WKU men’s basketball holds first open practice of 2025-26 season

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – If you’re not thinking about the college basketball season in July, you should be because the Hilltoppers held their first open practice of the new season this morning inside Diddle Arena.

Even over the summer, WKU is hard at work on the court preparing for another year of Hilltopper basketball that officially begins in November.

This season’s roster has seen a complete overhaul, with nine new faces on the squad and just three returning active players from this past year.

Head coach Hank Plona is heading into his second year leading the Tops and is no stranger to working through a season of adversity, and this year he wants to be sure that no matter injuries or other factors, the depth of offensive talent stays consistent throughout the campaign.

“ We’re trying to figure out, ‘how can we be effective? How can we shoot 52% from the floor and 40% from three, and how do we get ball movement?'” Plona said. “I wouldn’t tell you we’re quite there yet because we are huge and our effort is really good, and the defense is still a little bit ahead of the offense. So, we have to work on spacing, timing and ball movement and player movement all summer. I think once you start doing that, I think the offense hopefully gradually improves and we’re able to be an efficient offensive team.”

Western finished last season under .500 in Conference USA play but ranked fifth in offense, putting up nearly 75 points per game.

With the new wave of Hilltoppers on the team this year, Plona said part of this summer is about getting the guys to learn how to play with each other, and while they figure out what their role on this team looks like, they all share being drawn to WKU’s program and the style of play that Plona upholds on the court.

“ They were actually the first school that reached out to me when I hit portal, which is important,” senior guard Cam Haffner said. “They kind of called me every day, which like, it’s building a relationship. The style of play was really appealing and what coach Hank was all about.”

“I’ll say one thing is he has us do pretty much a lot of everything, like dribble, passing and shooting, and everyone does a little bit of everything,” senior forward Grant Newell said. “So, being able to hone on every single skill that’s necessary for a basketball player, that’s what we need to do.”