West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Wlu 2022 signee Luke denbow:

He scored a career-high 37 points Friday night with a 66-48 victory at lexington.

Denbow converted 14 of his 23 shots from the field, including 5 of 10 from distance.

Lexington coach Hamilton said
“I’d say of his 23 shots, six or eight of them we had someone right there contesting it. But when he’s on a roll, it doesn’t matter. He just starts knocking shots down. I’ve seen him enough live and on film over the years that when his confidence is going he’s tough to defend. He’s quick. His first step with the dribble is so quick. If he takes one dribble to the left with a pull-up, it’s lights-out. Going to the right, you’ve got a chance. Going to the left … it’s tough. There’s a reason he was Player of the Year in the conference last year.”

He is averaging 27.9 pts, 6.1 assists and 5,9 rebounds.

Source: https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com...cc/9170102002/

[Layton]

Spadafora article, tore his labrum the first practice

https://www.timesonline.com/story/sp...ii/9154889002/

[Columbuseer]

FYI
West Liberty national ranking jan 17, 2022

• 90th percentile in 13 categories
• Top 10 in 7 categories
• If they can improve moving without the ball and rapid passing for a full 40 minutes, it is scary how good this team could be.
• Viktor and Bryce are starting to dominate, which will keep opponents from focusing on Patrick and Malik.
• Ben Sarson continues to improve with each game, expanding his contribution and making better decisions. His ceiling is very high.

Date	National Ranking	West Liberty rank	Value
1/17/2022	Assists Per Game	2	20.50
1/17/2022	Scoring Offense	2	98.10
1/17/2022	Turnovers Forced	3	20.12
1/17/2022	Steals Per Game	4	11.40
1/17/2022	Turnover Margin	4	7.20
1/17/2022	Scoring Margin	6	18.00
1/17/2022	Assist Turnover Ratio	8	1.59
1/17/2022	Three-Point Field Goals Per Game	11	10.90
1/17/2022	Three-Point Attempts	12	461.00
1/17/2022	Offensive Rebounds per game	13	13.81
1/17/2022	Free-Throw Attempts	14	346.00
1/17/2022	Field-Goal Percentage	19	49.83
1/17/2022	Free-Throw Made	22	240.00

[boatcapt]

Once again our players took the bait and went one on one. On many occasions, all 5 fsu players had at least one foot in the lane in a pack line defense. Also teammates quit moving without the ball, leaving no one to kickout the ball to in 2nd half.

When will our players learn that one on one is not a winning strategy against good teams? The system, not the players' individual skills, is what make wlu hard to beat

Fsu chose to leave our best rebounder open outside and take their chances with his open three; if he misses, he is no rebound threat. Many shots were taken with no one under to rebound. Losing viktor with 4 fouls really hurt the team as no one could guard him.

I have no patience with players getting technicals by mouthing off to the ref. It is childish, self centered and fruitless. No ref ever changed a call. Let the coaches do the talking.

While WLU is much more athletic than in the past, they are not athletic enough to win games vs top tier teams playing that way. But you can't seem to convince them of that...All they seem to know is that they can win one-on-one contests against the Willmington's and WVW's of the world so they assume they can do the same vs the Fairmont's of the world. Then they are shocked when Fairmont with it's better athletes punches them in the nose on the offensive and defensive end, gives them a weggy, takes their lunch money and makes them look silly in the second half of the game...And they did it with basically 6 players.

Guess the "basketball IQ" of the current Topper's is not as high as we thought it was!

If this game doesn't wake them up, nothing will.

[Columbuseer]

There are two strategies when breaking the wlu press:
1. Attack the rim in the open court. Its success depends on the athletic open court skills and ability to finish contested shots.

2. Hold the ball and run the half court offense.

Fairmont used option 1 with great success with dobbs, sanders and von handorf. They scored often or drew fouls. It requires wlu to value every possession like gold and get a great shot with teammates in rebounding position.

Charleston tends to use option 2, since they are a great shooting team.

[Columbuseer]

Some Stats from WLU at Alderson Broaddus 1/19/22

• WLU had an incredible 4.0 team Assist to Turnover Ratio
• 6 turnovers on 77 possessions is amazing
• 57% of FGs made came from assists; nearly a maximum practical %, due to run outs and steals, where assists are not realistically possible..
• Great shooting, supported by sharing the ball for the easy shot – 56% fg, 89% ft, and 47% from three (15-32). Amazing 1.42 pts. per FGA.
• Forced 22 turnovers, of which an incredible 59% were steals.
• Offensive rebounding efficiency was a modest 26%, at least partially reduced by the great shooting %. AB also played a tall lineup for a substantial portion of the game.
• Incredible 1.39 points per possession
• No one played more than 24 minutes in the game., everyone scored and 5 players in double figures.

Opponent	Date	Score	w/l	FG	FGA	FG Pct	3 FGA	3 FG PCT	FT	FTA	FT PCT	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	Reb Per Game	PF	Assist	TO	Blk	Stl	Pts
at Alderson Broaddus	01/19/22	107-70	W	42	75	56%	32	47%	8	9	89%	8	23	31	38.8	21	24	6	4	13	107

Opponent	Date	Score	Avg Pts Per Game	Steals per Forced TO	Assist to TO Ratio	Assist per FG	Points Per FGA	Points Per Possession	Num Possessions	OppDefReb	Off Reb Effic	Forced TO
at Alderson Broaddus	01/19/22	107-70	98.6	59%	4.00	57%	1.43	1.39	77	23	26%	22

[Columbuseer]

FYI
Out of curiosity, I watched 2nd half of AB game, looking at made shots that were unassisted to determine if they were good shots.
Out of 21 made shots, only 9 were unassisted. All 9 were good shots, such as scores off rebounds, or on-balance shots. No contorting, high degree of difficulty shots.
Missed shots were reasonable shots too,
Players were looking for the easy shot, even though they can score under duress. It is a promising sign.

[Columbuseer]

FYI

Luke Denbow tied a 50 year old scoring record at ashland.
Great range as a shooter, slashes and finishes at the rim, sees the whole floor and unselfishly finds the open man. Strong defender too. Cant wait to see Spadafora and him on the floor next year!

ASHLAND 78, ONTARIO 67 Ashland's Luke Denbow tied the school single-game scoring record in a nonleague win over Ontario. The senior scored 42 points, tying Tom Malone's mark that was set against Brunswick in 1970. Denbow made seven 3-pointers, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished six assists and recorded five steals. Grayson Steury added 21 points for the Arrows.

[Layton]

I can’t believe Yoakum still isn’t playing

[Layton]

Bit of a rough broadcast today

[Scrub]

Bit of a rough broadcast today

I was in the building today, so I don't know about the broadcast. But the officiating crew was rough too. I just checked the box score--50 fouls were called. They were evenly split between teams, so that wasn't an issue. There simply wasn't any flow to the game. Makes it a lot harder to watch.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I can’t believe Yoakum still isn’t playing

Medical redshirt at this point? Hate to see him burn a year on half a season.

[Layton]

I was in the building today, so I don't know about the broadcast. But the officiating crew was rough too. I just checked the box score--50 fouls were called. They were evenly split between teams, so that wasn't an issue. There simply wasn't any flow to the game. Makes it a lot harder to watch.

Wasn’t awful but the camera seemed really crooked and the audio wasn’t great

[Layton]

It’s unfortunate that WU basketball has really tanked. Those games when I was in school from 14-19 were some of the best sporting events I’ve been to. Just great games and atmospheres with the two close communities. I hope they get it turned around

[Scrub]

Medical redshirt at this point? Hate to see him burn a year on half a season.

At this point, I would assume that's what's happening. I wouldn't expect to see Yoakum this year. And I'm guessing that Yoakum's injury might be the only reason Webb (the only true freshman not otherwise redshirting) is burning his redshirt season. If Yoakum had been healthy coming out of preseason camp, I would guess that all 3 true frosh (Satterfield, Spadafora, & Webb) would have redshirted as is tradition in the WLU program.