Rick Stansbury adds another top 50 recruit at Western Kentucky
In the six months since Western Kentucky hired Rick Stansbury as its head coach, the Hilltoppers continue to punch above their weight class.
They already landed a five-star center and a trio of graduate transfers over the summer. Now they’ve added a top 50 guard to their recruiting haul.
Josh Anderson, a 6-foot-4 wing from Louisiana, committed to Western Kentucky on Tuesday night after visiting campus last weekend. Among the higher-profile programs the Hilltoppers beat for Anderson include LSU, North Carolina State and Baylor.
A gifted scorer who excels at attacking the rim and finishing in traffic, Anderson is Rivals.com’s No. 43 prospect in the 2017 class. He should make an immediate impact in Conference USA, especially if he can develop a consistent enough outside shot to keep defenders honest.
How does a four-star guard commit to a program that fired its coach this past spring after losing 16 games and finishing below .500 in Conference USA? Strong relationships with the Western Kentucky staff certainly played a role, as did the potential to elevate the program.
Assistant coach Quannas White is from Louisiana and has a longstanding relationship with Anderson, while fellow assistant Shammond Williams also recruited Anderson while at Tulane. It also helped that Stansbury had already boosted Western Kentucky’s credibility with the commitment of five-star center Mitchell Robinson in June.
Western Kentucky is still hoping to add more talent to its 2017 class before the recruiting period is over. The Hilltoppers are pursuing former LSU commit Cedric Russell and are among guard Jay Jay Chandler five finalists along with Georgia, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and USC.
– – – – – – –
Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
