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WKU was severely limited in its exhibition win against LCC International last week -- only six players were available to play. Since then, senior forward Mike Walker and guard Orlando Mendez-Valdez have seen some practice time after recovering from knee injuries.
"Yesterday I would have had one answer and today I would have a different answer," McDonald said Thursday night when asked about personnel. "Guys are doing well rehabbing and coming back. But you take two steps forward and a step back, so we'll see."
McDonald expects junior-college transfer Uros Komadinic, a native Serbian, to be cleared and ready to play tonight after completing more NCAA amateurism paperwork. Freshman Dejan Cvoro, also a Serbian, is highly unlikely to play.
Meanwhile, whether Mendez-Valdez sees the court tonight against Bellarmine, McDonald said his presence in practice has been welcomed.
On a team with limited senior experience, Mendez-Valdez can be invaluable.
"You see such a difference in basketball IQ," McDonald said. "And the kid is just a warrior. He'll get in there and fight, fight anybody for a rebound. And he wins every sprint. The kid has been out a month and he's real impressive."
Mendez-Valdez is the Hilltoppers' third-leading returning scorer after averaging 5.7 points last season. McDonald said he's fit well in a rotation with junior A.J. Slaughter and JUCO transfer point guard Anthony Sally.
"Obviously there's some flow with him, Anthony and A.J. and that three-guard set is going to be a good lineup for us," McDonald said.
While WKU was shorthanded last weekend, the result didn't show it, as the Hilltoppers cruised to an 89-64 win over the Lithuania-based LCC.
But the Hilltoppers weren't totally satisfied with their performance.
"We want to work on defense (tonight)," forward Jeremy Evans said. "We didn't think we were very strong defensively last time."
WKU held LCC International to 38 percent shooting from the field and forced 20 turnovers, but McDonald said he still saw too many easy buckets for LCC.
"We want to make it hard for teams to score and the team we played last week wasn't a high-powered offensive team by any means," McDonald said. "We gave up a lot of easy baskets. I want to eliminate those easy baskets."
Like the Hilltoppers, Division II Bellarmine has played one exhibition game. It had little trouble with Indiana University Southeast 87-69 last weekend.
Five players scored in double figures for former Louisville assistant Scott Davenport's team. If the Hilltoppers haven't improved defensively since last week, McDonald said Bellarmine can expose that weakness.
"We'll be tested now," McDonald said. "This team is coming in and they think they're going to win this game. This is a serious matchup and we'll talk about that. I've told our team we'll get embarrassed if we're not ready to play and it's important to come out and improve on some things we need to improve on."
Tonight's exhibition for the Hilltoppers is also important because it's their final rehearsal before the regular season. WKU opens the season on Nov. 15 at Houston.
"It's coming up fast," Evans said. "Things are going pretty good. But we still have a long way to go and are coming together as a team and learning our roles."
Added McDonald: "You add up the practice times and your chances to improve from now to then with off days and we're running out of days. We're excited about the opportunity but we have to take advantage of the next few days."
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