FRISCO, Texas — The 2020-21 college basketball season was certainly a unique one for Western Kentucky.
While navigating through the global COVID-19 pandemic, the program faced numerous challenges. WKU had to work effortlessly to find non-conference opponents who were willing to play to fill out that portion of the schedule, endured an all-new conference scheduling format that included two-game series on back-to-back days and was hit with coronavirus-related issues in February that allowed it to play just four games the entire month.
“A lot of bright moments, and we had a lot of big wins,” WKU coach Rick Stansbury said. “Our program is at the point now that we feel like anytime we lose, it’s a disappointment. That’s a good thing. In time, there’s a lot of positive things these guys can take from this season.”
Despite all of obstacles they were faced with, the Hilltoppers were able to go 18-6 overall in the regular season with an 11-3 mark in Conference USA play and captured the C-USA East Division title – their first regular-season conference championship since 2009. WKU’s overall record was the best in the league, and it clinched the No. 1 seed out of the East for the C-USA Tournament.
“We’ve all got that chemistry and we all love each other,” WKU guard Taveion Hollingsworth said. “We’ll do whatever for each other. The regular-season championship – that brought us all together. It was good to see everybody happy. That was just a good feeling.”
Coming into the conference tournament in Frisco, Texas with much momentum on their side, the Tops defeated UTSA in the quarterfinals, UAB in the semifinals and met North Texas in the championship. In a game where WKU got down 17-0 to start, it fought back and the contest went into overtime, but UNT ultimately came out with a 61-57 win to keep the Hilltoppers out of the NCAA Tournament another year.
The heartbreak and pain was evident for a team that was again so close to breaking through and punching a ticket to March Madness, but they received an opportunity to go back to Frisco and play in the National Invitation Tournament and got back up and went to work.
“We became more like brothers on the team,” WKU guard Jordan Rawls said. “Everybody came closer. At the home games there weren’t that many fans, so we were creating our own energy with each other. The thing I’ll remember is the regular-season championship. Many people don’t get to say they won one of those, so thankfully we got it.”
Selected as a No. 3 seed for the NIT, WKU opened play March 18 with a hard-fought 69-67 first-round win over second-seeded Saint Mary’s. Just four days after suffering that heartbreaking C-USA championship loss, the Hilltoppers – as Stansbury said – had gotten back up off the mat, regrouped and extended their season.
Following its first-round victory, WKU was matched-up with a familiar opponent for Thursday’s quarterfinals in C-USA foe and fourth-seeded Louisiana Tech, which it faced for the third time on the season.
The Hilltoppers led 31-27 late in the first half, but the Bulldogs – who made 11 of 18 3-pointers on the night – closed the frame with a 12-0 run to take an eight-point advantage into halftime and remained in front throughout the entire second half, never allowing WKU to get back into it.
With a 72-65 defeat, the Tops’ campaign came to an end at 21-8 overall.
"After a loss, it's never easy," Stansbury said. "We didn't want to finish our season this way. It's been abnormal from Day One. Naturally, you play someone in your conference again who's happy to be in the tournament. We were fighting to be at this point. After that tough loss (to North Texas in the Conference USA championship), for our guys just to find a way to get back up off that mat and find a way against Saint Mary's and win that game and find a way to keep competing tonight, that's not easy.”
Although WKU wasn’t ready for the season to be over, the team was able to play 29 games in a year where many teams had cancelation after cancelation and others didn’t get the chance to play at all. The Hilltoppers were able to win a regular-season conference title, have a chance to compete for a tournament title and played in the NIT.
They’ll always be able to say they got through the 2020-21 season.
"Right now, they can't see it and understand it, but when all of this is said and done you look back and there's one thing they can take with them the rest of their lives: they still won a championship in this league,” Stansbury said. “Anytime you win a championship, that's something you can take with you the rest of your life. That's a positive thing."
– Tyler Mansfield is the managing editor and primary beat reporter for InsideHilltopperSports.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RivalsMansfield. –
