West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[IUP24]

Good one boat! The wl style is so different I would imagine most top seeded teams would prefer to play them later rather than in first round, despite fact one has less time to prepare.

What difference does one or two games make? The set up of the regional tournament creates a scenario where you play a difficult game in the first round most years. The Atlantic is a tough regional. IUP never technically even got out of the PSAC last year.

[boatcapt]

What difference does one or two games make? The set up of the regional tournament creates a scenario where you play a difficult game in the first round most years. The Atlantic is a tough regional. IUP never technically even got out of the PSAC last year.

Over the last 6 years (that as far back as I cared to look) the higher seeded team has a .694 winning %. But there have been a couple of first round upsets in the 1 v 8 and 2 v 7 games. In 2016 #8 Mercyhurst beat #1 WJU and in 2015 #7 Slippery Rock beat #2 Gannon.

[Columbuseer]

What difference does one or two games make? The set up of the regional tournament creates a scenario where you play a difficult game in the first round most years. The Atlantic is a tough regional. IUP never technically even got out of the PSAC last year.

Not much difference unless the wl style is a bad matchup. Lose some bragging rights if u lose in 1st round versus finals. Of course that cuts both ways.

I do wonder if mercyhurst would have made it to the final four, had they not drawn NW MSU in first round. Even so, They still gave them their best game.

Have not looked at data but often I sense that wl shoots a higher % of threes in first night versus next round.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Not much difference unless the wl style is a bad matchup. Lose some bragging rights if u lose in 1st round versus finals. Of course that cuts both ways.

I do wonder if mercyhurst would have made it to the final four, had they not drawn NW MSU in first round. Even so, They still gave them their best game.

Have not looked at data but often I sense that wl shoots a higher % of threes in first night versus next round.

I, too, wonder if IUP hadn't got Mercyhurst for a fourth time in Round 2.

Freaking Fairmont had them beat in Round 1 and couldn't close the final 40 seconds. Still bitter. Lol. Mercyhurst is so annoying to play ... you want to avoid them at all costs.

That regional sucked for us. Building was dead. We had to play West Chester for a third time (and second time in 6 days) ... then got Mercyhurst for Round 4. I knew after the way IUP pounded them the week before they wouldn't do it again.

I watched all three of WL's games here. The first two were incredibly entertaining and thrilling endings. The last was ugly.

[IUPalum]

Don't forget warming up to "Lady in Red."

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Don't forget warming up to "Lady in Red."

I will never, ever forget that moment. Unfortunately.

[boatcapt]

Not much difference unless the wl style is a bad matchup. Lose some bragging rights if u lose in 1st round versus finals. Of course that cuts both ways.

I do wonder if mercyhurst would have made it to the final four, had they not drawn NW MSU in first round. Even so, They still gave them their best game.

Have not looked at data but often I sense that wl shoots a higher % of threes in first night versus next round.

Seeding does matter once you get past Region.

[Columbuseer]

Seeding does matter once you get past Region.

Especially last year, when the battle was for second place as NW MSU was at another level from everyone else.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Especially last year, when the battle was for second place as NW MSU was at another level from everyone else.

They are this year, too.

[Columbuseer]

Has WL turned the corner against Ohio Dominican? Have the new players finally internalized the need for high effort, constant player movement and ball movement on offense?

The question is: can WL play at this level every night? Concord will be a good test, for they have a history of defeating us on their home court.

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Recap of Oh Dominican Game, statistically - novelette version

Ohio Dominican's record had many narrow losses, including two to top 25 Ashland and Indianapolis.

WL led 58-20 at the half and won by 44, 105-61. WL is now #2 in scoring at 103.8 behind (guess who) Nova Southeastern at 109.9.

WL showed the longest sustained effort in playing "West Liberty style" basketball of the entire season.
It appeared that the game has slowed down for Hazelbaker and Allessandro, and they are able to play without having to think so much about what to do and where to go. They negated an excellent rebounder and scorer for OhDom without committing fouls.

There was excellent ball movement and much fewer questionable one-on-one dribble drives. Almost 80% of the shots were high quality shots that were neither contested, off-balance, difficult nor rushed shots. WL had 20 assists and only 10 turnovers. This 2.00 Assist to turnover ratio is good for a PG, much less an entire team!

Bryce Butler continues to make excellent decisions with the basketball and the game is slowing down for him too as he is getting more comfortable.
Yoakum and Dyer took excellent shots also.

The shot selection of Bolon, Robinson III and McKinney continue to improve, but they have not reached their ceiling yet, which is scary. They are really dangerous when the floor is spread to cover the three-point shot.

Although Boswell is going through a temporary shooting slump, he creates chaos on the floor in ways that don't show up in the box score.

Their offensive rebounding becomes ever more dominant as fatigue starts to set in on the opponent. WL had 20 offensive rebounds to 8 for OHDom. They are 7th in the nation in offensive rebounding.

The team is playing more instinctively on the press. With their increased athletic ability this year, WL is leading the nation in steals per game at 13.
WL had 18 steals against OhDom and forced a total of 21 turnovers, while Oh Dom only had 12 assists (a .57 assist to turnover ratio speaks to the stifling defense of WL). WL has four players in the top 176 nationally in steals, led by Luke Dyer at #20, followed by Patrick Robinson III, Preston Boswell, and Malik McKinney. Malik's steals have really increased in recent games as he has gotten more comfortable.

The two platoons are getting closer to parity in their play and their effort is very, very high.

WL had an incredible 1.43 points per possession, which is unreal (last year WL led nation with 1.25).

[Scrub]

Any word on whether Moore has recovered from his high ankle sprain during the break? Or will we likely see Alessandro in the starting 5 again tomorrow?

[Columbuseer]

WL at Concord Novelette Version
WL eventually put away a persistent and well-coached Concord team in the second half, primarily due to a huge rebounding advantage and very good half-court defense. The ball movement and player movement on offense continues to improve.

Concord led 15-14 with 14:30 left in first half, when the first mini-blackout occurred. In less than 2 minutes, WL went on a 13-0 run to lead 27-15. It felt like a blow-out was impending.
But give Concord credit. WL entered a scoring drought at about 8:30 in the first half and scored only 2 free throws in the next 3 minutes. It seemed like WL lost defensive focus, which allowed Concord to get easy looks or get fouled. At 4:30, Concord led 42-39.
WL righted the ship and finally got the lead back for good with 1:36 remaining and ended the half leading 51-46.
Concord did not have a deep bench and they had expended huge amounts of energy in the first half. The open question for the second half was whether the effects of their effort would affect their shooting and rebounding.
Int the first 4 minutes of the second half, WL extended their lead to 63-49. Slowly, WL extended the lead over the next 4 minutes to 20 points, 80-60. Concord was seeing it slip away. The lead seesawed between 16 and 20 points for most of the remaining time, mainly due to deep threes by Johnson of Concord who hit 4 in a row. Concord also got to the foul line often, but could not capitalize, probably due to fatigue affecting their FT percentage. WL hit some threes late for the final score of 104-79.
KudosAreas for Improvement

[Scrub]

A good analysis overall, Columbus. I agree with all of your assessments. I, too, saw those gaping holes in the Concord defense for most of the game. You'd have thought WLU could have capitalized for backdoor cut after backdoor cut, but they didn't seem to recognize it and/or they misfired on the passes when they did recognize it.

To me, the big plus was the defensive pressure. There was a whole new level of intensity last night, it seemed to me, compared to pre-break games. Last night's defensive effort looked a lot more like those classic chaos-creating days of Corey Pelle and Alex Falk.

McKinney & Hazelbaker were particularly impressive in elevating their games from their pre-break performances. Perhaps something has "clicked" within the system for those two newcomers.

Overall, a solid win in a building that has given them trouble in the past. This had the markers of a classic trap game (solid opponent, well-coached opponent, long trip, a gym that has given WLU trouble in the past, first game out of a break, etc.), so to come out with that kind of intensity and not fall into the trap was really impressive. Good start to the second half!

[Columbuseer]

WL has a license to steal ....

WL has four players in the top 180 nationally in steals - Dyer, Robinson III, Boswell and McKinney, with the highest ranking at #20.
More bad news for opponents - if one looks at steals per 40 minutes, there is some serious incentive for opponents to protect the ball, as these players must have gone to the Javon Carter school of defense at WVU. LOL

Normalized for 40 minutes:
Dyer - 4.3
McKinney - 3.8
Robinson III - 3.3
Boswell - 2.9
Butler - 2.7
Yoakum - 2.5


IMHO, these stats are impressive, given that they foul so infrequently on the steal attempts.
At one point, Concord put in a young, inexperienced sub at guard to give the starter a breather. Dyer harassed him so completely that the Concord coach had to take him out early and put the starter back in.
It is no fun bringing the ball up the court against these guys.

[Ship69]

Over the last 6 years (that as far back as I cared to look) the higher seeded team has a .694 winning %. But there have been a couple of first round upsets in the 1 v 8 and 2 v 7 games. In 2016 #8 Mercyhurst beat #1 WJU and in 2015 #7 Slippery Rock beat #2 Gannon.

Shippensburg as the fifth seed in 2018 beat fourth-seeded West Liberty in the first round and top-seeded Virginia State in the second before losing to second-seeded conference foe East Stroudsburg in the regional final.