West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

I've never said I prefer WLU playing a dribble drive game or that I think we are close to being as good a team when we play that style vice the traditional WLU style. But I do like the apparent fact that if we do play that style (either because we "fall back" into it or on purpose) we are proficient at it. WLU has been knocked in the past for only having one way of playing. When it is working, it's great, but when either a team is able to stop it or we are having a bad shooting night, we have no plan B. Either by mistake or on purpose, this at least gives us something we might be able to try on those rare occasions when our plan A is not working.

[Columbuseer]

Urbana may have had a "good plan" in the first half but they were totally unable to enact it. When a team "loses" the first half 50 to 29, can you really say that they had a good plan?

A person can "stat pick" a team back into almost any game (if we just mad two more shots inside, one more three, five more free throws, had one more block and grabbed two more defensive rebounds on put backs, that's a 17 point swing in our favor and we win the game by two).

Now that said, was this a perfect "WLU style" game? Clearly not. Are they a better team playing this style? Again, no. But as much as we don't like the style and believe we are better when we don't play it, we do seem to be somewhat proficient at it. Arguably we have played "that way" four games this year and in those games, we are averaging 86 PPG which isn't a terrible number...not nearly as good as playing the "WLU style," but on most nights, 86 would be a winning number. Obviously this is an imprecise comparison, but assuming WLU's ceiling playing that style is 86 PPG, we would be 13-4.

Bottom line, I don't think this is WLU's best style but I am a little happy we can be proficient playing it. Could be a time in the playoffs when we might need to use that style if our regular style isn't working.

The game plan was good because it gave them the best chance to win, as evidenced by the score of 23-18 with 9 minutes to go in first half, Then their leading scorer, who was also their press breaker and PG, had to head to the bench for the rest of the half with 3 fouls. That is when the roof fell in.

The stat picking was to show that there were some unusual circumstances that would likely not occur if you were playing a Charleston or Fairmont State. Its purpose was to show that WL will lose against those teams. For example, these teams will likely make more than 2 foul shots and they will have more than one player who can break the press and play the point.

I think points per game can be a misleading statistic as it is dependent on the pace of play by both teams. I prefer points per possession.
Urbana only had 0.88 points per possession, despite getting too many layups on breakaways.
Fairmont State had 1.22 points per possession in our last meeting. IUP is averaging 1.18 for the season.
Playing West Lib style, we were averaging 1.39 points per possession from Ohio Dominican through Frostburg.
Against Urbana we made only 1.26 playing one-on-one against clearly tired, over-matched athletes with insufficient depth on their team.
That scenario just won't happen in the post season. That was my point.

The attached photo shows the lower stats for West Lib when playing one-on-one in Urbana versus prior games. Not winning basketball when playing elite teams. What is disappointing to me is that I had thought we had internalized the WL style and had left the playground one-on-one stuff behind.

[boatcapt]

Urbana may have had a "good plan" in the first half but they were totally unable to enact it. When a team "loses" the first half 50 to 29, can you really say that they had a good plan?

A person can "stat pick" a team back into almost any game (if we just mad two more shots inside, one more three, five more free throws, had one more block and grabbed two more defensive rebounds on put backs, that's a 17 point swing in our favor and we win the game by two).

Now that said, was this a perfect "WLU style" game? Clearly not. Are they a better team playing this style? Again, no. But as much as we don't like the style and believe we are better when we don't play it, we do seem to be somewhat proficient at it. Arguably we have played "that way" four games this year and in those games, we are averaging 86 PPG which isn't a terrible number...not nearly as good as playing the "WLU style," but on most nights, 86 would be a winning number. Obviously this is an imprecise comparison, but assuming WLU's ceiling playing that style is 86 PPG, we would be 13-4.

Bottom line, I don't think this is WLU's best style but I am a little happy we can be proficient playing it. Could be a time in the playoffs when we might need to use that style if our regular style isn't working.

[Columbuseer]

West Liberty dodged a bullet Wednesday night at the ASRC. This was the same type of play that allowed WV Wesleyan to defeat us. We were lucky Urbana could not shoot like WVW.
WL averaged 1.26 points per possession, versus 0.88 points per possession for Urbana.
Before you accuse me of reactionary hyperbole (as it is quite in fashion in social discourse today LOL), hear me out.
Urbana was severely undermanned:

• Their 6-9 shot blocker extraordinaire (18 blocks), Kyle Kegley, was in street clothes and crutches.
• Their PG, press-breaker, and leading scorer, Bradley, sat out over 10 minutes of the first half in foul trouble. He picked up his 4^th

• WL made 17 free throws to 2 for Urbana, accounting for 15-point difference.
• Remove that advantage and the WL lead is 14 points.
• Urbana shot a miserable 6-27 from Three, or 22%. Had they shot a better, but still modest 33%, they would have made 9-27 or 9 more points.
• Remove that advantage and the WL lead is 5 points.
• West Liberty got 18 points off of Turnovers. Had Bradley stayed in the game, it is reasonable to expect a minimum of 4 fewer points off turnovers.
• Remove that foul trouble and the WL lead is 1 point.

Urbana had a good game plan in the first half.

• They used most of the shot clock to slow the game down, even when they had numbers in transition.
• They had an advantage down low in 6-7 Lacy, and recognized that WL was vulnerable on defense in the post. As a result, Urbana ran screens to get him the ball down low and WL let him catch it.
• They (as well as other teams) have noticed some tendencies that leave WL vulnerable to over-the-top passes on the press (more on this in areas for improvement).
• They played strong defense, and stayed between WL cutters and the WL passer to prevent the inside pass and assist.

^th foul on an ill-advised steal attempt on Luke Dyer.
By the 10:00 mark, the lead was back up to 31. The lead went up and down, until the final score of 99-70.
KudosAreas for Improvement
This novelette might be a novel, if I were to list everything.
I realize that many WL players knew they could take their defender one-on-one. But we have to avoid playing down to the opponent. Instead, we should play up to a level that will allow us compete (and win) in post-season play.

None of these issues require massive changes. But if we do not correct these tendencies, we might not make it to the regional.

[Scrub]

Those two losses might be due to the fact that two of their starters didn't play in either of the last two games (Ansong & April). Anyone know what happened to those two guys? Injury? Academics? Coach's doghouse? They went from being starters most of the season to not even appearing in the last two box scores.

[boatcapt]

Judging from the post-game press conference on social media, Coach Howlett was in total agreement. Cardinals took the night off at Notre Dame on Wednesday so you know they'll be ready. Interested to see the Claflin (S.C.) transfer they picked up over Christmas. Double-figures off the bench in the last two games. Lot of red flags for the Hilltoppers on Sunday.

From an individual standpoint, he has played pretty well. But there does seem to be some "growing pains" working him into the rotation. Wheeling was on a nice little role winning three games in a row to open 2020 and exceeding their season average scoring and defense by a pretty big margin. Since the transfer, they have lost two straight, their team scoring is down and their points allowed is up. Granted, VERY small sample size.

[boatcapt]

I'll be interested to read your novelette this week, Columbus. I thought the Toppers looked pretty bad last night. I know, I know--they won by 30 and scored 99 points. But all I can say is thank goodness it was a lousy team in the building with them last night with that performance. It was all dribble drives and no ball movement last night. They reverted back to the kind of un-Topper-like play that got them handed losses earlier in the season. If they don't get out of that funk and get back to playing actual Topper basketball, they could be in for a rude awakening in the rivalry game this weekend.

That's the problem with playing a bad conference foe on a Wednesday night, in the middle of the season in the middle of January. As a team and as individual players, WLU is just so much better than Urbana that they don't really have to try much to collect a very comfortable W. Kind of like playing 1 on 1 against your 7 year old son...you can get away with lots of "bad habits" an still win easily.

I don't think this game is any sort of "warning sign" or indication of any sort of regression by the team. While I would have perfered that they continued to hit on all 8 cylinders, I accept that this is a one off game were WLU didn't have to play their A game to beat a bad team easily.

With that as back drop, I don't see this game as an sort of harbinger of what to expect from WLU Sunday against Wheeling. It is a rivalry game so you never know how those will turn out and Wheeling is proving to be a quality team, but I see WLU winning by 10 to 15 points if they play like they have the previous 7 games...if they play like they did Wednesday, they win by 3 to 5.

[timbertopper]

I'll be interested to read your novelette this week, Columbus. I thought the Toppers looked pretty bad last night. I know, I know--they won by 30 and scored 99 points. But all I can say is thank goodness it was a lousy team in the building with them last night with that performance. It was all dribble drives and no ball movement last night. They reverted back to the kind of un-Topper-like play that got them handed losses earlier in the season. If they don't get out of that funk and get back to playing actual Topper basketball, they could be in for a rude awakening in the rivalry game this weekend.

Judging from the post-game press conference on social media, Coach Howlett was in total agreement. Cardinals took the night off at Notre Dame on Wednesday so you know they'll be ready. Interested to see the Claflin (S.C.) transfer they picked up over Christmas. Double-figures off the bench in the last two games. Lot of red flags for the Hilltoppers on Sunday.

[Scrub]

I'll be interested to read your novelette this week, Columbus. I thought the Toppers looked pretty bad last night. I know, I know--they won by 30 and scored 99 points. But all I can say is thank goodness it was a lousy team in the building with them last night with that performance. It was all dribble drives and no ball movement last night. They reverted back to the kind of un-Topper-like play that got them handed losses earlier in the season. If they don't get out of that funk and get back to playing actual Topper basketball, they could be in for a rude awakening in the rivalry game this weekend.

[boatcapt]

Well, I guess it finally had to happen. After six straight games I guess seven straight was just too much to ask. Give Urbana credit because they were able to do what no team has been able to so to WLU in a month and a half.

Urbana held WLU below 100 points tonight...WLU 99 Urbana 70.

[boatcapt]

Wow, looking at the comparison... West Liberty must be the #1 team in the country uncontested!!!

I see what you did there...leaving out Bellarmine after they lost!!

[IUPalum]

FYI
WL stats 1/19/2020
West Liberty Team Season National Statistical Ranking (with comparison to D1 Stats)^ththth

Wow, looking at the comparison... West Liberty must be the #1 team in the country uncontested!!!

[Columbuseer]

FYI
WL stats 1/19/2020
West Liberty Team Season National Statistical Ranking (with comparison to D1 Stats)^ththth

[Columbuseer]

WL has reclaimed the #1 ranking in scoring at 106.8 points per game, after defeating Frostburg 125-77!KudosAreas of Improvement

Just keep improving on what you are doing and honing your team cohesion and movement.

Try to avoid the holding calls on the press. It is unfair that they call holding on WL, but ignore push offs by opponents to get open for a pass.

Continue to improve on the zone, as it may come in handy (as in VA State last year).

First half foul shooting was sub-par at 61%, but 92% in the second half is not bad. LOL

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Frostburg got 'welcomed' to the MEC tonight. LOL.