5 Things To Know About the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers come to town Wednesday night to face Kentucky as a last-minute replacement for Louisville on the Cats’ schedule. The game was thrown together on the fly following Louisville’s run-in with COVID-19, but Western still presents a matchup that pleases Big Blue Nation. Many have cried out for the game for years. Adding to the in-state excitement, the game will contribute to the relief efforts in Western Kentucky. Western is the better opponent too. The Hilltoppers defeated the Cardinals, 82-72, four days ago.

So now that it’s the second-best team in the state playing the first, let’s get you ready with 5 Things To Know About WKU.

1. Western has won seven of eight straight games.

Kentucky catches Western Kentucky riding high off the win over Louisville, the Hiltoppers’ seventh victory in their last eight games. An odd loss to Buffalo in Diddle Arena is the lone loss in that eight-game stretch that also included a 23-point drumming of Ole Miss; a narrow, 85-80 home victory against Eastern Kentucky; and a 70-point win over Rhodes College. Yes, seventy.

Minnesota, South Carolina, and Memphis gave Western its other three losses on the year, all coming consecutively in Games 2, 3, and 4 of the 2021-22 season.

See Western’s schedule/results.

2. WKU’s starting backcourt is two former Kentucky Mr. Basketballs.

Rick Stansbury has not one but two Kentucky Mr. Basketballs on his roster. One is the Hilltoppers’ second-leading scorer, Dayvion McKnight out of Shelbyville, Kentucky. McKnight won the state’s 2020 Mr. Basketball award after averaging 20 points and eight rebounds per game his senior season at Collins High School. Now a sophomore in Bowling Green, McKnight averages 14 points, six rebounds, and six assists as the Hilltoppers’ starting point guard. Just last week, he recorded a triple-double with no turnovers. John Calipari called McKnight the guy that stirs Western’s drink.

Opposite McKnight in the WKU backcourt, Hindman, Kentucky’s own Camron Justice is in what feels like his 19th season of college basketball. The Knott County star won Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball award in 2015 before stops at Vanderbilt, IUPUI, and now Western Kentucky.

Fun fact, Justice is third in Kentucky high school history in career points (3,588) and made 3-pointers (393).

3. A 7-foot-5 Hopkinsville native protects the rim.

Another Kentuckian in WKU’s starting five is center Jamarion Sharp out of Hopkinsville High School (plus two years in JUCO at John A. Logan). Sharp is easy to spot; he stands seven feet, five inches tall.

“He’s 7-foot-5 too,” Calipari said Tuesday afternoon. He’s not— ‘we’ll say he’s 7-5.’ No, he’s 7-foot-5, leading the nation in blocked shots… In the games I’ve watched, he’s like Casper; he’s like the ghost that’s in there when you’re driving. He’s in there!”

Kellan Grady added, “They’ve got the tallest guy in the country. It’ll be a challenge for us… Obviously, it’s not something you’re accustomed to.”

Sharp averages 4.83 blocks a game and a team-best 7.8 rebounds.

4. Jairus Hamilton will be a problem.

Western’s leading scorer is at the 4-spot where Keion Brooks will have his hands full guarding Jairus Hamilton. A transfer from Maryland, Hamilton reached double figures in all 12 games to date and currently leads the Hilltoppers at 16.5 points per game. Clearly, the move to Rick Stansbury has been good for him. Before Maryland, Hamilton played two seasons at Boston College.

Calipari called him “an attack dog.”

5. It’s only the seventh meeting between the two schools, the third in Rupp Arena.

Believe it or not, Kentucky and Western Kentucky have only collided six times in their stories basketball histories. Three of those came in NCAA Tournament games (1971, 1986, 2012); the other three in Freedom Hall in 1990, Rupp Arena in 1992, and Rupp Arena in 2001 as part of the NABC Classic. Dennis Felton’s Hilltoppers upset Tubby Smith’s Wildcats in that 2001 game.

Kentucky holds a 4-2 lead in the series overall.