The college team whose every huddle is a ‘Kentucky Mr. Basketball Convention’
If you like your college basketball spiced with rare feats, the 2019-20 Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are for you.
When Rick Stansbury brings WKU (2-0) to Richmond on Friday night to face ancient rival Eastern Kentucky (2-1), hoops fans in the Bluegrass region will see something that has happened only once before.
The 2019-20 Western roster boasts three winners of the Kentucky Mr. Basketball award — Knott County Central’s Camron Justice (2015); Owen County’s Carson Williams (2016); and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Taveion Hollingsworth (2017).
The 1993-94 Louisville Cardinals, with Central product Dwayne Morton (1990), Hart County’s Tick Rogers (1992) and Male’s Jason Osborne (1993), were the only other team to feature three Kentucky Mr. Basketballs.
“I think it is awesome to have three consecutive Mr. Basketballs playing on one team in college,” Justice says.
In the cases of WKU’s three Mr. Basketballs, it took some unexpected turns for the trio to end up together.
2015 Mr. Basketball
A prolific high school scorer (3,588 career points) at Knott County Central, Justice committed before his junior season to play college basketball for Cuonzo Martin at Tennessee.
Alas, Martin left UT, and Justice eventually flipped his commitment to Vanderbilt Coach Kevin Stallings. After Justice played one season in Nashville, Stallings departed for Pittsburgh.
Vandy then hired Bryce Drew to replace him.
“I played a semester under him,” Justice says of Drew. “I was coming back off of hip surgery that (prior) summer. I didn’t really get a good feel for me and him both ways. So I felt like it was best for me to part ways.”
Had things gone differently, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound sharpshooter might have joined WKU then. “I was definitely interested in coming here after I left Vanderbilt,” Justice says. “But they didn’t have (a scholarship).”
Justice instead cast his lot with Indiana-Purdue-Indianapolis (IUPUI) where Evan Hall, his former Knott County Central teammate, was playing.
After sitting out a year as a transfer, Justice averaged 18.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.9 assists last season for IUPUI. He went for 29 points when the Indianapolis school stunned the ACC’s Boston College 76-69.
Having finished his degree at IUPUI, Justice was eligible to use the graduate transfer option for this season. He decided he wanted something different. “I felt like I could do something at a bigger stage than (IUPUI) was,” Justice says.
This time, not only did Western’s Stansbury have a scholarship available, the WKU coach felt a Hilltoppers team built around star sophomore post player Charles Bassey was the perfect match.
The presence of Bassey tends to cause opponents to double the post. With a lethal shooter such as Justice on the court, Stansbury explains, defenses are going to face vexing decisions on how to defend Western.
“What we needed, (Justice) adds,” Stansbury says. “And what he needs, I think we add to his game.”
2016 Mr. Basketball
Carson Williams ended his freshman season (2016-17) at Northern Kentucky University by scoring 21 points and grabbing nine rebounds against the Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament.
“Growing up in the heartland of Kentucky, that was a huge game for me,” Williams says.
After a stellar senior season (26.7 ppg, 10.8 rpg) at Owen County High School, Williams had become the 8th Region’s first Mr. Basketball since Anderson County’s Jimmy Dan Conner (1971).
At NKU, the NCAA tourney showing against John Calipari’s Cats capped a banner college freshman season for Williams. An undersized “four man” at 6-5, 230-pounds, Williams averaged almost 11 points and six rebounds.
Though his scoring average rose to 12 points as an NKU sophomore, Williams grew uncomfortable in then-Northern Kentucky Coach John Brannen’s program.
Scuttlebutt was Williams wanted to transition his game off the block and more to the perimeter. “That did factor in (to leaving Northern),” Williams says. “I just want to be able to use my full game to help my team.”
Once Williams became available, Stansbury used the success at WKU of another in-state, undersized power forward, former Perry County Central star Justin Johnson, as a recruiting pitch.
“Stansbury showed me a lot of film on Justin,” Williams says. “How he worked to expand his game and how Stansbury helped him to do that.”
While he sat out last season in Bowling Green, Williams went to war in the weight room. The result is a leaner, more-muscular physique.
“I’m about 10 pounds lighter,” Williams says. “I worked hard on cutting down on my body fat, working on (improving) my explosion and fitness.”
2017 Mr. Basketball
The first change one notices about Taveion Hollingsworth is his hair. Where the ex-Paul Laurence Dunbar star once wore a Dr. J-style Afro, he has now gone to a close-cropped look.
“It was just too much to take care of,” Hollingsworth says of his old hairstyle. “I mean, I loved it. But I just needed a little break from it.”
A storybook high school career — in which Hollingsworth led PLD to the 2016 state title then collected Mr. Basketball honors the following season — flowed right into the guard’s freshman season at Western.
As the Hilltoppers went 27-11 and reached the 2018 NIT semifinals, the 6-2, 165-pound Hollingsworth averaged 13.3 points, hit 48 percent of his shots and looked like a budding star.
His sophomore season last winter was a reality check. On a less experienced team with fewer skilled players around him, Hollingsworth saw his overall shooting and three-point percentages each drop by almost six points.
“Freshman year, I was the fourth (offensive) option,” Hollingsworth says. “We had older guys who would do more things with the ball than I would, so most of my shots were off their playmaking.”
Stansbury figures the season of adversity Hollingsworth faced in 2018-19 (he still averaged 14.4 ppg) will pay dividends now.
“Last year, he was in a totally different role, a role that probably wasn’t as easy for him as maybe he anticipated after his freshman year (when) he had so much success,” Stansbury says. “But there is no substitute for that year of experience Taveion gained when it wasn’t so easy.”
WKU’s Mr. Basketball club
Unless asked by reporters, Western’s Mr. Basketballs say they do not dwell on the unusual nature of having three winners of the award on one college roster.
“I think it is going to be a lot of fun playing alongside (two other Mr. Basketballs),” Williams says. “I’m happy to have that opportunity.”
Says Justice: “This is gonna be a pretty cool experience.”
Should WKU’s locker room banter ever turn to Mr. Basketball-on-Mr. Basketball trash talk, Hollingsworth feels he holds the trump card.
“I’m the only one,” he says, “who has a (state championship) ring.”
Friday
Western Kentucky at Eastern Kentucky
When: 7 p.m.
Live video broadcast: ESPN Plus (subscription only)
Live audio broadcast: WCYO-FM 100.7 or EKUSports.com
Records: WKU 2-0, EKU 2-1
Series: Western Kentucky leads 114-44
Last meeting: Western Kentucky won 83-51 on Nov. 29, 2017, in Bowling Green.
