Western Kentucky fans will see a familiar face stalking the opposing sideline Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Former WKU men’s basketball head coach Ray Harper, now leading the program at first-year Conference USA member Jacksonville State, returns once again to Diddle – the same gym where he led the Hilltoppers for most of five seasons, including taking the team to back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 2012 and 2013 (the last NCAA tournament appearance for WKU).

Harper, a Bremen native who resigned as the Tops’ head coach shortly after the 2016 season following the suspension of three players after a school disciplinary committee hearing, landed at Jacksonville State the following year and is now in his eighth season leading the Gamecocks.

Saturday’s 4 p.m. matchup – to be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network – is the second time Harper has returned to Diddle since departing as WKU’s head coach. In 2016 during his first season at Jax State, Harper’s team dropped a 74-67 decision to then first-year head coach Rick Stansbury – the last time the programs have met.

WKU first-year coach Steve Lutz expects a tough challenge from the Gamecocks and a motivated counterpart in Harper as Jax State looks to deal the Tops their first home loss this season.

“I’m sure that coach Harper will always want to beat Western,” Lutz said during his weekly news conference. “I mean, that’s just human nature that you want to come back maybe to a place that you were at and you want to beat them.”

Jacksonville State (10-7 overall, 2-0 Conference USA) sits atop the league standings after claiming a 61-51 road win against Liberty on Wednesday night. The Gamecocks have won six straight games.

KyKy Tandy, a 6-2 graduate student from Hopkinsville, erupted for 35 points in the Gamecocks’ 70-63 home win against Florida International on Jan. 6. Tandy, who prepped at University Heights High School and played four collegiate seasons at Xavier before transferring to Jax State, currently leads CUSA in scoring at 19.1 points per game.

“I’ve known coach Harper for a long, long time – since he was at Kentucky Wesleyan and they were winning national titles,” Lutz said. “He’s a very good basketball coach. He’s got a tough, scrappy team. And they’ve got a guy, the Tandy kid, he had 35 on Saturday night. They’ve got some scoring.”

Jax State currently ranks seventh in scoring in CUSA at 71.8 points per game, while WKU (12-4, 1-1 CUSA) remains No. 1 in the league at 79.3 points even after Wednesday’s 78-74 road loss to Sam Houston State. That defeat snapped an eight-game win streak for the Hilltoppers.

Against the Bearkats, the Tops trailed for much of the night before rallying to briefly take the lead and then ultimately losing their first CUSA game this season.

“For whatever reason, we were selfish at times, we didn’t move the basketball, we got outcompeted,” Lutz said during his postgame interview on the Hilltopper Sports Radio Network. “And tip your hat to Sam Houston. When it was time to win in the second half, they shot and made 12 out of 17 free throws – we made 1 out of 2. And you cannot blame that on the officials, that has nothing to do with the officials. We’ve got to be disciplined enough and tough enough to score at the basket, to get downhill. And when they touch us or bump us, we’ve got to be able to score through that. We missed nine layups in the first half, we probably missed four or five in the second half. That’s the difference in the basketball game.

“That team was very physical and you have to own it. That’s what I told the guys, man – sometimes you get in a brawl in the backyard and sometimes you get you’re butt whipped. You’ve got to own it.”

Tandy will face off against WKU junior point guard Don McHenry (15.1 points per game) in a matchup of the top two scorers in Conference USA.

The scoring for Jax State drops off considerably after Tandy, with guard Quincy Clark (8.6 points per game) and forward Juwan Perdue (8.2 ppg) the next most productive options.

The Gamecocks have made it difficult for opponents on offense, leading the league in scoring defense (61.8 points per game). WKU is eighth in the nine-team CUSA in scoring defense, allowing 73.6 points per outing.

Guards Brandon Newman (9.8 points per game) and Khristian Lander (9.6 ppg), and forwards Tyrone Marshall Jr. (9.2 ppg) and Rodney Howard (9.1 ppg) are each just one big game away from averaging double digits for the Hilltoppers.

Both teams have been tough rebounders, with the Tops leading CUSA with 41.4 rebounds per game and Jax State sitting third with 38.5 – the Gamecocks have posted the best rebounding margin in the league at +7.6 boards per game.