West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

WL is playing at Pitt-Johnstown on Nov. 17

Thanks. Good find. Upj was 22-9 in 2019 and lost to iup by 7 in one game.
it should be a serious test for wlu with bolon and dyer gone this early in the season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

UPJ is very sound. They play very mistake-free and methodical.

IUP and UPJ are so overly familiar with one another that the games are almost always close. UPJ only has one win in the series since joining the PSAC (and IUP was without Malik Miller that game). But, there have been a ton of single-digit wins for IUP. They come to both IUP tournaments every year, etc., so they watch each other play constantly.

Bob Rukavina runs an old-school program. They don't take transfers. Players stay all four years. They have two really strong bigs who will both be juniors this year. Their star of the past half decade (Josh Wise) is finally gone.

Playing at UPJ is essentially playing in an empty gym so there's no qualms playing a road game there. Most IUP games up there are de facto IUP home games as we usually take more fans up there than they have show up.

WL will be favored in that game but UPJ isn't an easy out. You like that old school basketball style so you should enjoy watching them. You'll see all the pick-n-rolls, picket fences, etc. They are also very tough in that building.

[Columbuseer]

Wv state plays at Millersville on the same day wed Nov 17 as wlu and upj.

[Columbuseer]

Topic: Block Percentage for WLU Players 20-21 seasonBlock Percentage attempts to correct some of these limitations.
Here are the Block Percentage for WLU players in 2020-2021

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Block%	Rating
Marlon Moore Jr.	6.11%	Outstanding
Will Yoakum	4.25%	Outstanding
Ben Sarson	3.32%	Very Good
Owen Hazelbaker	2.94%	Very Good
Elijah Watson	2.35%	Very Good
Dalton Bolon	0.95%	Good for outside players
Bryce Butler	0.91%	Good for outside players
Pat Robinson III	0.82%	Good for outside players
Luke Dyer	0.72%	Good for outside players
Malik McKinney	0.70%	Good for outside players
Zach Rasile	0.29%
Evan Conley	0.00%

^th on NBA career leaders, just after Rudy Gobert at 6.15%.

https://www.basketball-reference.com...ct_career.htmlhttps://youtu.be/8RFeBW9WdEs

No one has dominated like Wilt. Basketball's 8th wonder of the world
https://youtu.be/uJGCySdvlPo



Limitations of the Statistichttps://www.basketball-reference.com.../glossary.html

Glossary | Basketball-Reference.com Glossary of statistics used on Basketball-Reference

• BLK% - Block Percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (BLK * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Opp FGA - Opp 3PA)). Block percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor.

[Columbuseer]

FYI Topic: Effective Field Goal Percentage for WLU Players 20-21 season
The 3-pt shot has allowed more players of smaller stature to be effective players, which has increased competition among basketball teams. A tall center is no longer a prerequisite for success.

Here is the definition from basketball-reference.com:

• eFG% - Effective Field Goal Percentage; the formula is (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA. This statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal. For example, suppose Player A goes 4 for 10 with 2 threes, while Player B goes 5 for 10 with 0 threes. Each player would have 10 points from field goals, and thus would have the same effective field goal percentage (50%)

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Effective FG%	FG%	Rating
Viktor Kovacevi? (Quincy Stats)	64.8%	56.0%	Outstanding
Zach Rasile	64.2%	47.4%	Outstanding
Will Yoakum	61.9%	56.2%	Outstanding
Garrett Denbow (UC 2019-20 stats)	61.7%	47.1%	Outstanding
Dalton Bolon	61.4%	51.2%	Outstanding
Pat Robinson III	59.4%	53.6%	Outstanding
Malik Mckinney	56.5%	51.6%	Very Good
Bryce Butler	56.0%	49.7%	Very Good
Owen Hazelbaker	53.5%	44.4%	Very Good
Ben Sarson	53.4%	45.5%	Very Good
Luke Dyer	53.2%	42.2%	Very Good
	49.2%	40.6%
Elijah Watson	48.0%	47.3%
Marlon Moore Jr.	42.8%	40.8%
Evan Conley	33.3%	33.3%
NBA Highest Season FG%		FG%	Comments
1. Wilt Chamberlain, 1967-68 Philly		59.5%
2.LeBron James 2012-13 Miami		56.5%
3. Michael Jordan 1990-91 Chicago		53.9%
NBA Highest Effective FG%	Effective FG%		Comments
1.LeBron James 2012-13 Miami	60.3%
2. Wilt Chamberlain, 1967-68 Philly	59.5%		No 3 pt line; however, former teammates said Wilt typically won long distance shooting contests in practice, so he had the ability to make threes.
3. Michael Jordan 1990-91 Chicago	54.7%

[Columbuseer]

CORRECTION: There was a copy and paste error in Quincy stats. Root cause was I assumed that box score column order was standardized, but quincy was an exception.

Viktor's Block % is 3.6%, which is very good, but not 10.6%.
Quincy transfer Viktor Kovacevi? has the potential to be a major disruptive force on both offense and defense at 6-8 with his handles in the open court!
On offense, he has an Effective FG% of 64.8%, 48.5% from three.
On defense, he has a very good block % of 3.6%!

Let's hope that he can adapt quickly to the WLU style from the much slower, deliberate Quincy style!

I have updated the Block % stats to include the transfers.

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Block%	Rating
Marlon Moore Jr.	6.11%	Outstanding
Will Yoakum	4.25%	Outstanding
Viktor Kovacevi? (Quincy Stats)	3.60%	Very Good
Ben Sarson	3.32%	Very Good
Owen Hazelbaker	2.94%	Very Good
Elijah Watson	2.35%	Very Good
Dalton Bolon	0.95%
Bryce Butler	0.91%
Pat Robinson III	0.82%
Garrett Denbow (UC stats 2019-20)	0.80%
Luke Dyer	0.72%
Malik Mckinney	0.70%
Zach Rasile	0.29%
Cmont Montague (from Walsh stats)	0.20%
Evan Conley	0.00%

[Columbuseer]

With Dalton and Luke leaving, there are big shoes to fill in offensive rebounding!
(Note: I had an error in earlier post on Block % stats. I have edited that post with a correction.)

FYI

Topic: Offensive Rebound % for WLU Players 20-21 season

^rd in D1 for 2020-2021 season!

1	Houston	40.2%
2	N Carolina	39.5%
3	CS Bakersfld	37.1%

Team Offensive Rebounding Percentage Formula

For individuals, one prorates their offensive rebounds according to their proportion of minutes played.
Here is the definition from basketball-reference.com:

• ORB% - Offensive Rebound Percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (ORB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm ORB + Opp DRB)). Offensive rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available offensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Offensive rebound %	Rating
Marlon Moore Jr	11.54%	Outstanding
Elijah Watson	10.03%	Outstanding
Ben Sarson	9.82%	Outstanding
owen hazelbaker	7.73%	Outstanding
Will yoakum	7.68%	Outstanding
Bryce butler	7.18%	Outstanding
Dalton bolon	7.03%	Outstanding
Patrick Robinson III	6.61%	Outstanding
Malik mckinney	4.35%
Luke dyer	3.36%
Viktor Kovacevi? (Quincy Stats)	2.80%
Zach rasile	2.32%
Cmont Montague (Walsh stats)	1.20%
Garrett Denbow (UC stats 2019-20)	1.00%
Evan Conley	0

[Columbuseer]

FYI
Senior highlights Aiden Satterfield!

He is ultra talented, long arms, very good fundamental skill set. Good enough to play as a freshman if there are minutes available. He was MVP for his team in wv all star game.

https://twitter.com/aidensatt1/statu...368583686?s=20

[boatcapt]

I'm very interested in how the 21-22 Toppers evolve. Losing Bolon is huge but WLU has weathered similar storms before. What I'm most interested in is how we replace Luke? He was a great PG but more importantly, he was such a calming force on the floor. He really was like having a coach on the floor. I'm sure we will have a PG who can equal his production, but they will probably struggle being that calming on court leader.

Beyond the incoming freshmen who seem, as aground, to be the most talented we've had in a while, im really interested in the transfer big who's coming in. While he ticks all the blocks for a traditional WLU big, he seems to have other skills that our big from the past haven't had. Do we utilize and accent those skills or do we only accent the traditional WLU big skills? I would like to see us develop some inside game that takes advantage of those skills...not saying abandon the WLU style just broaden it a bit and make us a little less predictable in our half court sets.

[Columbuseer]

I'm very interested in how the 21-22 Toppers evolve. Losing Bolon is huge but WLU has weathered similar storms before. What I'm most interested in is how we replace Luke? He was a great PG but more importantly, he was such a calming force on the floor. He really was like having a coach on the floor. I'm sure we will have a PG who can equal his production, but they will probably struggle being that calming on court leader.

Beyond the incoming freshmen who seem, as aground, to be the most talented we've had in a while, im really interested in the transfer big who's coming in. While he ticks all the blocks for a traditional WLU big, he seems to have other skills that our big from the past haven't had. Do we utilize and accent those skills or do we only accent the traditional WLU big skills? I would like to see us develop some inside game that takes advantage of those skills...not saying abandon the WLU style just broaden it a bit and make us a little less predictable in our half court sets.

Good question about Luke. My guesses for pg are either Malik, Bryce or Cmont Montague. Each brings something different to the table. It may take a while for Cmont to adapt. Zach has a high basketball iq but we would have to give up his corner 3 for him at the pg position.

Have watched some of Viktor's highlights. He is the classic Serbian player. Complete fundamental skill set who just happens to be 6-8 and is a great fit for the current wlu style. Imho no need to change the style, for the data analytics favor the style. Think of Viktor as a bigger version of Will Yoakum. He is a matchup nightmare in the open court. 48.6% from three and can do rim runs for dunks. Will pull opponents' big men away from goal. Open issue is how quick he can adjust.

[boatcapt]

Good question about Luke. My guesses for pg are either Malik, Bryce or Cmont Montague. Each brings something different to the table. It may take a while for Cmont to adapt. Zach has a high basketball iq but we would have to give up his corner 3 for him at the pg position.

Have watched some of Viktor's highlights. He is the classic Serbian player. Complete fundamental skill set who just happens to be 6-8 and is a great fit for the current wlu style. Imho no need to change the style, for the data analytics favor the style. Think of Viktor as a bigger version of Will Yoakum. He is a matchup nightmare in the open court. 48.6% from three and can do rim runs for dunks. Will pull opponents' big men away from goal. Open issue is how quick he can adjust.

My long standing desire for WLU to establish some sort of inside game is not due to in season or even in the MEC tourney need. Their success there argues that they don't need to worry much about that. My long standing concern is in the NCAA tourney were we always seem to get beat by a team that is capable of either shutting our style down or that has a dominant big that shreds us. Seems like we don't really ever have a true answer for that other than to "try harder." When teams are equipped to shut down our outside offense and have ball handlers that can break our Press consistently, we don't seem to have an answer. Again, you don't run into teams like that very often in the regular season...but in the tourney, seems to happen every year.

The days of being happy making the tourney and being happy with a deep run should be over in Topper land!

[Columbuseer]

My long standing desire for WLU to establish some sort of inside game is not due to in season or even in the MEC tourney need. Their success there argues that they don't need to worry much about that. My long standing concern is in the NCAA tourney were we always seem to get beat by a team that is capable of either shutting our style down or that has a dominant big that shreds us. Seems like we don't really ever have a true answer for that other than to "try harder." When teams are equipped to shut down our outside offense and have ball handlers that can break our Press consistently, we don't seem to have an answer. Again, you don't run into teams like that very often in the regular season...but in the tourney, seems to happen every year.

The days of being happy making the tourney and being happy with a deep run should be over in Topper land!

WLU typically has the highest Points per Possession of any D1 or D2 team (with the exception of this era's NW Missouri State), which is a measure of offensive efficiency, regardless of whether you play fast or slow, or whether you play big or small. So whatever style one chooses to play, you want a very high points per possession.

WLU has been elevating their recruiting to get bigs who can play the WLU style AND defend the opponent's bigs in the paint.
Just look at how Marlon Moore, Jr. defended McManus from Charleston, All-Region Patrick Cartier 6-8 from Hillsdale, and Marcus Ernst 6-7 from Malone.
I think you will see dramatic improvement in Elijah Watson 6-7 and Ben Sarson 6-6 this year on defense. Viktor 6-8 is a serious shot blocker. Aiden 6-7 with very long arms is a serious young defender too.

They can also defend mobile big men too.

I am impressed with WLU's ability to find big men who can fit the WLU style. I always thought they were only in Europe or in D1.

Regarding the NCAA tourney:

1. WLU handily defeated Hilldale who was 23-2 and they had three 6-8 starters. They only committed 13 turnovers (the same as WLU). It was our defense that won the game. The coach said no one had played Cartier like Marlon. In addition, 6-8 Hamilton trying to guard Patrick Robinson III was a total fail. Patrick was scoring layups and was going to foul him out and forced him from the game. So loading up on bigs is a double edged sword.

2. No way of conclusively proving it, but in IMHO, WLU was the 2nd best team in the Elite 8. The trouble was that NWMSU was at an entirely different level. One of their players (Ryan Hawkins 6-7. 2000 pts) just transferred after the season to D1 Creighton. Heck, after they won their last national championship with the same players, they lost to Duke by 4 in exhibition! They also had time to prepare for WLU. The Hillsdale coach stated that WLU is very hard to prepare for if you just have a day.


IMHO to win the national title:
1. You cannot have a bad game. A bad shooting night can eliminate even the most talented teams, regardless of style.
2. In the first round, you want a team that is not superior athletically, for they will have a week to prepare for the pressure. I am sure that helped NWMSU.
3. You have to avoid injury. WLU was playing without Will Yoakum and went to the Elite 8! Among coaches, opinions vary about WLU's best player - is it Patrick, Dalton or Will?
4. There will be one or more opponents, where the stars have aligned for once in a coaching career roster. Hillsdale might be an example - it might have been their first regional in a long time.
5. You have to have 2 or 3 D1 level athletes on the team (at least). At this level, all the coaches are good. It comes down often to whether you can stay in front of your man enough to win the game. WLU is getting those type of players. All of the recruits had D1 interest, and at least 2 had definite D1 offers.
6. You may need to make a pressure shot at the buzzer (like Malik against Glenville). Many will argue that the national championship game was NWMSU defeating Northern in the Regional by hitting a 30 ft contested shot at the end of regulation to force overtime.

If you recruit lumbering bigs, you are throwing the baby out with the bath water, for you no longer have the position-less basketball concept, and the points per possession will drop.

WLU is dramatically upgrading its athletic ability from top to bottom of the roster. A former coach on one of the broadcasts said it was the most athletic team he can remember.

No matter the style, winning the national championship is no gimme and there is no magic elixir.

[boatcapt]

Yes winning a DII national championship is hard...only 42 different teams have done it. And stats are great and indicative of a really good team. But at the end of the day, seasons are measured by wins and losses relative to expectations. Many teams would be over the moon happy with WLU's one season success or even success over a 4 or 5 year span. But when you have sustained success as much as WLU has, it breeds higher expectations.

I think I've made it pretty clear that I don't expect or even want WLU to bring in a lumbering big. I've also hope I've been clear that I would not be in favor of changing WLU's style in a dramatic way. All I've said is that WLU should invest a degree of time and perhaps one roster spot to developing some sort of alternative style that they can use on those rare nights and in those situations when either the other team has our number OR when we aren't shooting well.

[Columbuseer]

Yes winning a DII national championship is hard...only 42 different teams have done it. And stats are great and indicative of a really good team. But at the end of the day, seasons are measured by wins and losses relative to expectations. Many teams would be over the moon happy with WLU's one season success or even success over a 4 or 5 year span. But when you have sustained success as much as WLU has, it breeds higher expectations.

I think I've made it pretty clear that I don't expect or even want WLU to bring in a lumbering big. I've also hope I've been clear that I would not be in favor of changing WLU's style in a dramatic way. All I've said is that WLU should invest a degree of time and perhaps one roster spot to developing some sort of alternative style that they can use on those rare nights and in those situations when either the other team has our number OR when we aren't shooting well.

So what kind of player do you think that we need that we don't already have in Marlon, Elijah, Ben, Viktor and Aiden? What skills are missing?
At 6-5, Marlon just shut down 3 all region bigs in the regional. The wlu style tires out bigs and our 3 point shooting offsets their inside game

[boatcapt]

So what kind of player do you think that we need that we don't already have in Marlon, Elijah, Ben, Viktor and Aiden? What skills are missing?
At 6-5, Marlon just shut down 3 all region bigs in the regional. The wlu style tires out bigs and our 3 point shooting offsets their inside game

It more how they use the bigs not necessarily who they bring in.

Again, not advocating for a dramatic whole-sale change in how WLU plays, just develop a tershiary offensive style that fully utilzes the skill set of our current players and gives us a counter. I mean, we have players that seem to be more than willing to unilatterally break into iso-ball without the coaches instruction and I would assume no practice...Imagine how quickly they could master a low post motion offense with 5 or 10 minutes of practice every day and some in-game time in the numerous blow outs we have. With our athletes, that shouldn't be too heavy of a lift.