Willie Carmichael played Tuesday night like a man who’d waited a long time for a chance to prove himself.

The former Tennessee transfer put on a Hilltopper uniform for the first time in a game when Western Kentucky hosted Campbellsville in an exhibition. He made his debut after sitting out the 2015-16 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

Carmichael was active throughout the Toppers’ 87-79 win, finishing with 11 points and 13 rebounds. The redshirt sophomore forward made only 1 of 8 field goals, but went to the free throw line often and took advantage, hitting 9 of 10 foul shots.

Carmichael was at his best attacking the glass, with his 13 boards putting him one ahead of Justin Johnson (12) for the team lead in that category. Carmichael grabbed 10 defensive rebounds and three offensive.

“Willie attacks the glass,” the junior forward Johnson said. “He only knows one way and that’s to play hard.”

Carmichael and his WKU teammates will host Kentucky Wesleyan at 8 p.m. Saturday in E.A. Diddle Arena for their second and final exhibition. The regular-season opener is 7 p.m. on Nov. 12 at home against Alabama State.

These exhibition games offer Carmichael the chance to get a feel for being back on the court in a game setting. The 6-foot-8, 210-pound native of Apopka, Fla., hasn’t played a regular-season game since his freshman year with the Volunteers.

Coach Rick Stansbury compared Carmichael to “that wild stallion” with the way he played.

“You see that stallion out there, it just runs around quick and just flies around,” Stansbury said. “You can’t put a saddle on him yet but again, he’s got a lot of quickness, got a lot of energy. He has to just learn to slow down.”

Stansbury has Carmichael playing a different role than he did in the 2014-15 season at Tennessee, when he played as a center.

Now Stansbury wants Carmichael to have the ball in his hands out on the perimeter and attack the basket. He even brought the ball up the floor a few times after rebounds.

Carmichael committed two turnovers during his 27 minutes in addition to his 11 points and 13 rebounds.

“This is the first time in his life he was away from that rim,” Stansbury said. “It was very obvious the game got sped up for him, he made some turnovers. He’ll get better at that.

“The one thing though is I told him I’ll live with it because he played with great effort. And the first thing you look at, look at the rebounding column. That’s the effort column. He has 13 rebounds. So he’ll get better at all those little areas.”

Carmichael is expected to play a big role this season on a team that doesn’t have much depth. He started Tuesday and he and fellow returners Johnson and Ben Lawson were the three frontcourt players that each played at least 20 minutes.

Carmichael has some aspects of his game to clean up, Stansbury said, but the coach said he likes the intensity that the forward is playing with.

“The more experienced he gets, he’ll see things start happening a little bit,” Stansbury said. “Right now he sees nothing happening. He’s got blinders on when he’s got that ball. …

“But again, know this – I’ll live with making mistakes with effort.”

– Follow sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter @BradBGDN or visit bgdailynews.com.