West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

As I said above, I didn't watch the game (I was simply tracking on live stats while otherwise disposed).

But as the game neared its end, I kept wondering which guy on this current edition of the Hilltopper team would be the one who wants the ball in a one-possession, do-or-die type of situation. WLU has often had "a dude" who would take over in those situations (Bonifant, Butler, Monteroso, Ced Harris, etc.). I kept watching the live stats to see who was gonna demand the ball. And if the live stats play-by-play was correctly entered by the statistician, it looked like it was Cam Williams with the ball in his hand for that final possession (and it's possible it was forced into his hands by quality defense).

Now, I'm of two minds about that if that's the case. On one hand, I applaud the freshman for having confidence in his abilities and trying to step up when called upon to do so (and it ultimately worked out on that possession with Abdullah tipping in Cam's missed drive with 7 seconds to go). But on the other hand, it's a bit scary that in a do-or-die possession it was a freshman with exactly 9 games under his collegiate belt who had the ball. In March, I want and hope that the young guys will continue to feel comfortable and confident to step up when called upon, but I also hope WLU figures out who's gonna be "the dude" when a do-or-die possession presents itself and someone has to take charge and get a bucket.

I watched the game. Williams has been improving with every scrimmage and game. Montgomery, Williams and Davis have adjusted to the speed of the college game. None are afraid to take the last shot. Montgomery came within 2 of the alltime single game steals record a few games ago.
Davis is always in very good catch and shoot position when he receives the pass in the corner,

In this game, Lattos and Muldowney had very strong opponents although Muldowney wisely gave up on the open look three in the second half and started attacking the rim with success. It seemed like Williams had a relative matchup advantage. He was getting fouled and was 10-11 ft.
landon butler hit key shots too.
effective fg %
L. Butler 78%
lattos 67%
Abdullah 64% his fadeaway was deadly, finally.
hurray 64%
Montgomery 62%
Needless to say, we have quality depth.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
freshman Cameron Williams player of the week
https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...-williams.aspx

[Scrub]

Fyi
freshman Cameron Williams player of the week
https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...-williams.aspx

That's actually just "Hilltopper of the Week" (an internal "award" given by the SID I assume), not MEC player of the week (which went to co-awardees at Wheeling & Frostburg). And given that the wrestling team was the only other Hilltopper team even competing this week, competition wouldn't have been that strong for "Hilltopper of the Week." (It's also curious that Carter Winegardner was the actual MEC Wrestler of the Week, but didn't rate well enough to be the internal "Hilltopper of the Week"). I mean, I'm glad Cam is starting to come into his own, but he's not yet to legit award level.

[Columbuseer]

That's actually just "Hilltopper of the Week" (an internal "award" given by the SID I assume), not MEC player of the week (which went to co-awardees at Wheeling & Frostburg). And given that the wrestling team was the only other Hilltopper team even competing this week, competition wouldn't have been that strong for "Hilltopper of the Week." (It's also curious that Carter Winegardner was the actual MEC Wrestler of the Week, but didn't rate well enough to be the internal "Hilltopper of the Week"). I mean, I'm glad Cam is starting to come into his own, but he's not yet to legit award level.

Good points, as always Scrub. I should have been more clear. He seemed to lead the way in challenging the talented bigs of Lubbock Christian in driving to the rim. Once he started, it seemed like our bigs followed his lead and quit settling for open threes.
He has improved so much! The future is bright for him!

[Columbuseer]

FYI
I looked at the category leaders for wlu in 3FG %
I was surprised to see 4 players shooting over 40% for the season to date with at least 20 attempts.
The team stat hides this fact because 103 3FG attempts have been taken by players shooting under 30% while 101 attempts have been taken by those shooting 40% or higher.
They are not bad shooters taking threes at under 30%. IMHO, they are not in perfect shooting position and/or the opponent is closer than 6 feet.

[boatcapt]

FYI
I looked at the category leaders for wlu in 3FG %
I was surprised to see 4 players shooting over 40% for the season to date with at least 20 attempts.
The team stat hides this fact because 103 3FG attempts have been taken by players shooting under 30% while 101 attempts have been taken by those shooting 40% or higher.
They are not bad shooters taking threes at under 30%. IMHO, they are not in perfect shooting position and/or the opponent is closer than 6 feet.

The top three 3-point shot takers (Muldowney, Williams and Hurray) have taken 38% of the 3-point shots. Problem is that each are shooting below .300 (Muldowney .292, Williams .244, Hurray .290 collectively .275) while the top three 3-point shooters (Davis, Butler and Montgomery) have taken 26% of the 3-point tries.

I've always been of the opinion that what separates an average 3-point shooter from an elite one is their ability to shoot off-platform and with a hand in their face...The number of .400 3-point shooters goes up dramatically when the player can pick his spot, set his feet, elivate perfectly and get perfect ball rotation without some silly defender interfearing with the shooters slow. We where lead to believe that we had seven elite level 3-point shooters this season.

West Liberty has a 3-point shooting problem.

Now, does that mean that WLU is a bad team? Certainly not. But they do need to identify the problem and address it. Could be as simple as let's have our .400 shooters take more shots than our sub .300 shooters. Could be that we need to develop an, duh-duh-duuuuhhh, INSIDE GAME!!! I know, I know, I've advocated for that in years past and have been roundly critisized by the "Thats NOT WLU Style basketball" crowd (same crowd that said that there where no bigs that where going to come to WLU and even if they did, they would HAVE to play like guards). Well, however we got all these bigs, we got them. Why not follow the "If life gives you lemons...make lemonade" philosophy? And MAYBE having a legit inside game might loosen up the 3-point defense so our spot-up 3-point shooters whould have more opportunities to shoot without a defender within 6 feet of them.

[Columbuseer]

FYI
Dec 15, 2025 West Liberty National Rankings out of 304 D2 teams

Top Ten Ranking
#3 Turnover Margin 10.1
#3 Turnovers Forced per game 23
#5 Steals per game 14.4
#6 Three Point Attempts per game 32.3
#7 Bench Points per game 41.57
#9 Scoring Offense 94.4
#10 Three Pointers per game 11.0

Ranking Ten Through 30 - 90th to 97th Percentile
#21 Fast Break Points 17.71
#25 Assist to Turnover Ratio 1.47

Ranking 30 through 60 - 80th Percentile
#48 Effective FG Percentage 55.5%


#68 Field Goal Percentage 47.80%¾
#101 Free Throw Percentage 72.6%
#108 Three Point Percentage Defense 31.4
#122 Turnovers per game 12.9
#125 Rebounds Offensive per game 11.57
#130 Free Throws Made per game 15.1
#132 Three Point Percentage 34.07
#149 Free Throw Attempts per game 20.9
#162 Rebounds Defensive per game 25

[Scrub]

Could be that we need to develop an, duh-duh-duuuuhhh, INSIDE GAME!!! I know, I know, I've advocated for that in years past and have been roundly critisized by the "Thats NOT WLU Style basketball" crowd (same crowd that said that there where no bigs that where going to come to WLU and even if they did, they would HAVE to play like guards). Well, however we got all these bigs, we got them. Why not follow the "If life gives you lemons...make lemonade" philosophy? And MAYBE having a legit inside game might loosen up the 3-point defense so our spot-up 3-point shooters whould have more opportunities to shoot without a defender within 6 feet of them.

You might ultimately get your wish under Lamberti's watch, Boat.

A. He seems to want to recruit bigger guys than Howlett or Crutch ever did (at least at their time at WLU). WLU's current roster has more guys over 6'5" than any of Crutch's or Howlett's teams ever did.

B. If you watch Lamberti's postgame pressers (that they do after home games here at the ASRC), he is frequently going straight to the Points in the Paint stat to identify the success or failure of his team. He wants to win the PIP stat and he wants to downplay overtaking the 3-ball (another of his bugaboos in the postgame pressers is pointing out that the team is settling for too many threes).

So if Lamberti gets to continue to put his own spin on "The System" you may yet get to see the more well-developed inside game you're looking for. Now, it won't come with traditional post players with bodies like Damir Brooks of IUP or anything like that, but you may still get an emphasis on paint production that was seemingly not a point of emphasis for Howlett.

[Columbuseer]

You might ultimately get your wish under Lamberti's watch, Boat.

A. He seems to want to recruit bigger guys than Howlett or Crutch ever did (at least at their time at WLU). WLU's current roster has more guys over 6'5" than any of Crutch's or Howlett's teams ever did.

B. If you watch Lamberti's postgame pressers (that they do after home games here at the ASRC), he is frequently going straight to the Points in the Paint stat to identify the success or failure of his team. He wants to win the PIP stat and he wants to downplay overtaking the 3-ball (another of his bugaboos in the postgame pressers is pointing out that the team is settling for too many threes).

So if Lamberti gets to continue to put his own spin on "The System" you may yet get to see the more well-developed inside game you're looking for. Now, it won't come with traditional post players with bodies like Damir Brooks of IUP or anything like that, but you may still get an emphasis on paint production that was seemingly not a point of emphasis for Howlett.

You hit the nail on the head Scrub.
Excellent, logical points.

IMHO, Lamberti wants WLU to go through the strengths of this team, which are our big men.. I think that is why we are sometimes getting shot clock violations, trying to run the offense through our bigs. Crutchfield has also moved to taller players at Nova. It gives us more options when we run up against the Lubbock Christian type teams and will collapse defenses, allow more open looks from three.

I thought bigs who can run and shoot the three were like purple squirrels - they just did not exist at D2. But WLU and Nova have managed to find them. Look out for Abdullah. He was only about 70% healthy at the start of the season and he has started to come on.

All the bigs can shoot the three, as I have witnessed in scrimmages. They just fall in love with it sometimes.

40% from three is elite. Here are YTD stats on the players and the number of games, where they have shot >-40% for a game (through the first 10 games). IMHO it is 3-pt. shot selection that some of the players need to work on.

Number of Games elite three-point shooting (>=40%) as of Dec 21, 2025 (10 games)
Player	No. of Games >=40% from three
Montgomery, Myles	6
Davis, Aiden	5
Butler , Landon	5
Pankey, Terrance	4
Hurray, Max	4
Spadafora, Dante	3
Abdullah, Hayden	2
Muldowney, Jamie	2
Lattos, Peter	2
Williams, Cameron	1
Hill, Charlie	1

[boatcapt]

You might ultimately get your wish under Lamberti's watch, Boat.

A. He seems to want to recruit bigger guys than Howlett or Crutch ever did (at least at their time at WLU). WLU's current roster has more guys over 6'5" than any of Crutch's or Howlett's teams ever did.

B. If you watch Lamberti's postgame pressers (that they do after home games here at the ASRC), he is frequently going straight to the Points in the Paint stat to identify the success or failure of his team. He wants to win the PIP stat and he wants to downplay overtaking the 3-ball (another of his bugaboos in the postgame pressers is pointing out that the team is settling for too many threes).

So if Lamberti gets to continue to put his own spin on "The System" you may yet get to see the more well-developed inside game you're looking for. Now, it won't come with traditional post players with bodies like Damir Brooks of IUP or anything like that, but you may still get an emphasis on paint production that was seemingly not a point of emphasis for Howlett.

When you are struggling from 3 like WLU is, PIP is a logical high percentage alternative. Roughly speaking the 3 point vs 2 point shot break line is 33.3% and 50%. So if you are shooting less than .333 (like WLU is) from 3 and can shoot .500 from 2, it is more effective to shoot from 2. THAT's where WLU finds itself right now.

I see the evolution of the WLU Style under Lamberti as more of a recreation of the way Crutch did it WAY back in the early days. Did those teams shoot the 3 and at a high efficiency level? Yes, but they also routinely had a fair number of bigger bodied, inside the 3 point line players that did the grunt work (put backs, rebounds, short jumpers, diving on the ground for lose balls, etc) that made the team go. Could they hit the occasional 3 in transition? Yep, and they where expected to. But that wasn't their primary function. A prime example of this is Lamberti himself...Over the course of his four years, he took 138 3-point shots but if memory serves, almost all where meaningful. Heck, during his senior season he actually outshot Bonifant from three .521 to .498...Buuuuttt Mike took only 48 3-point shots while Seager took 223 (WOW!!).

[Scrub]

When you are struggling from 3 like WLU is, PIP is a logical high percentage alternative. Roughly speaking the 3 point vs 2 point shot break line is 33.3% and 50%. So if you are shooting less than .333 (like WLU is) from 3 and can shoot .500 from 2, it is more effective to shoot from 2. THAT's where WLU finds itself right now.

I see the evolution of the WLU Style under Lamberti as more of a recreation of the way Crutch did it WAY back in the early days. Did those teams shoot the 3 and at a high efficiency level? Yes, but they also routinely had a fair number of bigger bodied, inside the 3 point line players that did the grunt work (put backs, rebounds, short jumpers, diving on the ground for lose balls, etc) that made the team go. Could they hit the occasional 3 in transition? Yep, and they where expected to. But that wasn't their primary function. A prime example of this is Lamberti himself...Over the course of his four years, he took 138 3-point shots but if memory serves, almost all where meaningful. Heck, during his senior season he actually outshot Bonifant from three .521 to .498...Buuuuttt Mike took only 48 3-point shots while Seager took 223 (WOW!!).

Great point, Boat. Amidst the Bryce Butlers of recent vintage (bigger guys who could both play back-to-basket or stretch and shoot the 3-ball), it's easy to forget that Crutch's early teams often relied on CJ Hester or Keene Cockburn types of guys who were never planning to leave the paint. Crutch did certainly have guys like Chris Morrow or John Wolosinczuk (and obviously Bonifant) who were those stretch bigs who could shoot it and did shoot it a lot, Crutch also wasn't afraid to bring in the Hester-Cockburn types who were not built to stretch anything. They were living in the low block. And given that Lamberti was, himself, one of those types, it might make sense that he would favor that version of Crutchball. Good thought.

[Columbuseer]

FYI
A d2 team that shoots at least 50% FG would be ranked no lower than 15th in country or 95th percentile, based on ytd stats this year.

Currently, wlu effective fg percentage is 55.5% and 38th among 300 plus d2 teams.

I wonder if moving 3 pt line has lowered 3fg % overall? Have not seen any studies.
The upsides of the three are numerous and obvious.
The downside of excessive threes are:
- fewer fouls committed by opponent so star opposing player unlikely to get in foul trouble
- tendency for longer rebounds can lead to opponent fast breaks
- if an unanticipated three, teammates have insufficient time to get in rebounding position.
- the distance of a three leaves so little margin for error in physical shot mechanics

BTW
Bonifant remains highest career 3fg % of all time in d1 or d2 at 52.5%

[boatcapt]

FYI
A d2 team that shoots at least 50% FG would be ranked no lower than 15th in country or 95th percentile, based on ytd stats this year.

Currently, wlu effective fg percentage is 55.5% and 38th among 300 plus d2 teams.

I wonder if moving 3 pt line has lowered 3fg % overall? Have not seen any studies.
The upsides of the three are numerous and obvious.
The downside of excessive threes are:
- fewer fouls committed by opponent so star opposing player unlikely to get in foul trouble
- tendency for longer rebounds can lead to opponent fast breaks
- if an unanticipated three, teammates have insufficient time to get in rebounding position.
- the distance of a three leaves so little margin for error in physical shot mechanics

BTW
Bonifant remains highest career 3fg % of all time in d1 or d2 at 52.5%

I won't be so bold as to call the moving of the 3-point line the "West Liberty Rule" or even the "Bonifant Rule," but when you have a team approaching .500 from three and a player clearing the ,500 Mark for his career, you've got to wonder!

It would have been neat if the 3 point line moved during his 4 years. As I recall Seager wasn't a foot right on the line 3-point shooter. He was often 2 foot clear of the line when he elevated!

We obviously think of Seger as a 3-point assassin...because he was. But we forget the changes that he undertook during his four years. He basically went from a spot-up one trick pony to a true "position less" player who could do it all when needed.

[boatcapt]

Great point, Boat. Amidst the Bryce Butlers of recent vintage (bigger guys who could both play back-to-basket or stretch and shoot the 3-ball), it's easy to forget that Crutch's early teams often relied on CJ Hester or Keene Cockburn types of guys who were never planning to leave the paint. Crutch did certainly have guys like Chris Morrow or John Wolosinczuk (and obviously Bonifant) who were those stretch bigs who could shoot it and did shoot it a lot, Crutch also wasn't afraid to bring in the Hester-Cockburn types who were not built to stretch anything. They were living in the low block. And given that Lamberti was, himself, one of those types, it might make sense that he would favor that version of Crutchball. Good thought.

Just as Seger is the architipe 3-point WLU assassin, Butler is the architipe for the "do everything that needs to be done" WLU player. Same with WLU Point Guards as embodied by Cedric Harris and Dave Dennis. The whole position less team top to bottom is kind of a new'ish thing for WLU (late Crutch and all of Howlett?). While WLU players have always been well rounded and could do multiple things when need, they did have specializations. I sort of see a return to that under Mike...players who can do a number of things when needed but focused on a specific task. It would be great if we had seven legit .400 3-point shooters but we don't (at least not right now). Soooo...focus on the other things you can do to help the team win. If that's getting rebounds and putting it back for a pinchy little 2-pointer then that's what you should do (you'll get to 20, is swear...I've done the math...just to need to make 3 more put backs!)..if it's "just" playing hard D and hammering anyone who dares roll down the lane...do it!

I still remember the WLU player who just hammered an All-American player in the NCAA tourney. Got that guy sooo out of his game that he was a non-factor and WLU won the game. Nothing in the stat line about what he did but he was just as responsible for the W as any of WLU's 3-point assassins.

Back to this years team. WLU is "suffering" from "first world problems." Bottom line, we are 9-2 which MANY teams in the nation would give their left nut to be. Bottom line, even though we have flaws and could be better, we are really, REALLY good...maybe not "best in the nation" good (yet??)...but still really good. Will we be truly great (as in competing for a NC)? Yet to be seen. First "problem" is beating Fairmont and Concord...stout tests and we'll need every player to "know their role and shut their mouth" (channeling my inter Hunter Hurst Helmsley).

[Scrub]

Made that a lot harder than it needed to be (men and women both). The defense is apparently still on winter break. And I can't recall the last time a WLU team was bested in the assist-to-turnover ratio column. Lucky to get out of there with a win. Hopefully that shakes off the rust, and they can use Wednesday as a momentum builder into a big one next weekend at Joe Retton.