WKU 21-4 Under Michelle Clark-Heard
Toss in ex UofL assistants Margaret Richards and Greg Collins who are assistants at WKU and this is..in theory...basically a UofL women's sports article about former Cardinal coaches and players.
Things are hopping on the Hill.
WKU is 21-4 on the season and 10-2 in Conference USA. Not
Michelle Clark-Heard's red towel wavers can determine their fate in the rankings in a showdown with visiting MTSU at the E.A. Diddle Arena in a Saturday 2 p.m. CST battle. Before that, they'll host UAB on Thursday night...another team that UofL followers will remember.
With a little luck, WKU could be 23-2.They suffered a one-point loss at UTSA and two-point home loss to Southern Miss. Mississippi State downed the Hilltoppers in Starksville by 11 in the non-conference part of the schedule and Louisville handled Gooch and Govan by 21 in the KFC YUM! Center.
In all fairness, it was an exhausted WKU squad that took on Walz's bunch. The Louisville game was their fourth in eight days...the Toppers getting to the finals of the Preseason WNIT prior to facing UofL.
Alexis Govan and Chastity Gooch are the leaders of the Big Red's ballers. They have scored an identical 427 points in 25 games...good for a 17.1 ppg average. They've been the backbone of a team that Michelle Clark-Heard took over in 2012 that had less than desirable success over several years prior to her arrival.
Clark-Heard is getting it done with Kentucky home-grown talent.
Micah Jones is from Greensburg, Kendall Noble hails from Hazard. Kierra Muhammad is out of Lexington and Ivy Brown comes out of Hodgenville. Gooch played at Franklin-Simpson and Jalynn McClain was a star at Jeffersonville High school...right across the Ohio River from Louisville.
"What Michelle Clark-Heard has done is instilled pride
back in Western Kentucky.... Now with Michelle Clark-Heard, with the passion and pride she has, because she was a player at Western Kentucky, she is bringing that back to Bowling Green."
ESPN's Carolyn Peck
What they need now is fan support. WKU averages 1797 for home games. To bolster that, WKU is offering free tickets to anyone who wears red into participating IGA stores and asks for a ticket for the MTSU game. The first 1000 fans in the door will get a exclusive t-shirt. The first 1000 students in their seats get free pizza from Pizza Hut.
Good times and great hoops have returned to the E.A. Diddle Arena. Spurred on by a UofL contingent that helped build the Cardinals to national prominence.
Big Red.. the loveable WKU mascot deserves nothing less.
The classic 1977 release 'Aja' by Steely Dan contains the lyrics:
"Up on the hill..they think I'm OK"
We'd agree here at CARDINAL COUPLE.
paulie
Nice write up Paulie on the #2 team in the state behind UK.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Mitchell For Governor
There you go again, Ms. Gov. UK would be the 5th best team in Tennessee behind UT, Memphis, Chattanooga and Vandy and is now the 4th best team in Kentucky behind UofL, WKU and Bellarmine.
DeleteMaybe the Cats should move to Rhode Island. They could challenge Providence and URI for state supremacy.
Curtis Franklin
Ha!. Now that's a great response Curtis. You're killin' me with Rhode Island tho...Maybe the kittens can beat up on Ernie DeGregorio & Marvin Barnes now that they're like 65 years old. At least that way they can say they finally beat a final four level club...
DeleteThank you Burn Brother.
Delete40-0, 40-0....40-0. o wait that is the men's team. How about second round Matthew! second round matthew!
Curtis Franklin
Nice article today! That Steely Dan recording is one of my favorites of all time. As long as Michelle doesn't subscribe to the lyrics in Deacon Blue, the Tops should continue to be OK.
ReplyDeleteThe Real Joe Hill
I, too am a WKU alum. and am very proud of what Michelle has achieved, We are Fb friends and I think I will message her later. My senior year was the year that WKU went to the final four. Good times.
ReplyDeleteToppers have the juice to make an NCAA run. Must be that ex-Louisville coaching. The Walz, Collen trees have bourne fruit.
DeletePaulie
Great article Paulie! Thank you for including my daughters name! I am very proud of Jalynn and the Lady Toppers!!!
ReplyDeleteHi, Rhonda!
DeleteThanks for reading and commenting. Always glad to give Jalynn props whenever we can. Are you planning your NCAA Tournament off days yet? LOL. We sincerely hope the Toppers carry on in the strong fashion they have been and Jalynn's role has been a very important and essential role in their progression. You've got to be a very proud and blessed Mom and we're definitely Jalynn fans here at CC. Here's hoping they win both Thursday and Saturday and the weather is OK so you can go watch.
Paulie
It was good to read your article about WKU. Even your West Coast correspondent has a connection to WKU. My grand daughter played in high school with WKU's senior Ileana Johnson. In fact, Ileana's father was their coach both in AAU ball and at Flagstaff HS in Arizona. The Flagstaff team with Ileana and my grand daugter, Sarah, lost the semi-final game of the 4A state tournament four years in a row. Those were enormously painful losses, especially twice losing to teams they had handily defeated during the season. Anyway Sarah still keeps in touch with Ileana who is now a senior.
ReplyDeleteIleana is a the shortest player on WKU's team but she has been getting a lot of playing time lately and has started some games. She played extensively in the game against Miss State and did pretty well, but sat the bench the whole game at Louisville for some reason. Anyway I have been following WKU all the way out here, so it was good to see your story on them.
Gary Witherspoon
Hi, Gary!
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you. i work at the same place Jalynn's mom does so we chat a bit about WKU WBB. It was a fun article to write. Had some nice discussions with CB, Michelle and even Greg when they were at UofL. Very happy for the successes they have achieved and hope they make a deep NCAA run.
How have you been, sir? Let me know if you want to submit any articles....the readers enjoy your topics and style of writing.
Paulie
Just in case you were thinking about going to Richmond to watch a little softball this weekend:
ReplyDeleteThe University of Louisville softball team was scheduled to travel to Richmond, Ky., for the Eastern Kentucky Softball Tournament Feb. 21-22, however the tournament has been cancelled due to inclement weather. A severe winter storm produced a foot of snow on Richmond and much of Kentucky with temperatures expected to reach single digits making playing conditions unfavorable.
The Cardinals (5-5) will return to action Feb. 28 – March 1 when they travel to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener. The teams will meet on Feb. 28 in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. and will wrap up the three-game series Sunday at 12 p.m.
Thanks for the update, I hadn't seen this yet. I can't say I'm surprised at all, of course.
Delete