West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

Allllll-righty-then...One day before the season and all of the pre-season hype is over. Time to roll the basketballs out for reals. By the numbers:

Number of Players on the Roster: 16 which is the largest Topper team going back to before Howlett became the HC.
Number of Transfer Players: 10 which is the most that WLU has ever had.
Year Break Down: 2 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 6 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen
Number of Returning Players: 2, One with game experience. (3 returnees if you count Pankey)
Number of Players With WLU Style Experience: 10 (7 from Coker, 3 from WLU (Spadfora and Kent plus Pankey)
Number of True Freshmen: 4
Number of Players With College Game Experience: 10 (101 total starts among the 10)

Questions to be answered:

1. Do the Coker transfers produce more wins by wearing the WLU jersey than they did when they were wearing the Coker one?
2. With so many experienced transfers, is this team as good on day 1 as they will be at the end of the season?
3. Do we really have seven 40+% 3-point shooters or will we see 3 point shooting similar to the last few years where we had a couple of really good 3 point shooters, and the rest of the team?
4. Do any of our bigs play like bigs or are they used as glorified guards?

But the biggest question is how is Mike-ball different than Ben-ball? Yes, they are both from the same WLU System tree but they are different guys. While I would presume much will be the same, it will be interesting to see how Mike might do things differently than Ben did. We are already seeing some difference in roster size and general construction so one would presume there will be other differences as well.

Roll out the balls and bring the bright lights up...It's time to play real basketball in the Appalachian Mountains!

[boatcapt]

Fyi for those curious about the system working in d1.
Indy will get much better as season progresses. Work in progress.
some comments on liu game from a veteran coach.
liu was picked to win nec.
https://iuindyjags.com/news/2025/11/...liu-94-90.aspx

Shot 26% from three. For a team running the WLU Style, that's almost certain death...Weather that team is at the D1 or DII level!

[Columbuseer]

Fyi for those curious about the system working in d1.
Indy will get much better as season progresses. Work in progress.
some comments on liu game from a veteran coach.
liu was picked to win nec.
https://iuindyjags.com/news/2025/11/...liu-94-90.aspx

[Columbuseer]

Fyi

UPJ scrimmage consisted of 3 separate 20 min sessions.
UPJ has a very good big man and several very good 3 point shooters.
it was good competition and valuable for wlu.
The 3rd session was played by the younger guys.

The starting 5 for wlu is not yet finalized.

final scrimmage is Friday Nov 7 6 pm at wlu vs butler county community college. Young guys will probably play a lot in the final scrimnage.

[Columbuseer]

Fyi
d2 signing day starts Nov 12, 2025 for seniors graduating spring of 2026.

[boatcapt]

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.

I saw this game for what it was. A superior opponent playing an inferior one early in the season. We used to see it quite often at WLU. Basically it was like OSU was a cat playing with a mouse. Every time IUI would show a spark and close a little, OSU would wake up, stretch and run off a string on 13 points...then take another nap. Felt like they could have won by 30...but this early in the season, why expend the effort when you can cruise to a 14 point win?

Their upcoming game against LIU will be much more winnable and a truer test of the WLU Style at the D1 level.

As for having D1 level players, I heard that all WLU's players where already there!!! Seriously though, that has always been the question, can you get true D1 caliber players to play the WLU Style? With sooo many DII players on this years IUI roster, I don't think you will have the answer until at least next season (or probably at least the year after that).

[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.