West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Final wlu 114 west chester 91.
credit west chester- they did better in 2nd half cutting a 29 pt deficit to 16 befire fading toward the end. Their pg is a good 1 on 1 player

[Scrub]

Final wlu 114 west chester 91.
credit west chester- they did better in 2nd half cutting a 29 pt deficit to 16 befire fading toward the end. Their pg is a good 1 on 1 player

Down the stretch, I thought their most effective player was the Payne kid who didn't even start.

[TopperNation]

Not a bad start, and as I expected some players had a little nerves going for game 1. I will wait to see game #2 before I give a deeper look at player assessments, but I would say that it wasn't a good night for Vadim Clanet. Not sure if was nerves, but he committed 4 fouls in 8 minutes, ouch! Not going to kill the kid on night 1, but he was the only player who looked out of place on the WL squad. Still, it was a good showing against a tough West Chester squad that will win their share of games.

[Scrub]

Two notes that caught my attention (after admittedly only 1 game):

1. It was interesting to note that Howlett changed up substitution patterns a bit. Yes, he still ran a second team in at the 17:00 mark (which has been his pattern for years). But that second team was only 4 deep rather than a full 5. That might have as much to do with the apparent Shull & Stewart injuries (both in streets last night). But even more, the mix-and-match substitution that Howlett usually saves for later in a game or half was in full effect by about the 16:00 mark. The platoon system was promptly abandoned, and they were running guys in one at a time basically whistle to whistle. It felt like there was at least one dude at the scorer's table for basically the entirety of the game. This marks a shift in the normal substitution philosophy. It'll be interesting to watch if that remains the case, or if it was just a necessity until Shull & Stewart return.

2. The other interesting note I would offer: the three guys who had the biggest nights--D'Augustino, Woodward, & Spadafora--are all "system guys" who have been around. It's no surprise to those of us who have been watching this team for a while that guys who "grow up in the system" thrive more in the system upon maturity. It's clear that working your way through being a role player early in your career can lead to big dividends later (the Eric Meininger situation--role player for 3 years; MVP in the 4th).

It's nice to see that for guys like Spadafora & Woodward whose games have really elevated due to biding their time in the system, but it's also disheartening to see that because the portal era makes it SO much harder to retain "system guys" who are willing to stick around and wait for the dividends accrue.

[Columbuseer]

Not a bad start, and as I expected some players had a little nerves going for game 1. I will wait to see game #2 before I give a deeper look at player assessments, but I would say that it wasn't a good night for Vadim Clanet. Not sure if was nerves, but he committed 4 fouls in 8 minutes, ouch! Not going to kill the kid on night 1, but he was the only player who looked out of place on the WL squad. Still, it was a good showing against a tough West Chester squad that will win their share of games.

Vadim was in a walking cast for over a month. He is very rusty.

[Columbuseer]

I think injuries have affected the substitution pattern. Wlu is now having to play folks before they are ready. They are going to have to progress quickly. Imho for those reasons wlu is a work in progress. We fans will have to be patient.

Autrey has come a long way in his defense.
Kyler has really worked on his 3 point shot.
Bryce has really improved Fin's footwork inside.
The conditioning of Dante, Lanyc, Kyler, Fin and others is amazing. They will need to play more minutes than usual.

[Scrub]

I think injuries have affected the substitution pattern. Wlu is now having to play folks before they are ready. They are going to have to progress quickly. Imho for those reasons wlu is a work in progress. We fans will have to be patient.

Autrey has come a long way in his defense.
Kyler has really worked on his 3 point shot.
Bryce has really improved Fin's footwork inside.
The conditioning of Dante, Lanyc, Kyler, Fin and others is amazing. They will need to play more minutes than usual.

It's good to hear that Autry was working on his D, because I actually made a note that I was impressed with him defensively last night. So it's good if hard work is paying off.

Woodward was really impressive on both ends last night (two assists away from a triple double). But defensively he shined. It looked like Blair wanted to exploit a matchup early on by playing some iso with his really big dude (#11) against the slightly undersized Woodward. But each time they tried it, Woodward stood him up one-on-one and forced a bad shot from the big guy (who also got some frustration fouls called against him). Really impressed with Woodward.

But again, that indicates my point: being in the system longer term and working your way up to be able to perform the skills necessary to be a meaningful contributor takes some time that not every kid in the portal era is willing to devote.

[boatcapt]

Notably missing from last nights game...Former IUP starter Senior Jalen Stewart and former Pitt-Johnstown standout Junior Andrew Shull. Both were penciled in for major minutes when they transferred to the Hilltop. Going to need them to at least provide quality relief. I know it's only one game but WLU had three starters over 27 minutes. For reference, our top minute eater last year (Montague) averaged 25.2 minutes per game. You can do that once in a while, but expecting your top 3 to average over 27 minutes every night in WLU's system is a TOUGH ask.

[Scrub]

Notably missing from last nights game...Former IUP starter Senior Jalen Stewart and former Pitt-Johnstown standout Junior Andrew Shull. Both were penciled in for major minutes when they transferred to the Hilltop. Going to need them to at least provide quality relief. I know it's only one game but WLU had three starters over 27 minutes. For reference, our top minute eater last year (Montague) averaged 25.2 minutes per game. You can do that once in a while, but expecting your top 3 to average over 27 minutes every night in WLU's system is a TOUGH ask.

They were both in street clothes. Howlett mentioned Shull's minor injury in his preseason interview with the SID, but never mentioned Stewart. In fact, I wonder if Stewart was a game-time call last night. Because he was in street clothes, but you could also tell that he had a bunch of KT tape on his knee. I'm pretty sure you don't tape up just to rebound on the endline during shootaround. So I'm wondering if he tried to go and shut it down.

[boatcapt]

Wow...112-110 WLU over Bluefield! That was a war disguised as a track meet!

JJ Harper is the real deal
Woodard is an excellent distributor of the ball
D'Augustino - Solid across the board (except 3)
Autrey appears to be a force off the bench
Shuler - Solid in all facets (except 3)

27.6% from 3 ain't going to get it done many nights for WLU
23 points off the bench is un-WLU like
Clanet ain't afraid to take shots...Unfortunately, he didn't make any
At this point in the season, looks like our bench goes two deep

Bluefield was picked 12th in the CIAA. Either the CIAA is loaded or the coaches got it wrong...WAY wrong!

[Layton]

Disturbing result

[TopperNation]

[QUOTE=boatcapt;n860174]Wow...112-110 WLU over Bluefield! That was a war disguised as a track meet!

JJ Harper is the real deal
Woodard is an excellent distributor of the ball
D'Augustino - Solid across the board (except 3)
Autrey appears to be a force off the bench
Shuler - Solid in all facets (except 3)

27.6% from 3 ain't going to get it done many nights for WLU
23 points off the bench is un-WLU like
Clanet ain't afraid to take shots...Unfortunately, he didn't make any
At this point in the season, looks like our bench goes two deep

Bluefield was picked 12th in the CIAA. Either the CIAA is loaded or the coaches got it wrong...WAY wrong![/QUOT

Okay, Bluefield is not the 12th best team in the CIAA, so that pre-season ranking has got to be wrong, and the rest of that league will find that out real soon lol. I agree with your player assessments, but will say that Stewart not being available right now is a key factor in why the bench production seems to be lacking. It's clear right now that WL can go 8 or 9 deep, and not the normal 10 or 11 that we have gotten use to. So for now we need to start getting use to the First Platoon getting subbed out piece by piece. Like you said, JJ Harper has hit the ground running and looks comfortable in the WL style. D' Augustino is steady and looked much better from the Free Throw line tonight (5 for 5). D. Autrey is a lot better than advertised and from what I was expecting, and last but not least, I know someone on this board said that Clanet missed about a month of pre season due to injury, but man he looks lost out there, as he now has 7 fouls in 16 minutes of game action!

[Scrub]

I'm not at all worried about last night's result (regardless of what CIAA coaches think about Bluefield's chances in the league this year). That was simply a case of a team uniquely prepared to handle what WLU does. All about matchups (and it's entirely possible that Bluefield doesn't match up well in the CIAA--who knows). But I'd bet that that's one of the reasons Howlett would want to schedule a game like that--get tested early by a team that's unfazed by your system and see what you got.

[TopperNation]

Knowing how another team you played against fairs in their own conference is for sure relevant, especially when you talk about NCAA seedings at the end of the year. Yes, you're correct about it being about matchups and Bluefield not backing down from WLU, but if Bluefield is at the top half of the CIAA, then heck yeah it means something. Now if they were in a conference in the Midwest, then who cares.

[Scrub]

Knowing how another team you played against fairs in their own conference is for sure relevant, especially when you talk about NCAA seedings at the end of the year. Yes, you're correct about it being about matchups and Bluefield not backing down from WLU, but if Bluefield is at the top half of the CIAA, then heck yeah it means something. Now if they were in a conference in the Midwest, then who cares.

I didn't mean to imply it doesn't matter how they fare in their conference. Obviously for NCAA purposes, we now want Bluefield & West Chester to go win a bunch of games and make those look like quality wins. 100%. But what the CIAA coaches (who probably still see newcomers Bluefield like a little brother) think of Bluefield in a preseason poll is totally meaningless. Results are results, and you're absolutely right--we now gotta hope that the Big Blues go out and put up a great showing in the CIAA.