West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

West liberty now 6th in d2sida poll
https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...sida-poll.aspx

[Columbuseer]

It is very early and 3fg % generally decline over the course of the season. However WLU team 3fg% is 45% (27-60).
I think one factor is the driving penetration to collapse the defense followed by the kick out for wide open threes by numerous players.
There are 8 players shooting at least 40%.

3pt fg shooting %

Denbow,Garrett	0.667
Butler,Bryce	0.6
Montague,Christian	0.6
Mckinney,Malik	0.571
Robinson,Pat	0.5
Sarson,Ben	0.5
Rasile,Zach	0.455
Kovacevic,Viktor	0.4

[Columbuseer]

Pat Robinson III is MEC player of the week.

Pat averaged 26.0 ppg. for the two games. He shot 55 percent (18-of-33) from the floor, 50 percent (4-of-8) from the 3-point arc and 80 percent (12-of-15) from the foul line while grabbing a dozen rebounds, coming up with 8 steals and dishing out 8 assists.

His game against East Stroudsburg was incredible.

• Effective FG % of 75%
• 30 points in 32 minutes
• 60% from three (3-5)
• 67% from two (6-9)
• 75% FT (9-12)
• 6 rebounds
• 3 steals
• 5 assists
• Assist to turnover ratio of 2.5

Because he now sees the whole floor, on his drives he is kicking the ball out to a teammate for an open 3. This prevents help defense and ESU had no one who could stay in front of him 1-on-1.

Incredibly elite level performance.

[Scrub]

WLU vs Winston Salem State Observations

I thought WSSU was well coached and had some good players. They were in great condition and refused to give up, cutting a 20+ lead in the second half to only 11 with 5 minutes to go .
Impressive determination.

It was a very physical game, and the officials were using the "no blood, no foul" philosophy.

Statistically, the game was surprisingly close in the typical statistics - FT, FGA and 3FG shooting % and rebounds.

IMHO, the difference was the effect of WLU pressure, as indicated by the turnover margin (9 vs 24) and the number of steals (17 vs 5).
This led to WLU getting 25% more FGA attempts and a superior Assists per 100 possessions (22 vs 14).
WLU had a stellar 2.11 Assist to Turnover Ratio, versus 0.5 for WSSU.
Unless one has stellar 1-on-1 players, that is not a recipe for success.


It is hard to prepare for this kind of pressure, if one has not seen it before.

Agree that WSSU looked to be very well coached. They put up an impressive fight against a system they're not used to seeing. I was particularly impressed with the Hicklin kid. Very nice player. The Rams might be able to do some damage in the CIAA again this season.

[Columbuseer]

WLU vs Winston Salem State Observations

I thought WSSU was well coached and had some good players. They were in great condition and refused to give up, cutting a 20+ lead in the second half to only 11 with 5 minutes to go .
Impressive determination.

It was a very physical game, and the officials were using the "no blood, no foul" philosophy.

Statistically, the game was surprisingly close in the typical statistics - FT, FGA and 3FG shooting % and rebounds.

IMHO, the difference was the effect of WLU pressure, as indicated by the turnover margin (9 vs 24) and the number of steals (17 vs 5).
This led to WLU getting 25% more FGA attempts and a superior Assists per 100 possessions (22 vs 14).
WLU had a stellar 2.11 Assist to Turnover Ratio, versus 0.5 for WSSU.
Unless one has stellar 1-on-1 players, that is not a recipe for success.


It is hard to prepare for this kind of pressure, if one has not seen it before.

Statistic	West Liberty	WINSTON-SALEM STATE
Date	11/12/21	11/12/21
POINTS	104	82
FGM	37	29
FGA	80	64
FGPCT	46.3%	45.3%
3FGM	9	7
3FGA	25	18
3FGPCT	36.0%	38.9%
FTM	21	17
FTA	27	21
FTPCT	77.8%	81.0%
REBOUND OFFENSIVE	18	13
REBOUND DEFENSIVE	25	27
REBOUND TOTAL	43	40
ASSISTS	19	12
TURNOVERS	9	24
BLOCKS	6	2
STEALS	17	5
Num Possessions	83	84
Points per Possession	1.25	0.98
Assists per 100 Possessions	22.9	14.3
Assists to FG Made ratio	51.4%	41.4%
Assist to Turnover Ratio	2.11	0.50
Turnovers per 100 Possessions (< better)	10.8	28.6
Opponent Defensive Rebounds	27	25
Offensive Rebound Efficiency %	40.0%	34.2%
Effective FG %	51.9%	50.8%
Effective FG% Difference (team-Opp)	1.1%	-1.1%
FGA % Diff ((team FGA-Opp.FGA)/Opp)	25.0%	-20.0%

[boatcapt]

THIS is more like it! Defensive pressure is turned up to 11 and forcing East Stroud into a TON of turnovers...We are hitting 3's with reckless abandon...The offense is different than that trigered by Luke Dyer and Brady Arnold before him so it is going to take some getting used to. It's more what we ran with Cedric Harris as the PG...Drive and kick. We are definently making the extra pass that we weren't last night.

And Risile has a beautiful 3 point stroke!!

[Layton]

Broken foot for Bolon, terrible.

[Layton]

Bolon was hurt in his second game and is in a boot and on crutches

[Scrub]

OT:

NW Missouri lost today to Sioux Falls U.

Flagler lost yesterday.

Those are the #1 & #2 teams in the preseason poll. Weird year already. Let the games begin!

[Columbuseer]

[boatcapt]

With tonights win, Ben reached the 100 victory milestone! 4 seasons plus 1 game. Thats 9 games "quicker" than St Crutch even with the covid shortened season last year. Congrats Ben! Now go win us a National Championship!!!!!!!!

[Scrub]

Tomorrow's track meet should be fun. Toppers will have to be more efficient on offense against a good ESU D.

[boatcapt]

Wow...good end to the game. WU grabs a 72-70 win over ESU. WU faded late and lost the lead but they were able to gut back into the lead and survive!

[boatcapt]

It's a good game. ESU's defense is impressive, but their shot selection could be better. Wheeling is just being Wheeling--like an annoying mosquito that just won't go away.

Wheeling has no depth. I havent been paying close attention, but I haven't seen one sub!

[Scrub]

I'm watching the ESU vWheeling game from the ARSC...I think I see Columbser and Leyton sitting behind the scorers table!!

It's a good game. ESU's defense is impressive, but their shot selection could be better. Wheeling is just being Wheeling--like an annoying mosquito that just won't go away.