West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

FYI Indy played Ohio state last night.
Indy was totally outmatched both size and athletically.
osu had 3 of the last 4 Mr Ohio basketball players.
leading 33-32 with under 10 mins in first half, osu went on a 23-3 run, fueled by Indy careless passes, terrible 3 point shooting at 16%, Indy fouls. and osu dominance inside. Osu had 2 7 footers and a 6-6 230 lb wing who was nearly unstoppable. Indy recovered somewhat and was down 66-50 at the half.
In the second half, the Indy pressure cause fatigue and poor decisions. After only 4 turnovers in the first half osu committed 13 in the second half.
With 5 minutes left, the osu lead had dropped to 10. In the final 3 mins, Indy could not get stops and had to foul, which increased final score to 118-102.
Indy had 1.25 points per possession but inside dominance of osu resulted in 1.4 pts per possession.
Tinsley 22
D'Augustino 21
dragas 11
Woodward 8 assists
Reece hagy a true frosh former wlu commit, started for indy. He is going to be good.
wlu players acquitted themselves quite well.

imho, this game was encouraging that “the system” can work at d1. Once just needs to find d1 level players who are willing to play it.

osu press conference
https://youtu.be/KgAQJ1mz3tE?si=SibihhS1ptWDlmuw

Osu shot 53 free throws to 20 for indy. Refs seemed to call indy traps tight while letting osu in half court play physical. Indy needs to not give up and ones when contesting shots. If a guy has you beat, don't foul him. Let him get his two, but not three.

[boatcapt]

Not really all that amazing when you consider that the preseason polls are almost always driven by name recognition rather than actual intel.

Now, it can be celebrated that WLU has managed to build up enough capital to cash in on that name recognition, but I wouldn't have expected anything less than a spot in the preseason poll.

The bigger question is will the Toppers jell enough and early enough to hang onto that top-25 slot once results start rolling in. Time will tell.

Yea...Preseason polls, particularly national ones, are little more than historic reputation divided by last seasons performance...PARTICULARLY at the DII level! I doubt there is anyone in the nation that has done a deep dive roster analysis on the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of all DII team and then an analytic comparison of all teams as they relate to each other to produce a true top 25. More like, WLU won 30 games last year and were in the Elite 8...But Twitter says that they have a new Head Coach and had a bunch of last years players transfer out...UHHHHHH...#11 feels right!

[Scrub]

Fyi

NABC preseason poll has wlu at #11.
amazing given only one veteran and one redshirt returned.
nova se #1
Fairmont #5
Gannon #22

https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...ason-poll.aspx

Not really all that amazing when you consider that the preseason polls are almost always driven by name recognition rather than actual intel.

Now, it can be celebrated that WLU has managed to build up enough capital to cash in on that name recognition, but I wouldn't have expected anything less than a spot in the preseason poll.

The bigger question is will the Toppers jell enough and early enough to hang onto that top-25 slot once results start rolling in. Time will tell.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
Wlu scrimmages at Pitt Johnstown on tues nov 4 at 6:30 pm. Would suggest calling host to confirm time if you plan on attending.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi

NABC preseason poll has wlu at #11.
amazing given only one veteran and one redshirt returned.
nova se #1
Fairmont #5
Gannon #22

https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...ason-poll.aspx

[boatcapt]

Fyi
wlu hosted slippery rock last night for a scrimmage.
They reset score for start of second half.
i did not attend.
wlu won 1st half 50 some to 20 some.
wlu won 2nd half 60 some to 30 some.

I do not put much stock in scrimmage scores, as coaches often work on evaluating different personnel groupings, often at the expense of the outcome. Wlu played mostly freshmen the last 9 minutes.

That's been my point on scrimmages. Particularly when DII fans point to a score vs a D1 as proof that they can hang with a D1. Quite often the coaches have wildly different agendas which can sque the results. REAL game would have a completely different results.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
wlu hosted slippery rock last night for a scrimmage.
They reset score for start of second half.
i did not attend.
wlu won 1st half 50 some to 20 some.
wlu won 2nd half 60 some to 30 some.

I do not put much stock in scrimmage scores, as coaches often work on evaluating different personnel groupings, often at the expense of the outcome. Wlu played mostly freshmen the last 9 minutes.

[boatcapt]

Two weeks out from the start of the season. WLU has two tough games...and Clarion...over the first five days. Open the season against Clarion (only question here is what is an acceptable final margin...20? 30?) the follow that the next day vs Cal at the ARSC. Then travel to Richmond to play VA Union.

As most of the players are the experienced transfers in the WLU System, there should be no ramp-up to the season. What you see in games 1-3 should be pretty close to what they are in March. So that said, we need to be 3-0 out of the gate. While Cal and VUU are solid teams, if WLU is as good as we've been led to believe, we should beat both comfortably (10-15 point range). Anything less than 3-0 COULD indicate some sort of problem.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
on sat Oct 25 wlu will scrimmage at 11 am prior to homecoming game vs glenville.
hope others can attend and share their observations.

Correction: due to homecoming, men's scrimmage will start at 10 am tomorrow (saturday). Women will scrimmage at 8 am.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
wlu basketball scrimmage at 11 am tomorrow sat Oct 4.
Also, former basketball player CJ Hester will be inducted into wlu hall of fame during football game.

Correction: due to homecoming, men's scrimmage will start at 10 am tomorrow (saturday). Women will scrimmage at 8 am.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
Here is mec media day story.
https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...ra-begins.aspx

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
on sat Oct 25 wlu will scrimmage at 11 am prior to homecoming game vs glenville.
hope others can attend and share their observations.

[Columbuseer]

Obviously there are tons of unknowns heading into the first season post-Howlett, but I'd like to think the Hilltoppers will have something to say about Fairmont being voted the unanimous pre-season MEC favorite. Fairmont's roster looks loaded to be sure. But I really hope Coach Lamberti will have his Hilltoppers up to the challenge of defending the crown.

Fairmont has assembled an awesome roster. They purportedly have the most resources of any team in the MEC. They deserve to be the preseason favorite. if they can make it past the 1st round of regional, their coach might get his d1 gig opportunity.

fyi
here is link to media day

https://mountaineast.tv/?B=2729320

[boatcapt]

Clearly the MEC coaches didn't read the preseason assessments of WLUs. This year we will have at least 12 40+% 3-point shooters and have seven bigs that can all drain 3's from 50 ft, can run like the wind, play full court defense for 48 minutes every night and handle the ball like...Spadafora (probably the best ball handler in college basketball). Looking at the schedule and looking at our team, I don't see how any team we play will be within 30 points...We are THAT good!!!

These coaches need to turn in their whistles and depart their campus in shame.

[Scrub]

Obviously there are tons of unknowns heading into the first season post-Howlett, but I'd like to think the Hilltoppers will have something to say about Fairmont being voted the unanimous pre-season MEC favorite. Fairmont's roster looks loaded to be sure. But I really hope Coach Lamberti will have his Hilltoppers up to the challenge of defending the crown.