A View From the 'Top

By Andrew Hard

Thursday's Game: Western Kentucky Hilltoppers 79, South Alabama Jaguars 73 (E.A. Diddle Arena, Bowling Green, KY)

My 2012-2013 tour of Nashville-area schools ended Thursday in Bowling Green, Kentucky with a 70-mile drive up I-65 to visit the coolest mascot in the country. Known simply as "Big Red," this furry red blob has everything that you would ever want in a mascot: grossly misshapen head (split in half akin to Canadians in "South Park"), comically oversized torso, creepiness factor off the charts (when it tries to lounge across a row of girls), and a transcendent "I don't know who the hell came up with this thing but damn it's awesome" quality that often distracts from the game itself. At every TV timeout, Big Red waltzed through the lines of cheerleaders like he didn't give a damn what they were doing. During game action, he was either sprawled across rows of fans, pretending to eat people's heads, or holding a megaphone with the cheerleaders like he owned the place (labeling this thing as a "he" might be a little misguided in light of this SportsCenter spot, though). I suppose all that was missing was a taller, inflatable version that actually resembled and acted like a blob, but in the end, Big Red left nothing to be desired.

The Hilltoppers don't just hang their hat on a badass mascot, though. They've had some pretty good moments on the hardwood too, stretching back to the days of legendary coach E.A. Diddle, for whom the arena is now named. Diddle coached WKU (or as it was known then, Western Kentucky State) from 1922 to 1964, compiling a 759-302 record and going to three NCAAs, including an appearance in the second tournament ever (1940). WKU was a founding member of the Ohio Valley Conference in 1948 and won so many of its tournaments that it had to move up to the Sun Belt in 1982 (in 19 years in which the tournament was actually held during that time, WKU won 10 times). WKU hasn't been quite so dominant in the Sun Belt, but they still lap the rest of the current conference in every conceivable category:

NCAAs  NCAA Wins Sweet 16s Elite 8s Final 4s Western Kentucky 22  15 7 2 1 (1971) Other 10 Teams Combined 40  6 2 0 0

The 'Toppers haven't slacked off recently either, as you might recall:

It's been somewhat of a down year for WKU, a program that unfortunately has been poached for head coaches with its resounding recent success -- Dennis Felton left for UGA in 2003 after three straight NCAA appearances, and Darrin Horn bolted for South Carolina in 2008 after the above Sweet 16 run. Ken McDonald, who succeeded Horn, won the Sun Belt (and another NCAA game) the following year with Horn's guys but couldn't replicate the success on his own. The 'Toppers stayed in house with their next hire, promoting assistant Ray Harper to the full-time gig this year. With the rabid fan support, WKU should get back to the 'Top of the mountain again soon, but the going in the Sun Belt will be tough. MTSU has dominated regular season play each of the last two years and figures to run away with the conference title and NCAA bid this year; in the process, an intense rivalry has developed between the two schools (Saturday's hard-fought matchup in Bowling Green went to the Blue Raiders, 70-62). If Harper can take this current group as far as Horn did, the WKU-MTSU rivalry could become one of the fiercest (and most underrated) rivalries in college basketball.

Of course, the 'Toppers and Blue Raiders could meet again in the Sun Belt tournament, which begins Friday in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Despite Thursday's win (featuring a high-Level 1 crowd but with serious Level 3 potential), WKU is saddled with the #6 seed and a play-in match Friday, meaning they'd have to win four games in four days for the title (MTSU is on the other side of the bracket). I'm not sure that WKU has quite enough depth to pull that off, but they sure have a lot of history to fall back on if they come up short.

And one hell of a mascot.

College basketball count: 19/347; Total count: 50/592

--The Road to 592 is a pipe dream started by a diehard Atlanta fan with a sparse history of truly great sports atmospheres (being Atlanta and all). Read up on my unending pursuit here and check out the full list of venues here. For those sick of conference realignment, you can also relish in another pipe dream of mine -- the 28-team SEC. Follow me on Twitter @andrewhard592.