DENVER – Huge game coming up tomorrow. In
addition to the annual PACK THE HOUSE game and all of the promotions
that go along with that ($10,000 anyone?), Denver is facing Western
Kentucky, the most storied program in the Sun Belt Conference.
The Hilltoppers caught a lot of notice during last
year’s NCAA Tournament after senior guard Ty Rogers drilled a shot at
the buzzer that was about 10 feet behind the three-point line to upset
Drake. WKU followed that by beating San Diego in the Second Round and
waltzing to the Sweet 16, where they played extremely well against No.
1-seeded UCLA.
Those of us who have been watching the Sun Belt for
a few years were not really surprised by Western’s success. They
finished the season 29-7, the fourth-straight year the team had won at
least 22 games, and they had a guard named Courtney Lee, who was chosen
by the Orlando Magic with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2008 NBA Draft. Finally, WKU had a point guard named Tyrone Brazelton, who DU head coach Joe Scott
called the most valuable player in the Sun Belt Conference last year.
Scott would not argue that Brazelton was better than Lee, but he said
that no other player was more important to his team than Brazelton.
WKU’s head coach last year, Darrin Horn, could not
resist the call from South Carolina, which offered him a large contract
to take over the Southeastern Conference team. The Hilltoppers replaced
him with Ken McDonald, who spent four years working as an assistant
coach under Rick Barnes at Texas after serving as a Georgia assistant
for one year and a WKU assistant for five seasons. McDonald helped in
the recruiting future NBA players Kevin Durant and D.J. Augustin, among
others, while at Texas.
This season, McDonald has already coached WKU to an
upset of then-No. 3 Louisville in Nashville on Nov. 30. The Hilltoppers
have also beaten a few other teams that were in last year’s Tournament –
Georgia and South Alabama – as well as Missouri Valley power Southern
Illinois.
Western Kentucky’s recent success is nothing new.
WKU is eighth in the history of the NCAA with a .670 winning percentage,
and its 1,548 wins entering this season were tied for the 15th
most. This is a team with 20 appearances in the NCAA Tournament. In
1971, the Hilltoppers advanced to the Final Four, where they finished
third in a year when teams still played a consolation game. They have
also had 13 NIT appearances and 37 All-Americans.
PACK THE HOUSE: Tomorrow’s game marks the
Sixth Annual PACK THE HOUSE at Magness Arena. Among other prizes, one
lucky fan will have the opportunity to win $10,000 by playing Deal or No
Deal at halftime. Fans also have a chance to win a year’s worth of
burritos at Qdoba Mexican Grill, and one student will walk away with a
customized Denver Pioneers long-board.
Random Question: Is Michael Jackson making a
comeback? Prior to the games at both North Texas and Florida
International, a variety of songs from Thriller were blasted through the
arenas. If we’re waxing nostalgia back to the early ‘80s, are Huey
Lewis, REO Speedwagon and the Thompson Twins going to give us the next
surefire hits on Jock Jams?
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights – 15
Total Mileage Flown – 12.088
Total Bus Miles – 1,329
Total Number of Hotels – 12
Total Number of Different Airports – 9
Total Number of Airline Delays – 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights – 1
Total Number of Bags Lost – 3
Total Number of Bags Lost by Team, Not Airline – 1
Average Attendance at the first five PACK THE HOUSE games – 6,345
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