West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Scrub]

The new fad (loophole) is to get players on academic scholarships. You can have a full ride player on academic ride and not count toward the (10) limit.

Word is Joe has Ethan Porterfield ... the region's next superstar ... on full adademdc ride. If you hit the jackpot and have two players qualify for academic money ... even better.

Yup. Dalton Bolon is on full-ride academic, I believe. That's a freebie. Hazelbaker was an all-academic performer with close to a 4.0 this year, so there's a good chance he's getting academic money as well.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Don't know. DII basketball, as with all DII sports, uses "scolarship equivilancies" with a limit of 10. So it is quite possible that 9 players are on full schollys and 2 are on half schollys...lots of ways a coach can parce up 10 schollys. Short of a player coming out and saying what scholarship he is getting, no real way of knowing. If I am counting correctly, there are 10 returning players and 4 incoming freshmen. I would imagine that some (all except Powell??) are receiving some portion of a scholarship. That would mean that one or more of the returning 10 players are receiving somthing less than a full ride. Logical choices are Conley and Hiles but short of them telling us, who knows?

The new fad (loophole) is to get players on academic scholarships. You can have a full ride player on academic ride and not count toward the (10) limit.

Word is Joe has Ethan Porterfield ... the region's next superstar ... on full adademdc ride. If you hit the jackpot and have two players qualify for academic money ... even better.

[boatcapt]

Looks like WLU picked up another verbal: Ben Sarson from Pittsburgh Central Catholic. At 6'6" 205 lbs., he'd be what passes for a "big" in the WLU system. Anyone have any intel (perhaps even our PSAC friends who might know the Pittsburgh high schools a bit)?

His other offers were from Ship & Cal, so perhaps PSAC folks know this kid?

Side note, one of the articles that was posted above made it clear that Luke Powell is coming in as a walk-on, so I'm guessing Howlett has one more scholly to play with. Might be that he's using it on Sarson?

Don't know. DII basketball, as with all DII sports, uses "scolarship equivilancies" with a limit of 10. So it is quite possible that 9 players are on full schollys and 2 are on half schollys...lots of ways a coach can parce up 10 schollys. Short of a player coming out and saying what scholarship he is getting, no real way of knowing. If I am counting correctly, there are 10 returning players and 4 incoming freshmen. I would imagine that some (all except Powell??) are receiving some portion of a scholarship. That would mean that one or more of the returning 10 players are receiving somthing less than a full ride. Logical choices are Conley and Hiles but short of them telling us, who knows?

[Scrub]

Looks like WLU picked up another verbal: Ben Sarson from Pittsburgh Central Catholic. At 6'6" 205 lbs., he'd be what passes for a "big" in the WLU system. Anyone have any intel (perhaps even our PSAC friends who might know the Pittsburgh high schools a bit)?

His other offers were from Ship & Cal, so perhaps PSAC folks know this kid?

Side note, one of the articles that was posted above made it clear that Luke Powell is coming in as a walk-on, so I'm guessing Howlett has one more scholly to play with. Might be that he's using it on Sarson?

[Columbuseer]

https://www.timesleaderonline.com/sp...-hoops-at-wlu/

[Columbuseer]

FYI Here is an interview with Malik McKinney, starting around minute 15.
He and Dyer are pickpockets on the court. If you bring the ball down to your waist inside, the ball is gone!
Malik has also stripped guys who show the ball to him while dribbling at half court!
At Seton Hill, he hit 28% of his threes. At WLU, it increased to over 41% for the season.
Although known as a shut-down defender, the WLU style has revealed he is a very dangerous force on offense.

https://topperstation.com/watch/hill...malik-mckinney

[Columbuseer]

I hope all the hilltoppers are working out hard.

cause i heard tell that there is a new young gun moseying into town and he is really fast on the draw.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpg301ntomQ

[Columbuseer]

Topperstation has been doing interviews with WLU players. Good interview with Luke Dyer starts at about minute 13. He was #1 in assist to Turnover ratio at 5.90 across D1, D2 and D3. All time record is 5.96 D2. D1 all time record is only around 5.26. Hit over 42% of this threes. Very humble guy. Just wants to win. Great defender too. https://topperstation.com/watch/hill...ball-luke-dyer

[boatcapt]

President announced his retirement.

Hate to update an old post, buuuuutttt...The finalists for the President position at WLU were announced and on-campus visits were scheduled, then cancled because of Covid. Finalsits are:

Dr. David Haney
Dr. Brian Crawford
Dr. Robert Colvin
Dr. Joe Delap

All have Dean and Provost experience while only Haney has past experience as a University President (Centenary University).

On campus visits and interviews have been pushed back until at least the fall with current President Greiner pushing his retirement date back to cover the delay.

[boatcapt]

Just as a team gets a rep, I think coaches do also. Seems like the rep on Howlett is that he is a top notch recruiter that brings in players that are well rounded and with high basketball IQ's. Once he get's them, he beats their lips off running a high tempo offense and pressure defense, and maybe more importantly, beating any hint of selfishness out of them. Obviously if the player has played, there is film on how much they have improved over HS, but even if they redshirted, there is the belief that Ben the teacher and WLU practice boot camp has improved a player drmatically. So if a player was a "marginal D1" coming out of HS, after a year at WLU, there is a belief that they are clearly D1 calibre now...And a WLU transfer that goes to another DII is probably going to be a leader on and off the court. Ben takes good players and makes them great!

[boatcapt]

https://ledenews.com/west-liberty-me...-richer-again/

That's a STRONG recruting class even though it's only three players. Question is, who do you redshirt? Heck, maybe NONE redshirt! That's a deep f'ing bench. When you are bring in an All-State performer that is a Top-10 single season AND career 3-point shooter in Ohio history as a WALK-ON...well...you get the idea. Not a legit "garbage time" player on WLU's roster. Can you imagine practice this coming year? Practice is going to be harder than almost every game WLU plays this coming year!

[Layton]

https://ledenews.com/west-liberty-me...-richer-again/

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I buy what you guys are saying about Watson, and the article you linked, Columbus, certainly makes it seem like he was in good company in his very difficult league. However, help me understand, then, why he only had a few small-time offers listed on VC? Is this a sign that VC didn't have him covered very well? That he was talking to a lot of schools but only got serious with one or two? I'm not sure. As an example, two days after Alessandro and/or Shifflett declared they were leaving WLU, there was a feeding frenzy for their services. The Jelani Simmons kid that IUP is courting is being crushed with offers--or so it appears on VC. Why are two bottom-feeding schools in the Northern Sun conference the only other offers Watson had? I'm not suggesting that he's a bad recruit. Signs point to him being an excellent recruit. I'm just trying to figure out how he got under so many radars (or maybe it's just that he was on a lot of radars but only a few publicly).

The offers we actually find out about ... are just the tip of the iceberg. Not all kids go on a 'look at me' bonanza on Twitter. You never see a peep about a "Mercyhurst offer" ... yet, they sure are pretty good every year.

Jelani Simmons better take one of those offers pretty soon. Most of them are probably already expired. Joe has two other offers out there right now (at least) that I am aware of ... only one of them is public. Fact is once the last spot is full (at IUP) ... the offer is gone. Jelani had a D1 Bryant offer early. Two days later they signed 3 guards. Poof. Kiss that one goodbye. I think he's holding out for the big (or, bigger) one ... but, it may never come.

Coaches move on quickly. If you offer a kid and he takes a month to decide ... they aren't going to wait for you.

In Jelani's case, he has (perhaps had) IUP, Lincoln Memorial and U-Indy among the elite D2 offers ... and hasn't picked any of them. Those three are on a short list of the top programs in D2 -- all perennial powers, all offer full rides and all have beautiful facilities. At this point it's obvious he doesn't want to play D2.

Some years these kids strike gold by holding out as long as possible. Some years, because of it, they end up at Clarion or UMES. Once the 'salary cap' is full ... it's full. No luxury tax in college basketball.

[Columbuseer]

I buy what you guys are saying about Watson, and the article you linked, Columbus, certainly makes it seem like he was in good company in his very difficult league. However, help me understand, then, why he only had a few small-time offers listed on VC? Is this a sign that VC didn't have him covered very well? That he was talking to a lot of schools but only got serious with one or two? I'm not sure. As an example, two days after Alessandro and/or Shifflett declared they were leaving WLU, there was a feeding frenzy for their services. The Jelani Simmons kid that IUP is courting is being crushed with offers--or so it appears on VC. Why are two bottom-feeding schools in the Northern Sun conference the only other offers Watson had? I'm not suggesting that he's a bad recruit. Signs point to him being an excellent recruit. I'm just trying to figure out how he got under so many radars (or maybe it's just that he was on a lot of radars but only a few publicly).

[Scrub]

I buy what you guys are saying about Watson, and the article you linked, Columbus, certainly makes it seem like he was in good company in his very difficult league. However, help me understand, then, why he only had a few small-time offers listed on VC? Is this a sign that VC didn't have him covered very well? That he was talking to a lot of schools but only got serious with one or two? I'm not sure. As an example, two days after Alessandro and/or Shifflett declared they were leaving WLU, there was a feeding frenzy for their services. The Jelani Simmons kid that IUP is courting is being crushed with offers--or so it appears on VC. Why are two bottom-feeding schools in the Northern Sun conference the only other offers Watson had? I'm not suggesting that he's a bad recruit. Signs point to him being an excellent recruit. I'm just trying to figure out how he got under so many radars (or maybe it's just that he was on a lot of radars but only a few publicly).