West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Scrub]

Time for a coaching search for the women

To be fair, he's had a terrible run of luck relating to health. Bailee Smith's ACL injury last year was a serious blow to the program (and she's really only now beginning to round back into form). There are about 5 girls (some of whom played big minutes last year (like a Halley Smith) and including this year's starting PG Anna Lucarelli) in tracksuits this year. And Grace Faulk is a shell of herself right now due to nagging injuries, but is gutting it out for the good of the team and for her last run as a Hilltopper.

Heck, because of some foul trouble yesterday, Coach Cooper went into OT with a walk-on on the floor. When you only have, like, 9 healthy women on the squad, it really handcuffs you. And that's been his situation for about 3 years running.

I don't know if there is something to be said about how they train, or if it's a run of terrible luck, but I'd like to see what these ladies could do with a fully healthy squad for once.

[Ship69]

Ahhh...progress. A very limited number of players will benefit from NIL and other ways to "pay" college players, but for most kids, this will cut off their access to college. Some may play a few years of AAU ball after HS, but they will find it difficult to juggle practice and AAU "showcases" with the demands of a full time job at Walmart or the local Quicky-Lube and will quit basketball.

Ahhh...but at least the self-richeous "college players must be paid" voices in the media will be able to point to the few players at blue blood P5's that make some dollars for the year or two they are there will smuggly be able to say that THEY made things better for real basketball players. Meanwhile, the guy who would have been a DII All American and gotten most of his college paid for will go to their car window and ask if they want Full Synthetic oil in their SUV

Whether players will be paid or not will be decided in the courts, where the NCAA has been losing consistently for quite a while now. What the media does or doesn't want will have little to do with it, especially at the D2 or D3 level. Personally, I feel a scholarship at our level of play is ample compensation. If a player can get a local car dealership or pizza joint to spring a few bucks for his or her endorsement, fine, since that already is a fact of life.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Speaking of guys and minutes, two observations and a question:

1. I didn't love seeing Spadafora only play 3 minutes. He took two shots to the head in those 3 minutes. I'm not sure if he sat the rest of the game because the injury is serious, or if Howlett just didn't want to take an unnecessary chances with the game mostly in hand by the end of the first half. Here's hoping Dante is back soon--he's a key cog in that Bravo platoon's success.

2. Wheeling played more players in this game (15) than WLU dresses.

3. We've talked for years about the enormous rosters Wheeling always seems to have (almost like a varsity and JV at times). Is there a rule about how many guys you can put in the scorebook at the beginning of a game? Is 15 the max (and therefore Wheeling used every last guy)?

I think 15 is the max dress list.

I noticed last week at Seton Hill they had 23 players on the floor in warmups -- 15 were dressed and the rest were in tracksuits. This seems to be a trend among the private schools.

More players equals more admissions money. Sell the dream.

Notre Dame came to IUP this year with what seemed two buses of players.

[Scrub]

And ten played at least 13 mins.

Speaking of guys and minutes, two observations and a question:

1. I didn't love seeing Spadafora only play 3 minutes. He took two shots to the head in those 3 minutes. I'm not sure if he sat the rest of the game because the injury is serious, or if Howlett just didn't want to take an unnecessary chances with the game mostly in hand by the end of the first half. Here's hoping Dante is back soon--he's a key cog in that Bravo platoon's success.

2. Wheeling played more players in this game (15) than WLU dresses.

3. We've talked for years about the enormous rosters Wheeling always seems to have (almost like a varsity and JV at times). Is there a rule about how many guys you can put in the scorebook at the beginning of a game? Is 15 the max (and therefore Wheeling used every last guy)?

[TopperNation]

Time for a coaching search for the women

I totally agree with this statement! His time on the hilltop has run out, there is no way this Women's program should be regressing this bad. I know WL is normally loyal to it's coaches (see WL Football), so I'm not sure how long they would allow this to go on.

[Layton]

Wonder how much longer he’ll last at Wheeling

[Columbuseer]

Wlu 123 wheeling 76. Johnson started and played 26 mins and scored 13 pts. Coach took him out with 12 minutes left and they were down 27. He was worn out.
wlu forced 23 turnovers, including 14 steals. Out rebounded them 50 to 25. Had 31 assists. Hit 12 three's
no wlu player played over 24 mins. And ten played at least 13 mins.

[Columbuseer]

He's not our type of player. Doesn't shoot the three well enough or often enough.

He shoots 45% from three On 37 for 82.
he is not our type of player for he requires the ball in his hands and his motor is not high enough for this style.

[Layton]

Hope you didn’t have Wheeling +46

[Layton]

Time for a coaching search for the women

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Is +25.5 a fair betting line in a rivalry game when almost every game Wheeling has played has been single digits, a number of them under 5 points?

I get WL is good, and Wheeling doesn’t have the W/L record, but in a rivalry game that’s historically close, I feel like Vegas would have this somewhere around 9-15 points.

What say you?

What I say is buyer beware. Very hard to place a bet not knowing if a teams best player is actually playing.

[IUPHawks24]

Ahhh...progress. A very limited number of players will benefit from NIL and other ways to "pay" college players, but for most kids, this will cut off their access to college. Some may play a few years of AAU ball after HS, but they will find it difficult to juggle practice and AAU "showcases" with the demands of a full time job at Walmart or the local Quicky-Lube and will quit basketball.

Ahhh...but at least the self-richeous "college players must be paid" voices in the media will be able to point to the few players at blue blood P5's that make some dollars for the year or two they are there will smuggly be able to say that THEY made things better for real basketball players. Meanwhile, the guy who would have been a DII All American and gotten most of his college paid for will go to their car window and ask if they want Full Synthetic oil in their SUV

What on earth are you talking about?

[boatcapt]

This is something athletics departments at this level are going to have to start thinking about a lot. There’s a serious chance that either the courts or NLRB will hold that student-athletes are employees and have to be paid. There’s no legal requirement that someone has to actually make their employer money to be considered an employee so even if lower-level football programs were bleeding money that’s not going to be an excuse.

I haven’t seen this issue brought up here much because we tend to think of big FBS teams when we talk paying players but we as fans may need to start preparing for the day when our alma maters no longer have a football/basketball team; and not just those from small or struggling schools. Alternatively we may have to prepare to see schools move to more of a club-style program w/o scholarships and with substantially less control over the players times/lives in order to keep some sort of intercollegiate athletic program where the players don’t meet the definition of employees.

Ahhh...progress. A very limited number of players will benefit from NIL and other ways to "pay" college players, but for most kids, this will cut off their access to college. Some may play a few years of AAU ball after HS, but they will find it difficult to juggle practice and AAU "showcases" with the demands of a full time job at Walmart or the local Quicky-Lube and will quit basketball.

Ahhh...but at least the self-richeous "college players must be paid" voices in the media will be able to point to the few players at blue blood P5's that make some dollars for the year or two they are there will smuggly be able to say that THEY made things better for real basketball players. Meanwhile, the guy who would have been a DII All American and gotten most of his college paid for will go to their car window and ask if they want Full Synthetic oil in their SUV

[IUP24]

If that guy is indeed out and I had to bet Wheeling, I'd want +25.5

Is +25.5 a fair betting line in a rivalry game when almost every game Wheeling has played has been single digits, a number of them under 5 points?

I get WL is good, and Wheeling doesn’t have the W/L record, but in a rivalry game that’s historically close, I feel like Vegas would have this somewhere around 9-15 points.

What say you?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Rivalry game so through the line out the window. Realistically on a player for player basis, WLU should win by 20+. But it could be a single digit game.

If that guy is indeed out and I had to bet Wheeling, I'd want +25.5