West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

FSU played half court defense in second half. Not much movement without ball on offense. Excellent energy management on their part

WLU won the second half. Unfortunantly for them, there are indeed TWO halves to a college basketball game! A good second half was not enough to overcome the self inflicted wounds of the first!

[IUPalum]

The whole game was a slop fest! Chuck and duck! AAU style garbage!!!

[Layton]

[Columbuseer]

Had to win mec to get 2 seed. I like playing Malone much better than mercyhurst. Watched some of Malone hillsdale game. Wlu is big change in style for them.

If fairmont can survive Hurst, I think they can beat hillsdale.

[Layton]

[Scrub]

1. It's difficult to beat a good team 3 times in one season (and often WLU is playing a good team for a third time in an MEC championship). Good coaches, like Koenig, will find schemes to adjust.

2. 3 games in 3 days changes the fatigue equation a bit (and make no mistake that fatigue is usually a tool WLU likes to use against its opponents, but the 3 in 3 days structure equalizes that a bit).

3. You're often playing a team who is battling for it's playoff lives (like FSU was yesterday or NDC was two years ago). Which means those teams are digging deep for an extra gear of intensity they didn't/couldn't muster back in January.

Etc.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

1. It's difficult to beat a good team 3 times in one season (and often WLU is playing a good team for a third time in an MEC championship). Good coaches, like Koenig, will find schemes to adjust.

2. 3 games in 3 days changes the fatigue equation a bit (and make no mistake that fatigue is usually a tool WLU likes to use against its opponents, but the 3 in 3 days structure equalizes that a bit).

3. You're often playing a team who is battling for it's playoff lives (like FSU was yesterday or NDC was two years ago). Which means those teams are digging deep for an extra gear of intensity they didn't/couldn't muster back in January.

Etc.

I'm personally not a fan of the loaded consequences of a conference tournament. I'm more pro full season body of work rather than who gets hot for a couple days.

I'd be curious to see a 10-year analysis of the MEC and PSAC tournaments ... see how often the top seed actually wins. As we're very familiar with, the CIAA Tournament is famous for having wild cards win. The wild cards make great stories ... but often times the clock strikes midnight very quickly a week later. And, of course, a team that played well for 4 months gets bumped for a team that played well for 4 days.

The PSAC does the rotating (East / West) host sites. Not a fan of that, either. Should a team really get homecourt advantage in a conference tournament final? Probably not.

[Columbuseer]

I'm personally not a fan of the loaded consequences of a conference tournament. I'm more pro full season body of work rather than who gets hot for a couple days.

I'd be curious to see a 10-year analysis of the MEC and PSAC tournaments ... see how often the top seed actually wins. As we're very familiar with, the CIAA Tournament is famous for having wild cards win. The wild cards make great stories ... but often times the clock strikes midnight very quickly a week later. And, of course, a team that played well for 4 months gets bumped for a team that played well for 4 days.

The PSAC does the rotating (East / West) host sites. Not a fan of that, either. Should a team really get homecourt advantage in a conference tournament final? Probably not.

I remember announcers saying that last year was the first year that MEC conf champ (WLU) actually won the tourney. Assume that is correct, but have not verified it.

I agree with you on considering the whole season. I think selection committee takes into account whole body of work. As you said, anyone can get hot for three days. I think that is why Fairmont did not move to 1 or 2 seed and why WLU moved from 4th to 3rd.

[Columbuseer]

1. It's difficult to beat a good team 3 times in one season (and often WLU is playing a good team for a third time in an MEC championship). Good coaches, like Koenig, will find schemes to adjust.

2. 3 games in 3 days changes the fatigue equation a bit (and make no mistake that fatigue is usually a tool WLU likes to use against its opponents, but the 3 in 3 days structure equalizes that a bit).

3. You're often playing a team who is battling for it's playoff lives (like FSU was yesterday or NDC was two years ago). Which means those teams are digging deep for an extra gear of intensity they didn't/couldn't muster back in January.

Etc.

Scrub,
To my surprise, some data analytics wonks recently claimed that it is not harder to beat a team 3 times in a season. I always thought it was harder.

Losing Will, a 1st team all conference performer, caused the minutes to go up during this 3 game, 3 day tourney and increased the fatigue. We also lose a decent 6-5 defender who can contest shots with his jumping ability.

As you said, Fairmont had to win to make the tourney. They also had a great game plan - they were purposely leaving our worst 3 point shooters wide open while denying our 3 best three point shooters. Thankfully, our open guys hit shots, or it could have been ugly.

[boatcapt]

Scrub,
To my surprise, some data analytics wonks recently claimed that it is not harder to beat a team 3 times in a season. I always thought it was harder.

Losing Will, a 1st team all conference performer, caused the minutes to go up during this 3 game, 3 day tourney and increased the fatigue. We also lose a decent 6-5 defender who can contest shots with his jumping ability.

As you said, Fairmont had to win to make the tourney. They also had a great game plan - they were purposely leaving our worst 3 point shooters wide open while denying our 3 best three point shooters. Thankfully, our open guys hit shots, or it could have been ugly.

I think the "hard to beat a team three times in a season" has always been an over simplification. More appropriately put, it's hard to beat a GOOD team three times. WLU would have little problem beating WVW three times (or four or five...) in a row. But a really good team that is well coached, like Fairmont is, it is going to be hard to beat them three times in a season.

As for Fairmont leaving our "bad" shooter open, we saw what Dyer is capable of when freed to take his shot. 5-11 (.454) from 3 and finished with 24 points! He's a perfect example of only having one ball. WLU has really only needed him to distribute handle the ball and call the right play in the half court game...things he is clearly capable of doing. But the shooting load was not his to bear. Clearly he is more than capable of handling part of the shooting load when needed. I don't necessarily want him taking 11 three tries every game, but 5 or 6 a game for the rest of the season would be good to see.

[Layton]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I questioned that two years ago when WL got beat up by Mercyhurst. I was at the game. The press was useless in that game and it seemed to do nothing but tire out West Liberty.

[boatcapt]

They run the 1-2-1-1 trap on almost every possession. Couple of reasons I think they do this. First, they are trying to get the quick turnover but they are also trying to force the opposing team into a quick game tempo which plays into their hand. I do think they were a little slow in the back end D yesterday. The defender at midcourt seemed to be slow dropping back when Fairmont got a pass into the front court leaving a number of 2 on 1 chances.

[Scrub]

As you said, Fairmont had to win to make the tourney. They also had a great game plan - they were purposely leaving our worst 3 point shooters wide open while denying our 3 best three point shooters. Thankfully, our open guys hit shots, or it could have been ugly.

Indeed, big performances from Dyer & Hazelbaker to keep this thing close. They had looks all day, while Bolon was often being doubled (or at least hedged) at the 3-point line.

[Scrub]

I questioned that two years ago when WL got beat up by Mercyhurst. I was at the game. The press was useless in that game and it seemed to do nothing but tire out West Liberty.

They're trying to bait teams into taking bad shots (i.e., bigs will find themselves open for 3s after breaking the press). When teams take those bad shots (and miss more than they make), it plays right into WLU's hands (cf. the A-B and Frostburg games for bad-shot-apalooza by WLU's opponents). Smart teams with smart coaches have figured out it's best to beat the press, pull it out, and then make WLU defend for 20+ seconds. Glenville did this to perfection two nights ago. WVSU & UC have done this with great success against WLU. And Mercyhurst had no problem pulling it out and grinding (it's what they do anyway).

If teams are starting to figure out the antidote, Howlett will have to add a wrinkle or two to keep it effective.