West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Watched Will play at Delaware Hayes on 12/16. Some observations.
Smooth. Ball seems like a part of his body. Could play any position on the team, including point guard, better than his teammates. Dublin Scioto had their best and quickest player on him (about 6 ft tall) to deny and harass him. It did not bother him. Every so often he would do an incredible spin move and go past him and another defender and take it to the hoop. Also is at ease shooting after contact or after a shot is contested, ala Monterosa or Smith of WLU. His basketball IQ is much higher than his supporting cast and the offensive system in not conducive to his talents, as it very much a plodding, slowdown offense with little motion or structure. His game is the up and down transition style. So unless you study him carefully, he could easily be under the radar on the court. He can dunk easily off the drive. He is unselfish to a fault. He gives up the ball quickly if there is not an opening (unlike his teammates, who pat the ball 30 ft from the basket or hold it without much purpose). Although I did not see the game on Tuesday Dec 20, He scored 30 of Delaware's 47 points, including 9 in OT to secure a win against Thomas Worthington of Columbus. Maybe the coach told him to take over the game.
Great shooter inside and outside. But he will need to hit the weights hard. He is very, thin for 6 ft 5.

Update:
Saw Will Yoakum play against Mount Vernon. Entire team is much improved from the Dublin Scioto game, moving the ball much better. Close game in 1st half. In 3rd quarter, Will quietly scored the first 14 points, getting the ball on the wing and then driving to the basket for contested 2 point or and -1 play. Wound up with 35 of his team's 71 points, but he is not hogging the ball. They won by about 10. A older guy who still plays pickup told me a funny story, where they were choosing up sides at a rec center somewhere and he points to Will who is sitting and watching and says Let me take that guy sitting over there - I need a young guy on my team. Only he knew who he was. Needless to say Will took them to school.
He also said he has seen him hit 15 3's in a row in practice.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Picks up commit from will yoakum 6'5 SG from Delaware Ohio http://www.hudl.com/athlete/4882627/will-yoakum

Watched Will play at Delaware Hayes on 12/16. Some observations.
Smooth. Ball seems like a part of his body. Could play any position on the team, including point guard, better than his teammates. Dublin Scioto had their best and quickest player on him (about 6 ft tall) to deny and harass him. It did not bother him. Every so often he would do an incredible spin move and go past him and another defender and take it to the hoop. Also is at ease shooting after contact or after a shot is contested, ala Monterosa or Smith of WLU. His basketball IQ is much higher than his supporting cast and the offensive system in not conducive to his talents, as it very much a plodding, slowdown offense with little motion or structure. His game is the up and down transition style. So unless you study him carefully, he could easily be under the radar on the court. He can dunk easily off the drive. He is unselfish to a fault. He gives up the ball quickly if there is not an opening (unlike his teammates, who pat the ball 30 ft from the basket or hold it without much purpose). Although I did not see the game on Tuesday Dec 20, He scored 30 of Delaware's 47 points, including 9 in OT to secure a win against Thomas Worthington of Columbus. Maybe the coach told him to take over the game.
Great shooter inside and outside. But he will need to hit the weights hard. He is very, thin for 6 ft 5.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

One thing is for sure. Our coaching staff will play with the lineup and this team will continue to get better as the season goes along.

Some observations: From watching some of the recent games, some teams are having success playing zone. However, the zone is leaving a big opening in the lane near the foul line. WLU just needs to tweak their set to get the timing right on their player flashing into the gap and then shooting a 10 footer or taking it to the hoop. Sometime the cutter was just a little late getting to the opening to receive the pass. Tailor made for Monterosa, Smith or Devin. They will adjust.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Hasn't Huggins even dodged playing an exhibition against WL for the past several years?

I get taking a light non-conf schedule but theirs is extreme.

Don't get me wrong I could really care less ... not much of a D1 fan. It would seem boring to me if I was a WV fan but that's just me.

I get it. Jamie Dixon did the same thing forever at Pitt. At least that game starts again next year.

[Layton]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I think IUP has a tougher non-conference schedule than WVU. Lol ... I see they won by 70 again today. What a joke.

Also beat the #6 team on their court we are in one of if not the toughest conference we don't need a hard OOC get that out of here

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I think IUP has a tougher non-conference schedule than WVU. Lol ... I see they won by 70 again today. What a joke.

[FlyHawk98]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

One thing is for sure. Our coaching staff will play with the lineup and this team will continue to get better as the season goes along.

[Chevydude89]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Monterosso will continue to be a beast Devin hoehne can only get better clay guillozet was out of his boot for the last week and a half I look for him to return beginning in January 3rd game

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I noticed last year and again this year ... Wheeling has like 24 players on its roster. Do they have a freshman team or something?

[FlyHawk98]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Yep. I knew Monteroso would be a stud. He used to hold his own with our guys when he was in high school.

I think he will be even better next year considering he will have an entire year to focus on nothing but basketball.

I'm not saying he will drop 40 every night, but I think its safe to say that he will be our go to guy this season. He is very athletic and has great strength at the D2 level which allows him to take people to the basket and out muscle his defenders.

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

As they say, a win is a win and it's better to be sitting at 8-1 as opposed to 1-8. But make no mistake, WLU is not playing well at all at this point in the season. We have effectively become a team with one star (Monteroso) and a collection of bit players. Nova is a fair team that had no reason to be within 20 points of WLU. Seasons past, WLU beats them 120-80. Fact that stayed very close throughout the second half speaks volumes about the 2016-17 Toppers. Yes Monteroso scored 40 points including going 7-11 from 3. But the down side of that is that the rest of the team shot 32% from the field and a truly woeful 16% from 3.

So what do we do? We really don't have many options here beyond just hoping that Monteroso stays hot and at least three of our players break out of their funks all at once and start performing. Beyond just hope, only thing we can do is perhaps break the redshirt on one of our two freshmen and hope they can at least give us some instant offense.

Here's hoping true freshman Clay Gauzollet come back quickly and that he produces.

Good points, boat. Monteroso is better than advertised, and to put up 40 last night, and 32 vs Fairmont....Fair to say, Flyhawk was right---total stud. He's shooting such a great percentage, not sure the pace wll continue.

But what troubles me is Hoehn. 3 yr starter, top 20 scorer all time, and he's stuggling from 3. 1-8 last night. Something is amiss....and I don't know what it is....

I guess they are 8-1, with the only loss being vs. top 5 team, and held 7 pt lead with 5 mins to go... But it's not last year's or the year befores or the year before's hilltoppers...

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

As they say, a win is a win and it's better to be sitting at 8-1 as opposed to 1-8. But make no mistake, WLU is not playing well at all at this point in the season. We have effectively become a team with one star (Monteroso) and a collection of bit players. Nova is a fair team that had no reason to be within 20 points of WLU. Seasons past, WLU beats them 120-80. Fact that stayed very close throughout the second half speaks volumes about the 2016-17 Toppers. Yes Monteroso scored 40 points including going 7-11 from 3. But the down side of that is that the rest of the team shot 32% from the field and a truly woeful 16% from 3.

So what do we do? We really don't have many options here beyond just hoping that Monteroso stays hot and at least three of our players break out of their funks all at once and start performing. Beyond just hope, only thing we can do is perhaps break the redshirt on one of our two freshmen and hope they can at least give us some instant offense.

Here's hoping true freshman Clay Gauzollet come back quickly and that he produces.

[Chevydude89]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

West Lib pulls out the win 84 67 against Nova Southeastern was close late in game but Hilltoppers prevailed. Monteroso with 40 pts!!!!!

[CelticCoach]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Yes WLU needs a banger, but I didn't see one guy boxing out during that run where FSU was getting second chances. Have to get a body on those guys!

[Sportsnut]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

WL really needs another banger. I really don't understand why Crutch has a whole bench of 6' 2" guards yet only one guy with any size. You can see at the end of the Fairmont game how lack of size really hurt them. Fairmont got several offensive rebounds and put backs the last 2 minutes which turned the game.