West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Per X collegehoopsguru@ncaahoopsguru jun 6

"great guru source informs me that greg bearer will be going with mike lamberti from coker to west liberty"

Also coker website coaches tab only lists head coach pasqua.

[boatcapt]

I don't think "recruiting area" applies with transfers, particularly when they follow a coach from one school to another.

Next recruiting season will be a better indication of weather his 2 seasons at Coker really expand WLUs recruiting area to include the Carolinas.

[Columbuseer]

From watching their highlights, the bigs run well, have high motors, can dribble, pass, rebound, and shoot inside and outside. They are good fits for position-less basketball, albeit taller than usual. If his demonstrated recruiting area success at coker is any indication, Coach Lamberti could widen the typical wlu recruiting area. At coker he had players from Ireland, ME, PA, WV, CT, NC, SC, FL AND CO.

[boatcapt]

Injured.

It will be interesting to see how we employ FIVE bigs. Do we treat them as nothing more than tall guards or do we take advantage of their size inside? Obviously we should be able to match up better in the defensive end when we face teams with multiple athletic bigs which has been a problem in the past.

Don't know if it is purposeful team building by Lamberti or just happenstance but whatever the reason, five bigs gives us the ability do things a little bit differently than in the past. Next thing you're going to tell me is we have an assist first PG in the fold ala Brady Arnold!!

[Columbuseer]

After a really good freshman season at Coker, Abdullah doesn't seem to have played his sophomore year. Was he injured, beat out of playing time or was it a coaches decision to redshirt him?

Injured.

[boatcapt]

Hayden Abdullah
6-9 (some say 6-8. I counted him as 6-9)
Redshirt soph
Coker

Talented player.

Storrs Mansfield, CT / DME Academy

After a really good freshman season at Coker, Abdullah doesn't seem to have played his sophomore year. Was he injured, beat out of playing time or was it a coaches decision to redshirt him?

[boatcapt]

I wait until players announce on social media or wlu announces their commitment before posting names.
should not be too long before roster is published.

Looking forward to seeing who the 6'9", additional 6'8" and 6'7" players are. Having five bigs would be a sea change from a Howlett recruited team. Not too long ago I recall being told that bigs with an WLU Style skill set were just too in demand at the D1 level, and thus unavailable at the DII level. NOW apparently we are going to have FIVE of these DII unicorns!! Of course, since we play positionless basketball, height really is just a number that means nothing.

In a July 3 interview, Coach Lamberti only mentions WLU being in pursuit of one guard and one big in the portal. Start doing the math...12/13 known players plus three additional bigs plus at least one additional guard would put us at 16 or 17. Typical Howlett team in the post COVID era played on average played 12 players (11 last year and 13 in 21-22). Using that as a reference, I wonder who the five most likely to ride the pine all season are...Or perhaps Coach Lamberti is going to deviate here as well?? I mean he's bring in bigs we thought were unavailable/unnecessary, and he apparently is bringing in total roster that is larger than the previous HC so, perhaps he will be willing to deviate from the number of players we see over the course of a season as well?

[Columbuseer]

Hayden Abdullah
6-9 (some say 6-8. I counted him as 6-9)
Redshirt soph
Coker

Talented player.

Storrs Mansfield, CT / DME Academy

[Columbuseer]

I wait until players announce on social media or wlu announces their commitment before posting names.
should not be too long before roster is published.

[boatcapt]

We should be taller than last year.
One 6-7
three 6-8
One 6-9

All are good shooters.
It should not be more than a couple of months before roster is published.

Five players over 6'7"? I count two (Coan and Muldowney). Who are the other three?

[Columbuseer]

6-7 wlu transfer Jamie Muldowney is a member of the 4-person Ireland U23 FIBA 3X3 Team.
Congrats Jamie!

3x3 is a very physical game.

[Columbuseer]

We should be taller than last year.
One 6-7
three 6-8
One 6-9

All are good shooters.
It should not be more than a couple of months before roster is published.

[boatcapt]

Fyi
June 30 - kam tinsley posted on X that he has committed to iu indy. Wish him well. Suggest that he live in the weight room at indy. He entered the portal before the 30 day coaching change deadline.

So now we have ONE player who has game experience at WLU.

As I calculate, this is our roster as it stands right now:

Dante Spadafora, Returning WLU Starter, 6’0”, Senior, 31 starts, 9.8 PPG, .32 3pt%
Machi Chester, WLU Redshirt, 6’2”, Redshirt Freshman (Saw a recent article that said only Spadafora and Kent were returning...sooooo?)
Cooper Kent, WLU Redshirt, 6’2”, Redshirt Freshman

Terrance Pankey, WLU Returned Transfer, 6’1”, Redshirt Soph, Butler CC 22 starts, 22.6 PPG, .33 3pt%
Xavier Harris, Cooker, 6’2”, Junior, 14 starts, 6.5 PPG, .32 3pt%
Landon Butler, Cooker, 6’4”, Junior, 1 start, 7.8 PPG, .33 3pt%
Judd Coan, Coker, 6’8”, Senior, 28 starts, 12.4 PPG, .40 3pt%
Jamie Muldowney, Coker, 6’8, Junior, 1 start, 12.6 PPG, .39 3pt%
Charley Hill, Coker, 6’3”, Redshirt Freshman
Max Hurray. Coker, 6’2”, Soph, 1 start, 12.1 PPG, .38 3pt%

Aiden Davis, WLU Freshman Recruit, 5’11”
Cameron Williams, WLU Freshman Recruit, 6’3”
Myles Montgomery, WLU Freshman Recruit, 5’10”

Soooo…Unless I’ve missed someone, that is our 2025-26 roster. One returning starter…Two (or three) returning players…seven transfers…three freshmen recruits. Two seniors…three juniors…two sophomores…two (three?) R-FR…three true freshmen. Two 6’8” players…one 6’4”…two 6’3”…four 6’2”…one 6’1”…three 6’0” or less.

Big questions for the season:

1. Does this change in location cause the 19-win Cobras to play like 30-win Toppers? Does “wearing the brand” equal 11 more wins?
2. Are the seven inbound Topper transfers (6 from Coker and one JUCO returnee) better than our ten total departures (4 to UiIndy, 4 to graduation, 2 to portal/transfer)
3. Will our lack of size cause us problems?
4. Will we make the NCAA Tourney?

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
June 30 - kam tinsley posted on X that he has committed to iu indy. Wish him well. Suggest that he live in the weight room at indy. He entered the portal before the 30 day coaching change deadline.

[boatcapt]

Sometimes the sequel improves upon the original.
6-2 Terrance Pankey Jr. Is returning to wlu as a rs sophomore. Previously, he redshirted as a freshman at wlu.
Last year he averaged 22.6 ppg, 8 rebounds and 4 assists at Butler County Community College.

imho, he has great potential.

The Pankey pickup is definitely a good one. While he didn't play for WLU, as I recall he was assessed as a very good recruiting addition when he came out of HS. Lamberti was heavily involved in bring him to the Hilltop then and clearly, that paid dividends in bring him back after one season at Butler.

His stats at Butler were top notch pretty much across the board. Only nit to pick was his 3 point shooting percentage (33%) and FT shooting. If he can get those squared away, his future at WLU will be bright!

Definitely a + addition.