Email Cort at:  Cortney.blog@wnky.net

02/05/2007

Toppers Split Games This Week

The Hilltoppers went 1-1 for the week last week, outgunning UL-Monroe 103-96 in Wednesday night shootout at the E.A. Corral, and falling at North Texas on Saturday 74-70.  Since sometime in early December, WKU’s defense has been sliding down the national rankings as team after team has scored nearly at will against WKU save for a few good stretches.  The matador defense continued against UL-Monroe and it was not great for most of the game against North Texas.  But, something happened during the last ten minutes of the North Texas game that breathed hope into my (and many other die-hard Topper fans) hopes for this team’s ultimate success in the Sun Belt tournament.  The Tops, trailing by 21 points, put together their best defensive stretch of the season over the last ten minutes to storm back and take a one-point lead before losing by four.

This was not your typical Hilltopper defense.  There was no 1-3-1 zone, no man-to-man traps and no full court pressure.  It was a 1-2-2 three-quarter court press until the Mean Green got into the half court.  If they successfully navigated the 1-2-2, the Tops fell back into tough, straight-up, man-to-man defense.  This scheme held North Texas without a field goal for eight consecutive minutes.  The score was 58-37 with under 11 minutes to play, but much like Ralphie in A Christmas Story, a tiny fire was kindled deep in the recesses of the Toppers’ collective brain.  They combusted on a 30-9 run to tie the game at 67.  Ultimately, North Texas made enough plays to pull out a 74-70 victory, but that somehow seems less important than this question: will those last 10 minutes carry over into subsequent games? 

The answer to that query comes on Thursday night when the Tops travel to Mobile to face defending Sun Belt champ South Alabama.  The Sun Belt-leading Jaguars have won 10 straight and are playing excellent basketball at the moment.  They dismantled Middle Tennessee 61-38 on Saturday, holding the Blue Raiders to ten second half points on MTSU’s home court (not a typo or a sick joke).  A win in Mobile would help assuage the pain of recent close losses and restore confidence heading down the home stretch of the conference schedule.  The Toppers return home on Saturday when they host Middle Tennessee.

Read more from Cort at www.thebracketboard.com.