Around this time last year, not long after the transfer portal opened, Western Kentucky women’s basketball coach Greg Collins started to feel a little unsettled.

Josie Gilvin, the Hilltoppers’ second-leading scorer and a potential future contender for Conference USA Player of the Year, had entered the portal on the first day of the window (and eventually landed at Kentucky). After her departure and some player graduations, Western Kentucky needed to rebuild the roster.

Coming off a 23-win season in 2024-25, Collins had several promising portal prospects interested in his program as he looked ahead to this season. But he kept running into the same hurdle when those targets asked about the financial piece of the puzzle and what Western Kentucky could offer from name, image and likeness and revenue share standpoints.

“That conversation kept coming up,” said Collins, who has worked in women’s college basketball for 24 seasons. “I wasn’t able to get it answered in a way where they still came to school here. That’s when the first red flag came up. I was like, ‘All right, this isn’t going the way it’s always gone in the past.’”

In a season Collins described as unlike anything he’s ever experienced before, the Hilltoppers went 8-21 — the worst record of his eight-year span as Western Kentucky’s head coach.

Collins and athletic director Todd Stewart are determined for things to go much differently next season. And they’ve already set the wheels in motion to make sure that’s the case.

In statements released over the weekend, Stewart announced that the program would be retaining Collins, who revealed he will be donating part of his own salary to the program’s NIL fund. A source familiar with the donations said he’s giving 10 percent of his salary. Donors — who made it clear they wanted Western Kentucky to retain Collins — have stepped up, too.

Statements From WKU Director Of Athletics Todd Stewart & Women’s Basketball Head Coach Greg Collins pic.twitter.com/jenudxmHuS

— WKU Women’s Basketball (@LadyTopperHoops) March 7, 2026

The early returns?

After working with just a $25,000 NIL budget this season, the Hilltoppers said they will be well over $100,000 for next season, and they expect more money to roll in during the fall as fundraising efforts continue.

“We started doing a thorough analysis of the program and really what became obvious was we just didn’t have the NIL resources that you need today in women’s basketball to compete,” Stewart said. “And that had not really impacted, at least our program, until this current year.

“But players that we would’ve had in the pre-NIL era, we weren’t getting. And the reason was they were simply going elsewhere for money.”

Collins said he ran the idea of donating part of his own salary to the program’s NIL fund by his wife, Rae. He and Stewart met about two-and-a-half weeks ago, when they collectively decided on the idea for Collins to chip in, which in turn has already sparked other donors to follow suit.

“We’ve got to do what the other schools are doing and we’ve got to be able to compete for the players that we want through NIL,” Collins said. “And so I think if we’re asking other donors to donate their money — and they have kids and bills and retirement plans and things, too — if they’re doing that, then … it felt like a good thing to do would be to also do that and show them that we’re all in this. We’re all trying to achieve a similar goal. It’ll take a commitment from everyone.”

Collins has finished with a winning record in five of his eight seasons at the helm and is known in basketball circles for his ability to develop under-the-radar players. He has coached double-digit all-conference players (including six on the first-team) and has had two Freshman of the Year winners, despite coaching only one former high school All-American. When Stewart was looking for a new coach, former players encouraged him to make the obvious decision and hire Collins, who had been a top assistant on staff.

Before NIL came into the picture, Collins could rely on relationship-building and developing underrecruited talent to build his rosters. Part of the reason donors were so passionate about keeping him on board for next season, Stewart said, was because of the way Collins carries himself.

But it’s a new era in college sports, where money rules the roost. That’s why the program has made a quick plan to beef up the Hilltoppers’ NIL packages.

“Nobody would sit here and try to rationalize 8-21. But I think our donors saw beyond that and looked at the reasoning and probably more important than the reasoning, the solution,” Stewart said.

“(They) just felt like it wouldn’t be fair to make a change based on this year when he was fighting with one hand tied behind his back so to speak. Let’s give him the resources, and even try to exceed those resources that other people have and see what he can do with that. … We were very thankful that was the way they felt.”

Collins, after not qualifying for the NCAA Tournament, now has a longer offseason to get a jump start on evaluating talent. He said he now feels indebted to fans, supporters and the community “in a whole different way.”

With the beefed up resources, he’s actually looking forward to the transfer portal this year — a far cry from how he felt just 12 months ago.

Now it’ll be his job to turn those funds into wins.

“I’ve had a lot of people that have said, ‘Hey, how can I help you?’ and that didn’t happen this time last year,” Collins said.

“If that’s what it takes for everybody to chip in, then great. Let’s do this thing, get back to where we want to be.”

• President Donald Trump is visiting Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District on March 11.
• The visit follows public disagreements between Trump and Massie on various issues.
• Trump has endorsed Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein to run against Massie in the Republican primary.

President Donald Trump will be in the Bluegrass State on March 11, visiting a congressional district he’s had his eye on for some time.

Trump is set to speak at a Verst Logistics facility in Hebron, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. Doors to the event open at 1 p.m., with Trump expected to speak just before 5 p.m., according to information sent to registered guests.

The visit will take place in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District, where U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie has built a loyal following since taking office in 2012.

That following is now being put to the test as Trump attempts to oust Massie from office, following months of public disagreements over Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” and America’s involvement in Iran. The pair’s feud hit a fever pitch in fall 2025, when the congressman helped lead the push for the release of millions of files related to the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump personally courted Ed Gallrein to run against Massie in the Republican primary, endorsing the Navy SEAL even before he launched his campaign.

Trump is scheduled to stop by Thermo Fisher Scientific in the Cincinnati suburb of Reading before heading to Northern Kentucky.

Follow updates through the day below:

Traffic could be disrupted during Trump’s visit, with a spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service saying residents and visitors near Hebron and Reading can expect “intermittent road closures and parking restrictions.”

Boone County Sheriff’s spokesman Lieutenant Anthony Theetge recommended motorists avoid the area near the event if possible.

Massie challenged primary opponent Gallrein to a debate and said Trump could moderate it, during a Campbell County Republican Committee meeting March 9, where he was the guest speaker.

Massie said he did not plan to attend Trump’s event in Northern Kentucky, according to reporting from the Cincinnati Enquirer, but he was “actually glad to see the president in our district and paying attention to local issues. I suspect he’s also going to try to help my opponent but that’s really all my opponent has going for him.”

More: Donald Trump to visit Kentucky. About conflict between president, Thomas Massie

A pre-program for Trump’s event in Hebron is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m., with remarks from Trump at 4:50 p.m., according to information sent to registered guests.

Trump is scheduled to make two stops in the Greater Cincinnati area on March 11.

He’ll first visit Thermo Fisher Scientific, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, in Reading, Ohio, to discuss TrumpRx.gov, a new prescription drug website.

Later, he’ll head to a Verst Logistics contract packaging facility in Hebron, Kentucky. The purpose of that visit was not disclosed in an invitation for the event.

Trump has been in Kentucky at least five times since he first campaigned for office in 2016. That year, he stopped at the Kentucky Exposition Center during his “Make America Great Again” campaign tour and returned two months later for a convention of the National Rifle Association.

He last visited the commonwealth in 2022 to attend the Kentucky Derby, where he received mixed reactions from those in the crowd.

• The small, tight-knit community of Glendale, Kentucky, is mourning the loss of the well-liked young man.
• Pennington was an Eagle Scout and high school athlete who joined the Army in 2017 after graduation.
• Pennington was a decorated soldier assigned to the 1st Space Brigade and will be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.

GLENDALE, Ky. – The text message arrived on Mike Bell’s phone early on March 1. It was brief: Benjamin Pennington, the son of Bell’s close friend Tim Pennington, had been seriously injured in an attack at a U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia.

Bell hadn’t seen Benjamin Pennington in a while, but the executive minister and retired pastor of Glendale Christian Church clearly remembered the bright, ambitious boy who attended church every Sunday with his parents before enlisting in the U.S. Army.

Bell asked the Sunday school students gathered before him to pray for the 26-year-old Glendale native. Over the following week, he and Tim talked or texted daily, praying and hoping for the best.

There were signs of hope on March 5. Pennington asked the medical staff for a Pepsi, which his family saw as a positive sign. But by March 7, Pennington’s condition had worsened.

That night, after calling a basketball game at Central Hardin High School, Bell received a call from Tim. Benjamin had died from his injuries.

Bell said Benjamin was about to be moved from Saudi Arabia to Germany when his blood pressure dropped. 

Bell ached thinking about Pennington’s family not being able to be with Benjamin in his final moments.

“Their hurt is so real and so powerful. I can’t fathom the loss of their son,” Bell said. “That distance made a real difference.”

As the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran enters its second week, Glendale and the larger Hardin County community are now mourning one of their own. According to those who knew him best, Pennington was a well-liked, confident young man who made friends easily. 

An Eagle Scout and high school athlete, Pennington was enrolled in an automotive technology career pathway at his alma mater, Central Hardin High School. However, he changed his career plans and joined the Army in 2017 right after graduating. 

At the time of his death, Pennington was a sergeant assigned to the 1st Space Brigade at Fort Carson, Colorado. The U.S. Army said in a news release that Pennington will be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.

Glendale is a typical small town — a Mayberry of today, as Bell likes to say. It’s quiet, with plenty of antique shops and family-owned restaurants lining its historic boulevard. Residents here take pride in how long they’ve lived here, and many have never dreamed of leaving the community they’ve built.

“I moved here 20 years ago, and I’m considered a young-in,” said Sherry Creek, owner of The Mercantile, a home goods store on East Main Street.

Some, like Eddie Best, trace their roots back to the 1800s. On March 10, Best was inside The Whistle Stop, a southern-style family restaurant that has only changed hands twice in its 50-year history. It was a Tuesday, which meant he was picking up his family’s regular order of two open-faced roast beef sandwiches, a side of greens and baked apples.

“Family, that’s why I stayed all these years,” said Best, 45.

The ties that bind this close-knit community make Pennington’s death even more impactful for the town of about 2,000 residents, located about an hour south of Louisville. In the few days since the news broke, Bell said his and others’ phones have been ringing nonstop.

“The people are wanting to know what to do, how to do,” Bell said. “Everybody is struggling in darkness, trying to figure out how to bring a little light to the Pennington family in their struggle and transition.”

The Penningtons, by all accounts, are active and involved community members. Tim Pennington has been a long-standing member of the town’s Lions Club and coaches cross country and track at Central Hardin High School.