Western had hoped to play closer to the University of Texas’ level on the hardwood entering this season, so former Longhorn’s assistant and current Toppers Head Coach Ken McDonald recently sought some advice from his old boss.

McDonald said he called Texas coach Rick Barnes after the Longhorns took over the nation’s No. 1 spot last week but followed with two straight losses.

Barnes’ message was that Texas was going to “get back to the basics,” the same as Western did this time last year, McDonald said.

Those Toppers scrapped for every point, battled for every rebound and made the most of what they had to overcome a 13-7 record at the end of January to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

As McDonald strives to get Western back to that point, he said this year’s team will turn the corner soon. But it started in a loss to Southern Illinois last Monday.

“We lost the game the other night, but we made a big step in our confidence,” McDonald said. “I think the guys, first of all, they’re back on track understanding how we’re going to win the game. We’re going to play harder, we’re going to play better defense, and we’re going to play together.”

A meeting with New Orleans on Saturday in Diddle Arena marks the the Toppers’ eighth game in the last 17 days.

“I look at this stretch, and I hate to come up with excuses on why we did certain things, but I take a lot of blame for the preparation part,” McDonald said.

Freshman guard Caden Dickerson said now the battle is on to block out negativity and avoid the same press clippings that praised Western so much at the beginning of this season.

The road trips have worn out the team to a certain extent, Dickerson said.

But as he’s learned this season, that’s part of the college game. So is the pressure to win.

“You sense it. You talk about it,” Dickerson said. “But as long as we go out and play like we should, we’ll be fine.”

Western is in a similar spot as last season with no shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Toppers need to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament for an NCAA tournament berth.

Junior forward Steffphon Pettigrew said it will take a similar comeback, and it all starts with defense.

“We’ve got to get back on track,” Pettigrew said. “I think our effort’s there.”

But McDonald keeps up a steady reminder of the Toppers’ secret weapon, junior forward Sergio Kerusch.

Kerusch is the Toppers’ third-leading scorer as well as a junior college transfer with experience in two systems. His return could factor further into Western’s turnaround, McDonald said.

“If we can get going and get Serge back, I think we could be in a really good position to make a run,” McDonald said. “I’m just confident enough to think we can win the rest of our basketball games.”