GAMEDAY: Tops vs Trojans
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
It’s round two with the Troy Trojans, as WKU will play host to the near-cellar dwellars of the Sun Belt tonight inside good ol’ E.A. Diddle Arena!
The Hilltoppers look to sweep the Trojans in this doubleheader as the Lady Tops defeated the visiting Trojans in a blow out fashion last night.
The Trojans enter this one struggling as they have won just one of their last 6 outings, and have a conference record of 3-7, a far cry from the 8-3 conference record of WKU. Trojans will need their key players to really step up in order to steal the victory tonight. They need production from Hunter Williams (11.8 points per game) and Antoine Myers (11 PGG) along with Kevin Thomas collecting as many boards as he can, as he leads the team in 7.6 rebounds per outing.. Troy also needs to limit their turnovers – the Tops love to force turnovers and capitalize on them, and with the Trojans losing 13 possesions per game so far, they can’t afford to have that many possessions forgone tonight. Either the Tops will need to be off their game, or the Trojans will have to play a near perfect night (or as close as a team can get to perfect) in order to get the win.
The loss to A-State still stings us, but hopefully the guys have gotten over it, and are ready to play. This is a big matchup for momentum’s sake, and they need this win to try and recover some of that lost momentum after seeing a 6-game win streak snapped in painful fashion. By now we already know who needs to continue to have big games with the loss of Alex Rostov and Kevin Kaspar. But as a team what do they Tops really need to do? Much like the Lady Tops last night, I think the guys will have similar key points to win. Like I said above, the Trojans are averaging 13 turnovers per game, so they will need to try and get Troy to turn the ball over even more than that. Also, WKU needs to find as many offensive boards as they can. I know I continuously repeat these two points, but when WKU forces more turnovers than they allow, and find more offensive boards than the opposing team they normally win.
This should be an easy win for the Tops tonight, which is what WKU really needs after that loss to the A-State. The Tops sit nervously at 2nd place in the standings as the Red Wolves are breathing down their necks. The final few weeks of conference play will be interesting to see where everyone finishes. WKU will want this game to fall in the win column to give them a little bit more cushion in the standings.
Now for the starting lineups, I think Harrison-Docks, Jackson, T.J. Price, Adeoye, and Fant. Prior to last monday these five looked the strongest and I think Coach Harper will stick with them for now.
Things tip-off at 7 PM this evening in Diddle so make your way down and cheer on the Tops in what should be a good game for the home crowd! Keep an eye on the WTRT twitter account to have some more fun with your in game experience. Hope to see you there!