Western Kentucky head men’s basketball coach Rick Stansbury met with reporters from across the state on a Zoom conference call Tuesday morning. He discussed how it’s been having his players back on campus for team workouts, how the workouts have been going, the high level of experience he has back for this upcoming season and much more.
Below is a notebook breaking down the most important topics from Stansbury’s conference call.
WORKOUTS: WKU brought its men’s basketball team back to campus on July 9 and the squad has been going through workouts since July 14. The team has been conducting workouts in a non-contact fashion and with four players to a group. Stansbury said that he’s happy to have his players back, and he’s never been away from his players or the gym as long as he was during quarantine caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
GOING BACK TO SCHOOL: “We’re all looking forward to school starting on time,” Stansbury said. “We feel good about that, we’re confident about that and that’s the way we’re moving forward with it. We feel as good as we can about it right now, but at the same time it’s going to come down to what’s going to be smart and what’s going to be safe for everybody.”
TONS OF EXPERIENCE: Stansbury’s roster for the upcoming season is loaded with experience and talent. The veteran coach returns standout guards Taveion Hollingsworth and Josh Anderson, forwards Charles Bassey and Carson Williams – and guard Kenny Cooper will be eligible to play after sitting out last season due to his transfer from Lipscomb. It will indeed be one of Stansbury’s most experienced WKU teams yet.
“Having experience is something that’s invaluable,” Stansbury said. “You can’t teach it. We have a lot of experience coming back. With that experience, we have good players with that experience. I couldn’t ask for more as people and the character and work ethic these guys have right here. I’ve had some good groups – this is definitely the best group from that standpoint.”
BASSEY’S RECOVERY: Although COVID-19 shut down campus and didn’t allow the team to be together, it did give WKU’s medical staff the ability to focus on Bassey and lead him to a successful recovery from the injury he suffered last season. Stansbury talked highly of both Bassey and his medical staff for all of the work they put in to get Bassey to where he is now.
“After what happened to him last year, he’s had a lot of time to really concentrate on this injury. The virus wasn’t good for nobody, but it allowed everybody to concentrate on him,” Stansbury said. “(Associate Athletic Trainer) John (Erwin) and our medical staff did a tremendous job with him. During all of this time he was rehabbing every day. He’s probably happier to have his teammates back than anybody because it was getting to be a long three months for him.”
TALKING WKU-UK: Stansbury was asked about the talks WKU had with Kentucky this summer on the possibility of having the Hilltoppers and Wildcats meet on the court this upcoming season. The two sides ultimately weren’t able to work things out, but Stansbury spoke highly of UK’s administration for taking the time to speak with WKU about a possible matchup.
“We would love to play Kentucky,” Stansbury said. “Do I understand why they don’t want to play us? I do. Probably if I’m Kentucky, why do I take a chance on playing Western Kentucky? I was disappointed we didn’t play. (Kentucky coach John Calipari) and I talked about it, and Cal was trying to do everything he could to get the game to work out. I look at it as respect. There’s a respect factor there.”
