West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Layton]

[Layton]

Bolon to College of Charleston

[JDonAB92]

Quincy F Viktor Kova?evi? and Walsh G Christian Montague are transferring to West Lib. Both have good stats. Walsh plays great defense so Montague can play on the defensive end as well.

[boatcapt]

No announcement other than Dalton from among seniors. I was just assuming the worst case scenario that no seniors return. Hope Marlon and Luke decide to return. They could teach the younger players a lot,
Impressed that Dalton does not care about individual accolades. He would have become #1 in career scoring by game 5 next season.

Add Yoakum to the worst case list. I don't see him leaving but this year was his 4th in the program and in college so, it is a possibility.

[Columbuseer]

Did your PG say he wasn't coming back? I must have missed it.

No announcement other than Dalton from among seniors. I was just assuming the worst case scenario that no seniors return. Hope Marlon and Luke decide to return. They could teach the younger players a lot,
Impressed that Dalton does not care about individual accolades. He would have become #1 in career scoring by game 5 next season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Assuming worst case: existing players in portal do indeed transfer and no seniors return to WLU, who do you think will be in the two platoons?
I would guess that several starting spots would be obvious, Here is one guess in no particular order:

Platoon A

Robinson III
Yoakum
Butler
Watson
McKinney


Platoon B

Sarson
Rasile
Powell or Hiles
Spadafora
Satterfield

Redshirt maybe to get stronger, ala Yoakum?
Webb?

Did your PG say he wasn't coming back? I must have missed it.

[Columbuseer]

Assuming worst case: existing players in portal do indeed transfer and no seniors return to WLU, who do you think will be in the two platoons?
I would guess that several starting spots would be obvious, Here is one guess in no particular order:

Platoon A

Robinson III
Yoakum
Butler
Watson
McKinney


Platoon B

Sarson
Rasile
Powell or Hiles
Spadafora
Satterfield

Redshirt maybe to get stronger, ala Yoakum?
Webb?

[Columbuseer]

FYI
West Liberty Players mentioned 24 times in the top 50 nationally in various individual statistics

Top 50 Nationally in Individual Statistics 2020-2021 Season
Stat	Player	Rank	Value	Notes
Assist to Turnover Ratio	Luke Dyer	4	3.39	All ranked higher played < 15 games; luke played 23 games and lower FG % affected stats
Three-Point Field Goal Made	Dalton Bolon	6	68
Total Field Goal Attempts	Dalton Bolon	7	334
Total Steals	Luke Dyer	7	51
Three-Point Field Goal Attempts	Dalton Bolon	10	133
Total Points	Dalton Bolon	10	490
Total Field Goal Made	Dalton Bolon	10	171	tie
Total Field Goal Made	Patrick Robinson III	10	171	tie
Double Doubles	Dalton Bolon	19	7	tie
Steals Per Game	Luke Dyer	19	2.22
Three-Point Field Goal Percentage	Dalton Bolon	21	44.44
Total Rebounds	Dalton Bolon	21	176
Points Per Game	Dalton Bolon	24	21.3
Free Throw Percentage	Dalton Bolon	25	89.89
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game	Dalton Bolon	25	2.96
Free Throw Attempts	Patrick Robinson III	25	118
Free Throw Made	Patrick Robinson III	25	90	tie
Total Assists	Luke Dyer	28	95
Total Blocks	Marlon Moore, Jr.	38	24	tie
Total Rebounds	Marlon Moore, Jr.	41	161
Points Per Game	Patrick Robinson III	41	20.4
Free Throw Made	Dalton Bolon	45	80
Total Points	Patrick Robinson III	49	469	tie
Total Field Goal Attempts	Patrick Robinson III	50	319	tie

[Columbuseer]

Wlu finishes #8 in final poll. Three MEC teams in top 25

D2SIDA Men's Top 25 (Final - 3/31)
1. Northwest Missouri State (16) (28-2)
2. West Texas A&M (19-3)
3. Lincoln Memorial (19-4)
4. Flagler (18-3)
5. Northern State (19-2)
6. Truman State (20-3)
7. Colorado School of Mines (18-3)
8. West Liberty State (18-5)
9. Daemen (10-6)
10. Hillsdale (21-3)
11. Lubbock Christian (18-3)
12. Alabama-Huntsville (15-4)
13. St. Thomas Aquinas (14-2)
14. Colorado Mesa (21-2)
15. Michigan Tech (15-8)
16. Washburn (20-7)
17. Lee (15-6)
18. Northwest Nazarene (13-5)
19. Dallas Baptist (17-5)
20. Charleston (14-3)
21. Belmont Abbey (18-5)
22. Emmanuel (17-7)
23. Mercyhurst (12-1)
24. Valdosta State (17-5)
25. Fairmont State (15-5)

[Columbuseer]

Originally posted by boatcapt View Post
WOW...If I were the coach and I had players that weren't following my instructions, they would be getting a large amount of game time sitting next to me while I "explained" the importance of playing the way I wanted them to play and how further inability to grasp the importance of team play might result in them playing on another team.

--- copied from vc transfer thread ---------------------------------
That is certainly one approach. The risk is that one wins the battle, but loses the war.
Almost every coach is probably facing this challenge. I have heard Huggins complain that they are not running the plays he calls or doing what they practice. He realizes that an autocratic approach could result in 6 guys in the portal.

The players had good intentions. I think it takes a while for elite players, who are driven to win, to resist the temptation to take matters into their own hands. What if you had gotten very high accolades, and had been successful playing against pro and D1 players in the summer, are now facing some flunkie who can't hold a candle to you? You might see that trying to split two defenders is no big deal. Except you go stumbling, bumbling as a result of a no-call and turn the ball over. Or you mistakenly believe that you can finish in the low post against 3 guys and it is a higher percentage shot than kicking it out for an open three. In a system that allows players the freedom to make decisions, they were making decisions that did not maximize the team's chances of winning.

In the 3 losses, the WLU PPP was between 1.00 and 1.09, which is very good for a D1 team, for WLU was playing D1 style ball. But it is not good enough to win a high % of games against hot-shooting D2 teams that present matchup issues for WLU. WLU needs to be in the 1.25 PPP range.

Sometimes experience is the best teacher. I think the Coach showed long-term thinking and great leadership in having a meeting to get buy in after the three losses. According to his interview (think it was on sportline on wvmetronews.com), he told them that if we revert to WLU basketball, we can win most of our remaining games. If we keep playing the way we have these last 3 games, we stand a good chance of not making the NCAA tournament. It worked.

Some great leaders have the same approach. Some quotes follow (google Eisenhower quotes and Patton Quotes and there are some gems).

"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it."

Dwight D. Eisenhower



Gen. George Patton

[boatcapt]

We have two programs that are measured very differently than just about every other team in the region. IUP went 30-3 two years ago, won the conference title but went out in Round 2. People thought that season was a disaster based on the ending. LOL. True story. Other schools would have thrown a parade. So, with winning comes very high expectations. Joe likely had a Final Four team (or more) in the Covid-shortened season.

He will be pretty 'loaded' next year although I think they need one more piece -- which they'll add any day now.

The region as a whole has seen a whole lot of talent leave town in the past few weeks. We'll see how it gets replaced.

Winning breads higher expectations. Before Crutch (BC), WLU fans would have been over the moon happy to win even one conf title. Now, after so much sustained success, anything less than a Regional Chip and E8 appearance is seen as an "off" season. But I dont see fan expectations as a bad thing. In fact, while coaches and players would probably never say this, I bet privately if they didn't win their conf title and were beat early in the NCAA Tourney, they probably feel that they didn't live up to their own expectations.

[Columbuseer]

We have two programs that are measured very differently than just about every other team in the region. IUP went 30-3 two years ago, won the conference title but went out in Round 2. People thought that season was a disaster based on the ending. LOL. True story. Other schools would have thrown a parade. So, with winning comes very high expectations. Joe likely had a Final Four team (or more) in the Covid-shortened season.

He will be pretty 'loaded' next year although I think they need one more piece -- which they'll add any day now.

The region as a whole has seen a whole lot of talent leave town in the past few weeks. We'll see how it gets replaced.

So true. I would say to complaining, spoiled fans:

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

hey maybe that could be a song :-)

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Last two, yea. But the IUP faithful posts about being "loaded" are about as common as WLU fans posts about the "WLU style!" Seems like every year we hear about how loaded IUP is and what makes WLU's style so effective!

We have two programs that are measured very differently than just about every other team in the region. IUP went 30-3 two years ago, won the conference title but went out in Round 2. People thought that season was a disaster based on the ending. LOL. True story. Other schools would have thrown a parade. So, with winning comes very high expectations. Joe likely had a Final Four team (or more) in the Covid-shortened season.

He will be pretty 'loaded' next year although I think they need one more piece -- which they'll add any day now.

The region as a whole has seen a whole lot of talent leave town in the past few weeks. We'll see how it gets replaced.

[boatcapt]

They are both loaded just about every year -- IUP dating back decades.

Both loaded just about every year...as in the team and the faithful??!! THAT would explain a LOT!!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Last two, yea. But the IUP faithful posts about being "loaded" are about as common as WLU fans posts about the "WLU style!" Seems like every year we hear about how loaded IUP is and what makes WLU's style so effective!

They are both loaded just about every year -- IUP dating back decades.