West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

I'm very interested in how the 21-22 Toppers evolve. Losing Bolon is huge but WLU has weathered similar storms before. What I'm most interested in is how we replace Luke? He was a great PG but more importantly, he was such a calming force on the floor. He really was like having a coach on the floor. I'm sure we will have a PG who can equal his production, but they will probably struggle being that calming on court leader.

Beyond the incoming freshmen who seem, as aground, to be the most talented we've had in a while, im really interested in the transfer big who's coming in. While he ticks all the blocks for a traditional WLU big, he seems to have other skills that our big from the past haven't had. Do we utilize and accent those skills or do we only accent the traditional WLU big skills? I would like to see us develop some inside game that takes advantage of those skills...not saying abandon the WLU style just broaden it a bit and make us a little less predictable in our half court sets.

Good question about Luke. My guesses for pg are either Malik, Bryce or Cmont Montague. Each brings something different to the table. It may take a while for Cmont to adapt. Zach has a high basketball iq but we would have to give up his corner 3 for him at the pg position.

Have watched some of Viktor's highlights. He is the classic Serbian player. Complete fundamental skill set who just happens to be 6-8 and is a great fit for the current wlu style. Imho no need to change the style, for the data analytics favor the style. Think of Viktor as a bigger version of Will Yoakum. He is a matchup nightmare in the open court. 48.6% from three and can do rim runs for dunks. Will pull opponents' big men away from goal. Open issue is how quick he can adjust.

[boatcapt]

I'm very interested in how the 21-22 Toppers evolve. Losing Bolon is huge but WLU has weathered similar storms before. What I'm most interested in is how we replace Luke? He was a great PG but more importantly, he was such a calming force on the floor. He really was like having a coach on the floor. I'm sure we will have a PG who can equal his production, but they will probably struggle being that calming on court leader.

Beyond the incoming freshmen who seem, as aground, to be the most talented we've had in a while, im really interested in the transfer big who's coming in. While he ticks all the blocks for a traditional WLU big, he seems to have other skills that our big from the past haven't had. Do we utilize and accent those skills or do we only accent the traditional WLU big skills? I would like to see us develop some inside game that takes advantage of those skills...not saying abandon the WLU style just broaden it a bit and make us a little less predictable in our half court sets.

[Columbuseer]

FYI
Senior highlights Aiden Satterfield!

He is ultra talented, long arms, very good fundamental skill set. Good enough to play as a freshman if there are minutes available. He was MVP for his team in wv all star game.

https://twitter.com/aidensatt1/statu...368583686?s=20

[Columbuseer]

With Dalton and Luke leaving, there are big shoes to fill in offensive rebounding!
(Note: I had an error in earlier post on Block % stats. I have edited that post with a correction.)

FYI

Topic: Offensive Rebound % for WLU Players 20-21 season

^rd in D1 for 2020-2021 season!

1	Houston	40.2%
2	N Carolina	39.5%
3	CS Bakersfld	37.1%

Team Offensive Rebounding Percentage Formula

For individuals, one prorates their offensive rebounds according to their proportion of minutes played.
Here is the definition from basketball-reference.com:

• ORB% - Offensive Rebound Percentage (available since the 1970-71 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (ORB * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Tm ORB + Opp DRB)). Offensive rebound percentage is an estimate of the percentage of available offensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor.

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Offensive rebound %	Rating
Marlon Moore Jr	11.54%	Outstanding
Elijah Watson	10.03%	Outstanding
Ben Sarson	9.82%	Outstanding
owen hazelbaker	7.73%	Outstanding
Will yoakum	7.68%	Outstanding
Bryce butler	7.18%	Outstanding
Dalton bolon	7.03%	Outstanding
Patrick Robinson III	6.61%	Outstanding
Malik mckinney	4.35%
Luke dyer	3.36%
Viktor Kovacevi? (Quincy Stats)	2.80%
Zach rasile	2.32%
Cmont Montague (Walsh stats)	1.20%
Garrett Denbow (UC stats 2019-20)	1.00%
Evan Conley	0

[Columbuseer]

CORRECTION: There was a copy and paste error in Quincy stats. Root cause was I assumed that box score column order was standardized, but quincy was an exception.

Viktor's Block % is 3.6%, which is very good, but not 10.6%.
Quincy transfer Viktor Kovacevi? has the potential to be a major disruptive force on both offense and defense at 6-8 with his handles in the open court!
On offense, he has an Effective FG% of 64.8%, 48.5% from three.
On defense, he has a very good block % of 3.6%!

Let's hope that he can adapt quickly to the WLU style from the much slower, deliberate Quincy style!

I have updated the Block % stats to include the transfers.

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Block%	Rating
Marlon Moore Jr.	6.11%	Outstanding
Will Yoakum	4.25%	Outstanding
Viktor Kovacevi? (Quincy Stats)	3.60%	Very Good
Ben Sarson	3.32%	Very Good
Owen Hazelbaker	2.94%	Very Good
Elijah Watson	2.35%	Very Good
Dalton Bolon	0.95%
Bryce Butler	0.91%
Pat Robinson III	0.82%
Garrett Denbow (UC stats 2019-20)	0.80%
Luke Dyer	0.72%
Malik Mckinney	0.70%
Zach Rasile	0.29%
Cmont Montague (from Walsh stats)	0.20%
Evan Conley	0.00%

[Columbuseer]

FYI Topic: Effective Field Goal Percentage for WLU Players 20-21 season
The 3-pt shot has allowed more players of smaller stature to be effective players, which has increased competition among basketball teams. A tall center is no longer a prerequisite for success.

Here is the definition from basketball-reference.com:

• eFG% - Effective Field Goal Percentage; the formula is (FG + 0.5 * 3P) / FGA. This statistic adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal. For example, suppose Player A goes 4 for 10 with 2 threes, while Player B goes 5 for 10 with 0 threes. Each player would have 10 points from field goals, and thus would have the same effective field goal percentage (50%)

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Effective FG%	FG%	Rating
Viktor Kovacevi? (Quincy Stats)	64.8%	56.0%	Outstanding
Zach Rasile	64.2%	47.4%	Outstanding
Will Yoakum	61.9%	56.2%	Outstanding
Garrett Denbow (UC 2019-20 stats)	61.7%	47.1%	Outstanding
Dalton Bolon	61.4%	51.2%	Outstanding
Pat Robinson III	59.4%	53.6%	Outstanding
Malik Mckinney	56.5%	51.6%	Very Good
Bryce Butler	56.0%	49.7%	Very Good
Owen Hazelbaker	53.5%	44.4%	Very Good
Ben Sarson	53.4%	45.5%	Very Good
Luke Dyer	53.2%	42.2%	Very Good
	49.2%	40.6%
Elijah Watson	48.0%	47.3%
Marlon Moore Jr.	42.8%	40.8%
Evan Conley	33.3%	33.3%
NBA Highest Season FG%		FG%	Comments
1. Wilt Chamberlain, 1967-68 Philly		59.5%
2.LeBron James 2012-13 Miami		56.5%
3. Michael Jordan 1990-91 Chicago		53.9%
NBA Highest Effective FG%	Effective FG%		Comments
1.LeBron James 2012-13 Miami	60.3%
2. Wilt Chamberlain, 1967-68 Philly	59.5%		No 3 pt line; however, former teammates said Wilt typically won long distance shooting contests in practice, so he had the ability to make threes.
3. Michael Jordan 1990-91 Chicago	54.7%

[Columbuseer]

Topic: Block Percentage for WLU Players 20-21 seasonBlock Percentage attempts to correct some of these limitations.
Here are the Block Percentage for WLU players in 2020-2021

WEST Lib Stats 2020-2021	Block%	Rating
Marlon Moore Jr.	6.11%	Outstanding
Will Yoakum	4.25%	Outstanding
Ben Sarson	3.32%	Very Good
Owen Hazelbaker	2.94%	Very Good
Elijah Watson	2.35%	Very Good
Dalton Bolon	0.95%	Good for outside players
Bryce Butler	0.91%	Good for outside players
Pat Robinson III	0.82%	Good for outside players
Luke Dyer	0.72%	Good for outside players
Malik McKinney	0.70%	Good for outside players
Zach Rasile	0.29%
Evan Conley	0.00%

^th on NBA career leaders, just after Rudy Gobert at 6.15%.

https://www.basketball-reference.com...ct_career.htmlhttps://youtu.be/8RFeBW9WdEs

No one has dominated like Wilt. Basketball's 8th wonder of the world
https://youtu.be/uJGCySdvlPo



Limitations of the Statistichttps://www.basketball-reference.com.../glossary.html

Glossary | Basketball-Reference.com Glossary of statistics used on Basketball-Reference

• BLK% - Block Percentage (available since the 1973-74 season in the NBA); the formula is 100 * (BLK * (Tm MP / 5)) / (MP * (Opp FGA - Opp 3PA)). Block percentage is an estimate of the percentage of opponent two-point field goal attempts blocked by the player while he was on the floor.

[Columbuseer]

Wv state plays at Millersville on the same day wed Nov 17 as wlu and upj.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

UPJ is very sound. They play very mistake-free and methodical.

IUP and UPJ are so overly familiar with one another that the games are almost always close. UPJ only has one win in the series since joining the PSAC (and IUP was without Malik Miller that game). But, there have been a ton of single-digit wins for IUP. They come to both IUP tournaments every year, etc., so they watch each other play constantly.

Bob Rukavina runs an old-school program. They don't take transfers. Players stay all four years. They have two really strong bigs who will both be juniors this year. Their star of the past half decade (Josh Wise) is finally gone.

Playing at UPJ is essentially playing in an empty gym so there's no qualms playing a road game there. Most IUP games up there are de facto IUP home games as we usually take more fans up there than they have show up.

WL will be favored in that game but UPJ isn't an easy out. You like that old school basketball style so you should enjoy watching them. You'll see all the pick-n-rolls, picket fences, etc. They are also very tough in that building.

[Columbuseer]

WL is playing at Pitt-Johnstown on Nov. 17

Thanks. Good find. Upj was 22-9 in 2019 and lost to iup by 7 in one game.
it should be a serious test for wlu with bolon and dyer gone this early in the season.

[boatcapt]

Looked at his stats while at UC. Shot 43.5% from three and his effective fg % was 61%. Very impressive.

On another topic, it will be interesting to see the impact on shooting %, with d2 extending the 3 pt line from 20 ft 9 inches to 22 ft 1 3/4 inches for men and women.
It may hurt wlu less than others because many of their shots were already taken from a greater distance than the new line. It may also extend the defense more, which will open the court for rim runs.

Yea...He has the chops to be a productive WLU player. Good size, good with the ball in his hands, good size. He will go as far as his work ethic carries him. I'd look for him to be a 14+ minute guy and average 8'ish PPG his first year.

As you point out, moving the 3 point line will probably not effect WLU a whole lot as many/most of their 3 attempts are already beyond the 3 line. Now it COULD effect teams that rely largely on one player as their 3 point sniper. On the other hand, these teams are not getting a lot of "extra" points by shooting 3's as opposed to 2's

[IUPbigINDIANS]

WL is playing at Pitt-Johnstown on Nov. 17

[Columbuseer]

Commitment is on his Twitter feed. Played 12 games at UC as a true freshman. From Ahsland HS were he was a multi-year All-District player and District POY his Sr year. At UC he averaged 10+ MPG and 4+ PPG. Seems like a typical WLU player...Good shooter from 3 and seems to have a good handle with the ball. Seems like a good addition who will play as many minutes as his skills say he should play.

Looked at his stats while at UC. Shot 43.5% from three and his effective fg % was 61%. Very impressive.

On another topic, it will be interesting to see the impact on shooting %, with d2 extending the 3 pt line from 20 ft 9 inches to 22 ft 1 3/4 inches for men and women.
It may hurt wlu less than others because many of their shots were already taken from a greater distance than the new line. It may also extend the defense more, which will open the court for rim runs.

[boatcapt]

Anyone got any intel on the Denbow kid who seems to have left the Charleston team two years ago and is now verbally committed to WLU (at least according to VC)? I haven't really heard anything about the signing.

Commitment is on his Twitter feed. Played 12 games at UC as a true freshman. From Ahsland HS were he was a multi-year All-District player and District POY his Sr year. At UC he averaged 10+ MPG and 4+ PPG. Seems like a typical WLU player...Good shooter from 3 and seems to have a good handle with the ball. Seems like a good addition who will play as many minutes as his skills say he should play.

[Scrub]

Anyone got any intel on the Denbow kid who seems to have left the Charleston team two years ago and is now verbally committed to WLU (at least according to VC)? I haven't really heard anything about the signing.