West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

Ability to make threes is different than attempting threes.
sunahara, sylla, and hunter can all make three. Therefore, it requires opponents to respect their shot and come away from basket to guard them. They dont clog up the lane either. They flash in the lane for a pass or start out on the wing and then drive. Alessandro got beat by sunahara by going for a 3 pt ball fake and sunahara went around him to the rim.
Skills are like Viktor, just different body types.

Sylla attempted one 3 pointer all season. I think Nova's opponents had plenty of more important things to prepare for before a Nova game than preparing for a player who has taken one 3 pointer suddenly dropping 10 3 point bombs on them. Likewise I would imagine an opponent would have other things to prepare for rather than focus on 3 balls coming from two guys who averaged taking 1.4 and .8 three point shots per game. If Nova's opponents were focused on 3 point shots coming from those three guys, that's probably a pretty good reason Nova wen't undefeated!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

For your sake, I hope that's true.

Unfortunately, we thought we were going to get to watch Pat Robinson for another year and we were looking forward to 4 years of Satterfield.

Ethan is like Mr. IUP so I'd be SHOCKED if he left. He's extremely close with Joe. They grew up on the same street in Sharon, Pa.

And, IUP will be incredible next winter. Demo is the only one leaving but Shawndale returns. I can't imagine any of them walking away from that roster.

[boatcapt]

https://twitter.com/finleywoodward3/...065453060?s=21

Findley Woodward from SPIRE Academy. Orig from Scotland. At 6'7", he moves immediately into the starting line-up...at least for tip-offs.

[Columbuseer]

https://twitter.com/finleywoodward3/...065453060?s=21

That is great news!
he is from UK and spent prep school year at spire academy pkaying against best post grad teams in usa. Proven against top flight competition.

typical euro skills, dribble, pass, Defend, physical and deadly from three. High motor. Confident open court transition player

Great fit for wlu style. Imho Upgrade from departing wlu underclassmen. older, stronger, more complete skill set due to euro coaching.

[Layton]

That is great news!
he is from UK and spent prep school year at spire academy pkaying against best post grad teams in usa. Proven against top flight competition.

typical euro skills, dribble, pass, Defend, physical and deadly from three. High motor. Confident open court transition player

Great fit for wlu style. Imho Upgrade from departing wlu underclassmen. older, stronger, more complete skill set due to euro coaching.

Do you have his season stats?

[boatcapt]

That is great news!
he is from UK and spent prep school year at spire academy pkaying against best post grad teams in usa. Proven against top flight competition.

typical euro skills, dribble, pass, Defend, physical and deadly from three. High motor. Confident open court transition player

Great fit for wlu style. Imho Upgrade from departing wlu underclassmen. older, stronger, more complete skill set due to euro coaching.

As long as he can shoot the 3 AND is willing to pull the trigger, he'll have a long career at WLU. But if he either can't shoot the 3 OR won't call his own number from 3, he'll be out after a year...maybe two. I think we should just bring in 15 euros.

[boatcapt]

Clearly, that is NOT what Ben wants/will accept from his big (singular on purpose).

[boatcapt]

Do you have his season stats?

I did a very quick search and couldn't find stats from SPIRE. Doesn't mean they don't exist, just that they aren't in the typical places I find team stats.

Regardless of his stats, as our only big, he is pencled in for at least the opening tip-off. He may get quickly replaced as Watson often was last season...started 18 games but in almost every one of those he was removed at the first timeout.

[Columbuseer]

As long as he can shoot the 3 AND is willing to pull the trigger, he'll have a long career at WLU. But if he either can't shoot the 3 OR won't call his own number from 3, he'll be out after a year...maybe two. I think we should just bring in 15 euros.

If we did play 15 euros, we just might win the national title. We would no longer have to spend so much time unlearning their bad AAU habits!
That is how gonzaga got started , with international players.

[Columbuseer]

Do you have his season stats?

Have watched most of his highlights to assess skills and mechanics (but not stats as no one misses in highlights lol) and read what bball scouts say about him.

Main thing is a very high level of competition. Spire is a basketball academy. Not your wv class a team.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
Defensive highlights for Finley Woodard.
Confirms huge defensive upgrade compared to departing underclassmen, since he is older, stronger, and has had better hs coaching.

Note how he plays defense with his feet not his hands (no reaching). Shuts off drives of quick guards with great footwork. Good, low defensive stance. He did not learn this in AAU lol!

spire has folks from usa and Europe. Have to be good just to be admitted.

He is #3.

https://youtu.be/hjwxvkJ4SvI

They don't play chumps either. They play teams like IMG Academy.

[boatcapt]

Have watched most of his highlights to assess skills and mechanics (but not stats as no one misses in highlights lol) and read what bball scouts say about him.

Main thing is a very high level of competition. Spire is a basketball academy. Not your wv class a team.

Was he a starter at SPIRE? How many games did he play in? Who did SPIRE play and how did they do? Who was his coach at SPIRE? What team style did they play?

Seems like these PG Academies are long on talk but online information about results or player performance is almost non-existent. You mentioned IMG as an opponent in another post and sure enough, the SPIRE site does show a "Florida Trip" between 12/9 and 12/19 that lists DME - Centre Point - IMG as opponents, yet IMG's schedule for their PG team does not show SPIRE as an opponent that week, or any week. There is a video posted online that says a game between the two took place but nothing that lines out how individual players did.

[Columbuseer]

Was he a starter at SPIRE? How many games did he play in? Who did SPIRE play and how did they do? Who was his coach at SPIRE? What team style did they play?

Seems like these PG Academies are long on talk but online information about results or player performance is almost non-existent. You mentioned IMG as an opponent in another post and sure enough, the SPIRE site does show a "Florida Trip" between 12/9 and 12/19 that lists DME - Centre Point - IMG as opponents, yet IMG's schedule for their PG team does not show SPIRE as an opponent that week, or any week. Not saying the game didn't happen, but there is no indication it did.

Can't answer any of your questions. Maybe an interesting Google project for someone (but not me)... One highlight was played on IMG court based on markings. Was it IMG? Would need to check roster of img
Maybe check his Twitter for clues.

[boatcapt]

If we did play 15 euros, we just might win the national title. We would no longer have to spend so much time unlearning their bad AAU habits!
That is how gonzaga got started , with international players.

Well they are out there. We live in the internet age so identifying overseas players is easier than back in the day. Identify 20 that you like and invite them all for an official visit at the same time. Watch a game and have an "open gym" practice. Maybe 12 of the 20 decide to come, a further 3 decide WLU is too rural and another 3 get scared away by the practice. That's 6 euros that are willing to come play at WLU...find 4 gym rat Americans that haven't been destroyed by AAU ball...roll out the basketballs at the begining of the season and go win a National Championship!!

[Columbuseer]

Well they are out there. We live in the internet age so identifying overseas players is easier than back in the day. Identify 20 that you like and invite them all for an official visit at the same time. Watch a game and have an "open gym" practice. Maybe 12 of the 20 decide to come, a further 3 decide WLU is too rural and another 3 get scared away by the practice. That's 6 euros that are willing to come play at WLU...find 4 gym rat Americans that haven't been destroyed by AAU ball...roll out the basketballs at the begining of the season and go win a National Championship!!

Great plan.
Excellent observation about gym rats. I think u have to be one to rise to the top at wlu. He who works hardest improves the most. Examples are Butler and rasile. Webb is a gym rat too but injury to yoakum forced him into action and out of a redshirt year. He will surprise folks before he is done at wlu.