Rick Stansbury sat in his office Nov. 20 with Zach Greenwell’s laptop open in front of him.
The fifth-year Western Kentucky head coach was fielding questions from reporters via Zoom on his team and the start of the 2020-21 college basketball season, closing the session with questions on Nevada and LSU, the first two opponents the Hilltoppers were scheduled to play in just five days at Nebraska’s Golden Window Classic.
Greenwell, WKU’s associate athletic director for communications and men’s basketball, stood to the side, listening to Stansbury and scrolling through Twitter on his phone. That’s when he saw a tweet from the Saint Louis men’s basketball account, breaking the news that the Billikens – who were also slated to play in Nebraska – were going to host SIUE and LSU at Chaifetz Arena the following week to open the season, putting the Nebraska multi-team event in serious doubt.