The NCAA Tournament has gone without Western Kentucky for seven years. That drought has been close to ending in the past two Conference USA Tournament championship games – if only Lamonte Bearden’s floater hadn’t rimmed out in 2018 and Xavier Green hadn’t gone off from the 3-point line for Old Dominion in last year’s final.
The Hilltoppers were a combined seven points from finally breaking through. With a loaded roster, the preseason expectation was that jump would finally happen this year, with WKU being picked to win the league.
By December, skepticism seeped in with the injury to the team’s best professional prospect, as well as the ineligibility news of a player the Hilltoppers never had on the court.