MICHAELSPAPPY

Will the Toppers be up or down some in basketball next season?

WKU Topper Jeff

Ah, that is the big question here at WKU. With so many question marks it is hard to say. We have a new coach, we lost our point guard, Patrick Sparks to uk, we lost 4 starters I think. Will Todor Pandov come back from his ACL injury and be the force that he was expected to be. What about the new style of play, will the team adapt. Coach Felton did a half court high-low style play, Coach Horn is going to be a run and gun full court press style.

Losing our coach and four starters definitely raises some questions... and I am sure when all the preseason magazines write their little one column on the Sun Belt, ULL will be the favorite. But I think WKU will have a great year, and here's why:

First, I think the new style of play is going to be more natural to the bulk of our talent.

We lose Sparks, but look what we gain in JUCO 6' 185lb Antonio Haynes: Coming from Georgia Perimeter College which reached the semifinals of the National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament. He was honorable mention All-American and first-team all-region XVii with 14.6 assists!!!! and a NJCAA top 7.1 steals!! per game as a sophomore, he averaged 13.2 points and 6.8 reboundds, and third in the country in free-throw percentage at 93.5% and a 46.9% three-point field-goal percentage. WOW WOW WOW! What a steal for Coach Horn and WKU. I got a feeling, if even half those #'s carry over to NCAA he will be a better player than Patrick Sparks.

We lose Videnov, but have in the barn Sophomores Anthony Winchester (SBC Freshman of the year), Jamal Brown and Kevin Massiah. Videnov was a very streaky player.. he had some great moments but also went cold for long periods of time. Anthony Winchester was Indiana's second leading scorer his senior year, and will surely flurish under a new faster game... he was also very timid playing with Patrick Sparks, and should feel more free to shoot. Jamal Brown is going to be the breakout player for our team, he has an intensity and fire to really be fun to watch and make some great plays. Massiah had an injury last year he couldn't quite get over, so we never saw his potential, hopefully we will see more of him. I think like the point guard postion, we are stronger at the 2guard with Anthony.

We lose Nate Williams... poor Nate had the terrible task of replacing Chris Marcus, and he is only 6'8." He did not have the agressivenesss to be a center and it showed. Now we have 6'11" Nigel Dixon, transfer from Florida State.. he is a beast! He was on an Italian Hoops tour this summer and averaged 20.1 points and 10.9 rebounds and shot 62 percent and broke two backboards!! If he is in shape, he'll do a lot of damage. (He weighs 329 lbs!) We also have a 7 footer, Josh Higgins... so we will definitely be better off at the center position.

We lose David Boyden... David was good leader and was typically a great player but his senior year was not what it could have been. He was paying too much attention to the ladies and not the ball. We get back Todor Pandov. In preseason last year he was our leading scorer, but in the first game of the season went down with an ACL. He has a STRONG PASSION for basketball, and because of that has rehabed quicker than thought and is already back playing.. i have no doubts he will be 100%, and if he is, he will be the best player on the team. Fellow SBC teams will grow to fear Pandov. Jamal Brown could also play this spot.

We return also Mike Wells, our other starter (Defensive player of the year). He was the first guard I think to win that award in the Sun Belt. He is my fav player personally and I think will have an awesome season.

Western is going to be a lot better off than most uninformed writers will give us credit for. We lost a lot, but What we got left and coming in is better.. I didn't even touch on our new freshman too much, I'll save that for my offical preview!

And remember, the tournament is back here at Diddle Arena again... I see WKU winning its 4th straight Sun Belt title. But we will start off slow I admit.

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MICHAELSPAPPY

The WKU cupboard is by no means bare, but I do think you will miss Sparks a lot. Mike Wells' returning is huge. No offense, but I have not been impressed by Big Jelly. I think smart coaches will have 5 on 4 against WKU all night long if they get their post players on the move. On the other hand, if it gets into a halfcourt game, Jelly will eat everyone's lunch except maybe UL and Denver.

WKU Topper Jeff

I think at first we will miss Sparks, for sure. He was a good play maker and made some great shots.. just ask New Mexico State. I do, however, feel really good about Haynes. Sparks was a little slow on defence.. against quality pointguards (see Arizona and Illinois games) he got eaten for lunch.

Big Jelly, we'll just have to see. He had a great summer. He has been conditioning well the past year during his red shirt. But you are right... in a full court game, we could have some trouble. Which is how Coach Horn would like to go. Obviously, he will have to make some adjustments to accomidate his players.

What makes you think Denver will give us trouble? Did I miss something and they get a good player?

I am interested in seeing Big Jelly vs Southhall!!

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MICHAELSPAPPY

Don't look now, but Denver may be legit among the better teams in the league next year. Their big center averaged almost a double/double, and was very consistent. Plus they list him at 260, and he looks like it's all muscle.

WKU Topper Jeff

Has Hell frozen over and I missed it? lol

All kidding aside.. I am glad to hear they are starting to take basketball serious over there. The SunBelt needs to get better top to bottom, if we are going to get an At-Large bid.

What about your new coach? I haven't heard anything about Little Rock.

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MICHAELSPAPPY

By all accounts of those who know him personally, Shields is a very capable recruiter and a good guy. He appears to be a fiery competitor. He was Porter's top assistant and had had juco head coaching experience. Porter was very high on him. He has basically two starters coming back, so he'll have his work cut out for him, but I really do think there is a good bit of hidden talent on this Trojan team. Porter played a lot of people, and several of them may be ready to step up and shine.

WKU Topper Jeff

What was your thoughts on Porter taking, what I consider, a lateral job to Illinois State? I was suprised. Usually you try to move up with a coaching job, I just didn't see it. Maybe he was tired of not being able to win in the Sun Belt? Those pesky Hilltoppers!! lol

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BlueBaron

Being a UK fan I was just wondering what the WKU fans think of Sparks transferring to UK.

Did you see it coming for a while or was it the coaching change?

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WKU Topper Jeff

Well, it was no secret that out of high school Patrick wanted to go to UK. Tubby would only offer him a walk-on. It was also no secret after his first year at Western that UK realized they made a mistake. They took "Mr. Basketball" Josh Carrier and basically just got bench material.

Rumors began flying around in December that he was not happy and would be interested in transfering. I personally feel the coaching change had nothing to do with it, but definitely allowed for an easy escape. Rumor is he approached our new coach and told him he was thinking about transferring and Coach Horn told him he couldn't wait for him to make up his mind (Coach Horn was hired day before spring signing period). So Patrick left. Louisville was really interested in him, and it was almost a done deal, but Tubby asked Patrick to wait a week, and when Patrick told Pitino he wanted to wait till after he talked to Tubby, Pitino withdrew his scholarship offer to Patrick. (Pitino couldn't stand seeing a recruit CHOOSE UK over him, so he prevented that). And when I say Patrick, I should probably instead say his father Steve. Steve has been pushing patrick in all these directions. Tubby's biggest problems is going to be Steve Sparks.

Didn't you think it was ironic that Tubby's kid was on the UK all-stars team (which was coached by Steve Sparks). A little back scratching I'd say.

As for WKU Fans... of course we all think Patrick is making a mistake. He was the most popular player I've seen on the hill since, uh, Darren Horn in early 90s. He was breaking records and certainly would have had his jursey retired in Diddle Arena. He threw a lot away.. I hope it works out for him.

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MICHAELSPAPPY

"What was your thoughts on Porter taking, what I consider, a lateral job to Illinois State?" I agree that it was basically a lateral move. My strong gut feel is that Porter was just going home. He is from that part of the country, and has a young child. I don't blame him. Family is more important, to me at least, than any particular job.

WKU Topper Jeff

I forgot about his family being from there. I personally think, career wise, he was better off at UALR though. He was a little cocky for me, but seemed nice enough.

MICHAELSPAPPY

Given the fact that there is to be a new arena on-campus in 2005, and (I hope, I hope) a surge of interest accompanying that, Porter might eventually regret his move.

WKU Topper Jeff

Does the size of the new arena concern UALR fans at all?? Seems a tad small, for a new arena. At Western we are a little frustrated with the new capacity of Diddle Arena after the renovation. We had little choice. Once you renovate you are bound by the new fire/handicap codes and we couldn't help it. We'd like to have more. Its a shame to see our arena that once held 14,000 now hold 8,000, but it is an awesome place now. They are laying the new floor now and will be putting in the new seats later this summer.

MICHAELSPAPPY

Until we start drawing better, the size is not a concern. We would only have sold out the new arena three times in the last three years. And the prospect of being sold out is not a bad one, even if the place is not huge. What I like is that it will be much more intimate, and thus hopefully get the crowd more involved, and even with our usual crowd of 3000-4000, it will feel like it is close to full if the crowd spreads out a little. All this should help the team, I would think.