West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[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]

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.

[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]

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.

[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]

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]

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]

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

[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?

[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.

[boatcapt]

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?

Two player surprised me, Watson and Rasile. Only one game but their preformance showed that they are NOT intimidated playing college ball. While Rasile is your "typical" WLU player (6'/6'2" guard who can shoot and handle the ball), Watson is a sort of different animal...WLU's version of a big means that he will probably be used a bit differently. He is part of a tandem of "bigs" that WLU hasn't had in a while which gives them some options. Both are active and capable of running the floor and playing D. Against teams with one big, you can either play both and get a size mismatch OR if the other teams big is dominent, you can rotate them and keep a fresh big on them.

Anyone know what is going on with Yoakum? I THINK the guy I saw with the cast on his right leg on crutches was Yoakum but I'm not 100% sure. I can't imagine the long term plan is to play the season with 9 players so that kind of implies Yoakum's injury is short term. I think if it was a season ender, Coach would have at least dressed Conley or Hyles for the game. Not a big deal last night but we did have two players with 4 fouls and two with 3. Couple of bad calls down the streatch and we could have ended the game with five players.

[Scrub]

I also spotted someone in a cast, but the camera panned away too quickly to get a good look. Bad news if it was Yoakum. (I kinda thought it was Hiles, but again, the camera shot was quick).

I also saw Conley in "streets" last night. He already used a redshirt year last year. So, are we to assume that Conley is nursing an injury as well?

[Columbuseer]

[boatcapt]

I also spotted someone in a cast, but the camera panned away too quickly to get a good look. Bad news if it was Yoakum. (I kinda thought it was Hiles, but again, the camera shot was quick).

I also saw Conley in "streets" last night. He already used a redshirt year last year. So, are we to assume that Conley is nursing an injury as well?

on Conley, I'd say maybe. Can't imagine the plan is to play the season with nine bodies so the other available players (minus the true freshmen) must be nursing injuries.

[Columbuseer]

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