Western Kentucky has already played ranked teams such as Gonzaga and Tennessee, plus Southern Illinois, a Sweet 16 participant last year.

But according to WKU point guard Tyrone Brazelton, tonight’s Sun Belt Conference opener at Troy might be the Hilltoppers’ most important game so far.

“This is a big game for the simple fact that we have to start off the conference right,” Brazelton said. “This game is the biggest game of the year, probably. You set the tone, how you’re going to play the rest of the conference season.”

The rest of the league opened SBC play before Christmas, but after last weekend’s 88-78 loss at Southern Illinois, the Hilltoppers began thinking about SBC play when returning to practice Wednesday.

“It’s the start of the second season,” WKU guard Courtney Lee said. “We’re playing for a championship now and it’s a different season. We’re going in like it’s a new season, and we’re going to lock in and try to win the whole conference.”

Until last weekend’s loss at SIU, the Hilltoppers had generally been pleased with their nonconference performances. While WKU fell short to Tennessee and Gonzaga, plus stumbled at Northern Arizona, coach Darrin Horn said the Hilltoppers had generally shown improvement.

But Southern Illinois’ ability to score on the Hilltoppers was disappointing - an SIU squad that had been struggling from the field shot better than 56 percent against Western. WKU also forced only 12 turnovers, its second lowest total of the year.

“We’d like to have a couple more of those wins, without question, but up until Saturday, we were pleased and thought we were making progress,” Horn said. “And Saturday, I think we took a step back on the defensive end.”

While there have been plenty of missed opportunities for the Hilltoppers (8-4, 0-0) to improve their resume for March, those wins will have little meaning if the Hilltoppers don’t control the Sun Belt Conference.

WKU finished 12-6 in league play last year, a record that couldn’t have been glossed over with quality nonconference victories.

“We’re not going to play in the Big East or in the SEC, where you know 10 of our 16 games are coming against top 70 teams in the RPI,” Horn said. “We could be undefeated, and if you go out in league play and finish 12-6 like we did last year, it really doesn’t matter.”

That makes a good start tonight imperative. WKU tripped out of the gates last year, falling at home to North Texas.

“This is definitely a statement game,” Brazelton said. “It’s a statement to our team that everything we’ve done is for this.”

If recent history is an indication, making a statement tonight won’t be easy. WKU swept Troy last year, but had to hang on: The Hilltoppers’ barely grabbed a 75-74 win in Trojan Arena, and needed Lee’s last-second 3-pointer to force overtime before beating Troy 82-78 in E.A. Diddle Arena last season.

WKU was also throttled 76-49 in 2005-06, Troy’s first year in the SBC.

“It’s a difficult opponent for everybody to play against,” Horn said. “It’s just a unique style.”

Troy is tough to plan for because it lives and dies with a 2-3 zone defense and with the 3-point shot. Troy (6-5, 0-1) averages more than 32 3-point attempts a game.

The Trojans did lose four starters from last season and were picked to finish last in the SBC East this year, but Troy had won five straight before falling 84-73 at South Alabama last week. Troy had a 68-66 lead at defending East champion South Alabama with 7:39 remaining.

O’Darien Bassett is leading Troy, averaging 17.1 points a game.

While the Hilltoppers hope to be effective against Troy’s zone, they’d actually prefer not to see it at all.

“The first step to beating the zone is we have to beat them in transition,” Lee said. “We have to try and get easy buckets early before they can set up in it. Because they want to slow you down and fall back into the zone and force you to shoot a lot of jump shots.”