West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Exciting game.

Good Points for WLU:
- offensive movement - Meininger will wear out big men in man to man defense by giving them a "John Havlichek" like tour of the court.. It keeps teams from resting when they are on defense.
- Hill and Dyer played good defense on a very talented player. for most of the game.
- Hill is very talented who is only going to get better.
- In recent games they have been hitting the boards hard. They get more dominant as their opponents tire and are a step slow in getting to rebound position
- Primmer is a money shooter
- They won without Moore

Areas for improvement
- clock management - Bolon and Meininger took 3s with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock with under 2 minutes. Gave Concord extra possessions at end of regulation, which allowed them to get back in contention.
- Situational awareness - With < 1 minute, Dyer fouled bolte on a break away for an and-one which allowed them to tie the game. If you let him score, they have to go into fouling mode to stop the clock.
- Some guys are reaching or leaning on the between the legs shake and bake by Bolte. That allowed him to get by them. IMHO, between the legs dribbling is way overrated. Watch the midsection and forget about the shake and bake, as the ball goes where the midsection goes.


Hopefully, this young team will learn from this game.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Exciting game.

Good Points for WLU:
- offensive movement - Meininger will wear out big men in man to man defense by giving them a "John Havlichek" like tour of the court.. It keeps teams from resting when they are on defense.
- Hill and Dyer played good defense on a very talented player. for most of the game.
- Hill is very talented who is only going to get better.
- In recent games they have been hitting the boards hard. They get more dominant as their opponents tire and are a step slow in getting to rebound position
- Primmer is a money shooter
- They won without Moore

Areas for improvement
- clock management - Bolon and Meininger took 3s with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock with under 2 minutes. Gave Concord extra possessions at end of regulation, which allowed them to get back in contention.
- Situational awareness - With < 1 minute, Dyer fouled bolte on a break away for an and-one which allowed them to tie the game. If you let him score, they have to go into fouling mode to stop the clock.
- Some guys are reaching or leaning on the between the legs shake and bake by Bolte. That allowed him to get by them. IMHO, between the legs dribbling is way overrated. Watch the midsection and forget about the shake and bake, as the ball goes where the midsection goes.


Hopefully, this young team will learn from this game.

Nice points here, Columbus. In particular, I also noticed the clock management issues. There seemed to be points in both regulation and the first OT when WLU was up and made boneheaded turnovers or took ill-advised shots. I kept thinking we were nearing the point when Concord would start fouling and WLU could put it away at the line, but just as we would near that point, WLU would make a poor decision to add a Concord possession (which Bolte would inevitably make good on). So, yes, a bit of the youth showed toward the end. Howlett even commented on that very thing to the sideline reporter on the way to the locker room. But hopefully the young kids learn from a game like this, as the tourney games always seem to feel like this one did.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Exciting game.

Good Points for WLU:
- offensive movement - Meininger will wear out big men in man to man defense by giving them a "John Havlichek" like tour of the court.. It keeps teams from resting when they are on defense.
- Hill and Dyer played good defense on a very talented player. for most of the game.
- Hill is very talented who is only going to get better.
- In recent games they have been hitting the boards hard. They get more dominant as their opponents tire and are a step slow in getting to rebound position
- Primmer is a money shooter
- They won without Moore

Areas for improvement
- clock management - Bolon and Meininger took 3s with over 20 seconds left on the shot clock with under 2 minutes. Gave Concord extra possessions at end of regulation, which allowed them to get back in contention.
- Situational awareness - With < 1 minute, Dyer fouled bolte on a break away for an and-one which allowed them to tie the game. If you let him score, they have to go into fouling mode to stop the clock.
- Some guys are reaching or leaning on the between the legs shake and bake by Bolte. That allowed him to get by them. IMHO, between the legs dribbling is way overrated. Watch the midsection and forget about the shake and bake, as the ball goes where the midsection goes.


Hopefully, this young team will learn from this game.

Get Meininger training. He's gonna get ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner when these two eventually run in to each other.

If he thought Sleva was bad ... whole new experience coming.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Get Meininger training. He's gonna get ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner when these two eventually run in to each other.

It certainly would be interesting to see. The "biggest" teams WLU faces in conference are FSU (with incredibly athletic forwards) and WV Wesleyan. Those Serbs are big boys, but not nearly as talented as the IUP bigs. But in both of those games--facing the biggest bigs he'll face--Meininger had a few of his best games (including the triple double game again WVW). Granted, he's never seen the COMBO of size+athleticism that IUP will bring, but he's done well to hold his own against the size (WVW) OR athleticism (FSU). But you might be right that the combo could be lethal for him. All I know is I sure hope we get an opportunity to find out! That would likely mean good things for both programs in the early rounds of the tourney.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

It certainly would be interesting to see. The "biggest" teams WLU faces in conference are FSU (with incredibly athletic forwards) and WV Wesleyan. Those Serbs are big boys, but not nearly as talented as the IUP bigs. But in both of those games--facing the biggest bigs he'll face--Meininger had a few of his best games (including the triple double game again WVW). Granted, he's never seen the COMBO of size+athleticism that IUP will bring, but he's done well to hold his own against the size (WVW) OR athleticism (FSU). But you might be right that the combo could be lethal for him. All I know is I sure hope we get an opportunity to find out! That would likely mean good things for both programs in the early rounds of the tourney.

We may. Never know. Lot of good teams in the Atlantic. Catch several on the wrong night and IUP or WL will be taking the dirt nap.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I was just messing with Boat there. WL would be a total pain in the *** to play. We all know that.


In all honesty, I've seen just about every good team in the Atlantic. IUP has played them (almost) all. Incredibly difficult schedule and their resume is out of this world.

Of all the teams we've played, I actually think the two best are Virginia State and East Stroudsburg. Concord is likely third. I'd rather play Fairmont again any day over Concord. I rate Concord and Shippensburg as about a dead draw. That would be a fantastic game. Le Moyne, despite their current record, was also a very good team. They've played a real tough schedule -- including some of the 'showcase' type tournaments.


I do really believe the CIAA is getting two teams in this year, which means the PSAC and MEC are getting the 6 other spots. Both races are going to be incredible.

When East Stroudsburg is 'up' for a game, they are a handful. Very deep. Tough kids. They go 12-13 deep, routinely, like WL does. How you explain their losses to some of those teams ... no idea.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Seem to have missed that Evan French is back. If he can quickly round back into game shape, that would be a huge addition. DEADLY shooter with a high, high defensive motor.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Anyone else feeling a bit odd about today's WJU game? It just doesn't feel like it will have the same juice as a typical WJU-WLU game given that the opponent is 1-10 coming in. There's something a little sad about losing that juiced up rivalry game from the schedule. I wonder if WJU will play above it's head simply because it's a WLU game, or if WLU will run them out of the building. I don't know--it just feels like today loses a little something without Sancomb in the building. I wonder if this is how you IUPers feel about the now-lopsided Cal rivalry now that Cal has been down for so long.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Anyone else feeling a bit odd about today's WJU game? It just doesn't feel like it will have the same juice as a typical WJU-WLU game given that the opponent is 1-10 coming in. There's something a little sad about losing that juiced up rivalry game from the schedule. I wonder if WJU will play above it's head simply because it's a WLU game, or if WLU will run them out of the building. I don't know--it just feels like today loses a little something without Sancomb in the building. I wonder if this is how you IUPers feel about the now-lopsided Cal rivalry now that Cal has been down for so long.

It's still very odd for me to see the Cal game on a Wednesday night. It gets no buzz anymore, either. It's just another game. I think thats the opinion of most who followed the program back to that era. It had about a 12-year (1993-2005) run of being just fantastic. You had to be seated before warm-ups of the women's game to get a seat at either venue. That was back in the bleacher days before all the chairback reserved seats arrived in the new arena's.



I even grew accustomed to tuning in to the WJ vs WL game every year. For D2 anyway, it was must-see TV the past several years. I won't today. It will be a slaughter.

That said, I have no doubt Sancomb will quickly fix Cal. He's an elite coach at this level. It was cool to finally see him and Joe Lombardi square off. Neither think much of the coaching box. They might as well have held hands at mid-court.

[Dirtybird]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Gonna watch it but yeah there is not the excitement leading up to it. The past few years wins and loses in this rivalry have been evenly divided. Packed houses, national rankings and numerous overtimes was the norm. I know anything can happen but the allure of the game being a toss up is not there this year. It is a bummer. WL is young but WJ is younger, they may start 5 freshman today. With DS gone and no one on the roster that has logged meaningful minutes for WJ in this rivalry, the "rivalry" may not feel the same for this years Jesuit team.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

As expected, a match-up with a bit more fizzle than sizzle. The atmosphere was great . . . in the beginning. The start of the game saw a SRO crowd of close to 1,800 people (including many announcements from the PA announcer about following fire code). By the first media time out of the second half, the place was a ghost town. The student section was empty by then--nothing to see here; back to the dorms to party. Just disappointing to see. Although, I imagine a similar atmosphere (with a less disappointing game) next weekend against Fairmont. Time to declare a new rival. Just because they're further than 12 miles away doesn't mean Fairmont can't just become the new rivalry game I guess.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Obviously not a fan of WJ, but I think it's a bit premature to stick a fork in the rivalry. Way too much history to throw it away after one bad year by WJ. WJ will rebound and I think pretty quickly. Add to that the addition of football and I think the rivalry between WLU and WJU will be strong for many, many years.

As for a primary rival for Fairmont, I'd look down I68 to Frostburg.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Obviously not a fan of WJ, but I think it's a bit premature to stick a fork in the rivalry. Way too much history to throw it away after one bad year by WJ. WJ will rebound and I think pretty quickly. Add to that the addition of football and I think the rivalry between WLU and WJU will be strong for many, many years.

As for a primary rival for Fairmont, I'd look down I68 to Frostburg.

I hope you're right that they'll bounce back quickly. It's good for the area and the conference when they're going toe to toe. But, boy, they looked REALLY down last night. I fear it'll be more than a few years before they bounce back completely.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I hope you're right that they'll bounce back quickly. It's good for the area and the conference when they're going toe to toe. But, boy, they looked REALLY down last night. I fear it'll be more than a few years before they bounce back completely.

Difference between bouncing back and bouncing back completely. They are a quality academic school with instant connections in the Catholic school community. Provided administration provides them the schollies to compete, they should be relatively "good" probably the year after next. To be on of the top 3 teams in the MEC will depend on the quality of the HC as a basketball coach AND recruiter.

Tough year with him coming in so late. It will be a "good" year if he can ID 2 or maybe 3 players with enough quality to build on.

[Layton]