College Hoops Top 50

Last Year: 22-12; 8-8, Third in Conference USA & conference tournament champions, lost in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament

Head Coach: Hank Plona (First Year; had been an assistant for previous coach Steve Lutz)

Projected Starting Lineup

PG Terrion Murdix – 6’1″, 170 5th-year Senior

G Don McHenry – 6’2″, 160 Senior

G Khristian Lander – 6’3″, 195 5th-year Senior

F Tyrone Marshall – 6’7″, 215 5th-year Senior

F/C Blaise Keita – 6’11”, 240 Senior

Experienced Reserves

G Jalen Jackson – 5’11”, 175 5th-year Senior

G Braxton Bayless – 6’2″, 180 5th-year Senior

G Teagan Moore – 6’5″, 210 Sophomore

W Enoch Kalambay – 6’6″, 205 Senior

F Babacar Faye – 6’8″, 205 Senior

F/C Fallou Diagne – 6’11”, 210 Senior

F/C Leeroy Odiahi – 6’11”, 220 Senior

It’s been one whole season since the Hilltoppers broke in a new coach and went to the NCAA Tournament. Why not do it all again? With Steve Lutz – who moved on to Oklahoma State this spring – in charge last year, the Toppers were good. Western Kentucky was sitting at 19-7 in late February, and even a four-game skid to finish the regular season couldn’t derail them. With three straight wins in the Conference USA tournament, Big Red’s crew captured the league’s automatic bid to the Big Dance.

Though their coach is gone, the Toppers retained a majority of the best players from last year’s team despite the lure of the transfer portal. New head coach Hank Plona was elevated from being Lutz’s top assistant to the #1 gig, and that has helped to ease the transition. Plona and his staff even managed to keep a guy who had to redshirt last year after following Lutz to the Hilltoppers. They further sprinkled in some needed size and experience up front. What could have become a big shakeup now seems a steady scene, and WKU looks rather well set up for another round of quick success.

Lutz played his whole rotation during his time in Bowling Green. No one played more than 27.6 minutes per game, and eight different guys averaged at least 18.4 minutes each contest. The thing about Don McHenry is that he can go off at any time. After conquering Division II ball at Hawai’i Hilo, McHenry then starred for junior college power Indian Hills (IA) Community College, with Plona as his head coach there two years ago. Once they both joined up with Lutz, McHenry spent his third campaign becoming the Hilltoppers’ star. Now, the exciting guard from Milwaukee is back to help lead an even more dangerous WKU attack.

Early on in his Hilltoppers tenure, McHenry – a first-team All-CUSA pick in his debut – became the team’s go-to scorer. He can hit from everywhere, but there’s no place McHenry feels more at home than around the elbow. With his quality handle and great agility getting around traffic, McHenry shakes defenders on the outside and is excellent at opening up looks as he enters the paint – for himself and for his friends. McHenry made a strong 45.9% of his mid-range tries last year, per Bart Torvik, and his pull-up game is now a catalyst for the Toppers’ offense.

Adept at distributing the rock when he’s not knocking down shots, McHenry is always confident with the ball in his hands and did a great job of creating open-floor opportunities last season. Following his 25-point, four-steal performance in WKU’s CUSA title game win, he was named the league’s tournament MVP, and McHenry is going to be counted on to be that dude as a senior.

With a return to health from another star, Plona should have a guard tandem that can take on pretty much anything. He didn’t play last winter while rehabbing a knee injury, but two years ago, Terrion Murdix was one of the best defensive guards in the country in a breakout performance for Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Now that he’s ready to roll, WKU will have a highly abrasive backcourt defense which gives opposing guards approximately zero time to collect their thoughts.

Even more than McHenry, Murdix is all about getting downhill, and he does a lot of his best work close to the rim. Fearless anywhere he is on the floor, Murdix drives audaciously among the trees and is outstanding at manufacturing drop-offs and high-percentage looks for his teammates close to the cup. A natural ball screen operator, Murdix will be tossing plenty of lobs to anyone who can go up and flush them. He will drop in floaters and runners, and Murdix tends to attract a ton of defensive attention when he gets rolling as a scorer. Though he’s not really a natural outside shooter, Murdix has put in considerable work on his form as his rehab has concluded, and hopes to show a bit more consistency when he gets a good look this year.

Five Stats Which Tell The Tale (with national ranks)

77.2 – Possessions Per Game (3rd)

13.9 – Turnovers Per Game (333rd)

78.8 – Points Per Game (44th)

8.2 – Opponent 3FG Made Per Game (282nd)

0.923 – Opponent Assists Per Turnover (50th)

The Southland’s Defensive Player of the Year in his last full season, Murdix is just a complete pain to go up against. He’s a quick, clever, physical defender who can poach good feeds or simply lock up his man. He ranked 16th nationally with 2.3 steals per game back in 2022-23, and Murdix generates a tremendous number of live-ball turnovers and chances for his side to cash in with a transition basket.

Also back from last year are a couple more proven guards who provide a great foundation for the new staff. Jalen Jackson was Murdix’s co-playmaker at Corpus Christi. Though he suffered a season-ending injury just ten games into his time at WKU, the two former Islanders will get to team up one more time. Never a big-time scorer, Jackson is another guard who puts it on the deck offensively and wears out the opposition defensively. He was named the Southland tournament MVP two years ago and went on to score 22 points in an NCAA Tournament game, but usually Jackson is a quality supporting actor. He very rarely tries a jump shot, but Jackson is a composed playmaker who cranks up the energy when it’s his turn at the controls. The Hilltoppers are going to be able to ratchet up the pressure whenever they want to defensively, and figure to force a great many turnovers this winter.

Former Indiana transfer Khristian Lander has settled in nicely at WKU. He’s one of the team’s better jump shooters, and improved a great deal last season. He’s become a rather classic off-guard who can stretch the floor, and Lander also played the best defense of his career as a senior. He had been largely a reserve over his first three seasons, but Lander ended up starting last year until a concussion knocked him out of the lineup for a month between January and February. He returned to finish strong, though, and Lander scored double figures in three of the Hilltoppers’ final four games last year. Western Kentucky can afford to play all-out because of their backcourt depth, which also includes Teagan Moore. A CUSA All-Freshman selection a year ago, Moore is a bigger guard who uses his size effectively on his way to the basket. His jumper has a ways to go, but Moore can attack the paint, and that’s a large portion of WKU’s game plan.

The Hilltoppers are bringing back real depth at forward which should provide mix-and-match versatility. Last year, no Topper was more versatile than Tyrone Marshall. He did everything well; the 6’7″ Marshall ranked fourth on the team in points, second in assists, and he led WKU in blocks and steals. He’s also an effective rebounder, and Plona will need Marshall to be at his best on the boards in his fifth season. Not only can Marshall score in the post, he grew tremendously as a shooter last winter. After hitting just five triples two years ago, Marshall splashed 29 of them at a solid 37.2% rate last season. His defensive prowess is invaluable to a team which doesn’t play a very traditional low-post game, and Marshall has been helpful against considerably larger players. He should be on the floor a great deal this year, and Marshall’s creativity as a passer should make McHenry and the other guards all the more effective.

The Toppers’ top returning rebounder is Babacar Faye, a rangy forward who makes his living in the lane. He snagged the fourth-most offensive rebounds in CUSA despite averaging less than 19 minutes per contest, and Faye converted 24 of them into putback tries, per Hoop-Math. He doesn’t try to do much away from the basket, but by sticking to what he does best, Faye knocked down 61.4% of his shot attempts last season. He also posted a better (.634) free throw rate than Zach Edey (.611), and Faye has converted 69.1% of his freebies each of the past two years. He will be on the receiving end of plenty of lobs from the WKU guards this winter. Plona also inherited physical wing Enoch Kalambay to help out on the glass. A teammate of McHenry’s at Indian Hills, Kalambay made an impression with his toughness last year. He can guard around the lane or out on the perimeter and seems to relish making hustle plays.

The great thing about returning seven of the top ten players from last year’s core is that Plona has been able to add in guys who match the Hilltoppers’ style and fit needs. What the new staff most needed was another ballhandler and some genuine size at the pivot, and they hope to have found those things in another former Indian Hills player and a couple of veteran bigs who will tower over the Barren River Valley.

Niagara transfer Braxton Bayless only started one game all year but he was the Purple Eagles’ leading scorer last season. He’s another guy who trends in the extreme towards attacking the basket off the bounce, and Bayless likes to have the ball in his hands as a creator. In such a role, he could continue to be quite effective off the bench for Plona. Bayless sank 50.6% of his overall shots last season, but only 22 of his 245 attempts came from distance. Can he continue to be such an efficient scorer relying intensively on getting to within a few feet of the cup? There’s no hesitancy to shoot it from Fallou Diagne, one big guy that’s back with the Toppers. He missed all but five games last year due to injury, but Diagne brings a unique skillset. He’s a 3-and-D guy…who just happens to stand 6’11”. Despite being a deep reserve two years ago, Diagne splashed 17 triples at a 37.8% rate. If he can come back healthy to protect the rim and pop jumpers – two things that this team may need help with – Plona will find a way to get Diagne onto the floor.

Five Out-of-Conference Ganes to Keep an Eye on

@ Kentucky – November 26

@ Michigan – December 29

@ Grand Canyon – November 9

vs Wichita State – November 4

vs Murray State – December 14

Two more 6’11” guys are coming aboard in former Nebraska center Blaise Keita and Leeroy Odiahi, who prior to spending last year at Old Dominion had played for – you guessed it – Indian Hills. Limited offensively, Odiahi may only be a reserve but he hits the glass and can swat a shot, and will be given a chance to show his skills. Once a top JuCo prospect in his own right, Keita spent two years with the Huskers but missed all of last season recovering from an ankle injury. He missed time during his JuCo days, too, and WKU is hoping that it has Keita’s services for the full year. When he’s right, Keita is a big-time finisher around the basket who plays vertically and uses his length very well. He’s an intimidating shot blocker, and Keita has been highly effective on the glass at both ends of the floor. It may be a big ‘if’, but if Keita plays a full, healthy season, he could transform WKU by giving them the post presence they missed last year without Jamarion Sharp.

It wasn’t easy to change coaches and reach new levels of success in the same year, but Western Kentucky pulled it off last year. Their new coach may also be taking over his first Division I job, but Plona led a program at Indian Hills which expected to win, so he is familiar with the lay of the land. Having a familiar roster and experienced guys he knows well running the show will help, too.

WKU will be tested straight out of the chute this year, as dates at Grand Canyon and against Wichita State loom at the beginning of their schedule. If the Hilltoppers are ready to roll against quality competition like they were last year, the confidence they’ll need to make another run will get a quick supercharge. WKU must be better defensively, and Murdix will help with that. They also have to find a way to stop hemorrhaging so many turnovers; for a guard-driven attack, last season the Toppers were much too sloppy. Murdix can help with that, too, and so should a year’s experience for McHenry. With all that they accomplished last year and all they’ve got coming back, it’s tough to doubt this team’s ability to get back to the top. If you’re ready to watch Big Red party while confetti rains down all over again, you may not have to wait long.