Sun Belt Sports Fans

Troy 82, Western Kentucky 68

Remember the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers? You know the team that used to be the unquestioned class of the Sun Belt Conference, the team that regularly made an impact in the middle of March and won respect across the nation, not just in its own little pocket of America?

It’s hard to know where they’ve gone. By all accounts, a once-proud program has completely fallen off the map and hit rock bottom in the college basketball cosmos.

It was really rather stunning to behold: On Thursday night in Troy, Alabama, Western Kentucky – the program that reached the Sweet 16 in 2008 and then came within one Gonzaga basket of playing overtime for a return trip to the Sweet 16 in 2009 – got decked by an opponent that took the floor with a 2-13 overall record and an 0-3 mark in Sun Belt competition. The Troy Trojans have been suffering through a brutal season of their own, but for 40 minutes on home hardwood, they topped the Hilltoppers with relative ease.

One has to wonder what is going on in the Western Kentucky locker room. Was WKU’s ascendancy the product of former coach Darrin Horn, who built up the program and recruited the players who made two bold tournament runs? Is new coach Ken McDonald not doing something right, or are his players just not gifted? Is this team failing to compete, or is Western Kentucky just not blessed with talent the way the Hilltoppers’ 2008 and 2009 squads were? It gives one pause. Troy coach Dan Maestri has led the Trojans for nearly three decades, so he obviously knows a thing or two about coaching basketball, but with that having been said, it’s hard to see how Troy could send WKU to an 0-3 Sun Belt record and a 5-10 overall record. The reality just blows the mind, two short years after WKU found itself in the midst of March Madness and blew out Illinois in the first round of the NCAAs before falling to Gonzaga on a layup at the buzzer.

At any rate, Troy’s victory in Trojan Arena was built on the basis of a very simple fact: The Trojans had a bench that was worth something, and WKU did not. Troy’s starters were outscored 64-55, but Maestri’s extra men off the pine were able to humiliate the Hilltoppers to the tune of a 27-4 scoring advantage. Only one WKU reserve, Jamal Crook, played more than three minutes, an indication that the Hilltoppers lack depth. Perhaps recruiting is the biggest worry for Mr. McDonald. One thing is clear: Something has to be done quickly before a Sun Belt brand name dips even further into failure and obscurity.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer