Every year Cinderella captures our hearts in the NCAA Tournament. They begin fittings for their glass slippers in November (and December), though. They Do Not Come From Nowhere introduces you to the teams that will be busting brackets nationwide come March.Western Kentucky is blessed with one of the country's best scorers in senior guard Courtney Lee. He's got a career 17 point per game average for the Hilltoppers, led them to 60 wins in his first three seasons and is a good bet to be the Sun Belt's player of the year this season. What he hasn't done, however, is take the team to the NCAA Tournament. He hurt his wrist before last season's conference tourney and the Hilltoppers lost in the semis.
While Lee is going to be a key to any tournament run for WKU, coach Darrin Horn had to be impressed by his team's win against Nebraska yesterday. They won 69-62 in overtime despite a hellish 4-of-16 from the floor by Lee, thanks in large part to their other senior guards Tyrone Brazelton and Ty Rogers. Brazelton hit a three with 34 seconds to play and Rogers scored 11 points, including three threes, to help ease the pain of Lee's rough night.
That trio is going to be key for the undersized Hilltoppers during Sun Belt play. South Alabama, Florida International and Arkansas-Little Rock all have more interior presence than WKU but they are certainly the favorite in the Sun Belt West regular season. As good as Lee is and however well they shoot from three, 40% last season, they will need forward Jeremy Evans to build on his freshman year to keep teams from bullying their way to wins.
If he does develop as hoped, though, Western will be a very tough opponent for any team. They defend well, shoot the lights out and have a superstar with the ability to make big plays down the stretch. Wins over Michigan and Nebraska show that they can compete with second-tier power conference teams but a December 15 trip to Tennessee will help decide if they can compete at the next level.
(Picture is from WKU's last trip to the NCAA Tournament)
