Really bad loss for the ladies tonight
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West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
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FYi
Bryce Butler named to bevo Francis top 100 watch list
https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...atch-list.aspx
Also named: will yoakum and rj sunahara from Nova se
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Typically the game immediately following a bad loss is marked by WLU clicking on all cylinders. That just wasn't the case last night.
First off, credit to A-B. They played their butts off, and the Knott kid is special. A-B fans have to hope he sticks around, but it would be easy to see him fall for the call of the portal. But Coach Dye had his guys prepared last night, and A-B executed a nice game plan.
That said, a WLU squad that is "right" should never score as few as 86 against A-B. A-B doesn't have the depth (great top-end talent--Knott/Rice/King--but nothing behind that) to run with a WLU when they're "right." Something still wasn't "right" with the Toppers last night. I'm not sure if it was the change in rotation. Howlett only went 8 deep last night instead of 10-11 deep. Maybe that changed the dynamic. Maybe Malik McKinney being in streets had some impact (no idea what kind of injury he's dealing with).
But whatever it was that made them look a little off last night had better get corrected by Saturday. Make no mistake, this isn't one of the good Wheeling teams of old, but a rivalry game is a rivalry game, and going into that gym in Wheeling, I have to believe you'll find a motivated Wheeling team and a rocking atmosphere. Gotta right the ship quickly.
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A-B at WLU Observations 1/18/23 WLU 86 - A-B 72A-B Game Plan- Following the lead of WVSU, some MEC teams, such as Glenville and A-B, are building rosters based on athletic players with 1-on-1 skills, as well as deep three-point shooting range. This makes them dangerous in an up-and-down game.
- A-B was going to attack the rim in transition or kick out for an unguarded, open corner three.
- A-B was letting players take deep threes or go 1-on-1. Assists would not be a high priority.
- A-B wanted to use its athletes to play strong half-court defense to make WLU work hard for each shot.
- A-B wanted to win the rebounding battle.
- They won the rebounding battle.
- They were effective in getting scores in transition, especially from live ball WLU turnovers or missed shots from WLU.
- They shot very well from three, some of which were from 25 ft. They have multiple great 3 pt. shooters.
- In the first half, they only committed about 6 turnovers, which was very good.
There was much to like about the WLU game, if one ignores the combination of careless play, good A-B defensive plays, and missed shots in the first 10 minutes of the second half, which resulted in only 12 points. That period was responsible for the lower score, as WLU scored 49 points (led 49-36) in the first half and 22 points in the last 10 minutes of the game.- WLU did a much better job of moving the ball on offense and finding the wide-open look. WLU had 24 assists on 77% of the 31 made FGs, which is impressive. The number of assists could have been greater, if WLU had shot better. A-B had 14 assists on 54% of 26 made FGs. Many of A-B assists were kickouts in transition for unguarded threes rather than half-court passing.
- WLU had assist to turnover ratio of 2.18 (24 assists on only 11 turnovers). A-B had 14 assists and 16 turnovers (0.88 ratio)
- WLU forced two 10 second calls. Their 8 steals were 50% of A-Bs 16 turnovers, which is excellent.
- I thought WLU greatly improved their half-court defense.
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You brought up the flop rule. I'm just not sure I get what they're going for there. It puts WAY too much pressure on officials to call things they don't want to call. In the A-B game there were multiple occasions when a guy went flying and there was no whistle. So if a guy goes flying across the floor either a) he was pushed and you need to call the foul, or b) he's flopping and you need to call the flop. There's no such thing as a no-call in that situation. This leaves no wiggle room for the officials. But on Saturday, the officials just decided to ignore flops and swallow the whistle if they didn't see a foul despite guys flying all over the place. The issue was really evident in that WLU - A-B game.
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Originally posted by Scrub View PostYou brought up the flop rule. I'm just not sure I get what they're going for there. It puts WAY too much pressure on officials to call things they don't want to call. In the A-B game there were multiple occasions when a guy went flying and there was no whistle. So if a guy goes flying across the floor either a) he was pushed and you need to call the foul, or b) he's flopping and you need to call the flop. There's no such thing as a no-call in that situation. This leaves no wiggle room for the officials. But on Saturday, the officials just decided to ignore flops and swallow the whistle if they didn't see a foul despite guys flying all over the place. The issue was really evident in that WLU - A-B game.
I like the intent to improve the integrity of the game. Flopping is dramatic acting with intent to deceive, and not a basketball skill.
Similarly, a player standing out of bounds and throwing the ball off the defender on an inbounds play is not an acceptable response to good defense and bad offense.
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Originally posted by Layton View PostI miss getting excited about the Wheeling rivalry I didn’t even know the game was today. Hope they get things figured out because those games were a blast and a slug fest when I was in school. Don’t think their current coach is the guy
West Liberty just isn't a very good team right now. No identity. Just going through the motions. They better get it figured out before they have to play WVSU & Charleston back-to-back.
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Giving up 114 to that Wheeling team is inexcusable. I get that they were red hot (shooting over 60% for the game) and that Korte was getting the Kromka treatment from officials--he could do anything he wanted. But all of that said, it's simply poor defense to give up 114 to a team with that few weapons. Even Butler--the beating heart of this team--looked lost today. Korte had his way with Butler. The hangover from giving triple digits to Frostburg continues. They really haven't looked right since Christmas break. If they keep this up, we won't need to talk about the regional tournament.
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Originally posted by Scrub View Post
Wheeling sure was excited about the rivalry today.
West Liberty just isn't a very good team right now. No identity. Just going through the motions. They better get it figured out before they have to play WVSU & Charleston back-to-back.
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