West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Scrub]

Good thing the Toppers were playing a bad team tonight. Woof.

[Scrub]

By the way, anyone see what happened to Shuler? He didn't play at all in the second half. But at least Spadafora was back today. Toppers can't really afford to lose any more players to injury right now.

[Columbuseer]

Wlu offensive rebounding and their interior passing won this game. Frostburg went to a playground game and their guys were too tired to go after offensive rebounds in 2nd half and they were taking shots with no one under. I can see how they almost beat wvsu. They have some open court scorers.

wlu shot horrendously from three- 8 for 40. They need to find ways to get rasile and spadafora open looks. If they had shot a good 40%, they win by 34.
They need to tighten up their 3 pt defense. Too many wide open uncontested looks from three Imho.

Fortunately, fatigue Cooled off Frostburg in the late stages.

[IUPalum]

Wlu offensive rebounding and their interior passing won this game. Frostburg went to a playground game and their guys were too tired to go after offensive rebounds in 2nd half and they were taking shots with no one under. I can see how they almost beat wvsu. They have some open court scorers.

wlu shot horrendously from three- 8 for 40. They need to find ways to get rasile and spadafora open looks. If they had shot a good 40%, they win by 34.
They need to tighten up their 3 pt defense. Too many wide open uncontested looks from three Imho.

Fortunately, fatigue Cooled off Frostburg in the late stages.

So the gimmick worked.

[boatcapt]

Yuk...WLU gets a much too close win against a Frostburg team that stinks on ice. Seemingly every 3 games out of 4 we are complaining about WLUs abysmal 3 point shooting. That's a HUGE problem when your offense relies so heavily and exclusively on taking and making the 3. Lots of players in extended (season long?) shooting slumps that don't show any signs of breaking.

Our game plan these days seems to be hope (hope as a team we break out of our 3 point shooting funk and all is well again). Hope is not really a strategy and certainly not a game plan. I fear that if hope is our game plan against Fairmont, we might come up on the losing end

[Scrub]

Our game plan these days seems to be hope (hope as a team we break out of our 3 point shooting funk and all is well again). Hope is not really a strategy and certainly not a game plan. I fear that if hope is our game plan against Fairmont, we might come up on the losing end

Oh there's no question: if the Toppers put up another stinker like last night on Saturday, Fairmont will run them out of their own building. Gotta get this figured out. I refuse to believe Sarson is SO instrumental that they can't win without him. But, man, they've looked pretty bad since he went down. They just looked downright sluggish at times last night. And sluggish is a bad adjective for a team running a system devised to create chaos for the opponent. "Sluggish chaos" is a pretty ineffective strategy.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Oh there's no question: if the Toppers put up another stinker like last night on Saturday, Fairmont will run them out of their own building. Gotta get this figured out. I refuse to believe Sarson is SO instrumental that they can't win without him. But, man, they've looked pretty bad since he went down. They just looked downright sluggish at times last night. And sluggish is a bad adjective for a team running a system devised to create chaos for the opponent. "Sluggish chaos" is a pretty ineffective strategy.

I don't watch WL a ton but I do see Sarson is the 'energy' guy. That's contagious for sure. Is he coming back this year?

[Scrub]

I don't watch WL a ton but I do see Sarson is the 'energy' guy. That's contagious for sure. Is he coming back this year?

I have no intel on his return. He appears to be out of the boot, which is a good sign. But I don't know anything definitive.

And, yes, he is a sort of energy kind of guy, but I have to believe that this system--for all it's been talked about here--doesn't run on a single engine.

[Columbuseer]

So the gimmick worked.

Only 86% of the time over the last 12 years.
I am glad Gannon has introduced the gimmick to the PSAC.
Lol

[IUPalum]

Only 86% of the time over the last 12 years.
I am glad Gannon has introduced the gimmick to the PSAC.
Lol

The more exposure the gimmick gets, the more the solution will start to appear.

[Columbuseer]

Oh there's no question: if the Toppers put up another stinker like last night on Saturday, Fairmont will run them out of their own building. Gotta get this figured out. I refuse to believe Sarson is SO instrumental that they can't win without him. But, man, they've looked pretty bad since he went down. They just looked downright sluggish at times last night. And sluggish is a bad adjective for a team running a system devised to create chaos for the opponent. "Sluggish chaos" is a pretty ineffective strategy.

They did force 17 turnovers and held frostburg to 0.90 points per possession, despite frostburg getting red hot from three in 1st 10 mins of second half ( went from 11% in 1st half to 42% from three in 2nd half).

wlu was not taking bad shots. They just were not dropping in 2nd half (11% from three).

I liked that wlu changed their strategy. Frostburg was a step slow from fatigue, but wlu was missing open looks.
So wlu went to their half court game and started getting easy shots inside with great interior passing. Their 2 pt fg % was 60% for the game.

Also, in the last 6 mins or so, wlu decided to take off the trap and make frostburg work for shots in the half court rather than jack up threes in transition.

wlu has good half court defense. It cooled frostburg shooting and made them use clock to even get a shot.

Excellent strategy by wlu to find a way to win on horrendous shooting night.

Variation in 3 pt shooting from half to half is huge for many teams. Against wvwu wlu shot 63% from three in 1st half
and 31% in 2nd half.

[Columbuseer]

The more exposure the gimmick gets, the more the solution will start to appear.

I agree. Teams should not copy this gimmick. They should stay with tradition and their proven successful styles.

[IUPalum]

I agree. Teams should not copy this gimmick. They should stay with tradition and their proven successful styles.

Ok Ben!

[boatcapt]

The more exposure the gimmick gets, the more the solution will start to appear.

Many teams have tried to figure out a solution to the WLU Style, few have succeeded. The WLU Style is not a secret as there are hundreds of game tapes from WLU, Nova and now Gannon and Coker. Certainly the WLU Style is no secret to PSAC teams as numerous teams play WLU every year in the regular season and in the NCAA tourney. Now this year, add Gannon to the mix.

There are two conferences that have ample experience playing against teams that play the WLU Style, the MEC and the Sunshine State. Crutch at Nova has a .840 winning percentage in the Sunshine State Conference over his six years there...Ben has a .889 in the MEC during his six years at the Topper helm. The "new blood" WLU Style HC's...Coach Fee at Gannon is .889 in PSAC play thus far in his first season while Coach Lamberti at Coker is .600 in his first season of play in the SAC.

So clearly "exposure" playing against a WLU Style team is not the secret sauce to beating one. If that were the case, MEC, Sunshine and even PSAC teams would have figured it out long ago.

Here are the secrets to beating a WLU Style team:

1. Supreme physical condition.
2. Deep bench (8 MINIMUM).
3. At least two gifted ball handlers that can break the press consistently.
4. At least three shooters that can drain threes.
5. Two "athletic" bigs that can run the floor.
6. Disciplined players top to bottom that will sacrifice their stats sheet for the teams W/L record.

Build a team that can do that, and you'll have an even chance of beating a WLU Style team. Of course, if you build a team like that, why not just run the WLU Style and win .80%+ of your games?

[Columbuseer]

Many teams have tried to figure out a solution to the WLU Style, few have succeeded. The WLU Style is not a secret as there are hundreds of game tapes from WLU, Nova and now Gannon and Coker. Certainly the WLU Style is no secret to PSAC teams as numerous teams play WLU every year in the regular season and in the NCAA tourney. Now this year, add Gannon to the mix.

There are two conferences that have ample experience playing against teams that play the WLU Style, the MEC and the Sunshine State. Crutch at Nova has a .840 winning percentage in the Sunshine State Conference over his six years there...Ben has a .889 in the MEC during his six years at the Topper helm. The "new blood" WLU Style HC's...Coach Fee at Gannon is .889 in PSAC play thus far in his first season while Coach Lamberti at Coker is .600 in his first season of play in the SAC.

So clearly "exposure" playing against a WLU Style team is not the secret sauce to beating one. If that were the case, MEC, Sunshine and even PSAC teams would have figured it out long ago.

Here are the secrets to beating a WLU Style team:

1. Supreme physical condition.
2. Deep bench (8 MINIMUM).
3. At least two gifted ball handlers that can break the press consistently.
4. At least three shooters that can drain threes.
5. Two "athletic" bigs that can run the floor.
6. Disciplined players top to bottom that will sacrifice their stats sheet for the teams W/L record.

Build a team that can do that, and you'll have an even chance of beating a WLU Style team. Of course, if you build a team like that, why not just run the WLU Style and win .80%+ of your games?

Great summary. #1and #2 are imperative. There is growing research on the effects of fatigue in basketball. Interestingly, fatigue decreases mental acuity and decision making. Fatigue makes elite players quite mediocre. Coaches often play starters too long against wlu before subbing. The effects of fatigue are cumulative.