WKU Weekly Wrapup: 12/29/13 – 1/4/13
Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports
Happy New Year, everybody!
While 2013 was exciting – volleyball had a top 25 ranking, soccer won the regular season conference title, Harpermania struck again, MCH lead a historic turnaround, Tops to CUSA, and, oh yeah, the debut of Wave The Red Towel! – it still had it’s downfalls. Volleyball lost to Troy in the first round. South Al kept WKU from winning the softball AND soccer tournaments. The loss to Kansas in the tournament. The bowl snub. And WTRT’s incredible inconsistency.
With a baby site comes problems, and probably our biggest problem so far is inconsistency. But, for our (or, at least, my personal) New Years resolution is to make it better. Have previews, live updates, and recaps for EVERY game. More content outside of actual events (opinions, possibly some interviews, etc.), expanded coverage, so you guys know what’s going on around the conference as well. And, my favorite featured, making the WWW – WKU Weekly Wrapup – exactly that. WEEKLY.
Alright, enough about us and how we are terrible.
It’s time to recap the week that was, and the first week of 2014 for WKU!
Men’s Basketball: WKU 74 – Ole Miss 79, WKU 58 – South Alabama 56, WKU 60 – Troy 51
Don’t look now, but the Tops have won 5 of their last 6, and could very well be in an 8 of 10 streak, but couldn’t muster enough late to beat Mr. Marshall Henderson and the Fighting Bjork’s. And, while T.J. Price started the season hot, George Fant has been mister consistency, putting up 13, 10, and 12 points, respectively, along with a career high 14 boards vs. the Rebels for a double double. The South Al game wasn’t pretty, but they got the win, and WKU now only trails the Jags 33-32 in the all time series. Oh yeah, and the Tops are 2-0 in Sun Belt play. Let’s end our stint with a bang!
Women’s Basketball: WKU 65 – South Alabama 74, WKU 86 – Troy 69
Another thing we need to do better here at WTRT is give Michelle Clark-Heard’s women’s team more coverage. Because they deserve it. Coming off their record SBC turnaround last year, the ladies currently sit at 9-4, they beat Georgetown, and are in the midst of a 4-1 streak after splitting their Dixie swing this past week. The game in Mobile would have been closer had it not been for the Jags shooting 75% beyond the arc for the game. It was a completely different story in Troy, however, as the ladies put up 51 one IN THE OPENING 20 MINUTES to obliterate the Trojans. Who might have a rough year. While the record, overall and 1-1 conference start, are both positives, junior standout guard (and conference preseason player of the year) Alexis Govan missed the two games due to a leg injury, and according to the Bowling Green Daily News, she was walking around on crutches as a precaution and source of treatment to enhance the recovery. Alexis is a class act, and we wish her a speedy recovery.
#ProToppers Update: When WTRT was first started, one of the things that I wanted to do was to keep with former Tops who now play professionally. While it’s a daily grind, 2014 will see more ProToppers coverage!
Jamal Crook: We start on a somber note, as Ottawa SkyHawks guard Jamal Crook was placed on IR in the middle of December. Crook averaged 12.6 points and 3.7 assists in 14 games played for the SkyHawks. Ottawa currently sits in 6th place (the NBL-Canada is a 9 team league) with a 12-11 record.
Jeremy Evans: One thing we all know and can agree on – the Utah Jazz are bad. But, Jeremy Evans in the NBA is good. Evans, who missed 13 total games, most of which to start the season, due to a right rotator cuff strain (and one to illness), but has now played in 22 games and started 2 of them, and is averaging 6.6 points, 5.4 boards and less than a single assist in 19 minutes. Above all, glad he’s healthy, and let’s hope his role expands.
Courtney Lee: Poor ProToppers. While the Jazz are essentially the pitfall of the NBA, the Celtics weren’t much better, but they now find themselves in 2nd place in the division (man, that Eastern Conference really is terrible). Lee has been a consistent and key bench player for Boston, as he has played in 30 of the Celtic’s 33 games, and is averaging 7.4 points, a board and an assist in his tie on the court.
Bobby Rainey: Our football ProToppers are splitting time in the offseason and postseason. For Tampa’s Bobby Rainey, he ended the year starting 6 of 9 games he played for the Bucs (along with playing in 6 games for Cleveland), averaging 3.7 yards per rush between the two teams, and 3.9 for TB. Rainey finished 2013 with 5 rushing scores, and a receiving one. With Lovey Smith coming to right the ship, hopefully Rainey will be trusted after a breakout year, and will see his fair share of touches in 2014.
Jack Doyle: Mr. Jack attack actually started 4 games for Indy out of the 15 he played in, but didn’t make much of a statistical impact. He had 5 catches all year, never a game with more than one, and totaled 19 yards. The Titans really liked him and cut him lose, so I can’t imagine the Colts doing the same thing.
This was a lengthy recap, but thanks for sticking it out! Next week will be significantly shorter (much because our ProTopper section will actually recap the week), and hopefully will have nothing but W’s to speak of.
Let’s keep on keepin on, folks. Stand up and cheers!