After making NCAA Tournament last season, what is the outlook for WKU basketball this season?

In March, Western Kentucky men’s basketball played its way into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 11 years. The Hilltoppers captured their first Conference USA Tournament championship as the No. 3 seed in that event.

Western Kentucky went on to be a No. 15 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament, losing in Indianapolis to No. 2 seed Marquette as the Hilltoppers went one-and-done in their 24th trip to March Madness.

Then, changes began.

WKU’s head coach, Steve Lutz, left after just one season to become the head coach at Oklahoma State.

Less than 24 hours after it was announced that Lutz was resigning to take the Oklahoma State job, Hank Plona — a former standout junior college coach who was on Lutz’s WKU staff as an assistant coach last season — was installed as the Hilltoppers’ new coach.

Plona — who won 86.5% of his games in eight seasons as the head coach at Indian Hills Community College in Iowa — is now off to a 3-3 start in his first Division I head coaching assignment.

The latest of these games was WKU’s 87-68 loss to UK on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, a rare in-state matchup for the Cats.

Western Kentucky dropped two close contests to begin the season, a seven-point home loss to Wichita State and a loss at the buzzer at Grand Canyon.

Plona then righted the ship with three straight wins over NAIA school Campbellsville, Lipscomb and Jackson State, all at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, before Tuesday’s loss in Lexington.

“All in all, pleased with our fight, pleased with our resilience, pleased with our effort, our approach and our attitude,” Plona said postgame in Rupp Arena.

It may only be six games into his coaching tenure at WKU, but Plona already has the Hilltoppers playing a defined style of basketball.

Western Kentucky ranks favorably in several KenPom pace-of-play metrics.

▪ WKU is 12th in the nation in adjusted tempo (73.2).

▪ WKU is also 12th in the nation in average offensive possession length (14.7).

The Hilltoppers aren’t quite as fast and frenetic as the Wildcats — who are ninth in adjusted tempo and eighth in average offensive possession length — but they do OK for themselves.

It helps that last season’s leading scorer for WKU, senior guard Don McHenry, is back after averaging more than 15 points per game last season.

But, Plona lost three of Western’s top six scorers from a season ago. Gone are guard Brandon Newman (a 10.1 points per game scorer who followed Lutz to Oklahoma State), forward Rodney Howard (9.9 points per game last season) and ex-Cat Dontaie Allen (8.2 points), who is now playing at Wyoming for his fifth college basketball season.

Newman and Howard were also WKU’s second- and third-leading rebounders last season, while Allen shot 40% from 3-point range.

WKU didn’t make a significant splash in the transfer portal this offseason, but most of the top early-season performers for the Tops have been players who organically developed within the program.

Through six games, McHenry remains the engine of the offense (15.8 points per game). He’s joined by 6-foot-8 senior forward Babacar Faye (15.2 points) and freshman guard Julius Thedford (12.5) as WKU’s next leading scorers. On the glass, Faye — who previously played for now-Louisville coach Pat Kelsey at Charleston — has been active with 7.5 rebounds per game.

A product of the NBA Academy Africa, Faye had 16 points and six rebounds on Tuesday night against Kentucky, but he fouled out with more than seven minutes to play.

“I thought Baba gave it everything he has,” Plona said of Faye’s effort against Kentucky. “… He’s been very, very consistent. He’s been a two year-starter for us. He’s gotten better and better, and obviously he’s a huge part of our team.”

Western Kentucky has also gotten a major boost from Thedford, a former three-star recruit from Memphis who led WKU with 18 points against UK.

“He’s a special player,” Plona said of Thedford. “We felt like probably from the first day that we recruited Julius, we thought that he could be an impact player for our team. He certainly has no fear. He’s very, very confident. He has great basketball IQ. He’s a very intelligent player.”

And this is all to say nothing of the players that Western Kentucky probably won’t have available for the entirety of the 2024-25 season.

Four WKU players are expected to redshirt.

Sophomore guard Teagan Moore — a former standout at Owen County — is recovering from hip surgery. Redshirt senior big man Fallou Diagne had offseason knee surgery. Graduate student guard Terrion Murdix had an offseason knee surgery. Freshman newcomer Kade Unseld — a former Sweet 16 state champion at hometown school Warren Central — also had knee surgery over the summer.

Western Kentucky aims for repeat trip to NCAA Tournament with new coach

If Western Kentucky is to qualify for back-to-back NCAA Tournaments for the first time since the 2012 and 2013 editions of March Madness, then the Hilltoppers will have to, once again, win their conference tournament.

The last time WKU qualified for the Big Dance as an at-large selection was 1994, and that appears unlikely to occur this season.

With Plona and his team having their sights set on the end-of-season C-USA Tournament in March in Huntsville, Alabama, what can they take away from their effort against UK?

“I take away that our team isn’t nervous, afraid or scared of anything at all,” Plona said.

The Hilltoppers were picked to finish second in the league in the C-USA preseason poll, just behind Louisiana Tech.

There’s still a ways to go until WKU begins league play on Jan. 2 at Liberty, but even Kentucky’s Mark Pope has taken notice of what Plona is trying to build, and sustain, in Bowling Green.

“He’s playing a lot of guys. He’s got his guys playing really, really hard. He’s playing with an aggressive style of play,” Pope said. “He’s willing to take some chances out there. They’re going to continue to be really, really good. It’s a terrific program.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 11:46 PM.

Cameron Drummond

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-242-5257

Cameron Drummond works as a sports reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader with a focus on Kentucky men’s basketball recruiting and the UK men’s basketball team, horse racing, soccer and other sports in Central Kentucky. Drummond is a second-generation American who was born and raised in Texas, before graduating from Indiana University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker who previously worked as a community news reporter in Austin, Texas. Support my work with a digital subscription