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I hit quote selected, but it did not show the quote. My point, if a player is out there looking for money, a school like WKU can't compete against the P5 schools. KU was definitely interested in Bassey. So was UL. WKU could not come close to competing against those schools, if money is in play. As for hiring Bassey's legal guardian, it is not against the rules. You may not like it or agree with it, but perfectly legal.


As an assistant coach his best asset may be recruiting, since he has good connections with several good players. If we are able to land some of those players, then his hiring brings us a lot more than just one good player and makes sense.

Anyway, good luck with the rest of the tournament and your season. Cleanly played game and nobody got hurt. .

That is BS. Do you really think WKU has the money to compete against the P5 teams if players are taking money? Bassey would have ended up at a school like KU. We got Bassey, because one, Rick is a good recruiter. He usually outworks the other coaches. Also he was on Bassey shortly after coming to the US. Back when no one knew who he was. Then to seal the deal, he gave a job to Bassey's legal guardian.

Good luck with your next game. Monmouth hanging tough with UWV.

We got very lackadaisical with the ball. Like we thought this game was over, when it wasn't. You see why we are needing our point guard back. We have not done a pick and roll once tonight.

With the recruiting class plus returning players we have, I have been anxious for basketball season to start for six months. Our message board is also pretty civiil. Hope for a good clean game with no injuries.

If Josh Anderson or Dalano Banton learn the point guard role, we will do fine. If not, we will struggle some until Bearden gets back.

We have yet to see our starting five on the floor. In the UW game we were missing our starting forward and our starting point guard. In the UT Martin game we were missing our starting point guard. We will still be missing our point guard until Dec. 16th. He thought he was going pro last year, so stopped going to classes last spring. Kids do dumb things. Also Bassey has been playing with a large knee brace. I am hoping he can get rid of that, it will help his mobility. The UT Martin game was not close. We were up by quite a bit, and played the bench. Looking forward to this tournament.

Yes, but it is the P5 talking heads that seem to start all of this talk. Look at Robinson last year. There were a lot of tweets and articles talking about Robinson making a mistake going to WKU. I just don't see it that way. Is a 5* better off going to a program like Duke or UK when those programs will have six or seven 5* players already on their roster? At those schools they will be spending a lot more time on the bench, than they would at any mid major. If you are good, the pros will find you. They do every year.


Then to counter that argument P5 supporters say a good player will not play against good competition at a mid major. Well our strength of schedule last year would have been middle of the pack for a lot of P5 schools. Out of conference we played Villanova, Purdue, SMU (before SMU lost two starter to injury), Oklahoma State, USC, Utah, Wisconsin and Boston College. In conference we had MTSU (made top 25 ranking), ODU, Marshal and UAB. All four were top 100 schools.

I am looking forward to this tournament. It will show us where we are and if our expectations are in line or not.

And? Nothing illegal or against NCAA rules. Most of the P5 schools have done this over the years. Off the top of my head, UK, KU, UL, Memphis, Ole Miss, Missouri and many others. Missouri did it just last year.

WKU disrupted the status quo of the P5 by recruiting a 5* player and the P5 media shills came out of the woodwork. The kid had a 3.9 GPA, so don't know why anyone would be shocked that he was able to graduate a year early. Kids do it all the time. Heck my son graduated from high school with enough credits to enter college as a JR. Dalano Banton also reclassified and not a word is said about him.


As far as his guardian, same guardian for Diange. So since Diange cleared NCAA clearinghouse, I fully expect Bassey to do so. The P5 schools don't like it when mid majors start pulling in 5* and 4* players on a regular basis. As for how we got Bassey, our coach was on him very early and has put in three years of work to get him.

Added
I think all the crap from the media last year about why Mitchell Robison would go to WKU rather than a P5 school is what put doubt into his mind and made him second guess his decision. The kid came to WKU, then left. Then he came back and then left again. We won 27 games last year. Villanova only beat us by 8. Would have loved to have had Mitchell Robinson on the team last year. He certainly would have made a difference. Mitchell Robinson would have been a lottery pick, rather than such an unknown in the draft, going second round. Mitchel Robinson is doing fantastic in the G League and will not be there long. Already has a 6.5 mil contract. He was the steal of the draft. Like Bassey, Mitchell Robinson was a kid that coach was onto very early and had built a good relationship with him over several years.

I have just made a guess on our starters. Only three that I feel pretty sure on are Bassey, Bearden and Hollingsworth. The rest are interchangeable, but I just do not see how we can keep Anderson and Murray out of the starting line up.

That is the enigma with our team. We will probably be starting a 6'-3" power forward. But Desean Murray is already a proven performer with 10.1 points and 6.7 rebounds a game in the SEC. 6'-11" Charles Bassey at center. A three guard line up of 6'-6" Josh Anderson at small forward. 6'-3" Lamonte Bearde point guard and 6'-2" Taveion Hollingsworth SG. Not a lot of height, but a ton of athletic ability and speed. If we need height we can bring in 6'-9" Moustapha Diange forward, 6'-10" Galen Smith forward. 6'-7"Dalano Blanton guard/forward. Banton played point guard in high school. 6'-5" Jared Savage guard/forward. 6'-6" Trevelin Queen  guard.

I have just made a guess on our starters. Only three that I feel pretty sure on are Charles Bassey, Lamonte Bearde[size=78%][/size] and [size=78%][/size]Taveion Hollingsworth. Many of the others are interchangeable. I just don't see how we can keep Josh Anderson and Desean Murray out of the starting line up.

How is your recruiting class and what are you guys expecting for a starting five? My guess for starters for us:

Lamonte Bearden 4* Point guard with great handles and passing ability. Last year he needed to improve his 3 pt shooting and mid range game.
Taveion Hollingsworth (broke freshman scoring record last year, held by Courtney Lee)
Josh Anderson 4* sophomore. Very quick at getting to the basket and very athletic. Explosive athleticism.
Charles Bassey 5* freshman. Should be a blast to watch.
Desean Murray (Auburn grad transfer that averaged 10.1 points & 6.7 rebounds last year in the SEC)

Guys I expect to get a lot of minutes.
Dalano Banton 4* freshman guard
Moustapha Diagne 4* JR. He was a little lost last season, coming in, middle of the season. Looking much better this year.
Galen Smith 3* I think this kid is going to surprise people. Actually dominated in the pickup games, until he got tired. He needs conditioning.
Jared Savage SR. Good outside shooter.
Trevelin Queen JUCO player with very good numbers.

I think we will be able to go 9 deep without much drop off.

Tried to post links to our message boards in the OOC message board thread, but I can't do links. If you do a search for: WKU message board
You should see one for Hilltopper Haven and one for 247 sports. Those are the main two. o if someone wants to add them to the OOC message board thread, please do so.

Without Bassey we have a really good recruiting class. With him, Rivals has us ranked 19th. We have four kids that were ranked 4* coming out of high school and a 3* (Taveion Hollingsworth) that played like a 5* last year. Taveion broke the freshman scoring record held by Courtney Lee. On paper this team has the depth to go nine deep without much drop off and looks like some of our teams from the 70's. Will have to see if we have the chemistry of a good team, but from the tweets and video I have seen, they are having fun. This is the most excited I have been for our team in 20 plus years.

Hi. WKU fan here. Looking forward to playing you guys for the first time. Any questions about our team, let me know? We are very excited this year.