West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

And without an OOC schedule, there won't be an Andrew Sischo lurking in those first few games. Let's just hope those first few include a Frostburg or a Glenville instead of a WVSU or a Fairmont.

There could be several strong MEC teams this year.

Concord really got a raw deal last year when their big guy quit in early December. They were also pretty young last year.

Charleston has a lot back and added some nice imports.

Fairmont State will be much better in Year 2 of the new regime. That guy is a proven winner and they'll be a year older. FSU has had a really good off-season.

WL will be WL.

Notre Dame was in a rebuild last year and should be better.

Glenville will score 110 ppg and give up 125 ppg. LOL.

West Virginia State is really on the rise.

Kevin Reynolds will have Wheeling a good team by January. #FreeKR


The PSAC, my opinion, won't be real deep in 2020-21. Joe is loaded up and really deep. East Stroudsburg was really young last year but will be much stronger this year. Shippensburg took some major losses but returns a lot. West Chester is a wild card. They've had a good off-season. Kutztown was devastated by injuries last year but returns a ton. Mercyhurst always manages to be tough. Cal will again be a tough out despite all the losses. Gannon lost a lot.

I long ago quit trying to predict anything in the CIAA. A gambler would go broke real fast betting games down there.

[Columbuseer]

Good analysis IUPBig.
i am sensing an evolution of WL. They are getting better raw athletes who want to buy into the system and play unselfishly. At the end of last season they were separating from the other very good teams in the MEC and playing at a higher level. They now have shutdown defenders. I know it is risky to predict the future but The new recruits could probably play as freshmen elsewhere but there are Just not enough minutes at WL.

one example: I saw Zach Rasile play in open gym against college players and I thought he was a d2 transfer and not a junior in high school. This guy understands the game and is more than just a scorer from 35 feet in.

WL could be very dangerous this year.

[boatcapt]

Good analysis IUPBig.
i am sensing an evolution of WL. They are getting better raw athletes who want to buy into the system and play unselfishly. At the end of last season they were separating from the other very good teams in the MEC and playing at a higher level. They now have shutdown defenders. I know it is risky to predict the future but The new recruits could probably play as freshmen elsewhere but there are Just not enough minutes at WL.

one example: I saw Zach Rasile play in open gym against college players and I thought he was a d2 transfer and not a junior in high school. This guy understands the game and is more than just a scorer from 35 feet in.

WL could be very dangerous this year.

Last year and this coming year were the two years WLU has been building toward. Obviously last year was cut short before WLU could show what they were made of. Soooo this is THE year. WLU is returning three 18+ pt scorers (backed by a 10+ ppg scorer) and a 100+ assist man to their starting five with a bench that returns four and averages over 14 minutes and 23 points per game. Add to that several highly gifted freshmen playing for a coach that is not afraid of putting freshmen on the court if they show they can play.

But even beyond this coming season, WLU seems to have reestablished a process that "keeps the pump primed" year after year. Even though WLU played well and won a LOT of games in the first couple of years after Crutch left, their season to season player progression seemed a little off. Last three years Ben has seemed to get that back in order which bodes well for seasons after this one. This years senior leaders are Bolon, Dyer and Moore...Next year it will be Yoakum, Robinson and McKinney...following that it will be Butler, Hazelbaker and Hilles...and then some combination of the Fab Four Freshmen (Powell, Risile, Watson and Sarson) coming in this year.

[Columbuseer]

Last year and this coming year were the two years WLU has been building toward. Obviously last year was cut short before WLU could show what they were made of. Soooo this is THE year. WLU is returning three 18+ pt scorers (backed by a 10+ ppg scorer) and a 100+ assist man to their starting five with a bench that returns four and averages over 14 minutes and 23 points per game. Add to that several highly gifted freshmen playing for a coach that is not afraid of putting freshmen on the court if they show they can play.

But even beyond this coming season, WLU seems to have reestablished a process that "keeps the pump primed" year after year. Even though WLU played well and won a LOT of games in the first couple of years after Crutch left, their season to season player progression seemed a little off. Last three years Ben has seemed to get that back in order which bodes well for seasons after this one. This years senior leaders are Bolon, Dyer and Moore...Next year it will be Yoakum, Robinson and McKinney...following that it will be Butler, Hazelbaker and Hilles...and then some combination of the Fab Four Freshmen (Powell, Risile, Watson and Sarson) coming in this year.

good points Boat. I think the season to season progression that you mention was a disruption caused primarily by the cumulative effect of transfers and injuries before and just after crutch left.

Justice - transferred to Valdosta where he became all American and all time leading scorer i think. Played as true freshman for Crutchfield. Transferred before coach's last season.

guillozet - transferred to Valdosta and became a star. Played as freshman while Bolon redshirted.

Dennis jr. - started as true freshman and was freshman all anerican . Transferred and became star of nova team

French - two devastating knee injuries. Playing on one leg.

Arnold - cancer


The remaining players stepped up big time. However even looking back to 33-1 team in 2011 WL rarely had the best raw athletes on the floor or rim protectors. But they had great synergy as a team and played intensely.

Now we have yoakum, McKinney, Robinson iii, dyer and Moore jr. who are very athletic. Add in Watson and sarson ( his coach called him sneaky athletic). We are now able to play shutdown half court defense.

As word gets out at the grass roots level about how fun it is to play at WL i could see the matriculation of even better athletes to WL.

[boatcapt]

Kevin Reynolds will have Wheeling a good team by January. #FreeKR

I know you were joking but I would note that Wheeling was already a good team that doesn't appear to have lost anyone of note from last seasons team. The real question will be if KR can raise them back to the upper level of the MEC? Who would have thought that would even be a possibility two short years after firing Sancomb? Universal wisdom around this board two years ago was that Sancombs departure would doom Wheeling to at LEAST a decade of abject basketball failure!!

Guess as with the "Wheeling is going to close any day now" prognostications that have popped up at least once a month for the last four or five years, us posters quite often show how little we really know about ANYTHING!!!

[boatcapt]

good points Boat. I think the season to season progression that you mention was a disruption caused primarily by the cumulative effect of transfers and injuries before and just after crutch left.

Justice - transferred to Valdosta where he became all American and all time leading scorer i think. Played as true freshman for Crutchfield. Transferred before coach's last season.

guillozet - transferred to Valdosta and became a star. Played as freshman while Bolon redshirted.

Dennis jr. - started as true freshman and was freshman all anerican . Transferred and became star of nova team

French - two devastating knee injuries. Playing on one leg.

Arnold - cancer


The remaining players stepped up big time. However even looking back to 33-1 team in 2011 WL rarely had the best raw athletes on the floor or rim protectors. But they had great synergy as a team and played intensely.

Now we have yoakum, McKinney, Robinson iii, dyer and Moore jr. who are very athletic. Add in Watson and sarson ( his coach called him sneaky athletic). We are now able to play shutdown half court defense.

As word gets out at the grass roots level about how fun it is to play at WL i could see the matriculation of even better athletes to WL.

Oh I agree...WLU is getting better athletes now than they were early and even late in the Crutch administration. To modify a previous Crutch saying, we now win about half of the pre-game warmups! But better athletes can be a double edge sword...makes them more desirable come transfer time!

Just sticking to transfers, Justice, Guillozet and Dennis along with Nick Smith's de-commit to follow Crutch to Nova, really put Ben in a hole starting out. It was a perfect opportunity for WLU to fall from what is a VERY lofty purch, and in all honesty, we did fall a little...not from a regular season stand point but from a playoff standpoint. 2018-19 Ben righted the ship after the storm and got us to the Regional Champ game. 2019-20, we probably would have seen WLU win the Region again and from there, who knows? Obviously Corona stopped that!

Starting to seem like, to paraphrase Samuel Clements...The reports of the death of WLU have been greatly exagerated!!

[Columbuseer]

Lol great comments Boat. Loved the warm up statenent. So true! We are definitely trending toward warm up parity! Lol! Had forgotten about Nick smith. Next star at nova.

an amazing job by ben. Concurrently Notre dame and concord had once in a decade teams with players in Voorhees and Bolte.


Seems like he also recruits players who can both lead and follow. Those that can't do both transfer. If some one transfers, next man up.
I loved interview with patrick who was freshman of year in his conference at holy family. He said he could have gone anywhere and scored a bunch of points and been the star. But he wanted first and foremost to win! What a great young man! He will go far in life!

[boatcapt]

Lol great comments Boat. Loved the warm up statenent. So true! We are definitely trending toward warm up parity! Lol! Had forgotten about Nick smith. Next star at nova.

an amazing job by ben. Concurrently Notre dame and concord had once in a decade teams with players in Voorhees and Bolte.


Seems like he also recruits players who can both lead and folliw. Those that can't do both transfer. If some one transfers, next man up.
I loved interview with patrick who was freshman of year in his conference at holy famiy. He said he could have gone anywhere and scored a bunch of points and been the star. But he wanted first and foremost to win! What a great young man! He will go far in life!

The success of the transfered WLU players, coupled with the continued WLU success under Ben speaks volumes about what Ben ment to the success of Crutch. Clearly Ben was much more than just an assistant.

Given a choice between the two as a new HC, I'd probably still take Crutch over Ben...but not by much!!!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I know you were joking but I would note that Wheeling was already a good team that doesn't appear to have lost anyone of note from last seasons team. The real question will be if KR can raise them back to the upper level of the MEC? Who would have thought that would even be a possibility two short years after firing Sancomb? Universal wisdom around this board two years ago was that Sancombs departure would doom Wheeling to at LEAST a decade of abject basketball failure!!

Guess as with the "Wheeling is going to close any day now" prognostications that have popped up at least once a month for the last four or five years, us posters quite often show how little we really know about ANYTHING!!!

Not really joking. The two would be a perfect match. A toxic coach joining a toxic situation. I know the past two coaches put together pretty good teams. Amazingly. But, that's not going to repeat itself every June if you have a new coach.

So, they'll either continue to hire young coaches (who will leave at first chance) or they'll have to go for that 'second chance' type of coach like KR. Remember, we don't have access to the actual portal. So, we can't say for certain none of Wheeling's players have left.

KR may have baggage ... but, he's a really good basketball coach. And, he'd probably stay there so long as Wheeling can still pay the electric bill. They get KR in there by July 5, ... he'd still have plenty of time to scour the sewers and put a tough, physical team of 'last chancers' on the court.

[boatcapt]

Not really joking. The two would be a perfect match. A toxic coach joining a toxic situation. I know the past two coaches put together pretty good teams. Amazingly. But, that's not going to repeat itself every June if you have a new coach.

So, they'll either continue to hire young coaches (who will leave at first chance) or they'll have to go for that 'second chance' type of coach like KR. Remember, we don't have access to the actual portal. So, we can't say for certain none of Wheeling's players have left.

KR may have baggage ... but, he's a really good basketball coach. And, he'd probably stay there so long as Wheeling can still pay the electric bill. They get KR in there by July 5, ... he'd still have plenty of time to scour the sewers and put a tough, physical team of 'last chancers' on the court.

Hardly call the situation at WU highly toxic.

Nor would I say whom ever the new HC is will have to put together a new team after June 1. There already is a pretty good team in place that lost no one of any importance.. New HC will just need to take a good young team and make it better. KRs forte seems to be bring in a bunch of transfers every year. Also KR seems to play a style of basketball that probably wouldn't be very successful in the MEC.

[Columbuseer]

WLU Offensive Firepower for this coming season

Typically, one looks at points per game per player to determine the offensive prowess of a team. However, due to the intensity at which WLU plays, with traps on makes and misses, they substitute more frequently through 10 players deep, resulting in less minutes per player.
So a more meaningful statistic is to extrapolate each player's scoring average to 40 minutes based on their points per minute played.

The chart below shows the depth of scorers on the WLU team. It is impressive because WLU shuns the one-on-one style of so many teams. It shows that what goes around comes around. If you pass rapidly to a teammate, then they will pass to you to give you a great shot. Also the pace of play essentially results in 30% more possessions, which increases everyone's scoring opportunities to offset the reduced minutes.
Also,the rapid ball and player movement causes more movement on the defense. If the opponent arrives just slightly late to their defensive position, then the WLU player can slash to the basket uncontested, or drill an uncontested three point shot.

These season stats don't include incoming recruits.

Next year has the potential to be special.

Projected Points Per 40 min.	Pts Scored Per Minute Played
30.1	0.75
28.6	0.72
27.5	0.69
22.6	0.56
19.3	0.48
19.1	0.48
17.4	0.43
15.2	0.38
13.5	0.34
12.6	0.31

[Columbuseer]

Who will be emerging star this season?

WLU has so many great players who are already stars.
However it seems like every year there are players who step into the spotlight, often in their senior year.

My guess is that this year it will be Marlon Moore jr. I think the emergence started in the MEC final. He was the dominant force, earning raves from Warren Baker.
He is becoming a matchup problem for centers. He got many help defense blocks while keeping the ball in bounds. He could be a key to a deep tourney run. but he will need to manage his fouls.

[boatcapt]

Who will be emerging star this season?

WLU has so many great players who are already stars.
However it seems like every year there are players who step into the spotlight, often in their senior year.

My guess is that this year it will be Marlon Moore jr. I think the emergence started in the MEC final. He was the dominant force, earning raves from Warren Baker.
He is becoming a matchup problem for centers. He got many help defense blocks while keeping the ball in bounds. He could be a key to a deep tourney run. but he will need to manage his fouls.

I think it's pretty easy to make yourself a "star" at WLU...at least until Ben has had enough and bounces you off the team! At WLU, if you get on the floor, you are going to get the ball and probably in a decent shooting position. If you see yourself as a star, you are probably going to take that shot and have a pretty good chance of making it...if you see yourself as a cog in the wheel, you are going to pass up that decent shot in favor of a teammate that has a great look. Perfect example of this was Aeril Watson. Dude could shoot the lights out! But in his mind, he was ALWAYS open and when the ball made it's way to his hands, pretty good chance he was going to take the shot. Ben would put him in...he'd start gunning...Ben would take him out and typically DNP him the next game to "help" him think about what WLU was and why they were successful. Next game Watson would get into, he's jacking up shots again. Played 13 games at WLU...AND DNP'ed 13 games before Ben had had enough and invited him to explore the transfer portal!

[Columbuseer]

I think it's pretty easy to make yourself a "star" at WLU...at least until Ben has had enough and bounces you off the team! At WLU, if you get on the floor, you are going to get the ball and probably in a decent shooting position. If you see yourself as a star, you are probably going to take that shot and have a pretty good chance of making it...if you see yourself as a cog in the wheel, you are going to pass up that decent shot in favor of a teammate that has a great look. Perfect example of this was Aeril Watson. Dude could shoot the lights out! But in his mind, he was ALWAYS open and when the ball made it's way to his hands, pretty good chance he was going to take the shot. Ben would put him in...he'd start gunning...Ben would take him out and typically DNP him the next game to "help" him think about what WLU was and why they were successful. Next game Watson would get into, he's jacking up shots again. Played 13 games at WLU...AND DNP'ed 13 games before Ben had had enough and invited him to explore the transfer portal!

Star was probably not the best word choice for me to use, as it often has selfish connotations. I was thinking of players who went from solid role players to really good impact players in one year.
Eric Meininger comes to mind. He lost 15 lbs before his senior year and it completely changed his game.
Keene Cockburn is another from years past.

I think a Coach can ask folks to leave the team if they are disruptive in practice, not going to class, refusing to accept coaching or violation of team rules.
Do you have first hand knowledge of scenarios when Ben asked someone to leave the team for reasons other than those similar to the ones I mentioned?
He does not churn and burn players, where he takes scholarships away even though they are doing their best. He is honest with them about the areas of their game that will hinder them from getting more minutes, which is the right thing to do with young people. Folks can choose to work on those areas with no guarantees, or go somewhere else where they can play earlier.
Also, if you don't live basketball at WLU, then you will fall behind your peers, just due to the effort invested. Loving basketball is not sufficient.

IMHO, Aerial Watson was not a typical example for WLU. His offensive skills were so great, that I could see a coach taking a risk on recruiting him. He understood that he had to work on defense, passing and turnovers. I talked to him personally early in the season, where he acknowledged those facts. I was a big fan and envisioned what he could have become. He had the physical skills to be a shutdown defender and develop those deficient aspects of the game which were probably at a middle school level. But so much of defense is about "Want to" rather than physical ability. His points per minute would have extrapolated to 40 points a game over 40 minutes. The problem is during those 40 minutes he would have committed over 7 fouls and committed 9 turnovers, based on his minutes played. I saw no improvement in his buy-in to the WLU system and his minutes declined as the season progressed to mop-up duty.

Also if my memory serves me correctly, he departed the team before the end of the season, so he did not really sit for 13 games. Can't remember the exact date.

[Columbuseer]

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