Rick Stansbury didn’t want a schedule he knew his team could easily put up a good record against with no problems. He wanted one that would challenge his team early.

He got it.

Western Kentucky will begin a tough three-game stretch that will include Minnesota, either South Carolina or Princeton and Memphis on Friday, when the Hilltoppers open play in the Asheville Championship at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, N.C., with a 5:30 p.m. CT game against the Golden Gophers.

“You all know what it’s going to be. You’ve got Minnesota. If you beat Minnesota, then you’ve got South Carolina or Princeton, so there’s no easy games. Then you come back and you get ready to go to Memphis,” Stansbury said Tuesday after his team’s win over Alabama State. “That’s kind of our next few games, but the next one’s going to be Minnesota and we know they’ll be very good. Our guys will be excited and ready to play, though.”

The Hilltoppers escaped their opener against Alabama State with a 79-74 victory after leading for less than six minutes in the contest. WKU’s new-look team has been led early by sophomore point guard Dayvion McKnight, who had 19 points, five rebounds and six assists while playing all but 16 seconds in the opener, and Jairus Hamilton, a 6-foot-8 transfer forward from Maryland who’s averaging 20.7 points and 8.7 rebounds while going a combined 12-for-18 (66.7%) from 3-point range across two exhibition games and the regular-season opener.

Hamilton had seven points and a rebound in 16 minutes during Maryland’s 72-59 victory over Minnesota on Feb. 14, and seven points, two rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes in a 63-49 victory over the Golden Gophers earlier in the year while at Maryland.

“We know a little bit about them,” Hamilton said after Tuesday’s win. “I played in the Big Ten last year, so I know a little bit about how they run things and everything.”

WKU also got 12 points and six rebounds from DePaul transfer forward Jaylen Butz in its win, and 12 points from veteran guard Josh Anderson. The Hilltoppers struggled somewhat shooting, going 6-for-19 (31.6%) in the game, including a combined 0-for-10 from deep between Anderson and Luke Frampton – WKU’s top 3-point shooter last year.

The Hilltoppers could see improvements in that area soon from Camron Justice, who received an additional year of eligibility Wednesday, largely from a combination of a hardship waiver stemming from his injury-related departure from Vanderbilt earlier in his career, as well as a previous COVID year he didn’t utilize. Justice played for WKU in the 2019-20 season and averaged over 10 points per game, and returned this summer as a graduate assistant.

Minnesota enters with a win under its belt – the Golden Gophers topped Kansas City 71-56 on Tuesday. Minnesota comes into the year with a veteran team that includes eight seniors.

Jamison Battle led the Golden Gophers in their opener with 18 points, while Payton Willis and Eylijah Stephens each had 13. Minnesota – under the direction of first-year coach Ben Johnson – allowed just four points in the final seven minutes.

“They’re a Big Ten team. I know they have a great guard (Willis) – kid from Arkansas that went to Vandy and transferred back up in there. Then you’ve got the Battle kid who can really, really shoot it,” Stansbury said. “They’ve got a lot of experienced guys. They’re a Big Ten team, so we know it’ll be a challenge for us.”

WKU is 0-2 all-time against Minnesota. Both matchups came in tournaments, with the most recent being a 76-54 Golden Gopher win in the 2014 NIT Season Tip-Off. The Hilltoppers are 8-4 in regular-season tournament play over the last four seasons, and have won two games each in the 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis, 2018 Myrtle Beach Invitational, 2019 Paradise Jam and 2020 Crossover Classic.

Princeton and South Carolina will play in the second game of the tournament, which is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. CT Friday. The winners of each game will play Sunday at 6:30 p.m. CT, while the losers will meet at 4 p.m. CT that day.

MINNESOTA (1-0) VS. WESTERN KENTUCKY (1-0)

5:30 p.m. CT Friday/Asheville, N.C.

Probable starters

MINNESOTA

• Eric Curry, f, 6-0, r-sr. (7 ppg, 7 rpg); Payton Willis, g, 6-4, sr. (13 ppg, 1 rpg); Luke Loewe, g, 6-4, sr. (9 ppg, 2 rpg); Eylijah Stephens, g, 6-3, sr. (13 ppg, 6 rpg); Jamison Battle, f, 6-7, so. (18 ppg, 3 rpg).

WESTERN KENTUCKY

• Luke Frampton, g, 6-5, r-sr. (5 ppg, 1 rpg); Dayvion McKnight, g, 6-1, so. (19 ppg, 5 rpg); Jaylen Butz, f, 6-9, r-sr. (12 ppg, 6 rpg); Jairus Hamilton, f, 6-8, sr. (21 ppg, 1 rpg); Josh Anderson, g, 6-6, fifth-year sr. (12 ppg, 7 rpg).

Television

ESPNU

Radio

Hilltopper Sports Network

Coaches

Ben Johnson (1-0, first year; 1-0 overall), Minnesota; Rick Stansbury (104-60, sixth year; 397-226 overall), WKU.

Series record

Minnesota leads the series 2-0 (The Golden Gophers won the last meeting 76-54 on on Nov. 18, 2014, in Minneapolis, Minn).

Last time out

Minnesota won 71-56 against Kansas City at home on Tuesday; WKU won 79-74 against Alabama State at home on Tuesday.{&end}