Past BU Braves star Billy Wright off to a great start at WIU

[tornado]

Head Coach Billy Wright and the WIU Leathernecks are off to one of their best starts ever
Last night they clobbered a decent UW-Milwaukee team who had beaten Iowa State, 90-69
They are 7-2

http://goleathernecks.com/news/2017/12/9/mens-basketball-wiu-cruises-past-milwaukee-90-69.aspx

[lefty]

Hopefully that continues the rest of the season.....when they beat Wisconsin a couple of years ago I thought that season would turn out better....and they beat Milwaukee last year in Milwaukee too....I would love to see them at the top of their conference this year

[tornado]

they have a couple completely unheralded kids that Billy recruited & landed...that have become major contributors and some young guys who are only sophomores that have helped out as key role players. Also- they only lose one key player to graduation, so hopefully they will be in the Summit mix for the next couple years!

-a slender 6-6 kid out of Texas that was very young within his age group, Dalan Ancrum, who had very little recruiting interest...according to most sites - WIU was his only offer!
..And even up 'til his senior year at WIU has almost always just been a sub averaging single digits...
But this year he has impressed consistently, averaging 18 ppg, 5 rpg, 3 apg and hitting 46.4% on 3-pointers.

-a freshman Kobe Webster out of Indianapolis, Billy Wright's long time stomping grounds, who Billy stole from his only other serious offer Ball State, with Kobe getting to play a ton as a freshman and averaging 15 ppg, 5 assists!!, and 47% on 3-pt shooting!

-then the most impressive find is a kid nobody had really heard of named Brandon Gilbeck - a lanky 7-footer out of a small Wisconsin high school (a school that is about the size of Farmington HS) - who also played little and produced little for two whole years at WIU, then suddenly has begun to contribute 14 ppg, NINE rebounds/gm, and is hitting an amazing 75.3% of his shots (2nd best in all of Division-I) so far on the season!!

[patrick_o'brian]

I’ve watched a couple WIU games, as Billy was my favorite player growing up. Kobe Webster is really talented. The Necks shoot a lot of 3’s in the games I watched. Gilbeck plays like a Freshman, but you can see his raw talent. He gets into foul trouble and lacks rebounding fundamentals, but you can see he has great upside. Plus he is big. Really big when you see him in person. Western is a fun team to watch. Congrats Coach Wright, one of my all-time favorites!