Western Kentucky sophomore guard Acacia Hayes (10) talks about the upcoming basketball season at E. A. Diddle Arena on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. (Grace Ramey/grace.ramey@bgdailynews.com)

For Western Kentucky sophomore guard Acacia Hayes, there really wasn’t much time to adjust when she arrived on campus last season.

Hayes was thrown into the fire right away, asked to play a pivotal role in her freshman season. Hayes responded with one of the best freshman seasons in the program’s storied history – which included plenty of accolades.

Now settled in, Hayes will look to take on a larger leadership role and help WKU take the next step after advancing to the Conference USA championship game last season and earning a berth to the WNIT.

“I’m really excited about this season,” Hayes said. “Honestly, I am ready to start playing. We’ve put a lot of hard work in coming into the season and I feel like we are just ready.”

Hayes arrived at WKU last season, looking to forge her own path after her sisters Anastasia and Aislynn played two seasons at Middle Tennessee. The Murfreesboro, Tenn., native was thrust into the starting lineup right away and responded with an 11-point performance against Vanderbilt.

There were some rough patches after that, with a few games coming off the bench before Hayes found her stride and really took off. She led the team in scoring – averaging 11.2 points a game – to become the first freshman to lead WKU in scoring since Crystal Kelly. Hayes led the team in scoring seven times and scored in double digits in 20 games.

She saved her best for conference play, averaging 12.4 points against CUSA opponents and 13.3 in the Conference USA tournament. That included a career-high 31 points against UTSA and 24 points against UAB.

Hayes was named to the Conference USA all-freshman team, the all-tournament team and is a preseason all-conference selection.

Despite all the success, Hayes said it took some adjusting.

“At first it was hard,” Hayes said. “I had to come in and play a big spot, but I had people like (Alexis Mead) and (Aaliyah Pitts) to look up to – older people that already had the college experience. Having that helped and I thrived.”

And even with all the accolades, Hayes set out to be even better this year.

WKU coach Greg Collins said one of the biggest changes heading into this year is her play on the defensive end.

“Last year she couldn’t guard the door,” Collins said. “Now she is doing a great job of staying in front of the ball, doing all of that.

“ … She’s always had a high basketball IQ. It was just she maybe wasn’t expected or instructed to play defense at a high level. Now she is really adding at that level.”

Collins has also seen Hayes take a more hands-on approach to leading the incoming freshmen. That included taking the whiteboard and giving instructions to freshmen during WKU’s exhibition win over Lane College.

“She will go over to freshmen and talk to freshmen and say, ‘It’s all right. He did that to me last year,’ ” Collins said. “She’s really encouraging and supporting.”

Her teammate Alexis Mead also said she’s seen growth in Hayes that won’t just benefit her game, but the entire Lady Topper team.

“She’s put in a lot of hard work,” Mead said. “She came in and wanted to learn from all the older people. We kind of took her under our wing and wanted her to be the best she could be on and off the court.”

Hayes said her goal this season is to stay confident and keep building off last year’s success.{&end}