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
    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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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
    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.”

Ray Harper
“Thank you. I’ve done press conferences before, but never with the band and the cheerleaders and a crowd that looks like this. What a special evening and what a special place to be. I’d like to first thank Dr. Ransdell, Ross and Todd for having the confidence and trust in me to run this great basketball program. Dr. Ransdell and Ross talked about earlier, it’s a rich, storied basketball program. I remember growing up as a kid and I think I was in about the seventh grade and when I went to school I wanted my red on because the Hilltoppers were playing UK that night in the NCAA tournament and unfortunately I had some school mates that were for the University of Kentucky. Thank goodness the good guys won that day.”

“I’d like to also thank these guys right here (points to players). The players, the staff – like Ross said, on January the 6th, it was a whirlwind for everyone. For me, the players, and I told them over and over that it was never easy for them, but to see the commitment and the dedication and the belief of the success that would come through hard work. Guys I can’t tell you, if you continue to do that each and every day, not only throughout your basketball career, but through your life, you’re gonna be successful. This is a tremendous group of young men that are committed to getting this basketball program back to where it belongs, and that’s on top.”

“I’d also like to thank you the fans. Wow. From January the 6th, the Friday, we come out for the game on Saturday and I had no idea what to expect from the fans. I can’t see the band members, but you guys in the band, thank you, I love all you guys. I’m not very musically talented, but I am gonna play those drums, maybe the last day.”

“To walk out and see the excitement and the enthusiasm in Diddle Arena was very humbling, but also very exciting. To me, that’s what WKU basketball is all about. That’s what it’s always been about. These guys, I’m glad they got to experience it.”

“Our plan is to give you a basketball program that you will be proud of, that each time you watch them you’ll say, ‘That’s my team. They play hard, they’re entertaining, not always perfect, but the one thing I will say about them is they have played as hard as they could possibly play.’ We’ve lost some tough games here over the last three weeks, but I’ve never walked in that locker room and said, ‘Guys, you didn’t give it your best.’ As a basketball coach, all you wanna do is get better each day and see a group of young men play as hard as they possibly can. That’s what this group has done each and every day. Because of that, we have two games remaining and then we have four games in the conference tournament. I could stand up here and talk about the future, I’m not gonna do that, you all know what the future’s gonna bring – it’s gonna bring a lot more championships and a lot more banners, but we’re gonna finish this season. We’re gonna finish this season up. I don’t have a five-year plan, I don’t have a three-year plan – I have a now plan. Our now plan is winning.”

“If I said that that wouldn’t real fair to Kahlil and Teeng and Jamal. ‘What about me coach?’ We’re gonna win and we’re gonna win now. It won’t always be easy, we talked about it. They’ll be days when they think that coach is a little too tough on them. But winning is tough. If it was easy, everyone would do it.”

“This is my home and this is your university. I’m proud to be here tonight and just be a small part of it. We’re gonna return this program to its championship stature, a place that it so richly deserves. A place that it’s been before and a place it’s going back to.”

“The difference, once we get there, we’re not going anywhere. The thing about winning, and these guys will understand this, when you get to the top of the mountain – and guys I’ve been to the top of the mountain, guys try and push you off. You just get tougher and you understand what it took to get there. I sit here and I see these guys from Darnell to Johnny to Bobby and Darrell and two of the greatest coaches that’s ever been here – coach Richards and coach ‘O’, you guys know what you mean to me. I want you to know this is your program. I want you to feel welcome. I want you to stop by practice anytime. I’ve called coach ‘O’ a couple times and asked him if he’d come sit on the bench with me. I sure could use you guys from time to time. That’s what I want this university to be. I want you to understand this is your program and you’re gonna be proud to watch it and see it continue to grow.”

“We got some goals that I want this program to be about. One of the first things we wanna do is dominate at Diddle Arena. When an opponent sees they play WKU on January the 4th, they know they got problems. When they see they play WKU on February 14th, they got problems. Diddle Arena is gonna be a place of enthusiasm, a place of excitement and a place where you’re gonna see a basketball team play as hard as you’ve ever seen.”

“The other thing we wanna do is we wanna win championships. When you think of the Sun Belt Conference and winning championships, WKU is gonna be front and foremost. The next thing I want you to do is circle on your calendar Selection Sunday. I want it to be something you anticipate, not something, ‘Are we getting in?’ I want you to wonder, ‘What is our seed gonna be? How high are we gonna be?’ We’re gonna aim for goals higher than 10 feet. Our goals are gonna be high. I think anything worth achieving, there comes a price. These guys are willing to pay this price.”

“Last, I wanna establish Hilltopper pride. I know you guys are so proud of this basketball program and I’m so honored, humble and proud to be here tonight and be called your head coach. Ross said it earlier, it’s been a journey. Yeah, this is where I always wanted to be. You had a coach back in the 80s who didn’t know what he was doing. Yes I did wanna come here and yes I could’ve played here.”

“I had coaching friend text me before I came in and it said, ‘What is it with you and the letters ‘K’ and ‘W’.’ He said, ‘You like to end up at those schools with ‘K’ and ‘W’ and you win a lot when you get there.’ I said, ‘Yes I do.’ We’re gonna do the same things here that we did about 60 or 70 miles down the road. We’re gonna win championships.”

“I appreciate each and every one of you and I’m gonna send a ‘code red’ out. They’ve talked about filling up Diddle Arena. Let’s call Saturday ‘Diddle versus Middle’. How about that? Sellouts is where we want this program to be. We want you to know you better get your season tickets early. You’re not gonna be able to walk in here the day of the game and get tickets. ‘I’m sorry, we don’t have any tickets for sale, its a sellout tonight.’ We’ve got a basketball team that not only everyone in Bowling Green, but Ohio County, Muhlenberg County, Daviess County, Glasgow, Barren County – they wanna be at Diddle Arena to see this basketball team and that’s what our goal is with this basketball program.”

“I could thank one hundred more people tonight and I’d end up missing someone. Last I’d like to thank my family. I did this last and it was probably right to do this. Man, you guys have been there every step of the way. I’m not gonna do it (cry). I love you guys, you know that goes without saying. Thanks for all your support and trust me when I tell you, we’re gonna get this done. Stay with us, we’re taking it to a whole new level.”

    Pressure off now? “No, absolutely not. My only concern was with these guys. I wanted them to be able to finish this season the way I knew they were capable of. That was getting better each day and that’s all we talked about from day one. We didn’t talk about, ‘Let’s go 10-3′ or whatever. Let’s just get better everyday and I can honestly say they’ve done that. They’ve gotten better each and every day, they’ve gotten better each and every game. Have we played what I would call, ‘not great basketball’ ? Yeah. Thursday night, first half against Florida Atlantic, we weren’t very good. But they responded. That’s what they’ve done throughout this whole process. They’ve been resilient. You knock these guys down, they just get right back up and come at you. That’s what’s most impressive to me about this group of young men.”

Ross Bjork
“Thank you so much for being here tonight. First of all I wanna thank our players for their toughness, their perseverance this season, but especially the last six weeks, they’ve gone through a lot. With us to put this situation on them, everything that we do is about our student-athletes, so I wanna thank them.”

“They are the bottom line. In our business, they are the bottom line and that’s where it starts and that’s where it ends with every decision that we make. When we made the change on January 6th we stated, and we were true to this, that we were gonna do a search. This program, the history that speaks for itself, eighth all-time winningest program, 42 conference titles that are third in the NCAA, 21 NCAA appearances, all the banners that hang, all the history – we owed it to ourselves and to this program to do a search. So we set out to do that in finding our next head basketball coach and I can tell you unequivocally that this job was coveted. Many, many conversations, many, many types of input from all around the country right up until (Sunday) as a matter of fact, where people wanted this job. We understood that during the process it is unique, it’s during the season. But we had to look at three different categories – sitting head coaches, assistant coaches and those that had been head coaches before that wanted to get back in the chair. As we spoke to a lot of different people, analyzed a lot of different information, one man stood out. It became apparent who that leader had to be and who that individual was to take us to a new voice. He was actually friendly and he was familiar and he was right down the hall. We understood that we’re in the state of Kentucky. You love basketball right? Absolutely. So we understand that hiring a basketball coach in the state of Kentucky, that’s a pretty big deal. It’s a serious task that we sought out to hire the best coach. We knew that hiring your basketball coach was even bigger, because it’s your program and that’s what we wanted to do, hire the best.”

“Hiring Ray Harper completes a journey for this young man from Muhlenberg County. We’re excited to have him as head coach. You know what? It’s a 70-mile drive from Bremen, Kentucky to Bowling Green. I Googled it – about 70 miles, right here to this arena. But you know what? It’s kinda been a winding road for coach Harper. He wanted to be a Hilltopper from day one. They said he wasn’t quite good enough to be a player here. Thank goodness he never gave up on that dream to our benefit, to WKU’s benefit.”

“Now we know that he is great enough to lead this program back to college basketball’s elite status. When you hire a coach at any position, you always look for the best fit. There is no one (better) that can define the best fit than coach Harper, especially for this basketball program. He’s a five time national coach of the year. He’s won four national championships. He has an 83 percent winning percentage. There’s only two men in the history of college basketball that have led their team to six consecutive NCAA championship games – John R. Wooden and Lilburn Ray Harper.”

“Unless a program is hiring Mike Krzyzewski, Billy Donovan, Roy Williams or Jim Calhoun, no Division I program can hire an active coach with more NCAA titles. There is no question that Ray Harper is a great basketball coach. There’s more. There’s a lot more that we studied. He’s a teacher, he’s a leader, he’s a mentor, but most of all, he cares about people. He cares about all you and he cares about his players.”

“Simply put, Ray Harper is a winner in every aspect. We spoke to a lot of people directly connected to this program about this job and what we needed to look for. Many of those conversations were with former players and former coaches, so I wanna thank them for their input and have them stand up. Any former WKU basketball player that is here, please stand up and be recognized. Thank you guys.”

“As we went through the process – we’re human. President Ransdell and myself are human beings. The avalanche of support did not go unnoticed as president Ransdell alluded to. The Harper Heads? That’s pretty creative. I didn’t know what to think when my year-and-a-half old son started to wave the Harper Head around the house the last few weeks. Maybe that was a sign.”

“I knew on January the 7th what we had. I came here to workout at six in the morning to Diddle Arena and guess who was here that morning? The day he took over, planing that day’s game? Coach Harper. Then, at about 3:58 p.m. when our team ran out of the tunnel to that energy, Diddle Arena magic came back instantaneously. We knew that we might have something special. But we also had to do a search. We also owed it to the program. We didn’t go into this with a script. There was not theory except for what’s best for our players, what’s best for your program. That’s it. That was the bottom line. What’s right and doing the right thing the entire way.”

“The challenge? Seven thousand, three hundred and twenty six. That’s the capacity of Diddle Arena. Seven thousand, three hundred and twenty six. We expect and we’re asking everyone to fill this arena starting Thursday night, Saturday especially against the Blue Team from the south and into the future. You believe in this program, you believe in this coach, you believe in what’s happened and you believe in these players and that’s what we want to occur starting Thursday night to set that foundation. Without further ado, I want to introduce your new head basketball coach, Ray Harper.”

    Pressure from the fans: “To me there was no pressure on us. We knew that we were gonna hire the right coach regardless because of the program. To me the pressure came from the program itself and as the steward of the athletic department, to me that just helped add a bonus and helped validate the decision even further. That we had Harper Heads and we had all the support and our attendance almost doubled overnight, tripled overnight from Thursday to Saturday. To me that just added value to making this decision along the way. The program was what provided the pressure.”

 When did you know? “The final decision was made Saturday night after the South Alabama game. I was watching it at my home and I called the president and our signal got broke up on the cell phone so I wasn’t sure that he said, ‘Go ahead,’ because I lost him on the phone. I called him that night and said, ‘This is the direction we need to go’, and we had talked earlier in the week about a plan and the possibilities that existed within that plan, but we wanted to wait until we played the FAU game, until we had the South Alabama trip and to me, creating excitement for the last two home games, creating excitement for the team as they went into the tournament. Hiring the right guy was all finalized and validated on Saturday night.”

    How many candidates were interviewed? “Do you think I’m gonna answer that Brad? First of all, this is Brad Stephens from the College Heights Herald. Brad has a great future in journalism as a student, trust me. Brad, we talked to enough people to validate that this program is a premiere program in college basketball. Todd Stewart and I were the screening committee, if you will. We talked to enough people to validate that we had the right pool of candidates and to validate that coach Harper was the right guy. But the search itself is confidential.”

 Youth of the team? “You gonna ask Ray or the president any questions? To me, our team, our roster – it is what it is right now. We know the pieces are there, we know that these guys are talented, we know that they’re working hard. To me, it’s about the program. It’s about the right hire at the right time and, you know what, I didn’t have to talk to any of these guys about who we should hire because I could see it. I could see their development, I could see their improvement and I could see the energy that returned to the program.”

Gary Ransdell
“Thank you all for being here tonight to support these young men and this young man (Harper). He is a young man, isn’t he? No program likes to go through a transition like this program went through in the middle of this season, but it was a move that had to be made in the best interest of these young fans and all of you fans and everybody who was focused on the quality and tradition of this program.”

“Ray Harper was asked to take over this program on an interim capacity, try to get them back on track, bring some energy into the program and Ross Bjork and I were observing how our fans were gonna react to this, how our team was gonna react to this and we were gonna give him about a six-week audition for this job and in the meantime, Ross Bjork was at work, doing what he said he would do, searching the country, talking to a lot of head coaches who wanted this job, a lot of others across the NCAA who desperately wanted to come to Bowling Green, Kentucky and sit in the chair Ray Harper is sitting in. But we observed our fans, we observed the energy, the sustained energy, we observed the dedication, we saw this arena become full again, we saw our students breathe energy into the program that we hadn’t seen for a couple years, we saw this team playing with a focus and a determination and a skill.”

“We knew that this was a decision that needed to be made and Ross called (Saturday) night and said, ‘Let’s do it now.’ I said, ‘Ross, let’s go.’ So he planned everything that you saw yesterday, that you’ve seen today and I cannot be more proud that this decision’s been made. You know I’m gonna be in this job for awhile longer, but I look forward to spending the rest of my time at this university with one head basketball coach – Ray Harper.”

“Now Michael Grant from the (Louisville) Courier-Journal is sitting right down there and you called me yesterday and we had a conversation about Ray’s appointment and he asked me one question, ‘How much time we giving him, how many years go by before you expect to compete for a Sun Belt championship?’ My response was, ‘Well, I expect to compete for a tournament championship in two weeks and I expect to start competing for a regular season championship next year.”

“I don’t mean mean to set Ray up with that, but maybe I kind of do. That’s the history, the tradition and the expectation of this program every year. Compete for Sun Belt Conference championships, get to the NCAA Tournament and penetrate. Win games.”

“This program is proud of one of the greatest traditions in NCAA basketball history. It’s kind of been up and down in recent years, but we want to coach to get us to a point where we achieve a level of success and championship play sustained. Year-in and year-out, we wanna get there every year.”

“That’s what the guys in this program bought into when they signed on, that’s what we expect to help them achieve and we need every one of you to be part of that journey and, fans, it is time. You’ve expressed yourself, you’ve let your feelings be known about coach Harper. We’ve listened – it’s time to put your money where your energy is and I don’t wanna see an open seat in this arena the rest of this season or any other season moving forward.”

“The people that have built this tradition are sitting right down here, coach Oldham, coach Richards, the many of you that have built it, these young men are trying to sustain it and it’s our job to give them the energy and the backing and the confidence that we can all achieve it together. So starting Thursday night against Arkansas State and continuing Saturday against Middle Tennessee State and going into the Sun Belt Tournament, everybody needs to be all in for this program and support Ray Harper and the great things that are gonna happen with him as our head coach. Thank you.”

    When did you know? “I’ve watched Ray coach on coach McDonald’s staff for the last three-and-a-half years and I knew his background. I knew what he had done and what he was capable of doing. That’s what why we were very comfortable with the interim title. As Ross said, we felt it was necessary, given all the dynamics at that time, to do an interim appointment. I was pretty comfortable throughout most of that interim appointment that Ray could be the one, but also wanted to see, in all fairness to this program, what our fans and the predecessors in this chair have built over the years, that we needed to do the right thing and understand all the possibilities and all the options. I was impressed with the first game, the Troy game, and I was impressed with the manner in which the energy was sustained, but we didn’t know when we put that interim title on Ray on January 6th exactly what would follow over the next few weeks. I was impressed and pleased and I continue to salute our fans for letting your feelings known and sustaining it over the last six weeks. To answer your question directly, I would say two or three weeks ago I was probably at a point where, ‘Ross, whenever you’re ready.’ “