Josh Anderson

Western Kentucky’s team bus trip Friday to Marshall included a talented newcomer poised to make his college basketball debut.

Freshman guard Josh Anderson has been immediately cleared by the NCAA, WKU announced Friday afternoon. The freshman guard missed the first 15 games this season for the Hilltoppers (10-5 overall, 2-0 Conference USA) while the NCAA examined his high school grades.

Anderson’s clearance came shortly before the team left for Huntington, W.Va., where it’ll battle Marshall on Saturday. Tipoff from the Cam Henderson Center is set for 6 p.m. CST, with the game streamed online at watchstadium.com.

Anderson will be available to play Saturday for WKU against the Thundering Herd. The team’s Twitter account, @wkubasketball, posted a photo of a smiling Anderson as he boarded the team bus outside E.A. Diddle Arena shortly after 3 p.m. Friday.

When Anderson makes his college debut, he’ll become the highest-rated recruit of the modern era to take the floor for the Hilltoppers.

Anderson is a 6-foot-6 freshman from Baton Rouge, La., who came to WKU from Madison Prep Academy. He was a consensus four-star recruit across all outlets and ranked in the top 60 nationally by every major outlet.

Anderson is the only player in Madison Prep history to start all four years at the varsity level. He helped the Chargers to three straight Louisiana state titles and four straight state championship game appearances.

Anderson averaged 12 points, 4.2 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game in 2016-17 while shooting 65 percent for Madison Prep. He played his senior year at point guard after averaging 18.1 ppg as a junior while playing at his natural position, on the wing.

Anderson arrived in Bowling Green in time for the fall semester. He missed WKU’s August trip to Costa Rica, instead spending the summer in Louisiana finishing up high school coursework.

Anderson was accepted into WKU and has been part of the team since arriving on campus, participating in practices and all non-game activities. But the NCAA didn’t immediately clear the freshman, instead looking into his high school grades.

Anderson was behind on some coursework during the fall semester of his senior year because of a death in the family and a flood that damaged his Baton Rouge home.

Anderson was told he could make up that schoolwork if he turned it in by a certain date, but sources told the Daily News that he was misadvised by the school and given a wrong date. The completed coursework was deemed late, and Madison Prep Academy’s principal wouldn’t certify its completion.

The school’s principal was “on the verge” of certifying that work, sources said in December.

WKU coach Rick Stansbury said in December during one of his weekly radio shows that there had been “movement in a positive direction” concerning Anderson, saying “the principal finished up what she had to finish up.”

“The NCAA’s case always came back and said, ‘We’re going to stand by what the principal said,’ ” Stansbury said. “Well, that’s all we want them to do again.

“If they can say it on the front end, then they need to say it now again.”

The case finally reached its resolution Friday, with the NCAA ruling Anderson eligible.

WKU went 10-5 in its 15 games this season without Anderson and another newcomer, forward Moustapha Diagne. The NCAA has been examining the redshirt sophomore Diagne’s amateur status and he hadn’t been cleared as of Friday afternoon.

Game preview

Anderson’s clearance comes at an ideal time for WKU. Stansbury has touted the guard’s perimeter defense, and that’ll be needed Saturday against a Marshall team that leads Conference USA in scoring at 88.2 ppg.

The Thundering Herd are known as a 3-point shooting outfit, and nailed 19 against the Hilltoppers last season in a 94-80 Marshall win in Huntington.

The 2017-18 Herd average 9.2 3-pointers per game, second in C-USA to Texas-San Antonio (10.5).

But the team has been more effective inside the arc, making 58.2 percent of its 2-point field goals vs. Division I opponents, per KenPom.com. That ratio ranks No. 14 of 351 D-I teams.

Marshall features three of the top five scorers in C-USA: No. 1 Jon Elmore (23.5 ppg), No. 3 C.J. Burks (20.1 ppg) and No. 5 Ajdin Penava (17.7 ppg).

“You have to control the pace of the game,” Tops forward Justin Johnson said. “Then when you get a lead you have to hold it. You have to take care of the ball offensively, make the most of every possession.

“You can’t self-inflict turnovers that lead to them getting baskets and getting easy, open layups. You have to control the flow of the game.”

WKU has lost four straight overall in the series and is 0-3 in Huntington against the Herd since joining C-USA for the 2014-15 season. Marshall and WKU both enter Saturday’s matchup sitting atop the conference with 2-0 league records, tied for first alongside Middle Tennessee and Old Dominion.

Notes

The Hilltoppers have made at least one 3-pointer in 953 consecutive games, dating back to March 15, 1987. WKU’s streak is the fifth-longest in the nation behind Kentucky, Nevada-Las Vegas, Vanderbilt and Arkansas. … The senior Johnson (1,308 points) ranks No. 22 on the Toppers’ all-time scoring list. Next on the list is No. 21 Chuck Rawlings (1,314). … WKU trailed for just 26 combined seconds in its two opening C-USA wins against Louisiana Tech and Southern Mississippi. … The Hilltoppers rank 25th in the country in field goal percentage and first in Conference USA at 49.4 percent. That percentage would rank seventh for a single season in program history. … Guard Taveion Hollingsworth has scored at least 12 points in nine straight games.