March madness?: Tops facing uphill battle
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Whoever said it can’t get any worse for Western Kentucky basketball was lying.
The past week has been tough to stomach for Western Kentucky hoops, starting last Tuesday when both the men and women fell in their respective Sun Belt Conference tournament championship games. It continued Sunday when the men – apparently close to an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament – were stuck with a No. 6 seed in the National Invitation Tournament. Then on Monday, the WKU women were shocked to find out they weren’t invited to the NCAA tourney.
Trending
Here’s more bad news for WKU: All-Sun Belt Conference sophomore guard Courtney Lee’s season is officially over because of a hand injury.
Lee played through the injury during the SBC tournament, but WKU coach Darrin Horn said it was recommended that Lee now sit out for the postseason, which begins Wednesday in the NIT at South Carolina (6 p.m. CST).
“I don’t know the technical terms, but we just know now that it’s best for him not to play,” Horn said. “He was fine to play when he did. Now (doctors) feel like it’s not the thing to do.”
Horn also said backup forward Butch Jointer is “questionable” with a foot injury. If Jointer doesn’t play, it would leave a once-deep Hilltopper squad with only eight healthy scholarship players. Point guard Orlando Mendez-Valdez suffered a season-ending foot injury in the final week of the regular season.
But Lee’s loss is especially crucial. Lee, who wasn’t available for comment Monday, averaged 17.4 points and 6.3 rebounds on the season as part of the Hilltoppers’ 1-2 offensive punch with senior guard Anthony Winchester.
“When 17 points and six rebounds walks out the door, you’ve really got to make sure (to do everything well),” Horn said. “We have to take care of the basketball. We have to make sure we get good shots. We’ve got to keep (South Carolina) off the glass.”
Trending
Although Lee played through the injury during the Sun Belt Conference tournament, his statistics were not the same as the regular season.
In the Hilltoppers’ semifinal and championship game, Lee was a combined 7-of-27 from the field, scored a total of 18 points and committed six turnovers.
Western was able to outlast Louisiana-Lafayette 80-72 in the semifinals, but was crushed 95-70 by South Alabama in the title game.
“When (South Alabama) pressured us and we needed to get a basket with Courtney not being healthy, it was really hard for us to do that,” Horn said. “He’s been that guy that’s either gotten us that basket or force enough help to get a shot for Ty (Rogers) or Anthony (Winchester) or Benson (Callier) all year long.”
And it’s the second consecutive year Western’s postseason has been hampered by injury. Winchester suffered an ankle injury in the early moments of Western’s 77-68 loss to Denver in the SBC semifinals.
“It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for everybody,” Horn said.
WKYU-PBS, local cable channel 11, announced Monday that it will air Western Kentucky’s game at South Carolina live Wednesday.
The contest at the Colonial Center in Columbia, S.C., will tip at 6 p.m., with WKYU-PBS beginning its coverage with a pregame show at 5:30 p.m.
The WKU-USC game is a co-production of Comcast Sports Southeast and WKYU-PBS.