WKU and MTSU to end regular season at E.A. Diddle

Western Kentucky hosts Middle Tennessee at 5 p.m. on Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena. The Hilltoppers are suffering through the program’s first losing season since 1999-00. At 10-18, WKU avoided failing to win 10 games for the first time since 1963-63 with a 79-76 victory Thursday. The Tops haven’t lost 19 since 1997-98 and a loss Saturday would also give the team its first losing record at home since that same year.

Here are some conversations about the matchup:

Ray Harper

     MTSU:  “We know what to expect. No question the best team in the league. The toughest team in the league. If we do not do a better job at five o’clock (today) of rebounding the basketball, we’re in trouble. It’s that simple. If they come in here and outrebound us 39-17, we do not beat Middle Tennessee. It’s not happening. We got less than 48 hours to get that corrected, but I guarantee our guys will be ready to play and we’re not worried about a quick turnaround because here in about, I don’t know, eight days, nine days, we’re gonna play four in four days. That’s the approach we’re taking. Wish we had a game (Friday) – wish we were playing them (Friday) to kind of get us ready for Hot Springs.”

Kahlil McDonald
    Senior day: “Obviously it’s my last game in Diddle, but I’m just gonna treat it like today’s game – go hard as possible and just come up with that ‘W’, that’s the main thing on my mind. I ain’t worried about senior night, to be honest with you, I just wanna win.”

T.J. Price
   MTSU: “We owe them something from last time. We gotta come up in here – we gotta play strong, we gotta get the win and we definitely gotta get the win for Kahlil on his senior night. That’s gonna be the biggest thing is play all out for him and make sure we get him a win in his last game at Diddle Arena. We gotta play hard just for him.”

George Fant
  MTSU: “Things I remember from last time we played them – they’re physical. We don’t wanna come out being less physical, being beat up. We wanna be the more physical team. We definitely gotta outrebound them, that’s one thing we plan on doing. Just gotta go out there and get a win for coach Harper and our lone senior.”

Derrick Gordon 
    MTSU: “They got a lot of calls down there that they shouldn’t have got. Now they’re about to come into our building – we gotta be the ones that throw the first punch. We’ll be sure to do that.”

MTSU coach Kermit Davis

    A raucous Diddle Arena: “It’s always been a great environment at Diddle when we’ve come in here. I think it’s one of the better atmospheres in college basketball. I don’t think it’ll be any different. Should be a fun afternoon.”

Physicality of the game: “I think George Fant is one of the most physical players in our league. I’m really impressed with his confidence for being such a young guy. He’s gonna have a great career in this league for sure.”

    Four-game winning streak: “We shared the ball great last night (at Louisiana-Monroe). Went to Monroe and had 30 assists on 35 baskets made, which is a great number. I didn’t think against Western (Feb. 9) that we shared the ball like we needed to early. I think they’re good a defensive team so I really think you gotta get the ball reversed side to side and hopefully we’ll do that better (Saturday).”

Ray Harper talks about 79-76 win over Arkansas State

Western Kentucky coach Ray Harper’s comments after a 79-76 win over Arkansas State on Thursday.

Ray Harper
    Wins despite the stats: “Based on the fact that we got outrebounded 39-17, that’s not good. This is two games in a row we given up 19 and 18 offensive rebounds (respectively). We must get that corrected because we’re not gonna continue to win games if we don’t rebound the ball. I think that the thing that we really did a good job of was making the extra pass and sharing the basketball. We had 17 assists. What’d we have, 27, 26 field goals? Twenty six field goals, 17 assists – that’s a pretty good number. Just like on that last play, Kahlil McDonald could’ve taken the shot. That’s how we drew it up when I brought those guys over. ‘Derrick you’re gonna get trapped right here at midcourt and act like you’re gonna throw it away and Kahlil, you pass it or shoot it,’ and that’s what he did… You don’t really believe that do you?”

 Two timeouts left: “I was like, ‘Time! Time!’ Then I saw Kahlil breaking and Derrick was doing a good job pivoting, I thought he was gonna get – I was a little shocked they trapped us in the front court. Tie game, 17 seconds to go, I know they had some success with it, but you’re rolling the dice if we get it out of the trap and that’s what happened. Once we got it out of the trap, we were playing a numbers game. Give Kahlil credit for finding the right man at the right time.”

    The winner: “I think it’s just good for our guys to win one like that. We’ve been right there at the edge and we’ve lost some tough ones on people making shots on us at the buzzer. It was right there at our grasp and we were trying to let it slip away. We didn’t do it. Give the kid (Darion) Griswold credit, he walks up there and makes four free throws. I think he was a 40 percent free throw shooter. Big play and happy we were able to get out of here with a victory.”

 George Fant: “I think he’s gotten away from just trying to overpower guys like he did when he was in high school. He’s starting to uses his post moves, we’re doing a better job of getting him the basketball, throwing it away from the defense. We have a tendency to not make the best decisions with the ball at times, which we did in the first half – we were throwing that thing away. We had some passes from corner to corner… But we did make some good decisions in the second half. George is starting to use post moves, he’s powerful and he’s skilled. He was taking that one little dribble, the ‘high school dribble’ I call it and going through guys. He’s not doing that anymore.”

   Teeng Akol: “I’ve said all along, what I like most about Teeng, if you watch him, it looks to me like he enjoys playing the game. He’s having fun – and I love that. I love guys that play hard, they don’t worry about whether he plays 20 minutes or two minutes, they just go play. That’s what Teeng’s been doing and that’s why he’s playing a number of minutes. He had 14 points in 19 minutes. He would’ve played more had he not been in foul trouble. I think the biggest play he made was the pass to Derrick Gordon. Derrick made a great cut. I know the happiest guy when he made the pass was Teeng Akol. He was excited and I love that about him.”

Price, Fant, McDonald talk about beating Arkansas State

Western Kentucky freshman T.J. Price hit a 3 with 2.9 seconds left to give the Hilltoppers a 79-76 win over Arkansas State on Thursday at E.A. Diddle Arena. Here’s comments from Price, George Fant and Kahlil McDonald.

T.J. Price
   The winner: “Kahlil found me open in the corner, basically. Had no choice but to knock it down. He could have easily drove it and got the layup, but we played unselfish tonight, made the extra pass and I had to knock it down.”

   Winning a close game: “It feels a lot better to be on the other side. It felt good.”

    MTSU Saturday: “We owe them something from last time. We gotta come up in here – we gotta play strong, we gotta get the win and we definitely gotta get the win for Kahlil on his senior night. That’s gonna be the biggest thing is play all out for him and make sure we get him a win in his last game at Diddle Arena. We gotta play hard just for him.”

George Fant
   The winner by Price: “His shot? Oh, I knew it was good before it left his hand. I didn’t even have to look for long, I knew it was money. I knew Kahlil was gonna make the pass after he started driving. I could just play it out in my mind before it happened. It was just great.”

   Malcoln Kirkland: “He’s tough. He’s a big body. I just had to play as physical as I can. He was just a big body, couldn’t do much with him, but I think I fared pretty good with him.”

   Rank the win: “Right up there at the top. Probably like my senior year of high school, the big shot here against Bowling Green. I just hope to see a whole lot more to come.”

    Playing for Harper: “I think if I speak for all of us, we all have the same respect for coach (Ray Harper) Harp even when coach (Ken McDonald) Mac was here. Him being here, him getting the head job, it came with the same respect he wanted every practice and we had to execute in the games what he wanted. I think that’s what we’ve been doing so far.”

Kahlil McDonald
  The final shot:  “Guys were collapsing, (T.J. Price) was wide open in the corner. I just feel confidence in my teammates. We working out everyday, hitting shots everyday. Thank God he hit that shot.”

    The win: “It’s very important right now. I’m focusing on trying to finish strong and just go out with a bang. These two wins going into the Sun Belt tournament would be good for us and confidence. Everything is about just coming in and getting those wins after we finish up on Saturday.”

    Senior night Saturday: “Obviously it’s my last game in Diddle, but I’m just gonna treat it like today’s game – go hard as possible and just come up with that ‘W’, that’s the main thing on my mind. I ain’t worried about senior night, to be honest with you, I just wanna win.”

WKU baseball to host SIU

Western Kentucky baseball returns home this weekend to host Southern Illinois on Friday (3 p.m), Saturday and Sunday (1 p.m.). Here’s coach Matt Myers and catcher Ryan Huck.

Matt Myers
    1-3 start: “(Feeling) fine. As if we were 3-1. I feel like we’ve been the better team, just haven’t played smart baseball. The kids have not stopped fighting and I’ve been proud. We’ve had some early-season surpises. But yeah, we’re fine. Excited to play (Friday).”

    Close losses be good down the road? “Yeah, I think so. I think this is testing our character right now. We’ve had a lot of things not go our way, but that’s not something you make excuses for – it’s just a character check. We’ve expected to win those games. We’ve found a way to – the pitching and defense hasn’t been as good as we needed it to be. That’s the biggest thing. Offensively we’ve been fine. We’ve been in position to win every game.”

    Pitching: “I’m hoping (Justin) Hageman’s gonna make a start this weekend. (Tim) Bado is throwing a bullpen (Thursday). He’s been feeling great. If he feels good, then you’re gonna see both those guys on the mound this week. Just depends on how Tim feels. If (Ian) Thomkins starts Sunday and Bado has to come in relief, or Bado starts. Justin felt good at Tennessee and I want to get him back starting – even though it may not be more than four innings, we just got to get him out there. We’ve got to get him in his routine.”

    Southern Illlinois: “We’re gonna see really good arms. They won two out of three at North Florida which anytime you go on the road (and win) is good. They lost to UT-Martin on Tuesday. It’s funny, at the beginning of the year, anybody can win. It’s amazing. They’re gonna be well-coached, they’re gonna pitch, they’ve got some older guys in the middle of their lineup. Once again, my biggest thing for our guys is we’ve walked 17 guys now in the first four games – our guys should not do that. And we’ve had seven errors in four games and those things are very uncommon. We’ve gotta clean that up. I’ve been fine with our offense. Everybody we’ve put in there has had competitive at-bats. I’m excited to get Tanner (Perkins) on the mound Friday and see if we can’t get the first game.”

Ryan Huck
   How’s the pitching staff holding up? “Doing good. We’re real young, but we’ve put in a lot of work this fall, this spring and they all got some work underneath their belt so they should be good to go.”

    17 walks: “It’s probably just a couple first-game jitters. A lot of them are new guys who haven’t pitched here yet. I’m not too worried about the walks, that’ll all work out.”

Saying good-bye to Kahlil McDonald

I sat down with Western Kentucky’s lone basketball senior this week to talk about his final two games at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Kahlil McDonald
Season: “I don’t really know what’s going through everybody’s mind in particular, but I’ve been going through adversity all my life, so I guess it’s just another step, really, to make me stronger as a man.”

Has the team been able to handle all that’s went on? “I think so. I mean, the way we’ve been playing, I think they have. We’ve been playing real hard as a team, so I think they just took the adversity and made it positive instead of going into a downward direction.”

Experience on The Hill: “Obviously, you know, you don’t wanna lose on any occasion, but I don’t wanna say I’m disappointed. I think everything happened for a reason. Its not over, we still have a chance to get a ring. I think right now I’m just gonna focus on that and stay positive going into the last couple games.”

Being the only senior: “I tried to be the best leader I could, but I don’t know how good I did, or if I did good at all. I know as long as I try, that’s all you can ask for.”

Sad to see career end? “I feel like playing these last two years I haven’t really played my game.”

Why? “I honestly don’t know. I know it wasn’t me. I was just trying to listen to what the coaches wanted me to do to be able to stay on that floor. That might’ve changed my game a little bit I guess. That’s what it feels like. I’m still gonna do what the coach asks because that’s the right thing to do.”

Life after WKU: “Well after I leave here I’m gonna try to play ball, obviously. Then after I finish playing, probably wanna coach and be a mentor for kids. I already am pretty much that at home. I’ll probably go coach. I’d love to coach.”

Where? “Wherever. I guess where the money is good.”

Message to fans: “I appreciate them on my behalf, I just appreciate their support and everything like that, that’s one. I know right now they’re looking into the future, with coach Harper I think things look pretty good for this program. I know he’s a good recruiter so I know he’s gonna bring in some more pieces to help out with this program as well. I think that the fans and the supporters of this program, I think they’ll see a significant change in win-loss column.”

Message to teammates: “Hard work. That’s it, man, just give it your all win or lose, you gotta give it your all. Don’t wanna leave any regrets. That’s basically all I can say. These guys already know how I get down.”

Ray Harper
On Kahlil McDonald: “Last year, he’s a kid that comes in – he’s a two-guard. He’s a shooter. That’s what he is. Having to adapt and become a point guard the entire second semester and doing a good job, but imagine having to do something you’ve never done your whole life. It was tough. I think he’s handled everything well. It’s not always been easy, but at least he’s giving the effort, he keeps working and I’d like to see him finish out strong here.”

WKU freshmen George Fant, Derrick Gordon comment on the Harper hiring

Western Kentucky freshmen George Fant and Derrick Gordon comment on new coach Ray Harper and preparing for Arkansas State – Thursday’s opponent at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Derrick Gordon
    Relieved: “Yeah, it’s a relief. We kinda new it was gonna happen, we just didn’t know when it was going happen. Usually that doesn’t really happen until after the NCAA Tournament and stuff like that. Just to find that out is definitely a big relief. We’re just gonna keep going out there playing our game. It is something big, but we’re just gonna  continue to do what we do.”

 WKU president Gary Ransdell’s challenge to win the SBC tourney: “He’s right. We do gotta take care of business. We did lose to South Alabama, which we had ‘em the whole game. Now, we can’t look back on that, we got two more games, one (Thursday) and one Saturday. Then we’re going into conference, I’m not sure how we’ll be seeded, but we just gotta take it one game at a time.”

George Fant
    Distracting week: “No, we’ve just been in the gym working out, in practice, getting ready for the game, so I don’t think it’s too big of a distraction.”

    Relieved: “Definitely. The whole time everybody was wondering what was going on. For us, we were just worried about winning, playing games. In the back of everybody’s mind, you could tell people were thinking, “What’s gonna happen next year?’ Since we just found out that coach ‘Harp’ is the new coach, everybody is ecstatic. Everyone loves him. We’re just ready to play now.”

    Arkansas State: “I’ve seen a few clips. They got three guards that can really shoot the ball. They’re really big, athletic – they got an athletic forward and a really big, physical center. They all can rebound and all can shoot. Just got to get out there, and like I said, be physical with the big guy, tight close outs on the guards and try and not to get long-passed.”

Ray Harper talks Arkansas State, week that was

Western Kentucky coach (not interim) Ray Harper met with the media Wednesday to discuss – among other thing – Thursday’s game against Arkansas State at E.A. Diddle Arena.

Ray Harper
    This week been a distraction? “No. Business as usual. We got one more (Wednesday) to get ready for Arkansas State and they’re extremely talented. We need to made sure we’re ready to play mentally and physcially as well. Most importantly, we don’t look ahead and that’s hard. I know you think, ‘How could you look ahead?’ A lot of people already looking ahead to the game on Saturday and this and that – Arkansas State must be our only focus.”

   Relieved hiring process is over? “I think so, but most importantly, from day one, and I said it to you guys, we have focused on whatever the next task at hand was. Whether it’s beat Arkansas State, whether it was South Alabama, we just tried to help these guys get better and get prepared for each and every game. I think we’ve been able to do that. I thought the kids stayed focus. In our last eight games there’s not one games in those eight games I can look at and say, ‘Man, we played so poor. We had no chance to win’. We had a chance to win all eight. Now there’s some areas we need to get better at in order to close some of those games out. If we can do that, then we got a shot.”

    Playing for senior Kahlil McDonald: “We really haven’t talked about it. Again, because our message has been the same from day one. Let’s get better, when we come to practice, let’s work. We haven’t talked about anything in the future, or anything in the past. We try to get things corrected from game to game, but we really don’t look in the rearview mirror, it’s all about what’s next. What’s next is Arkansas State.”

    Arkansas State: “Talented. Really talented. Their starting five is as talented as any team in the league. I’m sure they’re disappointed in their record because they very well could win that side (of the conference), there’s no question. They’ve got size, they got the (Brandon) Peterson kid at the four who has started for them since his freshman year. Trey Finn who put 35 on us down there a couple years ago. Then their point and two-guard are terrific players. Extremely talented team. We need to be ready to play.”

    Big crowds: “I’m hoping starting (Thursday) night it will be as close to as a sellout as possible. We have two opportunities to put ‘Sold Out’ signs up. I hope we do that. I hope we take that and build on it in the future. This is where we’re going, get your tickets and if you don’t, make sure you’re near a television or a radio where you can tune in because Diddle Arena is gonna be rockin’.”

    Being officially the head coach: “I still didn’t have keys to that office. I had not changed offices until I guess today. I woke up in the same bed. My wife still told me to make sure I picked up my clothes. Nothing’s changed, just the title has changed. We will continue to work as hard as ever have and hopefully continue to help this program get better.”