Women's Basketball

Western Kentucky University

1605 Avenue of Champions - Bowling Green, KY - 42101
Team Office: Tel: (270) 745-2133 Fax: (270) 745-6187
Team website: www.wkusports.com/

Western Kentucky University was originally established as a teacher's college. Today, Education still is the most popular major though WKU offers more than 170 undergraduate study areas including Broadcasting, Criminology, Film Studies, Hospitality Management and Nursing. Its photojournalism department has won numerous awards. US News 2008 Report on America's Best Colleges ranked WKU #32 among universities in the south offering a Master's degree.

Located on a hill overlooking the city of Bowling Green (pop.50k), the WKU campus is acclaimed as one of the most beautiful in the nation.

School website
www.wku.edu

College Profile

Type:

Public, co-ed

Religious Affiliation:

None

Enrollment:

19,000

Getting In:

Moderately Difficult. ACT 25/75: 18-24

Tuition + Room & Board:

In-state: ~$12,000
Out-of-State: ~$21,000

Most Popular Majors

Education - Business - Social Sciences

Misc. Information

Head coach Mary Taylor Cowles enters her sixth season at Western Kentucky in 2007-08. The former WKU player, assistant and then associate coach, was handed the reins in 2002-03. In her short tenure, Cowles has produced five consecutive 20+ winning seasons while making one NCAA and four WNIT tourney appearances. Cowles was awarded Miss Kentucky Basketball after playing for Marshall County High School. She played for the Lady Toppers from 1987-1991 and averaged 18 ppg and 9.3 rebounds. In 2006-07, Taylor Cowles led the team to a 23-9 mark and advanced to the WNIT final four before losing to Wisconsin.

Team Name	Lady Toppers
Colors	Red and White
Division	NCAA Division I
All-Time Record	743-360 (.673)

Recent Record (Last 8 Years)

	Last Yr	Last Yr - 1	Last Yr - 2	Previous 5 Years
Overall	23-9	27-7	20-10	99-61 (.619)
Conference	14-4	12-2	12-2	52-22 (.702)
Conf. Finish	2	1	1	1, 1, 2, 4, 2
Post Appear.	WNIT	WNIT	WNIT	NCAA 1x
Final 25 Rank	NR	NR	NR	NR

Coaches

Head Coach	Mary Taylor Cowles
	Birthday: 1969-01-07
Started at Western Kentucky	2002-03
Contract Expires
Record as Head Coach	112-49 (.695)
Record at Western Kentucky	112-49 (.695)
Coaching Awards	Sun Belt COTY 2x

Asst. Coaches	David Graves, Amy Wright, Nikki McCray

Recruiting Coordinator

David Graves, (270) 745-2133, david.graves@wku.edu

Conference and Schedule

Western Kentucky plays in the Sun Belt conference (www.sunbeltsports.org) which is comprised of 13 schools from eight states in two divisions. WKU plays in the east. WKU will play each team in its own division twice and teams once in the other division, for a total of 18 games. The season concludes with the Sun Belt Conference tourney which includes all 13 schools. Winner is an automatic qualifer to the NCAA tourney.

Conference Opponents

East: Middle Tennessee, Southern Alabama, Troy, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, and Arkansas-Little Rock. West: Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, North Texas, Denver, Arkansas-Little Rock, and New Orleans

Facilities

Diddle Arena
Capacity: 7,300