West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Scrub]

Although rusty, the offensive firepower of wlu is amazing. No will yoakum and they still win by 21. Butler now joins bolon, robinson iii, and yoakum as players who can fill up the stat sheet.

Who were players that surprised or impressed you?

I was pleasantly surprised by Watson's court vision and passing. For a big man (well, at least a WLU "big") to have those skills, that's huge.

I liked what I saw of Rasile's hustle and defense. Disappointed in his shooting performance. But that'll come.

Moore being such a presence inside in terms of blocks and rebounds was nice to see. WLU doesn't usually have that kind of "rim protector" player to rely on--maybe Moore can develop further into that kind of force for this senior year (a la Keene Cockburn).

And as you said, Butler's development into the next do-it-all guy will be fun to watch. This may sound like sacrilege, but Butler--due to body type, skill set, versatility of game--looks a heck of lot like Seger Bonifant did when he was a Soph.

[Columbuseer]

Although rusty, the offensive firepower of wlu is amazing. No will yoakum and they still win by 21. Butler now joins bolon, robinson iii, and yoakum as players who can fill up the stat sheet.

Who were players that surprised or impressed you?

[Columbuseer]

Little rusty and little info on nd players in first half.

[boatcapt]

Well that was an uneven game. WLU 98 Notre Dame 77. Score seemed like it was an easy W for the Toppers and it kind of was in the second half. But even though the numbers were OK, I kind of went ehhh. First, WLU went with nine players. Think I spied Yoakum with a cast on his right leg so that is concerning. First half WLU was pounding it inside which was different...don't know if it was NDC's D that was causing this or an effort by WLU. Either way, it kind of let NDC hang pretty well in the first half. Only took 6 3's in the half and made only 1 which is nothing like WLU! 2nd half was much better and more WLU like but still looked a little disjointed.

Like I said, end of the day the numbers looked WLU like and we did win by 20+ but it just didn't feel right.

1 down and 15 to go...1-0 is better than 0-1 and I'll take the W.

[Columbuseer]

Wlu wins 98-77.
won to battle 20 to 8 and rebounds 44-29,
Patrick 20, Dalton 20 bryce 18 malik 10 rasile 9
only 9 played. Max min was 28 , min was 16.
no yoakum.
Future bright for Watson and rasile. forced two 10 second calls.
Nd hit 47% from three. They have some athletes.

[boatcapt]

Pre game thoughts
Notre dame only has two players returning so they are unknown from a scouting perspective. It may take a while to figure them out. But it also means they have not played together which is an advantage for wlu in playing them early.

My guess at first platoon for wlu
Bolon
yoakum
robinson iii
dyer
butler

second platoon:
Mckinney
Moore jr
Rasile
Hazelbaker
Watson

I can see 9 guys getting 20 mins or more and some 2nd platoon guys getting more mins than first platoon. Second platoon seems too tall so one of them may be in first platoon, or they wont use 5 in, 5 out but a 3 out 3 in. Or situational: If a guard is killing us, i see Malik coming in to shut him down like he did abrams from wv state.

I can see that as the two platoons. I see them using the two platoons to start the game and at the begining of the 2nd half. After that it will probably be situational substitutions.

I kind of like having the two bigs on the second platoon. Make the other team adjust it's offense.

Now roll out the balls and lets play us some basketball!!!

[Columbuseer]

Pre game thoughts
Notre dame only has two players returning so they are unknown from a scouting perspective. It may take a while to figure them out. But it also means they have not played together which is an advantage for wlu in playing them early.

My guess at first platoon for wlu
Bolon
yoakum
robinson iii
dyer
butler

second platoon:
Mckinney
Moore jr
Rasile
Hazelbaker
Watson

I can see 9 guys getting 20 mins or more and some 2nd platoon guys getting more mins than first platoon. Second platoon seems too tall so one of them may be in first platoon, or they wont use 5 in, 5 out but a 3 out 3 in. Or situational: If a guard is killing us, i see Malik coming in to shut him down like he did abrams from wv state.

[Columbuseer]

It will be interesting to see who gets Alessandro's minutes. I can see brice or Marlon starting with Owen and Elijah getting some of the minutes.

[Columbuseer]

WLU doesn't seem to really change their "starting 5" very often. Don't know why that is but they pretty much trot out the same 5 game after game, even when a player on the second wave is clearly playing better than his first platoon counterpart. One other unique thing that I've noticed is that a second wave player will often log more minutes than his first wave counterpart. Guess you have to log that under if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!

Seems to be that the top-top WLU player (Bolon, Seager, etc) will average about 30 minutes per game, then there is a whole glut of players in the low 20 minute range than a couple of straglers, typically true freshmen, in the 8 to 10 range.

Starting with uc home game (Boswell gone) 7 or 8 players averaged 18 mins or more per game. Malik, Patrick and brice's minutes increased significantly. Will, Dalton and Luke had some games of heavy minutes probably due to one less person in the rotation.

[boatcapt]

Good choice. Another possibility is brice butler. As he acclimated to the college game he started influencing the game toward the end of the season. If he reduces his number of blocking fouls on defense he will be able to stay on the floor longer. I really have issues naming a 1st platoon after bolon, dyer, and yoakum. So many
starter level players that it may be situational based on the opponent. Facing an elite guard, use malik. Facing weak guards, use patrick, etc.

I can see many players averaging around 20 mins.

WLU doesn't seem to really change their "starting 5" very often. Don't know why that is but they pretty much trot out the same 5 game after game, even when a player on the second wave is clearly playing better than his first platoon counterpart. One other unique thing that I've noticed is that a second wave player will often log more minutes than his first wave counterpart. Guess you have to log that under if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it!

Seems to be that the top-top WLU player (Bolon, Seager, etc) will average about 30 minutes per game, then there is a whole glut of players in the low 20 minute range than a couple of straglers, typically true freshmen, in the 8 to 10 range.

[Columbuseer]

On the cusp of the season so I'll ask the question I ask every year, who will be WLU's "surprise" star? Talking about the guy that has been a bit player but steps up and becomes a top of the marque player night in and night out and/or a surprise true or redshirt freshman who wapected to sit the year out or be an end of the bench player who breaks out and becomes a integral part of the offense/defense?

My pick is Owen Hazelbaker. I see him being in the starting lineup night in and out, getting 20+ minutes a night and bosting his scoring average from 4.3 PPG to the low teens and I also see him stepping up his defensive game.

Good choice. Another possibility is brice butler. As he acclimated to the college game he started influencing the game toward the end of the season. If he reduces his number of blocking fouls on defense he will be able to stay on the floor longer. I really have issues naming a 1st platoon after bolon, dyer, and yoakum. So many
starter level players that it may be situational based on the opponent. Facing an elite guard, use malik. Facing weak guards, use patrick, etc.

I can see many players averaging around 20 mins.

[boatcapt]

On the cusp of the season so I'll ask the question I ask every year, who will be WLU's "surprise" star? Talking about the guy that has been a bit player but steps up and becomes a top of the marque player night in and night out and/or a surprise true or redshirt freshman who was expected to sit the year out or be an end of the bench player who breaks out and becomes a integral part of the offense/defense?

My pick is Owen Hazelbaker. I see him being in the starting lineup night in and out, getting 20+ minutes a night and bosting his scoring average from 4.3 PPG to the low teens and I also see him stepping up his defensive game.

[boatcapt]

If they are still playing by then ... they'd lump the Atlantic teams in with another Regional somewhere. They cut the field down to 48 teams this year which means there will only be 6 regional hosts instead of the normal 8 sites.

Although they are 'independent' ... I'd certainly count Mercyhurst as one of the best teams in the 'old Atlantic' region. We'll see if they can find enough games to qualify. They have three games in the books. They'll play Gannon twice. Salem twice. Bluefield twice. But, they still need a few more.

Yes, the field has been cut to 48 but I've seen nothing from the NCAA to say how they are going to impliment this. In these Covid times were sports administrators and coaches are 1. Limiting games to a small geographic area, 2. Limiting travel costs as much as possible and 3. Facing a situation were the NCAA $'s given for travel likely will be reduced, I think the focus will be on limiting cross regional contact and travel to a bare minimum.

Six region bracket doesn't work unless you are giving two "regions" byes in the Elite 8 first round. That would give a pretty big rest advantage to the teams getting the byes as well as a free ticket to the Final Four.

Another option would be to seed top to bottom 1-48 and then run a single tourney. In these Covid times, doubt the NCAA is going to be too interested in running a single location 48 team DII tourney so that leaves some other construct. As they have "blown up" the regions in favor of top to bottom seeding, the only real option is home court games determined by the highest seed. This has some pretty big problems such as what do you do if you have a game with one team from West Virginia and another from California? What if the next round has the winner of that game traveling to Texas? What if you have two teams scheduled for a game from states that are not allowing such things...were do they play?

IMHO, it is more likely that the NCAA stays with the existing 8 regions with 6 teams per region. First "round" 3v6 and 4v5 games at the higher seed's home. Then a quickie two day Regional in "Regional Bubbles" with 12:00 tip for 1 seed v lowest remaining seed, through cleaning of the arena then a 6:00 tip for the 2 v second lowest seed game. Regional champ game at 2:00 the next day then off to the "Championship Bubble" for a maximum of three games over a three day (four day MAYBE) period. That limits travel in the regional rounds and limits the number of teams in the Championship Rounds. Do it quick, do it cheap and do it in a way that limits exposure.

Of course, we are talking about the NCAA here and there are forces that have been itching to do away with the regions. They may win the day and create some wacky system were the top team in each region is chosen to "host" the region with the other five teams in that region chosen from anywere in the nation! Or some silly construct like that!!

We'll see on Hurst. NCAA has said that they are reducing the field but no word on how/weather they are going to change the selection criteria. Games v Salem, Bluefield and Gannon will help them get to a particular number, but they are going to cost them in the PI category. Would a 10-1 Hurst team with 6 of it's W's over bad Salem and Bluefield teams be enough to trump a 500 MEC team that had played six games against nationally ranked WLU, Fairmont and Charleston? The selection criteria might say no but the NCAA has been known to put it's thumb on the playoff selection scale from time to time!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

This year is such a crap shoot. Could depend on how the NCAA decides to seed the 8 regions. If they keep the regions as set, WLU is the odds on favorite to advance from the Atlantic to the Elite 8. They certainly wouldn't be a shoe in as both Fairmont and UC will have a little to say about it! IF the NCAA decides to do away with the regions, it will really be a crap shoot...It is not just what WLU's seeding is but also who else is seeded in their bracket.

Just my opinion here, but there needs to be a minimum of DII games that a school has to play AND a "recency" requirement to be "tournament eligible" this season. Maybe 10 games minimum with at least three within the month before the tournament start date. Don't have somthing like that and you could have teams that played a very small number of games and haven't played in three months being in the tourney...Well rested, healed and well practiced heading into the tourney.

If they are still playing by then ... they'd lump the Atlantic teams in with another Regional somewhere. They cut the field down to 48 teams this year which means there will only be 6 regional hosts instead of the normal 8 sites.

Although they are 'independent' ... I'd certainly count Mercyhurst as one of the best teams in the 'old Atlantic' region. We'll see if they can find enough games to qualify. They have three games in the books. They'll play Gannon twice. Salem twice. Bluefield twice. But, they still need a few more.

[Columbuseer]

I think Marlon Moore may play a big role. In the mec final he dominated on defense and offense. He neutralized McManus while playing great help defense. If u give him an open 3 he will hit it (50%) which creates huge matchup problems for bigs. If he stays out of foul trouble it could be the difference maker for a deep run.