Coach Mac announces 2011-2012 Basketball Schedule

Ken McDonald announced the WKU men’s basketball schedule this morning. The schedule was highlighted by a visit from 2011 Final Four participant VCU to Diddle Arena on November 23. WKU will also travel to Charleston, South Carolina for the Charleston Classic November 17-20. The teams in the tournament include LSU, Seton Hall, Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Tulsa, St. Joe’s, and VCU. The non-conference schedule also includes home games against St. Joe’s (Season Opener), Tennessee State, Southeastern Louisiana, Murray State, Bowling Green State, and of course Furman. The only difference in the conference portion is no New Orleans since they left the Sun Belt for Division 3 and no home matchup against North Texas. Other than that almost every other major Sun Belt team will play in Diddle Arena this year.

I can’t help but feel a little disappointed about the year’s schedule. The past 4 or 5 years WKU has brought a team from the SEC or another big conference to Diddle, but not this year. VCU certainly is respectable but they had one run and aren’t expected to be a nationally prominent team this year. It’s going to be tough to get the fans/students pumped up for a game against a team that no one had heard of until this year. The VCU game will also take place the first day of Thanksgiving Break. Last year WKU hosted South Carolina on Thanksgiving break and Louisville on Christmas break. The South Carolina game was sparsely attended and the Louisville game had plenty of people, but many students had tickets they didn’t use due to them being gone. Now that I’m done with my nitpicking, the schedule isn’t the toughest but may be just what the team needs as it will seriously lack experience. Teams like Tennessee State and Southeastern Louisiana (which I’m pretty sure is the fictional school Bobby Boucher attended in the Waterboy) are good tune-up games for experience. The team does not lack talent and I fully expect the team to have a season with a winning record and single digit losses.

#WESTERN KENTUCKY DAWG

VCU highlights from the Final Four run



Matt Meyers Introduced as New Baseball Coach

In Tuesday morning’s press conference, Ross Bjork announced that assistant coach Matt Meyers is the new WKU baseball coach. Meyers replaces Chris Finwood who resigned in June to accept a position at Old Dominion University. Meyers began his coaching career at UNC-Ashville where he was held the head-coaching job from 2001 to 2004. Meyers then had a short stint as an assistant at Auburn before coming to the Hill in 2008. A pitcher himself at the University of Tennessee, coach Meyers has focused his attention on improving the Hilltopper pitching staff. Since arriving on the Hill, WKU has consistently possessed one of the top pitching staffs in the league (finishing in the top 3 in ERA 3 of the last 4 seasons), and he has been an important part of the success the Hilltoppers have had the last few years. Bjork admitted that plenty of quality candidates were interested in the position, including St. Louis Cardinal Matt Holliday’s dad, but after the interview process, he was certain that Meyers was the best man for the job. The number of those interested in the job flattered him, and he felt this shows how great the WKU baseball program has become.

After being introduced officially at the press conference, coach Meyers took the opportunity to explain where he felt the program was heading and what he wanted to improve in the coming years. First and foremost, he expressed how thankful, happy and excited he was to be the new Hilltopper coach. He loves the Bowling Green community and WKU, and he stressed that this job is not a stepping-stone in his coaching career. He ensured that he is here to stay for a LONG time to be the head coach at WKU and wants to lead the program to even greater things for the community. In reference to the community, he said “It’s your team.” He loved how the community has jumped on board and gotten behind the HIlltoppers and thanked all of those in the community several times. He stressed that he wants WKU to be a mainstay in the NCAA tournament. He also wants his team to be on top of the Sunbelt Conference each year in not only on field performance, but in academics as well. WKU had one of the highest GPA’s last year and he wants to continue this success in the classroom. He says WKU will continue to successfully recruit the top baseball players in the state and our region. Meyers noted that fans will see some change in the future. Since the NCAA introduced new bats last year, high scoring games have seen a dramatic decrease. Meyers has noticed this change and will focus his future teams on playing small ball baseball to generate runs. One of the last things he stressed was that he wants to continue to improve the strength of schedule of the Hilltoppers and wants to bring even bigger teams to come play in Bowling Green.

Coach Meyers ended his opening statements with a quote. “2+2=5.” He went on to explain that when 1 guy is doing one thing and 1 guy is doing another they can max out. But when they both come together and work together, they can achieve even more. He says that people wondered why WKU faltered down the stretch the last 2 years. “We didn’t come together and try to get 5, we just stayed at 4.” His goal for the year is that for all 56 games his team will come together to achieve more. He doesn’t want anymore late season dropoffs.

I attended the press conference and recommend that everyone watch it. In it you will see sincere he is about the baseball program and how much he appreciates the community. He wants more than anything to bring the best baseball he can to WKU and Bowling Green. Meyers is a man with a great personality and his press conference will be enjoyable to watch.

http://www.wkusports.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=780223

Player Profile: George Fant III

In the second installment of our player profile series we’ll take a look at rivals.com player number 150.

George Fant III

Position: Forward

Height: 6’7”

Weight: 225

High School: Warren Central (KY)

He decided to stay in his hometown and play for WKU over the likes of Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Boston College…..huh huh hold on I’m out of breath…Iowa, Murray State, Penn State, and Seton Hall. So needless to say, it was a big pickup for #teamreset. Fant has an 89 rating on ESPNU which means, like with Derrick Gordon, he is a borderline major recruit that will have an immediate and major impact at WKU.

George received First-Team All-State honor this year averaging 21.5 points along with 11.7 rebounds a game. He led Warren Central to yet another 4^th region title and state tournament berth. The team finished the season with a #10 state ranking. Having seen him play in person numerous times one thing jumps out to me that makes him special: his ability to play with anyone. He had numerous battles with Louisville signee and McDonald’s All-American Chane Behannan, coming out on top individually and on the scoreboard almost every time. In the Kentucky-Indian All Star Game at Bellarmine he faced the likes of 3 McDonald’s All-Americans each respectively signing with Indiana, Kentucky, and Michigan State. Anyone who was in the gym that night knows that the Kentucky team was heavily outmatched. But one player, George Fant, kept them in it with his 18 points.

Fant is as energetic as it gets on the floor. He doesn’t look extremely athletic but he can dunk on a drop step or fast break with ease. He can block shots and get up off the floor quick. His ability to stretch the floor makes me want to compare him to Steffphon Pettigrew so bad but, I don’t think Fant can hit the three consistently like Pett could. But I’m willing to bet before he leaves he’ll be a much better shooter than Pett was. The main thing he’ll have to improve on is his free throw shooting. Although he has a good looking shot he can’t consistently hit free throws…yet. I’m sure being the hard worker he is by the end of just one year he’ll be a campus and fan favorite.

His role this year will be to provide energy, defense, and rebounding to the team. I see him starting some and coming off the bench some. Either way he’ll fit into the rotation nicely and along with Jamal Crook and Caden Dickerson, bring a great attitude to the locker room for WKU.

WESTERN KENTUCKY DAWG!

Player Profile: Derrick Gordon

We begin our look at WKU’s 2011 recruiting class, and what better place to start than one of the best recruits to ever come to the hill.

Derrick Gordon

Position: Guard

Height: 6’3”

Weight: 180

High school: St. Patrick High School

Derrick Gordon is rated as the top recruit in WKU’s 2011 class. He is a four star recruit ranked the 105^th best recruit in all of college basketball and 28^th at his position according to rivals.com. Gordon also received a recruiting grade of 91 from ESPN. According to ESPN a grade of 91 means a recruit is a borderline major recruit that will standout at a mid-major program.

Gordon definitely played his way to these rankings in high school. He averaged 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists per game his senior year at one of the top high school basketball programs in the nation. St. Patrick High School finished Gordon’s senior season ranked 10^th in the nation with a 26-1 record, the one loss coming in the championship game. After St. Patrick was banned from the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association due to team violations in 2010, and coming one game short of a title in 2011, Gordon will surely have the motivation to bring a Sun Belt title back to WKU.

Gordon will definitely see his share of playing time during his freshman year. Although Gordon may not be in the starting five at the start of the year with Crook, Dickerson, and McDonald returning, he will probably be WKU’s 6^th man from the start, but may even find himself starting if he lives up to his potential. For the Hilltoppers to be successful, they will need Gordon to be a strong shooter inside and out to spread opposing defenses and give Coach McDonald another weapon at the guard position. Gordon has proved that he can play basketball at a high level, which will surely help WKU in its quest to regain its winning tradition.

McDonald and Recruiting Class Look Forward to Better Season

Although the basketball season is still many months away, it is not too early to start looking forward to the season ahead. Many WKU fans are still recovering from last season, but there is a lot of potential for the 2011-2012 season to quickly erase the unwanted memories from last year’s disappointment. First of all, for the first time in his career at WKU, Coach McDonald will be coaching a team entirely composed of players he recruited. Some of last year’s struggles can be blamed on the fact that many players didn’t appear to have the desire to play under Ken McDonald, something that is common in the NCAA after head coaching changes. However, since the entire team is now made up of McDonald-recruited players, the success of the team rides solely on his shoulders.

At first glance, the team appears to be in better shape than last year’s team, especially considering Coach McDonald managed to recruit arguably the best recruiting class in WKU history. This recruiting class comprised of seven players, including two recruits in the Rivals.com top 150 prospects, should have no problem excelling in the Sunbelt Conference. Although the class is a solid one, it has undergone many changes in the past few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, Deng Leek was ruled ineligible and must play at a Junior College before joining WKU’s team next year. However, on Thursday WKU announced that Junior College transfer O’Karo Akamune will come to the hill, bringing the class back to seven players.

Not only did McDonald bring a solid recruiting class to the hill, but he also hired Jake Morton as the new assistant coach. Morton spent the last four years as an assistant coach at the University of Miami (Fla.), where he helped coach the team to three 20-win seasons, three postseason births, and a first round victory in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Morton brings a winning tradition and postseason experience to WKU, something that will definitely help WKU bounce back after last year’s 16-16 finish.

In the next few weeks, we will preview the incoming recruiting class with player profiles, stats, and analysis on how these players will most likely fit into the depth chart.