HEALTHY HILLTOPPERS: WKU roster at near full strength in Plona’s second season

Published 2:06 pm Wednesday, July 16, 2025

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Western Kentucky freshman guard Armelo Boone (12) shoots a three-pointer during open practice at E. A. Diddle Arena on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / BOWLING GREEN DAILY NEWS

Wednesday’s open practice at E.A. Diddle Arena revealed one stark difference from just a year ago, even before the Hilltoppers so much as touched a basketball.

The Tops are much closer to full strength in the summer than last year’s squad was at the same time, with nearly all players on the roster taking part in full practice Wednesday. Contrast that with last season as Hank Plona began his first campaign as head coach – last summer, the Tops were missing forward Fallou Diagne and guards Terrion Murdix, Kade Unseld and Teagan Moore due to injuries. None ever did make it back to play, leaving WKU short-handed from the start in a season where the injuries just continued to pile up.

“It does help having depth, it does help having bodies,” Plona said. “Obviously we started the year a year ago banged up and had some guys on scholarship that weren’t healthy and then sustained a few more (injuries) during the season. I don’t know, I’ve never quite seen anything like that. But again – knock on wood – hopefully we’ll be able to avoid that. But I think it allows you to improve, it allows you to do a lot of different things. It allows you to play a lot of different ways on offense and defense when you have healthy bodies. Certainly having 14 healthy bodies every day has been refreshing and allows us to improve at a fast rate.”

With another week left in the summer practice window, the Tops still aren’t quite 100% healthy. Moore, who missed all last season recovering from hip surgery, is dealing with a new injury now.

“Teagan Moore was back healthy. He has a small fracture in his finger that he sustained in the first practice of the whole summer,” Plona said. “He should be back soon – it seems like he can’t catch a break. And then (freshman) Lawson Rice is still recovering from an ACL injury in high school, but he’s close as well. I would think on the first day of school, Aug. 16, we’ll have all 16 healthy and ready to go – knock on wood, barring some kind of issue.”

Having at least close to a full complement of players available has allowed Plona and his staff to accelerate developing a new-look roster into a cohesive group that hopes to contend for a Conference USA regular-season championship. Only three current Hilltoppers saw action last season – graduate forward/centers Blaise Keita and Leeroy Odiahi, plus junior guard Jack Edelen.

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“When you have bodies and when you can rotate and have depth it allows you to play at that pace,” Plona said. “It obviously allows you to practice every day – you get better by practicing against one another. When you have 14 and you get seven on a team and you can rotate … here in the summer, I wouldn’t say we’re in the best shape and that leads to a little bit of sloppiness, but it allows those guys to stay fresh and get repetition and to learn how to play with one another. We try to mix up the teams every single day and we want those guys to experience playing with each other on both offense and defense. It’s been probably a little bit more normal, having 14 fresh bodies out there.”

Moore, Murdix – who missed two straight seasons recovering from a knee injury he sustained playing at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi – Unseld and senior guard Cade Stinnett, who redshirted as a transfer from Centre last season, also are back to provide stability and continuity on a roster featuring nine newcomers.

“They know our program, they know kind of what to expect,” Plona said. “So even though we don’t have a lot of returners that played, it certainly helps to have those guys that have been in the program.

” … Kade in June was doing everything but playing live. Here in these last two weeks Kade’s been playing live – it’s really the first time that Kade has had a true stretch of practice, so he’s rusty and he’s still getting himself back into shape, but he has the right mentality. He’s a winner, he competes obviously and he’s doing everything in his power to represent WKU and has wanted to do that more or less his whole life. So having Kade back is huge. And then obviously Teagan Moore, injured last year, will be a big return for us. And Terrion Murdix, injured for two years and working every day to get back on that floor. Terrion was working out in June, kind of doing some rehab. The last two weeks he’s been practicing full and he’s looked very good on the floor.”

Unseld, who played high school ball just a short distance from Diddle at nearby Warren Central, is looking forward to making his collegiate debut in what will be his redshirt freshman season.

“Just had to take it as like a learning curve, just getting to sit back and learn last year,” Unseld said. “Just working into it, getting in shape, getting back into the speed of the game – just having fun with it.”

About Jeff Nations

Sports Editor, Bowling Green Daily News

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