West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

Well, I guess it finally had to happen. After six straight games I guess seven straight was just too much to ask. Give Urbana credit because they were able to do what no team has been able to so to WLU in a month and a half.

Urbana held WLU below 100 points tonight...WLU 99 Urbana 70.

[Scrub]

I'll be interested to read your novelette this week, Columbus. I thought the Toppers looked pretty bad last night. I know, I know--they won by 30 and scored 99 points. But all I can say is thank goodness it was a lousy team in the building with them last night with that performance. It was all dribble drives and no ball movement last night. They reverted back to the kind of un-Topper-like play that got them handed losses earlier in the season. If they don't get out of that funk and get back to playing actual Topper basketball, they could be in for a rude awakening in the rivalry game this weekend.

[timbertopper]

I'll be interested to read your novelette this week, Columbus. I thought the Toppers looked pretty bad last night. I know, I know--they won by 30 and scored 99 points. But all I can say is thank goodness it was a lousy team in the building with them last night with that performance. It was all dribble drives and no ball movement last night. They reverted back to the kind of un-Topper-like play that got them handed losses earlier in the season. If they don't get out of that funk and get back to playing actual Topper basketball, they could be in for a rude awakening in the rivalry game this weekend.

Judging from the post-game press conference on social media, Coach Howlett was in total agreement. Cardinals took the night off at Notre Dame on Wednesday so you know they'll be ready. Interested to see the Claflin (S.C.) transfer they picked up over Christmas. Double-figures off the bench in the last two games. Lot of red flags for the Hilltoppers on Sunday.

[boatcapt]

I'll be interested to read your novelette this week, Columbus. I thought the Toppers looked pretty bad last night. I know, I know--they won by 30 and scored 99 points. But all I can say is thank goodness it was a lousy team in the building with them last night with that performance. It was all dribble drives and no ball movement last night. They reverted back to the kind of un-Topper-like play that got them handed losses earlier in the season. If they don't get out of that funk and get back to playing actual Topper basketball, they could be in for a rude awakening in the rivalry game this weekend.

That's the problem with playing a bad conference foe on a Wednesday night, in the middle of the season in the middle of January. As a team and as individual players, WLU is just so much better than Urbana that they don't really have to try much to collect a very comfortable W. Kind of like playing 1 on 1 against your 7 year old son...you can get away with lots of "bad habits" an still win easily.

I don't think this game is any sort of "warning sign" or indication of any sort of regression by the team. While I would have perfered that they continued to hit on all 8 cylinders, I accept that this is a one off game were WLU didn't have to play their A game to beat a bad team easily.

With that as back drop, I don't see this game as an sort of harbinger of what to expect from WLU Sunday against Wheeling. It is a rivalry game so you never know how those will turn out and Wheeling is proving to be a quality team, but I see WLU winning by 10 to 15 points if they play like they have the previous 7 games...if they play like they did Wednesday, they win by 3 to 5.

[boatcapt]

Judging from the post-game press conference on social media, Coach Howlett was in total agreement. Cardinals took the night off at Notre Dame on Wednesday so you know they'll be ready. Interested to see the Claflin (S.C.) transfer they picked up over Christmas. Double-figures off the bench in the last two games. Lot of red flags for the Hilltoppers on Sunday.

From an individual standpoint, he has played pretty well. But there does seem to be some "growing pains" working him into the rotation. Wheeling was on a nice little role winning three games in a row to open 2020 and exceeding their season average scoring and defense by a pretty big margin. Since the transfer, they have lost two straight, their team scoring is down and their points allowed is up. Granted, VERY small sample size.

[Scrub]

Those two losses might be due to the fact that two of their starters didn't play in either of the last two games (Ansong & April). Anyone know what happened to those two guys? Injury? Academics? Coach's doghouse? They went from being starters most of the season to not even appearing in the last two box scores.

[Columbuseer]

West Liberty dodged a bullet Wednesday night at the ASRC. This was the same type of play that allowed WV Wesleyan to defeat us. We were lucky Urbana could not shoot like WVW.
WL averaged 1.26 points per possession, versus 0.88 points per possession for Urbana.
Before you accuse me of reactionary hyperbole (as it is quite in fashion in social discourse today LOL), hear me out.
Urbana was severely undermanned:

• Their 6-9 shot blocker extraordinaire (18 blocks), Kyle Kegley, was in street clothes and crutches.
• Their PG, press-breaker, and leading scorer, Bradley, sat out over 10 minutes of the first half in foul trouble. He picked up his 4^th

• WL made 17 free throws to 2 for Urbana, accounting for 15-point difference.
• Remove that advantage and the WL lead is 14 points.
• Urbana shot a miserable 6-27 from Three, or 22%. Had they shot a better, but still modest 33%, they would have made 9-27 or 9 more points.
• Remove that advantage and the WL lead is 5 points.
• West Liberty got 18 points off of Turnovers. Had Bradley stayed in the game, it is reasonable to expect a minimum of 4 fewer points off turnovers.
• Remove that foul trouble and the WL lead is 1 point.

Urbana had a good game plan in the first half.

• They used most of the shot clock to slow the game down, even when they had numbers in transition.
• They had an advantage down low in 6-7 Lacy, and recognized that WL was vulnerable on defense in the post. As a result, Urbana ran screens to get him the ball down low and WL let him catch it.
• They (as well as other teams) have noticed some tendencies that leave WL vulnerable to over-the-top passes on the press (more on this in areas for improvement).
• They played strong defense, and stayed between WL cutters and the WL passer to prevent the inside pass and assist.

^th foul on an ill-advised steal attempt on Luke Dyer.
By the 10:00 mark, the lead was back up to 31. The lead went up and down, until the final score of 99-70.
KudosAreas for Improvement
This novelette might be a novel, if I were to list everything.
I realize that many WL players knew they could take their defender one-on-one. But we have to avoid playing down to the opponent. Instead, we should play up to a level that will allow us compete (and win) in post-season play.

None of these issues require massive changes. But if we do not correct these tendencies, we might not make it to the regional.

[boatcapt]

Urbana may have had a "good plan" in the first half but they were totally unable to enact it. When a team "loses" the first half 50 to 29, can you really say that they had a good plan?

A person can "stat pick" a team back into almost any game (if we just mad two more shots inside, one more three, five more free throws, had one more block and grabbed two more defensive rebounds on put backs, that's a 17 point swing in our favor and we win the game by two).

Now that said, was this a perfect "WLU style" game? Clearly not. Are they a better team playing this style? Again, no. But as much as we don't like the style and believe we are better when we don't play it, we do seem to be somewhat proficient at it. Arguably we have played "that way" four games this year and in those games, we are averaging 86 PPG which isn't a terrible number...not nearly as good as playing the "WLU style," but on most nights, 86 would be a winning number. Obviously this is an imprecise comparison, but assuming WLU's ceiling playing that style is 86 PPG, we would be 13-4.

Bottom line, I don't think this is WLU's best style but I am a little happy we can be proficient playing it. Could be a time in the playoffs when we might need to use that style if our regular style isn't working.

[Columbuseer]

Urbana may have had a "good plan" in the first half but they were totally unable to enact it. When a team "loses" the first half 50 to 29, can you really say that they had a good plan?

A person can "stat pick" a team back into almost any game (if we just mad two more shots inside, one more three, five more free throws, had one more block and grabbed two more defensive rebounds on put backs, that's a 17 point swing in our favor and we win the game by two).

Now that said, was this a perfect "WLU style" game? Clearly not. Are they a better team playing this style? Again, no. But as much as we don't like the style and believe we are better when we don't play it, we do seem to be somewhat proficient at it. Arguably we have played "that way" four games this year and in those games, we are averaging 86 PPG which isn't a terrible number...not nearly as good as playing the "WLU style," but on most nights, 86 would be a winning number. Obviously this is an imprecise comparison, but assuming WLU's ceiling playing that style is 86 PPG, we would be 13-4.

Bottom line, I don't think this is WLU's best style but I am a little happy we can be proficient playing it. Could be a time in the playoffs when we might need to use that style if our regular style isn't working.

The game plan was good because it gave them the best chance to win, as evidenced by the score of 23-18 with 9 minutes to go in first half, Then their leading scorer, who was also their press breaker and PG, had to head to the bench for the rest of the half with 3 fouls. That is when the roof fell in.

The stat picking was to show that there were some unusual circumstances that would likely not occur if you were playing a Charleston or Fairmont State. Its purpose was to show that WL will lose against those teams. For example, these teams will likely make more than 2 foul shots and they will have more than one player who can break the press and play the point.

I think points per game can be a misleading statistic as it is dependent on the pace of play by both teams. I prefer points per possession.
Urbana only had 0.88 points per possession, despite getting too many layups on breakaways.
Fairmont State had 1.22 points per possession in our last meeting. IUP is averaging 1.18 for the season.
Playing West Lib style, we were averaging 1.39 points per possession from Ohio Dominican through Frostburg.
Against Urbana we made only 1.26 playing one-on-one against clearly tired, over-matched athletes with insufficient depth on their team.
That scenario just won't happen in the post season. That was my point.

The attached photo shows the lower stats for West Lib when playing one-on-one in Urbana versus prior games. Not winning basketball when playing elite teams. What is disappointing to me is that I had thought we had internalized the WL style and had left the playground one-on-one stuff behind.

[boatcapt]

I've never said I prefer WLU playing a dribble drive game or that I think we are close to being as good a team when we play that style vice the traditional WLU style. But I do like the apparent fact that if we do play that style (either because we "fall back" into it or on purpose) we are proficient at it. WLU has been knocked in the past for only having one way of playing. When it is working, it's great, but when either a team is able to stop it or we are having a bad shooting night, we have no plan B. Either by mistake or on purpose, this at least gives us something we might be able to try on those rare occasions when our plan A is not working.

[Columbuseer]

I've never said I prefer WLU playing a dribble drive game or that I think we are close to being as good a team when we play that style vice the traditional WLU style. But I do like the apparent fact that if we do play that style (either because we "fall back" into it or on purpose) we are proficient at it. WLU has been knocked in the past for only having one way of playing. When it is working, it's great, but when either a team is able to stop it or we are having a bad shooting night, we have no plan B. Either by mistake or on purpose, this at least gives us something we might be able to try on those rare occasions when our plan A is not working.

Boat - your observations are why I have such high expectations for this team. There may come a time when, with time runing out and we need to score, that someone has to make a play. We now have greater pure athletss at WL, that should the need arise, can create their own shot and convert. They just need to keep it in their hip pocket until the need truly arises. When you combine the WL style with the increased athletic and scoring ability, this team has the "potential" to be very dangerous in March. They just have to avoid panicing and reverting to one-on-one forced shots (as we did at Daemen). As we have seen, if you give these players just a sliver of an opening, they can zoom by you for layups.

[Columbuseer]

• the strong offensive rebounding
• the increased effort across the entire team
• rapid ball movement, leading to good shot selection and subsequently 46% shooting from Three.
• Decision to quit trapping in the second half, as it was allowing Reid to have a 1 on 1 playground game in transition, while his teammates rested. The trap had fulfilled its purpose in tiring WU.

Kudos

• underside of the rim! Talk about a downer for the crowd LOL! The crowd frenzy shifted from the WU to WL fans on this play!
• Dalton hit 6-10 threes and had another double-double.
• Players in double-figures playing WL basketball rather than one-one-one
• 20 Assists against only 12 TOs (and some of these turnovers were just miscommunication)
  • Luke 5 assists and 0 TOs
  • Will 4 assists and 0 TOs
  • Patrick 4 assists and 2 TOs

Areas of Improvement

• Still had a few instances of taking difficult inside shots that are really hard to convert with no one under to rebound.
• WU scored too many layups with fouls in transition after beating the press. Some of these are unavoidable in trapping full-court pressure. To be sure, it is no easy task to defend talented players in the open court as they are bearing down on you at full speed.
• Some players need to work on their defensive footwork to keep the defender in front of them and also not give them the base line drive.

[boatcapt]

WLU scored a big pay back W against WV Wesleyan, 97-67. The Topper's have reeled off 11 straight wins.

Make or break stretch coming up with WV State, UC and Glenville coming up.

[Scrub]

I was out of the house and unable to watch today's game. Anyone who watched, was there a particular reason that Alessandro only played 9 minutes? Injury? Lack of hustle? Match-up problem? It's just odd to see one of WLU's guys (at least one of the ones in the rotation--so everyone minus Hiles at this point) not play double digit minutes.

[boatcapt]

I was out of the house and unable to watch today's game. Anyone who watched, was there a particular reason that Alessandro only played 9 minutes? Injury? Lack of hustle? Match-up problem? It's just odd to see one of WLU's guys (at least one of the ones in the rotation--so everyone minus Hiles at this point) not play double digit minutes.

Does seem a bit odd but I note he only played 8 min the first time we played WVW. Kind of makes me wonder if it's a matchup thing???