A Dummy’s Observations on WLU vs Bluefield State 3/15/25 WLU 91- BSU 84
Bluefield State (BS) Game Plan
In his 4th season, Coach Hoehn has recruited a group of athletic scorers nationwide from Detroit, California, NY, and FL. BS has arguably their best team in Coach Hoehn’s tenure. They have the Regional Player of the Year and CIAA Player of the Year in Hinds. They had a significant height advantage at nearly every position. BS played the WLU style with full court pressure and attacked the rim in transition. They played an up-tempo game. However, three players played >31 minutes, only six players played more than 10 minutes, and their star player Hinds had 36 minutes, so fatigue might have been a factor in a very close game. BS trapped full court to try to force WLU turnovers. On offense, BS decided to press their 1v1 advantage and only had 9 assists. They were a near mirror image of WLU, attacking the rim in transition and taking advantage of any defensive lapses.
The BS strategy seemed to be:
Keys to the WLU Victory
Areas for Improvement for WLU
Bluefield State (BS) Game Plan
In his 4th season, Coach Hoehn has recruited a group of athletic scorers nationwide from Detroit, California, NY, and FL. BS has arguably their best team in Coach Hoehn’s tenure. They have the Regional Player of the Year and CIAA Player of the Year in Hinds. They had a significant height advantage at nearly every position. BS played the WLU style with full court pressure and attacked the rim in transition. They played an up-tempo game. However, three players played >31 minutes, only six players played more than 10 minutes, and their star player Hinds had 36 minutes, so fatigue might have been a factor in a very close game. BS trapped full court to try to force WLU turnovers. On offense, BS decided to press their 1v1 advantage and only had 9 assists. They were a near mirror image of WLU, attacking the rim in transition and taking advantage of any defensive lapses.
The BS strategy seemed to be:
- PASSED – Attack WLU with 1v1 plays on offense. According to the broadcasters, the bench encouraged their offense by yelling “they cannot guard you”. Hinds is a special player.
- PASSED – Play the WLU style on defense. They pressed successfully, in adversely affecting the WLU shooting. However, BS eventually took off the trap, when it was not having the desired effect and to conserve energy.
- PASSED – Draw fouls and get to the FT line. BS was 14-18 while WLU was only 6-12
- PASSED – Shoot above average – BS FG was 45.7% (47.2% season), FG was 46.2% (3 p1.5% season) and FT was 77.8% (72.7% season). Fortunately, BS was just 6-13 on 3FG.
- FAILED – Dominate the boards – WLU won offensive rebounding 15-14 and both teams got a high % ofoffensives rebounds (BS 37%) and WLU 36%). The D1 90th percentile is 33.7%. BS won the defensive rebounding 27-24.
Keys to the WLU Victory
- This was a defensive struggle between strong offensive teams. The offensive efficiency rating was 108 for WLU and 100 for BS (points per 100 possessions). D1 90th percentile is 113.
- IMHO, the difference in the game was West Liberty’s depth, and will to win. In the second half, it seemed that WLU was getting run-outs in transition for easy layups and BS was less of a presence on the boards. I think BS got tired in the last 10 minutes.
- WLU shared the ball extremely well. WLU had 65% of goals from assists (24-37), compared to 28% for BS (9-32). 90th percentile for D1 is 59.8%
- WLU forced 20 turnovers and got 46 points in the paint, despite being a smaller team.
- Shuler and others did an admirable job on Hinds, who is a special player. Hinds hit 5-6 threes that were deep and contested. Eventually, fatigue takes its toll late in the game.Overall, it was a gutsy victory against a talented BS team.
Areas for Improvement for WLU
- WLU will need to shoot better to advance as they were 45.7% FG, 30.6% 3FG and 50% FT. These are significantly below average and would have been worse without some breakaway WLU goals in transition.
- Opponents will target players who have tendency to foul. WLU had two players foul out.
- Opponents will attack WLU 1v1 and then look to pass or score. WLU will need to shift their defense to help and cut off the drives without giving up the assist.
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