Western Kentucky Topping Out at the Right Time

On January 16, Western Kentucky's men's basketball team looked about as downtrodden and forlorn as a basketball team gets. They were 5-14. Their head coach had been fired a week or so before. They were 0-3 under their interim coach. And they didn't have an answer. Newly named interim coach Ray Harper just wanted his players to believe in him and show some toughness on the court. January 21st is when they finally did. The Hilltoppers beat the Sun Belt west division champion University of Arkansas Little Rock (UALR) Trojans. Including that win, they finished the regular season 6-4 the rest of the way.

Everyone on campus and around the conference thought it was a nice story. Almost everyone in the country was oblivious to what was taking place at Western Kentucky. But Harper and his boys knew. They had found their toughness and their confidence with it. They were ready to show the conference what they were made of in the conference tournament. The Hilltoppers' late run earned them the #7 seed, so they opened against the #10 seed Florida International. An unexpected hero stepped up for WKU. That guy was Kahlil McDonald, the team's only senior. McDonald came off the bench and hit five three-pointers and scored a career-high 19 points in the win.

The win was just the start for the Hilltoppers. The win earned them a rematch the #2 seed UALR Trojans. The Trojans looked in control from the get go and were up by 13 with less than nine minutes to go. That is when WKU did it again. They scored 17 points unanswered to take their first lead of the game. The Hilltoppers didn't look back from there as they pulled off the huge upset. WKU was into the semifinals against the #3 seed Denver. The Hilltoppers had the lead late when freshman Derrick Gordon came up with a big block to help seal another upset win.

Some how the #7 seed Western Kentucky had made it to the conference championship against #5 North Texas. The Hilltoppers fell behind again in this one and had to rally from behind again. But do you think that stopped them? This team had rallied all season to get to this point, and they did it once more. Western Kentucky won the game and earned the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. They had accomplished the unbelievable. I mean they were 5-14, had a coach change mid-season, had a freshman-laden roster, and used 14 different starting lineups during the season. The Hilltoppers managed to top all of that. That is why they are most definitely worthy of dancing.