Lady Toppers Release Full Schedule
The final piece to the hardwood puzzle has been revealed, as WKU has released the full schedule for the Lady Toppers basketball team in Michelle Clark-Heard’s third full year at the head of the program.
What we’ve known for a while is that the Lady’s will be competing in the Preseason NIT, and they’re opening opponent will be against Central Arkansas (Nov. 14th), and that in the preseason tournament, WKU is guaranteed at least three games.
Following the NIT, WKU will make their first ever appearance inside Louisville’s Yum! Center, and MCH will return to her old coaching stomping grounds to try and get revenge from last year’s 74-61 defeat inside Diddle Arena at the hands of the (then) defending national runners up. After that, it’ll be no rest for the weary, as WKU will face off against a former Conference USA school in Tulane in New York (Hempstead, to be exact), to compete in the Hofstra Thanksgiving Tournament, where the game against the Green Wave will tip off on Nov. 28th and it’ll be either host Hofstra or Northern Iowa awaiting them the next day to close the tournament (I’m assuming if WKU wins, they’ll play the Hofstra/Northern Iowa winner. That only makes the most sense, right?).
Between December 1st and December 21st, the Lady Tops’ will play four of five games at home, including Alabama A&M (Dec. 1), Ole Miss (Dec. 4), Alabama State (Dec. 6) and Ball State (Dec. 21). The lone away game in that stretch is a trip to Austin Peay on December 16.
It’s a darn good thing WKU has that stretch, because after that, MCH and company wont play in Diddle until January 15th, when FAU comes to town, and the conference slate is underway. Coach Clark-Heard was full of excitement when she spoke about what the 2014/15 schedule has in store:
"The combination of our non-conference schedule and the level of play we expect to see in Conference USA make this an exciting and demanding schedule for our team…This schedule is going to be a great test for us and we look forward to learning and growing as this season progresses."
If the Lady’s can pull an upset off against either Louisville or Ole Miss, it could go lightyears into building the confidence of an already confident team and get them more than ready for the CUSA slate. Last year, this was one of, if not the, most exciting teams to watch in the WKU athletics department, and I’m hoping for and expecting big things for this year as well.