops’ bench after Lutz left for Oklahoma State University. The Hilltoppers have finished two games over .500, overall, in each of Plona’s two seasons at the helm, including last year’s 17-15 finish that included a first-round exit in the Conference USA Tournament in Huntsville, Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suffice it to say expectations for this team are considerably higher. C-USA coaches have made WKU the conference favorite, heading into the season, based largely on the return of three accomplished starters — junior swingman Teagan Moore, sophomore guard Armelo Boone and senior guard L.J. Hackman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freeman, Boone and Moore all met with the media after Plona’s turn at the podium Monday morning, and like their coach, they’re optimistic about what’s in front of the Hilltoppers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At the end of the day, (being the C-USA favorite) doesn’t give us any advantage,” Moore said. “Just puts a target on our back … We’re definitely a younger team, than we’ve been in the past.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moore, a 6-foot-6, 220-pound redshirt junior, led the Hilltoppers last season while averaging 18.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 53 percent from the field. The former Owen County High School standout is adept at challenging opponents inside, but he also shot 43 percent from 3-point range last season. That sort of versatility is perhaps the biggest reason Moore was selected the Preseason C-USA Player of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Coach Hank has been calling them ‘checkpoints). So (Tuesday’s exhibition game) is a checkpoint, because it’s not the end goal,” Moore said. “We’re not going to look the same, in March, that we are tomorrow night. So I think it’s a good test for us … just to see where we’re at, where we still need to improve for the season, going forward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WKU RETURNS PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE
IN VETERANS (FROM LEFT) TEAGAN MOORE,
ARMELO BOONE AND L.J. HACKMAN.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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WKU’s ARMELO BOONE CHALLENGES
AN OPPONENT NEAR THE BASKET.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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The Hilltoppers have an interesting blend of transfer players, as well as newcomers from the high school ranks, in addition to the nucleus returning from last season. First-year forward Gabe Weis, a 6-foot7, 215-pound true freshman from Springfield, Kentucky, is one of those new players, along with 6-foot-10 Joseph Adebayo, a freshman from Ondo, Nigeria. Former Warren Central High School star Kade Unseld is still working his way back from a knee injury that limited him last year, during a redshirt freshman season, but he is a skilled 3-point shooter who could help spread the floor for the Hilltoppers on the offensive end of the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I really like this team,” WKU coach Hank Plona said. “I think we have the right people, at the right time … They’re excited, about what’s in front of us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WKU has had its share, perhaps more than its share, of concerns on the injury front, over the last two seasons. Plona is stressing offensive efficiency, and Armelo Boone, a 6-foot-5, 190-pound sophomore from Lexington, Kentucky, averaged 10.6 points and a team-high 6.1 rebounds for the Tops last season. L.J. Hackman, a former JUCO standout from Columbus, Mississippi, showed noticeable improvement during the 2025-26 season, and he has impressive quickness in the open floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackman played an average of 22 minutes per game last season, but still averaged 8.5 points, three rebounds and 1.3 steals per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“L.J.’s a special player,” Plona said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WKU HAS EMBRACED
THE FAN EXPERIENCE
AT E.A. DIDDLE ARENA.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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L.J. HACKMAN GIVES THE TOPS
QUICKNESS IN THE BACKCOURT.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Bowling Green State, Tuesday’s opponent, has not reached the NCAA Tournament since the 1967-68 season. Todd Simon is in his fourth season, as the Falcons’ head coach, and BGSU finished 18-14 overall last season, with a 9-9 record in the Mid-American Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plona, for one, is not shying away from high expectations for the Hilltoppers this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The goal is to make the (NCAA) Tournament,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journey begins on Tuesday night at Diddle Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THIS WILL BE MY FIFTH SEASON
OF COVERING WKU BASKETBALL
FOR MY WEB SITE.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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PIPER WOULD BE HELL ON
WHEELS IN THE OPEN COURT …<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THIRD-YEAR COACH HANK PLONA: ‘I THINK WE’RE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION …’ Third-year Western Kentucky men’s basketball head coach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hsbasketball","category-potpourri","category-wkusports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22493,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22465\/revisions\/22493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmashek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}