It would have been easy at any point for Caden Dickerson to quit.

“I just got a fire that I just want to compete,” he said. “I feel like if I’m not giving my all, I’m letting my teammates down. So I’m always trying to give everything I have for them and my coaches.”

Dickerson, one of three Western Kentucky seniors who will suit up one last time at E.A. Diddle Arena today, will play his 122nd game as a Hilltopper when Louisiana-Lafayette and WKU tip. He’ll do so with more than his share of battle scars from days past.

A left quadriceps tear, surgery on his left knee, surgery on his left shoulder, a separation of the acromioclavicular joint in the right shoulder, a chronic tender left ankle – that’s Dickerson’s list of ailments during his tenure on the Hill.

“I think a guy that wasn’t real tough could not have played with some of the injuries that he’s had. He played through pain, he played probably when he shouldn’t,” WKU coach Ray Harper said. “As a coach, what you want is guys that you know what you’re going to get every night. I pretty much know what I’m going to get every night – he’s going to be solid defensively, he’s usually not one to turn the basketball over and he’ll make open shots.

“He’s a competitor, he’s tough, he’s a winner. He’s everything you would want your son and one of your players to be. He’s not the most gifted – he’s not. He doesn’t run the fastest, he doesn’t jump the highest. But if you want to win, you want guys like him on your side.”

From Argyle, Texas, a town of about 4,000 people, 40 miles northwest of Dallas, Dickerson was taken aback when his college recruitment began as an upperclassman at Argyle High School. He was surprised and thrilled when WKU showed up to watch one of his games and he still remembers days later when assistant coach David Boyden called him and the two chatted about, of all things, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Dickerson made one trip to Bowling Green and instantly fell in love with the WKU campus, the Diddle Arena facility and the basketball program.

“It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen,” he said.

In 2009, Dickerson began his freshman season and thrived. The then-6-foot-4-inch, 185-pound shooter averaged 22 minutes per game, shot 42 percent from 3-point range and averaged six points. Playing alongside Jeremy Evans, Steffphon Pettigrew and A.J. Slaughter, Dickerson and the Tops went 21-13 and lost in the Sun Belt Conference semifinals to Troy.

“I think I just kind of fed off of Pettigrew and A.J. and Jeremy because they just took up so much attention, they’d just kind of leave me open. They would kind of forget about me,” Dickerson laughed. “It was fun to play with them, we were successful. I wish we would’ve won the tournament, but it was still fun.”

Unbeknownst to any, that was the beginning of the end of an era. WKU went 21-27 over the next 48 games. Dickerson played in 36 of those, missing the majority of 2011-12 with a shoulder injury as WKU spiraled into mediocrity under former coach Ken McDonald.

Harper took over Jan. 7 after McDonald was fired, but Dickerson could only watch from the bench as the Hilltoppers rallied to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament two months later.

“A lot of confusion, a lot of turmoil,” Dickerson said. “We had the coaching change and then I couldn’t really get healthy for a couple of years. It was tough for a while, but I had a good bunch of teammates that supported me, and my friends and family always kept encouraging me and kept me motivated.”

When he finally returned to good health at the start of the 2012-13 season, misfortune struck again Nov. 29, 2012, when Dickerson was yanked to the ground by his right arm during a win at Louisiana-Monroe. His right shoulder separated, forcing him to miss 12 more games.

He came back again.

“He’s amazing,” WKU senior guard Brandon Harris said. “He’s done everything coach has ever asked him to do, if that’s coming off the bench, making shots or playing defense. I mean, that’s why he plays as much as he does – the guy plays great defense.

“We see it all the time in practice, his team defense is second-to-none. He’s always in the right spot – help-side defense he’s always closing out the right way. He’s done everything coach has asked him to do and that’s why we’re successful, guys like that.”

Dickerson is a graduate school student and plans to earn his Master of Business Administration degree after completing classes this summer. The writing has been on the wall for some time that his basketball career is winding down.

Still, this season, Dickerson has played in 27 games – starting 23 – and is shooting 45 percent from the floor and 32.8 percent from 3-point range. His career production perhaps hasn’t quite lived up to the expectations after that promising year, thus criticism about the senior’s playing time has arisen over the years.

“I don’t pay attention to it. People are going to say what they want to say,” Dickerson said. “That’s just the way it is. That’s just the way sports are. To be honest, I really don’t think about it. I think that comes with the responsibility of being a D-I athlete, people are going to say something about you.

“You’re always going to have people that are going to criticize you, but I’m always going to go out there and play hard and play for my teammates.”

The Dickerson family will be in attendance tonight to take in one final game at Diddle Arena. After attending younger brother Zach Dickerson’s Eastern Illinois game at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Nashville on Wednesday, father Larry will lead the convoy up Interstate 65 to support his eldest son.

“It’s been – wow, it’s kind of sad that it’s over,” Larry Dickerson said. “He’s been playing ball for so long, it’s been a huge part of our family. Just all the things that he’s accomplished – individual to team awards, to get recruited by Western, which was just a great story in itself. After going all the places he went, he walked in and said, ‘This is the where I want to be.’

“Not only is it fun to watch on the court, but he’s such a good kid. He’s just been a blessing to (mother) Sandra and I and we want this to finish the way it needs to. We want another dance, to get to the tournament – he deserves that and so does his team and coach Harper.”

WKU needs a win tonight against ULL (19-10, 10-6) to wrap up the Sun Belt’s No. 2 seed going into the league’s postseason tournament. That would give the Hilltoppers a straight pass to the semifinals and increase the team’s odds of winning a third straight SBC title.

The Tops also have a chance to win 13 home games for the first time since the 2008-09 season.

“It’ll be fun to just be out on the home court one last time, playing with these guys and these coaches,” Dickerson said. “It’ll be a little emotional at the same time because it’s my last game at home.”

— Follow Western Kentucky University men’s basketball beat reporter Chad Bishop on Twitter at twitter.com/MrChadBishop or visit bgdailynews.com.