For most college basketball teams, there are points in the season where you have to just hold on through a tough stretch, continue to work hard to become better, and hope for a positive result at the end of the challenge.
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers have reached that precarious point in their 2024-25 season, and it’s anybody’s guess as to what might take place from this point forward.
On Saturday, WKU lost 71-57 at ‘100 Miles of Hate’ rival Middle Tennessee, slipping to 11-7 overall and 2-3 in Conference USA. The Hilltoppers have lost four of their last six games and first-year head coach Hank Plona is now searching for answers in more ways than one.
Not only did Western lose by 14 points to the Blue Raiders, they lost one of their most important players when 6-foot-4 true freshman guard Julius Thedford went down with a dislocated kneecap early in the second half. He had to be helped off the court and did not return to the contest.
Thedford had scored 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting and Western was trailing only 39-36 at the time of his departure. After that, MTSU outscored the Hilltoppers 32-21 and won going away in front of a largely gleeful crowd of 6,152 at the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.
Arguably Western’s most dynamic and most purely talented player, Thedford is the team’s third-leading scorer (12.4 ppg), and the Hilltoppers could be in trouble without him. Take Thedford’s shooting stats out of the equation and WKU went 17 of 56 from the field (30.4%), including 4 of 23 from 3-point range (17.3%) at MTSU. Frigid.
“I guess the results are as positive as they can be,” Plona said of Thedford’s injury. “There’s no surgery or anything needed, it’s just rehabilitation from here. He’s certainly out for a little bit. I guess these things they say can last anywhere from a week or two to a month or two — we’re hoping Julius can be back in about a month I would say as a random guess.
“Julius has had a great year and was on the verge of taking another step forward. So, it’s definitely a tough one for us.”
Western is already without the services 6-8 senior forward Babacar Faye, the team’s second-leading scorer (15.2 ppg) and leading rebounder (7.8 rpg), who has been out of the lineup since Dec. 14 with a knee injury. Faye’s timetable to return remains uncertain. Already lost for the season are Teagan Moore, Terrion Murdix, Cade Unseld and Fallou Diagne — medical redshirts all.
Significantly, Middle Tennessee improved to 13-5 in all games and 4-1 within the league to tie UTEP and New Mexico State for the top spot in a vastly improved CUSA. Western, the preseason pick to finish second in the conference, sits alone in seventh place, one spot above Louisiana Tech (2-4), the preseason favorite.
It could get worse before it gets better for the Hilltoppers, as they remain on the road tonight (at Louisiana Tech) and Saturday (at Sam Houston) before returning to E.A. Diddle Arena to play seven of their final 11 CUSA games. Despite embarrassingly low home attendance, Western is 9-2 in Diddle this season, and only 2-5 away from it.
Western needs more efficiency from leading scorer Don McHenry, a 6-2 senior guard, Tyrone Marshall, a 6-7 graduate forward, and Khristian Lander, a 6-3 graduate guard. All played important roles in the Hilltoppers’ run to the NCAA Tournament a year ago, but against MTSU they combined to go a combined 10 of 34 from the floor (29.4%) and 3 of 17 from distance (17.6%). Not good.
Conversely, WKU allowed MTSU to shoot 59% from the field in the second half, including 56% (5 of 9) from beyond the arc. The Hilltoppers were also dominated 42-32 on the boards, and that won’t cut it, either.
Now, it’s back on the road for two more.
“If we go into a game thinking woe is us or sorry for us, we’re not going to succeed,” Plona said. “I don’t mean to minimize (the loss of Thedford and Faye), they’re obviously super important parts of our team. I know we’re getting bit by an injury bug at a level I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced. I know all these things exist.
“(At the same time) the guys that are healthy need to focus on Louisiana Tech and try to get a win Thursday night.”
Undermanned, though they are.
