****Official Western Kentucky Preview****

GhostofBTT

GhostofBTT

Banned
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Located in Bowling Green, Kentucky (pop. 58,000). Home is Diddle Arena, capacity 7,500. Play in the Sun Belt conference, East Division. Coach Ray Harper

2012 record 2-1

Wins: Austin Peay 74-54; Western Carolina 92-81
Loss: Southern Miss 67-64 (ot)

Last Year's record: 16-19 (7-9 in the Sun Belt) Won the Sun Belt Tournament (4 games in 4 days), won the NCAA tournament play in game, and made the tournament as the 64th seed, losing to Kentucky.

Players to watch for:

Jamal Cook, 6'3, 175lbs Sr guard, Does a little bit of everything, and a lot of scoring. Averaging 19.7ppg, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game. Shooting .563% from the field and 44% from three.

T.J. Price, 6'4 208lbs So guard, Leading rebounder at Sg with 8.3 rpg. Scores 13ppg and 2apg. Not a good shooter, but very physical for a guard.

George Fant, 6'6" 240lbs So forward. Top interior player for WKU. Also averages 8.3rpg. Very consistent scorer with 12.3 ppg. Great interior defender for a guy so compact, averaging 2.7 blocks.

Other players to watch:

Kevin Kaspar: Three point specialist, but he is not very good at it. 6' Turkish guard.
Teeng Akol: 6'11" senior center from South Africa. 8 ppg and shoots 55%.


Fun Facts:

Cancun, Mexico is 1,400 miles away from Iowa City. The average November high temperature on the Yucatan is 85 f. Both teams played the first games of the Cancun Challenge last week, with Iowa over Howard, and WKU over AP. This is the 5th ever Cancun Challenge, held at the Moon Palace Resort. BoneG team Illinois won the tournament last year. More official info on the tourney here.
http://www.triplecrownsports.com/cancun/media/7_men_s_cancun_challenge.pdf


Prediction: Iowa will be playing back to back games for the first time this season, so Fran is probably going to open up the bench again. I expect to see more erratic shooting from the Hawks, with offensive flow being a problem with substitutions as well as difficulty adjusting to the humidity and ball room setting. Keeping the team focused on vacation will be another challenge for Fran, as Iowa has shown a tendancy to "play down" to their competition. WKU would love to knock off a BoneG team, and most of their rotation returns from a 2011-12 team that took a miracle run into the tournament.

Luckily, WKU is a bad shooting team as well, so I see a low scoring affair, but Iowa will have a significant height advantage and should get easier shots. If White and Marble are able to get to the rim, we should win comfortably. That's a big IF, because Fant and Akol are good at protecting the iron on defense. WKU will have an even bigger problem scoring. If the Hawks show even a little focus on defense (Eric May will come up big as senior leader, locking up Jamal Cook), we should be able to stone the toppers. Holding Price down will be key; He's streaky.

I see a low scoring game, with the Hawks held under 70 for the third straight game. Our depth eventually overwhelms WKU, and we win.

Hawks 68 Toppers 52
 
Western Kentucky is a decent program they don't seem to be that good this year. Iowa is better than them, and probably better than everyone else in this tournament. That said, I'm concerned about this one. First time playing away from Carver when the team's been struggling AT Carver makes me nervous.

I think the Hilltoppers win 61-56. Iowa wins tomorrow though giving us a split, which I feel we can survive and still make the dance.
 
Dude I know pitched for W KY for two years before he vacated teh scholly and transferred to Purdoody.
 
bcl20 said:
Western Kentucky is a decent program they don't seem to be that good this year. Iowa is better than them, and probably better than everyone else in this tournament. That said, I'm concerned about this one. First time playing away from Carver when the team's been struggling AT Carver makes me nervous.

I think the Hilltoppers win 61-56. Iowa wins tomorrow though giving us a split, which I feel we can survive and still make the dance.
Click to expand...

Wow. I see us being more talented up and down the roster, and I expect our shooting to improve. I think Iowa will win this one handily. If we play Wichita State in the final, well that's another matter.
 
Kevin Kasper.... How nice it would have been to have him on the FB team this year.

EDIT: i know it's Kaspar but still made me think, would be nice.
 
Stanzi said:
Wow. I see us being more talented up and down the roster, and I expect our shooting to improve. I think Iowa will win this one handily. If we play Wichita State in the final, well that's another matter.
Click to expand...

I think Iowa wins this one as well. May, Basabe, Clemmons, even Woodbury should be able to out-muscle WKU's starters and Gesell pretty much will be able to direct traffic and find teammates for the open shot. If WKU continues to not shoot lights out, seems to me Iowa has the edge.

I am concerned about this game being played in a hotel ballroom. As a player, I cannot imagine what that is like. You can't even say it is similar to playing in a small school gymnasium, which most of the players grew up with. The sounds, atmosphere, background, facilities (dressing rooms), sense of space have to be so different from anything you've experienced so far it will just feel odd. At least both teams have the same disadvantage.
 
kmajhawk said:
I think Iowa wins this one as well. May, Basabe, Clemmons, even Woodbury should be able to out-muscle WKU's starters and Gesell pretty much will be able to direct traffic and find teammates for the open shot. If WKU continues to not shoot lights out, seems to me Iowa has the edge.

I am concerned about this game being played in a hotel ballroom. As a player, I cannot imagine what that is like. You can't even say it is similar to playing in a small school gymnasium, which most of the players grew up with. The sounds, atmosphere, background, facilities (dressing rooms), sense of space have to be so different from anything you've experienced so far it will just feel odd. At least both teams have the same disadvantage.
Click to expand...

It's more like a crappy regional professional wrestling production feel than a CBB feel.
 
This will be our 2012 Campbell Camels. Shoot poorly, weak defense. WK 86 - IA 75. After this loss we get focused.
 
GhostofBTT said:
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers. Located in Bowling Green, Kentucky (pop. 58,000). Home is Diddle Arena, capacity 7,500. Play in the Sun Belt conference, East Division. Coach Ray Harper

2012 record 2-1

Wins: Austin Peay 74-54; Western Carolina 92-81
Loss: Southern Miss 67-64 (ot)

Last Year's record: 16-19 (7-9 in the Sun Belt) Won the Sun Belt Tournament (4 games in 4 days), won the NCAA tournament play in game, and made the tournament as the 64th seed, losing to Kentucky.

Players to watch for:

Jamal Cook, 6'3, 175lbs Sr guard, Does a little bit of everything, and a lot of scoring. Averaging 19.7ppg, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per game. Shooting .563% from the field and 44% from three.

T.J. Price, 6'4 208lbs So guard, Leading rebounder at Sg with 8.3 rpg. Scores 13ppg and 2apg. Not a good shooter, but very physical for a guard.

George Fant, 6'6" 240lbs So forward. Top interior player for WKU. Also averages 8.3rpg. Very consistent scorer with 12.3 ppg. Great interior defender for a guy so compact, averaging 2.7 blocks.

Other players to watch:

Kevin Kaspar: Three point specialist, but he is not very good at it. 6' Turkish guard.
Teeng Akol: 6'11" senior center from South Africa. 8 ppg and shoots 55%.


Fun Facts:

Cancun, Mexico is 1,400 miles away from Iowa City. The average November high temperature on the Yucatan is 85 f. Both teams played the first games of the Cancun Challenge last week, with Iowa over Howard, and WKU over AP. This is the 5th ever Cancun Challenge, held at the Moon Palace Resort. BoneG team Illinois won the tournament last year. More official info on the tourney here.
http://www.triplecrownsports.com/cancun/media/7_men_s_cancun_challenge.pdf


Prediction: Iowa will be playing back to back games for the first time this season, so Fran is probably going to open up the bench again. I expect to see more erratic shooting from the Hawks, with offensive flow being a problem with substitutions as well as difficulty adjusting to the humidity and ball room setting. Keeping the team focused on vacation will be another challenge for Fran, as Iowa has shown a tendancy to "play down" to their competition. WKU would love to knock off a BoneG team, and most of their rotation returns from a 2011-12 team that took a miracle run into the tournament.

Luckily, WKU is a bad shooting team as well, so I see a low scoring affair, but Iowa will have a significant height advantage and should get easier shots. If White and Marble are able to get to the rim, we should win comfortably. That's a big IF, because Fant and Akol are good at protecting the iron on defense. WKU will have an even bigger problem scoring. If the Hawks show even a little focus on defense (Eric May will come up big as senior leader, locking up Jamal Cook), we should be able to stone the toppers. Holding Price down will be key; He's streaky.

I see a low scoring game, with the Hawks held under 70 for the third straight game. Our depth eventually overwhelms WKU, and we win.

Hawks 68 Toppers 52
Click to expand...

Price hasn't shot a good 3pt percentage for the year but he's streaky. 1st game 0-7, but last game he was 4-7. If he's on, he could be trouble.

Jamal Crook is the guy I worry about with WKU, a big senior scoring PG with a good 3pt%. MG will have his hands full and I expect AC will see good minutes helping to limit him in this game. We'll see how far our PGs have come along.
 
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