July 30th marks roughly 100 days until the 2018-19 season tipoff for the 100th season of WKU Hilltopper Basketball, and over the next 100 days, WKU Athletics will treat fans to unique moments and interesting history from Hilltopper Basketball, all leading up to the start of the season in November.
| DAY 90 (August 9) |
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| WKU Hilltopper Basketball head coach Jim Richards (from right) talks with assistant coaches Art Tolis and Ralph Baker in the locker room during the 1973-74 season. Richards, previously an assistant to WKU coach John Oldham, coached the Hilltoppers from 1972-78 after taking the reins from Oldham, winning 102 games and a pair of Ohio Valley Conference championships. |
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| DAY 89 (August 10) |
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| WKU Basketball head coach E.A. Diddle shakes hands with Hilltopper legend Tom Marshall on campus during the 1950s. Marshall holds the all-time WKU record for career rebounds with 1,565 and ranks fourth in WKU history with 1,909 career points. He was a two-time All-American and a three-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection. Marshall became the third Hilltopper selected in the first round of the pro draft when he was chosen by the Rochester Royals with the seventh pick in 1954. |
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| DAY 88 (August 11) |
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| WKU Basketball players Ed Stansbury, Turner Elrod, Jack Thompson, Paul Mansfield, Ted Hornback and John Vickers pose for a photo wearing "Hilltopper" jerseys in the 1928-29 season. The Hilltopper nickname first appeared in the 1927-28 basketball season. Before that, early Western teams were called the "Normalites," "Teachers," and "Pedagogues." After a 40-20 home loss to Vanderbilt on Jan. 8, 1927, WKU head coach E.A. Diddle promised the team a brand new uniform if they managed to beat Vandy in Nashville 10 days later. WKU won the rematch 26-25, the following season's jerseys displayed the Hilltoppers nickname for the first time, and the rest is history. |
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| DAY 87 (August 12) |
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| E.A. Diddle sits in a still-under-construction Diddle Arena ahead of its opening. The venue opened for the 1963-64 season and has housed 55 seasons of WKU Basketball since, including 51 winning seasons and eight undefeated seasons. The Hilltoppers are 598-169 all-time in Diddle Arena for a 78 percent winning percentage. |
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| DAY 86 (August 13) |
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| WKU center Chris Marcus (right) is interviewed by "J.O." Oldham on the radio after the Hilltoppers' victory over Denver on Jan. 24, 2000. Marcus led WKU in rebounding for three straight seasons and was an honorable mention All-American multiple times. In the 2000-01 campaign, the 7-foot-1 big man led the nation with 12.1 rebounds per game and was the 2001 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. |
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| DAY 85 (August 14) |
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| WKU President Kelly Thompson (from left), Hilltopper center Charlie Osborne, head coach E.A. Diddle, Hilltopper guard Bobby Rascoe and L.T. Smith pose with the Sugar Bowl Basketball Tournament and MVP trophies on Jan. 7, 1960. The Hilltoppers beat defending Sugar Bowl champion Mississippi State 61-50 behind Rascoe's 18 points in the first game in New Orleans, then knocked off Tulane in the championship, 71-67, for Diddle's 700th collegiate victory in the final days of 1959. Osborne led the way with 26 points in the championship win, followed by Rascoe's 21. Rascoe became the first sophomore in the history of the event to earn the tournament's MVP award. |
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| DAY 84 (August 15) |
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| WKU head coach John Oldham smiles while sitting with Hilltoppers Jerry Dunn, Jim McDaniels and Jim Rose as the team prepares to accept the 1971 NCAA Regional Mid-East trophy after beating 10th-ranked Ohio State in overtime. WKU went on to fall in double overtime to No. 19 Villanova in the Final Four before beating No. 4 Kansas in the third-place game. |
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| DAY 83 (August 16) |
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| The 1942-43 Hilltoppers make a visit to Niagara Falls during the NIT. Led by captains Dero Downing and Buck Sydnor, WKU went 24-3 that season with an 11-0 record at home and 17 straight wins to open the schedule. WKU fell to Fordham by two in the NIT in one of many trips to Madison Square Garden in New York City. |
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| DAY 82 (August 17) |
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| A St. Peter's defender (right) does his best to slow down WKU star center Jim McDaniels during a game in the ECAC Holiday Festival on Dec. 26, 1970, in New York City. Spoiler alert: It didn't work. McDaniels finished with 27 points, 15 rebounds and four assists in the Hilltoppers' 108-97 victory – one of his program-record 74 double-doubles. |
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| DAY 81 (August 18) |
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| This iconic photo marks the largest crowd to ever see a game inside E.A. Diddle Arena – 14,277 fans packed the venue to see the Hilltoppers defeat Murray State on Feb. 27, 1971. At the time, Diddle Arena had a capacity of more than 13,000. After the 2002 renovation, the seating capacity was reduced to 7,326, a mark reached or surpassed three times in the 2017-18 season. |
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