Western Kentucky Basketball released its full 2017-2018 season schedule on Tuesday. The majority of the schedule has been known for some time. CUSA released the conference slate earlier this month. It was also known that WKU would face Villanova in the 1st round of the Battle For Atlantis in the Bahamas, as well as road games at Ohio and at Wisconsin. Let us break down the schedule for a moment.
Exhibition games against Campbellsville (where WKU head coach Rick Stansbury is a distinguished alumni and member of the hall of fame) and Cumberland University (where WKU transfer guard Darius Thompson's father Donnie is currently head coach) give WKU a couple of games to prepare for the first time as a full team with Robinson and Josh Anderson added to the roster since the Costa Rica trip.
The Tops will then open the regular season with 3 straight home games. Missouri St is a team that finished middle of the pack in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2016. The Bears finished with a 17-16 record in the 2016-2017 season and were 7-11 in MVC play. The Tops will then play host to Kentucky Wesleyan for the 2nd straight season. This season however is a regular season game as opposed to an exhibition game like last season. A game that saw the Tops finally prevail 103-97 in 2OT. Finally the Tops will host Southand Conference member Nicholls St. The Colonels finished just 14-17 in 2016-2017.
WKU will then hit then head for the Bahamas for the annual Battle for Atlantis. WKU will face the Villanova Wildcats. Villanova currently ranks #9 in ESPN's way to early preseason Top 25 poll and finished 2016-2017 with a 32-4 record and loss to Wisconsin in the 2nd rd of the NCAA tournament. WKU will then play one of Purdue or Tennessee in the 2nd game. The rest of the field includes Arizona, Northern Iowa, NC State, and SMU.
The Hilltoppers will then return to the friendly confines of Diddle arena for a pair of games on Nov 29 and Dec 2 against EKU and Wright St. Eastern Kentucky finished last season with a 12-19 record including a 78-59 drubbing of WKU. Wright St brings a 20-12 team from the Horizon League to Diddle Arena. The Raiders fell in the quarter finals to then Cinderella Northern Kentucky in the quarterfinals of the 2016-2017 conference tournament.
WKU will head back out on the road for a tough two game stretch against the Ohio Bobcats and Wisconsin Badgers. Ohio finished the 2016-2017 season with a 20-11 falling to Kent St in the MAC conference tournament. The Badgers of Wisconsin finished 2016-2017 with a 27-10 overall record and ended their season with an 1-point 84-83 loss to Florida in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Back home again WKU will seek redemption for a pair of embarrassing losses last season when the Tops take on Indiana State and Belmont. The Sycamores of Indiana St finished 2016-2017 season with an 11-20 overall record, but dominated WKU by a final score of 77-59. Belmont was a fantastic team last season that managed to get upset in the semi-finals of the OVC tournament by former WKU Head Coach Ray Harper's Jacksonville State team. Belmont went on to play a pair of games in the NIT before falling in the 2nd round to Georgia Tech and finishing their season with a 23-7 overall record.
The Tops will finish non-conference play about an hour up the road in Clarksville, TN when WKU takes on the Governors of Austin Peay (insert "Let's Go Peay" chant here). Austin Peay finished the 2016-2017 season with just a 11-19 record and struggled for most of the season to find any consistency.
Conference pay will include home and home match-ups against Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, Charlotte, and UAB. WKU will have home games against 5 of the top 7 finishers in the conference last season including hosting La Tech to begin conference play.
The C-USA Tournament will take place March 7-10 at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas.
