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A Dummy’s Observations on WLU at NDC 11/18/23 WLU 111- NDC 82
NDC Game Plan
NDC is a very athletic team, that is loaded with transfers who are 6-6 or below, with guard skills and excellent
rebounding ability. They started 4 players 6-4 to 6-6. They have good depth. They are a dangerous team, especially
against a half-court style opponent They have very good 1-on-1 players and are very strong rebounders. The NDC
coach has a great eye for talent, as he lost a huge amount of production from last year’s team.
Their game plan was to spread the floor, attack the rim off the dribble. and dominate the boards. If they break the
press, they will attack the rim to score or draw fouls. To counter the WLU pressure, NDC used a platoon substitution and played ten guys for substantial minutes.
First Half
In foreshadowing of a very athletic game, 6-6 220-lb RJ Ogom won the tip from Sarson, the first tip Ben has lost this year. It was a close game for the first 5 minutes, with WLU leading 13-10 at 14:43 media timeout. NDC chose to play their starters for over 5 minutes. They put in their second unit, just after a rested Alpha platoon had replaced Bravo
platoon. It was a bad matchup. Alpha dominated, increasing the lead to 29-12, getting 4 steals in about 2.5 minutes.
WLU pressure was wreaking havoc. Bravo platoon returned and extended the lead to 23 in the next 4 minutes.
WLU had forced 13 turnovers on 13 steals and the half ended with WLU leading 50-29, despite NDC
outrebounding WLU and being nearly perfect from the FT line.
Second Half
NDC could not cut the deficit, as the lead was 22 at 64-22 at the first media timeout at 14:42. NDC was making valiant efforts to score, but WLU was speeding them up and luring them into a one-on-one playground game, where the NDC players without the ball were standing around watching the dribbler, exhausted. The press led to 10 steals and easy scores for WLU.
However, when fatigue sets in, the playground shots don’t fall. NDC foul shooting and offensive rebounding was preventing a total collapse. Despite these efforts, the lead grew to 29 in less than 2 minutes at 12:54.
The game was essentially over at that point, as NDC was out of gas.
WLU reached its maximum lead of 34 points at 93-59 with 7:39 remaining in the game. The last 5 minutes were a little sloppy for WLU as they took some quick, albeit wide-open shots early in the shot clock, but with no one under to rebound. By that time, WLU had quit trapping in the backcourt.
The final score was 109-84.
Keys to the game:
 Fatigue – WLU scored 45 points off turnovers, with 25 fast break points, and 23 steals among 31 forced
turnovers, which offset NDC rebounding and FT % advantage. I thought NDC played their starters too long before subbing, even though they did platoon.
ï‚· WLU forced 74% live ball turnovers, which often led to easy scores for layups.
ï‚· NDC three point % was only 12% for the game.
 The Alpha and Bravo Platoons continue to perform at high levels – Alpha was +15 over 6 shifts, Bravo was +13 over 5 shifts, ignoring the last shift that ended the game.
 Quality depth – WLU bench points outscored NDC’s bench 50 to 35, which indicates that NDC has good
depth.
ï‚· WLU only committed 13 turnovers.
 WLU was making their threes – an elite 42 % on 15-36.
 Incredible passing – WLU has elite passers with great vision. There were many assists that made fans go
WOW!
 WLU has six extremely quick players who can harass opponent’s guards and disrupt their offense.
 WLU shares the ball effectively, compared to NDC’s dribble-dominant offense. WLU had an outstanding 2.31 assist to turnover ratio, compared to a bad 0.42 for NDC.
*Amazingly, 76% of WLU FGs were a result of assists, compared to only 42% for NDC.
ï‚· Despite their fast pace, WLU commits turnovers on only 14% of possessions, compared to 33% for NDC.
Seven players scored in double figures for WLU. Twelve players saw at least 10 minutes of action, with only 2 players at 20 or more minutes (max of 23 minutes).
NDC has good, quick athletes, many in 6-4 to 6-6 range, who can all play like guards, but are also very strong rebounders. However, waves of WLU pressure and NDC choosing to run with the Hilltoppers and play an individual 1-on-1 dribble-drive game, resulted in few assists and extreme fatigue for NDC in the second half.
NDC will be much improved by February, as they are having to blend many new players. But the talent is there.
WLU offensive rating was 116, which is very good, but somewhat below their typical incredible season average of 125. In addition, they held NDC to 90, which is great defense.
The effective shooting % as a team was 58%, and they held NDC to 49%.
Misc. Notes
There were so many wow moments in this game for WLU, from great passes, to steals in rapid succession, and sheer effort. It is well worth watching the on demand replay on mountaineast.tv.
Just one example was a sequence beginning at the 10:30 mark in the first half. After Woodward makes a layup to extend the lead to 19, NDC breaks the press and passes to 6-6 Cameron Johnson, who had leaked out and was wide open under the basket. He catches the ball standing on the left side of the rim and goes up for a monster slam.
Daren Fergus is sprinting past everyone toward the goal. As Johnson starts to throw the ball down from high above the rim, 6-1 Darren meets him above the rim! Darren cleanly blocks the dunk with BOTH hands, snatches the ball from Johnson’s hands while in mid-air and takes off toward the WLU goal. Darren then attacks the paint and makes a beautiful assist to Woodward for a layup. The fans were looking at each other in disbelief, not sure if the sequence
they just saw was real. For WVU fans, it evoked images of the legendary shot blocker Sagaba Konate from 2019, who amazed fans with two-handed blocks. But Sagaba was 6-7 and Darren is 6-1!
Effective Shooting %
The effective shooting % of many WLU players was excellent. This stat weighs the value of the 3-point shot 50% more than a 2-pt shot, which allows more effective comparison with post players, etc. A perfect score for a 2-pt shooter who does not miss is 100%. However, if the shooter only shoots threes and never misses, the maximum possible value is 150%. Here were the top effective shooters:
Spadafora 125%
Montague 86%
Hinds 85%
Rasile 81%
Woodward 67%
​​​​D'Augustino 58%
Korte 56%
Fergus 50%
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