The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers men's basketball team is the men's basketball team that represents

Western Kentucky University Western Kentucky University is a public university in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It was founded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1906, though its roots reach back a quarter-century earlier. It operates regional campuses in Glasgow, Elizabethtow ...

(WKU) in

Bowling Green, Kentucky Bowling Green is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Warren County, Kentucky, United States. Founded by pioneers in 1798, Bowling Green was the provisional capital of Confederate Kentucky during the American Civil War. As of the ...

. The Hilltoppers currently compete in

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are ...

. The team's most recent appearance in the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams fro ...

was in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Rick Stansbury Richard Lee Stansbury (born December 23, 1959), is an American college basketball and the current head coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers basketball team. He was previously the head coach at Mississippi State. He was hired as the WKU head c ...

was announced as the team's current head coach on March 28, 2016. The men's basketball program has the 16th most victories in the history of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

and has attained the eighth best winning percentage in NCAA history. The school made an NCAA Final Four appearance in 1971, which was later vacated, and has made four NIT Final Four appearances, including three in the early days of the NIT when it was on par with the NCAA tournament. The program has won numerous

Ohio Valley Conference The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in the Football Cham ...

championships and was very competitive in its previous conference, the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams particip ...

, regularly finishing near the top of the conference and competing for the conference championship. In 2014, the Hilltoppers joined

following conference realignment. Street & Smith's publication "100 Greatest Programs", ranked WKU #31. WKU has had 30 All Americans and 56 Hilltoppers have played professionally following their collegiate careers.

Conference affiliation history

* 1914–15 to 1925–26 – Independent * 1926–27 to 1947–48 – Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Association &

Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conferen ...

* 1948–49 to 1981–82 –

* 1982–83 to 2013–14 –

* 2014–15 to present –

Postseason

WKU has appeared in 40 national postseason tournaments and in five national final fours. The school currently has a policy of only accepting invitations to the NCAA or NIT tournaments, which precludes participation in other tournaments such as the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament and College Basketball Invitational.

NCAA tournament results

The Hilltoppers have appeared in the NCAA tournament 23 times. Their combined record is 19–24. Their appearance in the 1971 NCAA Tournament and third place finish were later vacated by the NCAA due to a player, Jim McDaniels, having signed a professional contract and accepted money during the season. * Vacated by the NCAA

NIT results

The Hilltoppers have appeared in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitational Tournament (NIT) is a men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Played at regional sites and traditionally at Madison Square Garden (Final Four) in New York Cit ...

(NIT) 15 times. When the NIT started, it was considered the premiere national college basketball tournament and remained on par with the NCAA Tournament through the mid 1950s, until the NCAA began giving automatic bids to conference champions in 1956. Western Kentucky's first eight appearances occurred during this early period, including their 2nd place finish in 1942, 3rd place in 1948, and 4th place in 1954. WKU also made the NIT Final Four in 2018. Their combined record is 13–16.

Other tournament results

In 1936 Western Kentucky was invited to the National Olympic Playoffs representing the South. They played two games against the Southwest representative,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

, in Little Rock, AK, losing both games by scores of 36–43 and 30–38. The Hilltoppers were scheduled to appear in the 1938 National Intercollegiate Basketball tournament; however, the team was unable to make the trip and withdrew from the tournament. The NAIA lists the game as a forfeit, but Western Kentucky does not recognize the contest as part of their official record. The Hilltoppers appeared in the

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

National Campus Basketball Tournament where they were defeated by Bradley 71–75 in the first round.

Milestones

E.A. Diddle Arena

The E.A. Diddle Arena is a 7,326-seat multi-purpose

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectator ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The arena, built in 1963 is named after legendary WKU men's coach and

Basketball Hall of Famer The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and prese ...

Edgar "E.A." Diddle.

Current coaching staff

* Rick Stansbury - Head Coach * Nakita Johnson - Assistant Coach * Talvis Franklin - Director of Basketball Operations * Bob Hubbard - Academic Coordinator * Martin Cross - Associate Director of Basketball Operations * Erien Watson - Program Manager

All-Americans

2011–12 WKU media guide

Retired jerseys

The first jerseys retired in honor of Hilltopper basketball greats were hung in E.A. Diddle Arena during the 1999–2000 season. Also even though the jerseys are retired current and future players can and do use the numbers of the players whose jerseys are retired.

Season-by-season results

References

External links

* {{Conference USA men's basketball navbox Basketball teams established in 1914 1914 establishments in Kentucky