BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Having opened the season in the 25th Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off, splitting their four games, WKU travels to Columbia, S.C. on Wednesday, December 2 for a more traditional non-conference clash against the South Carolina Gamecocks. Tip-time is set for 6:00 PM CT. Below are game notes for the contest (with a link to the full, downloadable version in PDF format).
GAME 5:
WKU (2-2) at South Carolina (5-1)
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 • 6:00 PM CT
Colonial Life Arena (18,000) • Columbia, S.C.
►COVERAGE: Live stats are available at GamecocksOnline.com. WKUsports.com will offer live audio streaming. There is no live video stream. TV coverage will be provided on SportSouth, which is not part of the Insight cable package, but is available on DirecTV.
►SIZING UP THE GAMECOCKS: South Carolina is off to a fast 5-1 start with a perfect 3-0 home record following a 97-93 win over Jacksonville on Friday. Senior guard Devan Downey leads the Gamecocks at 19.7 ppg, one of four returning starters for second-year head coach Darrin Horn. Senior forward Dominique Archie missed the last game with an injury and is out indefinitely, as are his 14.4 ppg.
►TOPPERS FACE FORMER COACH: WKU will face former head coach Darrin Horn (2003-08) for the first time on Wednesday. The Hilltoppers have had success when facing former head coaches, compiling a 3-2 mark. In their only game against Gene Keady after he left the Hill to take the reigns at Purdue, WKU fell 72-65 to the Boilermakers in the 1982 NIT in West Lafayette, Ind. WKU is 3-1, however, against Dennis Felton in his time at Georgia, all since 2004, winning twice in Athens.
►HOME STREAK SNAPPED: WKU had its 15-game homecourt winning streak snapped on November 24 against Indiana State 64-63.
►RARE HOME LOSS: The November 24 home loss to Indiana State was just the second in the last 31 games, snapping the Sun Belt's longest active homecourt winning streak at 15 games. That streak was tied for the 10th longest in WKU history.
►SLOW STARTS: In their four games this season, WKU has trailed at the half in three. The Toppers, however, have bounced back after the break, winning two of those games and nearly overcoming a 16-point deficit in a narrow 64-63 loss to Indiana State.
►RECORD VS. THE SEC: WKU is 23-31 all-time against the 12 current members of the Southeastern Conference. The Toppers were 1-1 against the league last year, winning against Georgia while failing at Mississippi State. WKU is 0-1 this season with games at South Carolina, versus Vanderbilt, and home to Mississippi State still on the schedule.
►STATEMENT ROAD WINS: WKU is 9-17 all-time on the road against the current 12 members of the SEC. Three of those wins, Kentucky (2001), Georgia (2004), and Georgia (2006), have come in the last nine seasons.
►READY FOR PRIMETIME: Beginning with the South Carolina game on December 2, WKU will have the remaining 27 regular season games on its schedule carried on television. WKU was 23-8 in televised games in 2008-09.
►SLAUGHTER FOR THREE...: Senior guard AJ Slaughter has 142 career three-pointers, now just seven behind Roland Shelton (1987-90) for 10th all-time at WKU. The Shelbyville, Ky. native is also tied for 10th in career steals with 121 with Joe Harney (1996-99), just three back of Derek Robinson (1999-2002) for ninth place.
►PETTIGREW'S PERFORMANCE: Junior Steffphon Pettigrew has notched double figures in 19 of his last 22 regular season games. The 2007 Kentucky Mr. Basketball has at least 10 points in 21 of his last 27 contests counting last year's postseason.
►SLAUGHTER TO PASS FORMER BACKCOURT MATE: Slaughter needs just eight points to pass his starting backcourt mate from 2008-09, Orlando Mendez-Valdez, for 35th on the career scoring list.
►SLAUGHTER REACHES 1,000: Senior guard AJ Slaughter needed just 14 points entering the season to reach 1,000 for his career. With a career-best 30 on November 16 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he became the 43rd member of the illustrious WKU 1,000-point club. Now with 1,060, he is tied for 36th all-time.
►HOME OPENERS: WKU is now 74-17 all-time in home season openers (.813).
►DIDDLE DOMINANCE: Since its doors opened on December 7, 1963, the Hilltoppers are 499-132 all-time at Diddle Arena for a .791 winning percentage. Diddle has witnessed eight undefeated home seasons (1965-66, 1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1994-95, 2001-02, 2002-03, and 2008-09) and only two losing seasons (1963-64 and 1997-98).
►30-SOMETHING: AJ Slaughter's career-high 30 against Wisconsin-Milwaukee marks the first time a Topper has reached that mark since the 2007-08 season.
►SLAUGHTER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: AJ Slaughter's 30-point performance against Wisconsin-Milwaukee earned him the Sun Belt Conference's first Player of the Week for the 2009-10 season. It was his second career selection, and the 47th in the Tops' 27-year affiliation with the SBC.
►SI.COM LOVES SLAUGHTER: Sports Illustrated held an "online draft" on November 19 of four of its top college basketball analysts. Each person selected five players and one coach to make up their "Dream Team." Seth Davis selected AJ Slaughter with his fifth pick, stating, "As you all pointed out I need a long-range shooter and scorer...so I'll go with AJ Slaughter from Western Kentucky. Best mid-major player next to Jerome Jordan." Grant Wahl responded with, "Inspired pick. I really like WKU this season."
►ROAD WARRIORS: This year marked the 14th time in the last 17 seasons WKU has opened up its season away from home. With the win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee, they are now 4-10 in those contests.
►THREE-POINT STREAK: WKU has made a three-pointer in 675-straight games, ranking as the sixth longest active streak. UNLV (738), Vanderbilt (729), and Princeton (623) are the only three teams to have made a three in every game since the shot was instituted in 1986-87. WKU's last miss came on March 13, 1987 against West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament.
►GOING FOR 500: WKU has won 499 games at Diddle Arena since it opened in 1963. A victory over Tulane on Sunday would mark 500 in the life of the facility.
►MAGIC STREAK SNAPPED: Prior to the Indiana State loss, WKU had been a perfect 23-0 when holding opponents to less than 70 points, dating back to last season.
►SEEING DOUBLE: Slaughter extended his streak to 22-straight games having scored in double figures (a career-high).
►RISING TO THE TOP: Senior forward Jeremy Evans' career field goal percentage of .625 is now tops in school history.
►BEEN THERE BEFORE: This year marked the fourth appearance in the Preseason NIT for WKU, the last coming in 1997 when the Toppers fell at #2 Kansas 75-62. In 1993, Ralph Willard's squad lost 101-87 to top-ranked North Carolina before going on to win the Sun Belt Tournament and face Texas in the NCAA Tournament. In the program's first appearance in the Preseason NIT, the Hilltoppers won at Notre Dame 80-63, ousted TCU 96-90, and then beat Memphis 68-67 in Madison Square Garden, setting up a showdown with UNLV for the championship, only to suffer a heartbreaking 96-95 2OT loss. Overall, WKU is 5-5 all-time in the event.
►THE FABULOUS '50's: With a record of 225-95, WKU has a .703 winning percentage this decade, the best since the 1950's teams won at a .714 clip.
►LIDLIFTERS: WKU is now 65-26 all-time in season openers (.714). The Toppers have now won five of the last six openers.
►NATIONAL RANKING NOTHING NEW: Being in the national rankings is nothing new for the tradition-rich Hilltopper program. Since the AP poll debuted in 1948, WKU has spend 112 weeks in the Top 25, including 60 weeks inside the Top 10. The Toppers were last ranked inside the Top 25 when they finished 2007-08 at 22nd.
►EARLY SIGNINGS: At the start of the fall early signing period, WKU inked a pair of highly-regarded forwards in Stephon Drane (Raleigh, N.C.) and Kene Anyigbo (Bellaire, Texas). The 6-8 Drane was rated as the 28th-best power forward by ESPN while the 6-5 Anyigbo was tabbed 82nd among power forwards.
►SUN BELT FAVORITES: The Sun Belt Conference coaches selected WKU as the overwhelming favorite to win the East Division in 2009-10. If the prediction holds, it will be the program's third-straight and seventh crown in the last 10 seasons. The Hilltoppers garnered 12 of a possible 13 first-place votes.
►SLAUGHTER PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Senior guard AJ Slaughter has been selected as the Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year by the league's head coaches. The Shelbyville, Ky. native led the team in scoring at 16.0 ppg last season and is trying to become the third-straight Topper to become Player of the Year (Courtney Lee and Orlando Mendez-Valdez).
►FOUR NAMED PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE: AJ Slaughter, Sergio Kerusch, Steffphon Pettigrew, and Jeremy Evans have been selected to the Sun Belt Preseason All-Conference team. Slaughter was a First-Team selection, and Player of the Year, while Kerusch and Pettigrew were placed on the Second-Team and Evans the Third-Team.
►BLUE RIBBON TABS TOPS: Blue Ribbon magazine has forecasted WKU to win the Sun Belt Conference East Division while selecting senior guard AJ Slaughter as the Player of the Year.
►WKU RANKED 44th ALL-TIME: With a history and tradition that ranks third all-time in conference championships (41), sixth in 20-win seasons (39), eighth in all-time winning percentage (.673), and 14th in wins (1,608), Western Kentucky University is rated 44th out of 330 Division I men's basketball programs in the ESPN/Sagarin All-Time Rankings released in October. In the 1,200-page book, the authors stated, "Western Kentucky has a tradition and fan base that almost any other team in the country would envy."
►TAKING ON THE VALLEY: WKU is 62-37 (.626) all-time against the 10 current members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
►RECORD VS. THE BIG WEST: WKU is 6-2 all-time against the nine current members of the Big West Conference.
►RECORD VS. THE HORIZON: WKU is now 24-13 all-time against the 10 current members of the Horizon League. The Toppers snapped a three-game skid against the Horizon which dated back to a win against Butler on December 3, 1997.
►TITLETOWN: Last season, WKU won its sixth Sun Belt East Division Title in nine seasons. It was the Hilltoppers' 41st conference championship (includes regular season and postseason), ranking third all-time in Division I, trailing on Kentucky and Kansas.
►DECADE OF DOMINANCE: WKU captured the program's fifth Sun Belt Conference Tournament Title this decade, taking home the hardware in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, and 2009.
►MAIN ATTRACTION: WKU led the Sun Belt Conference in home attendance in 2008-09 for the fifth-straight year.
►SEEING 20-20: With a 25-9 mark last season, WKU posted the program's fifth-straight 20-win campaign, a first in Sun Belt Conference history. With 20 wins this season, the streak would become the second-longest in Hilltopper history, trailing only the string of 10-straight by E.A. Diddle's teams from 1933 to 1943.
►STANDARD BEARER: Twenty-five times Sun Belt teams have finished the season ranked in the final national polls (AP, UPI, USA Today). WKU owns 18 of those 25 spots.
►CENTURY MARK: WKU is virtually unbeaten all-time when scoring 100 points. The Hilltoppers are 100-1 all-time when scoring at least 100 points.
►BEST OF THE BEST: WKU owns 33 wins against ranked teams including 13 against Top 10 opponents. Six of those have come over foes ranked fourth or higher and seven against ranked teams in the NCAA Tournament.
►NCAA TOURNAMENT WINS: Over the past two seasons, only 18 teams have won a game in the NCAA Tournament in both the 2008 and 2009 seasons. WKU joins Siena (MAAC), Memphis (C-USA), and Xavier (A-10) as the only four teams NOT from a BCS conference to do so. WKU won two games in 2008 to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16, while last season the Hilltoppers won their First Round game with Illinois before falling in the final second to 10th-ranked Gonzaga.
►ROOKIE SUCCESS: Of the 65 coaches to lead their team to the 2009 NCAA Tournament, only one--Ken McDonald--was in his first season as a head coach.
►CRADLE OF COACHES: Many schools may claim to be the cradle of coaches when it comes to men's basketball, but WKU has the evidence to back it up. WKU has gone to the NCAA Tournament under the greatest number of head coaches than anyone else in NCAA history. Eleven different head men have directed the Hilltoppers to the Big Dance.
►AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE: WKU trails only 27 of 73 men's basketball programs from BCS conferences in NCAA Tournament appearances over the last 10 years. The Hilltoppers have been to five NCAA Tournaments since 1999-2000.
