Hilltoppers' 2019-20 roster taking shape

Just a couple months after suffering a season-ending loss to Old Dominion in the Conference USA tournament final, Western Kentucky men’s basketball has wasted no time gearing up for the 2019-20 campaign as its roster is beginning to take shape.

While coach Rick Stansbury’s club graduated just one senior in guard LaMonte Bearden, three former Hilltoppers elected to pursue other opportunities and have transferred from the program this offseason in guards Dalano Banton and Jake Ohmer and forward Matt Horton.

Horton, who had completed his junior season, was the first to announce a departure from The Hill on April 10. Appearing in 10 games as a Hilltopper after transferring to WKU from Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Horton averaged just 4.2 minutes throughout those ten outings and scored 1.1 points per game.

Horton later announced on April 27 a commitment to Division II program Pittsburg State in Pittsburg, Kan. He’ll have one year of eligibility remaining with the Gorillas.

Banton, a 6-foot-8, four-star prospect out of Toronto, Canada, announced May 1st that he would be transferring to Nebraska. A former top-100 recruit, Banton appeared in 31 games – starting in 12 – as a freshman at WKU and averaged 3.4 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.

Banton’s best game in a Hilltopper uniform came in an upset win over then-No. 15 Wisconsin when he nearly recorded a triple-double with 13 rebounds, 10 assists and eight points in a career-high 38 minutes. Banton will have three years of eligibility with the Huskers after sitting out next season.

Ohmer, a 6-foot-1 guard, became the third WKU player to announce his intention to leave the program Monday. A Taylor Mill, Ky. native and former standout at Scott High School who scored 106 points in three games in the 2017 KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen to earn a scholarship from Stansbury, appeared in 65 games in two seasons at WKU.

Ohmer put together a promising start to his career in the Red and White after scoring 11 points per game as a freshman in the 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis tournament to earn Conference USA Freshman of the Week honors and went on to score 209 points in his first year. However, Ohmer’s numbers significantly dropped last season as he only scored 45 total points on the year.

Ohmer has yet to announce where’ll be heading next.

Although Stansbury loses that group, he returns much experience and talent in players like redshirt senior guard Jared Savage, junior guards Josh Anderson and Taveion Hollingsworth and junior forward Marek Nelson – all four of which have played significant roles for WKU throughout their time with the program.

While star center Charles Bassey declared for the NBA Draft, he elected not to sign with an agent and has the option to return to WKU for a sophomore season. Bassey started all 34 games for the Hilltoppers in 2018-19 and averaged 14.6 points, 10 rebounds and 2.4 blocks on his way to C-USA Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors.

Along with Hollingsworth (14.4 points per game in 2018-19), Nelson (2.7 PPG), Savage (12.2) and possibly Bassey, WKU is also set to return redshirt senior forward Moustapha Diagne (0.4), senior forward Carson Williams, senior guard Patrick Murphy, sophomore forward Tolu Smith (3.3) and sophomore guard Jeremiah Gambrell (0.8).

Both Williams and Murphy sat out the 2018-19 season per NCAA transfer rules after leaving Northern Kentucky and Martin Methodist College, respectively. Williams, the 2016 Kentucky Mr. Basketball winner, averaged 12 points and 5.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore at NKU in 2017-18. Murphy scored 4.3 points and grabbed 3.2 rebounds as a sophomore in 2017-18 at MMC.

Adding to the WKU returning core, Stansbury and his staff currently have five signees that will be a part of the 2019-20 roster. Highlighted by graduate transfer guard Camron Justice – a 2015 Kentucky Mr. Basketball winner who has played at both IUPUI and Vanderbilt, the Hilltoppers also welcome in another transfer in former Lipscomb guard Kenny Cooper.

Justice, a Second Team All-Horizon League selection last season at IUPUI who will be immediately eligible at WKU, averaged 18.6 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

Cooper, a Nashville, Tenn. native who spent three seasons at Lipscomb, played in 100 games while making 67 starts and averaged 8.9 points with nearly 400 assists for his career. Cooper will attempt to secure an NCAA waiver that would allow him to be eligible this upcoming season after choosing to depart the Lipscomb program after a head coaching change.

In addition to Cooper and Justice, current prep standouts Isaiah Cozart, Jackson Harlan, and Nick Ongenda have also signed to continue their careers at WKU.

Cozart, a 6-foot-7 forward who is Kentucky high school basketball’s all-time leading shot blocker, is a senior at Madison Central High School in Richmond, Ky.

Harlan averaged 26.4 points per game during his senior season for Clinton County High School in Albany, Ky. He shot 47-percent from the field and 37-percent from three-point range.

Ongenda, a four-star, 6-foot-11 center out of Southwest Christian Academy in Little Rock, Ark, reclassified to the Class of 2019 and will join the Hilltoppers in 2019-20.

Top-100 point guard Jordan Rawls is also committed to WKU, but as a member of the Class of 2020. However, Rawls has left the option open to reclassify to the Class of 2019 and join the WKU program this upcoming season.

Although the roster isn’t fully complete quite yet, WKU and Stansbury are beginning to assemble a very noticeable group.