WKU Men’s Basketball will travel to Huntsville, Alabama for the Conference USA Tournament as the No. 7 seed, looking to repeat as conference champions and punch their automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Hilltoppers enter the tournament off a 90-61 roasting by the Liberty Flames on Saturday. Liberty shot 52.5% from the field on 61 attempts and outscored WKU 49-22 in the first half.
“We’ve got three days to pinpoint exactly why when things go wrong, they go way wrong for us,” Head Coach Hank Plona said postgame Saturday. “We need to play better in all areas of the game and as a staff, we need to prepare our guys to have a better performance than this on Tuesday night.”
Last season, the Hilltoppers went into the conference tournament with a 19-11 record (8-8 CUSA), a stark contrast from this season’s 17-14 (8-10 CUSA) finish.
WKU ended last regular season on a four-game losing streak but rattled off three wins to win the conference tournament. They averaged 84 points through the three games, including an 89-69 blowout versus New Mexico State in the quarterfinal and an 85-54 victory over Middle Tennessee State in the semifinal.
For back-to-back conference crowns, WKU will have to win four games in five days.
“This group is good enough to win any game that we step on the floor,” Plona said. “Winning four games in five days, that’s all very difficult to do. But I do think we’ve had our moments where we’ve broke through … we’re not going down there to do anything but to try to win.”
WKU’s tournament campaign will start Tuesday, March 11 against FIU. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
Sports Reporter Michael Givner Jr. can be reached at michael.givner586@topper.wku.edu.
Sports Reporter Nathan Mueller can be reached at nathan.mueller103@topper.wku.edu.
