WKU men’s basketball hosted their preseason press conference Wednesday, with Head Coach Hank Plona, senior guard Don McHenry and graduate forward Tyrone Marshall Jr.
“We’re sitting here 12 days away from our first game at home against Wichita State. So (we’re) just trying to day by day improve and come together and get stronger as a team,” Plona said.
Here are my key takeaways from the press conference.
Experience and Togetherness
When asked how he felt about his team this year, Plona said that experience and togetherness are going to be strengths of his squad. The Hilltoppers return 12 players from last year’s Conference-USA winning season.
“I think when you have an experienced, together team that has won together before and clearly has talented players, I think you know you have a chance,” Plona said.
Marshall Jr., McHenry, graduate guard Khristian Lander and senior forward Babacar Faye all started the NCAA tournament game against Marquette last season and all returned to WKU for this year.
Sophomore guard Teagan Moore, a member of the C-USA All-Freshman Team last season, and senior guard Enoch Kalambay, who averaged 18.3 minutes a game last year are other key guys returning for the Hilltoppers.
New Faces in a Familiar Group
The Hilltoppers welcome six new faces this season. Of the six, Plona said the four that will get on the floor the most are graduate guard Braxton Bayless, redshirt-senior forward Blaise Keita, senior forward Leeroy Odiahi and freshman guard Julius Thedford.
Bayless transferred to WKU from Niagara and is a player Plona said is “a point guard that’s able and willing to play any spot on the floor.”
“He’s a winner,” Plona said. “He’s had a lot of success. He’s a very good player, but certainly a winning, team oriented guy.”
Last year Bayless led Niagara in points per game, averaging 11.5 a contest. Before Niagara, he played under Plona at Indian Hills Community College along with Odiahi.
“Braxton and Leeroy both played for me in my past, so there’s obviously some familiarity with them and they kind of seamlessly fit in,” Plona said.
Odiahi averaged 1.2 points and 2.6 rebounds last season at Old Dominion.
Keita transferred to WKU from Nebraska. He is coming off a redshirt year after having ankle surgery in Spring 2023. During his junior year in 2022, he averaged two points a game. Before Nebraska, Keita led Coffeyville Community College to a national championship his freshman year and averaged 12.8 points and 9.8 rebounds his sophomore season.
“Blaze has a lot of experience and he’s, I would say, playing better right now than he has any time in the four or five months since he’s been here,” Plona said. “I think Blaze will be a huge part of our team.”
Plona said that Thedford is the only freshman that will play this year and is “a little ahead of schedule compared to where most freshmen are.”
“Julius is a little bit of an x-factor, in the sense that when he’s really good he’s right up there with anybody,” Plona said. “We think Julius has a very, very bright future here at WKU.”
Staying in the Fast Lane
Last season, WKU topped C-USA in scoring, averaging 80.2 points per game. According to teamrankings.com, the Hilltoppers were third in the nation in possessions per game with 77.2. Plona said that the fast pace style of play from last season is something WKU will look to continue.
“I think we’re going to be able to score the ball… we’re going to continue to play at a fast pace,” Plona said. “We’re going to try and increase the possessions in a game and try to put ourselves in a position to make people a bit uncomfortable.”
McHenry said the team has been practicing how they will play, keeping it fast like they did last season.
“We play pretty fast when we practice,” McHenry said. “From what I’ve been seeing in practice and how we play, we thrive a lot in transition and getting up the court fast.”
Plona said that if WKU is unable to speed up the game, the Hilltoppers have to get stops, get rebounds and score in the half court.
“A lot of the stuff that we’re working at improving is when we fail at speeding the game up and when the game does slow down we got to be able to be on the same page and execute to score on offense,” Plona said. “When the game gets a bit slower, I think we have to continue to improve as a basketball team.”
Redshirt report
Plona gave updates on a few pieces of the team and their involvement in this year.
Plona said that freshman guard Kade Unseld had a knee procedure in late July and that “he’ll probably be back and fully ready to go” sometime in the middle of the year, but said with him missing a big portion of the season there is potential for him to redshirt.
Plona said graduate guard Terrion Murdix, who was out all last season with an injury, had a second operation on his knee in April. Murdix is “about six months in” to his recovery and will probably redshirt, Plona said.
“We do have four senior guards on this team. I think it would be a tough situation after two years of him sitting out to just throw him into the fire,” he said.
Plona also said the plan is to redshirt redshirt-senior forward Fallou Diagne, who only played in five games last year due to injury, and junior guard Cade Stinett, who transferred to the Hilltoppers from Centre College.
Moore had a hip procedure in May, but Plona said his situation is different than the rest.
“Teagan is rehabbing every single day to get back on the floor,” Plona said. “That’ll probably be a day by day and week by week here in the next two to three weeks.”
WKU will un-officially tip-off their season in a home exhibition against UAB on Sunday, Oct. 28. The Hilltoppers’ first official game is Nov. 4 against Wichita State at Diddle Arena.
