West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Scrub]

Good indicator of heavy legs and fatigue when great foul shooters miss both on two shot foul. I favor a day of rest before finals.

That was my thought all game long, Columbus. WLU just looked like they didn't have their legs. They worked so hard to beat GSC that it took a toll today. Hat tip to FSU for capitalizing and playing a heck of a game.

[boatcapt]

Yea. Some really questionable calls. Thought the refs were evenly bad but the bad calls on WLU were at critical points in the game. Also didn't help WLU's cause when the refs take a point off the board...two minutes AFTER the shot was taken and made!

Still...Good game by both teams, at least in the second half!!

[Columbuseer]

These incoming players are perfect complements to the previous recruiting class and maybe even more athletic imho.

[Layton]

[Columbuseer]

2-10 in the first half from the charity stripe basically sealed the deal.

Good indicator of heavy legs and fatigue when great foul shooters miss both on two shot foul. I favor a day of rest before finals.

[boatcapt]

2-10 in the first half from the charity stripe basically sealed the deal.

[Layton]

[Columbuseer]

Observations from a Dummy: WLU versus Glenville MEC Semifinals 2021
Although it is old news for the data analytics folks, this game demonstrated how the position-less basketball and WLU style (which GSC is also using), creates more spacing and higher Points Per Possession than traditional basketball. WLU had 1.30 PPP, while GSC had 1.26 PPP, which are incredible numbers!

GSC has essentially 5 guards, and at least three of them are excellent 3-point shooters. Unlike the first game, if GSC broke the press and passed to the corner in transition, the player did NOT shoot the corner three with no one under but instead set up the offense. However, if the player was close to the basket, they tried to finish in transition. This was an excellent strategy to maximize the value of each possession.

The advantage that WLU had was depth, which if they could tire GSC, would give them an advantage. However, GSC was highly conditioned, so their recovery time will be shorter than typical half-court teams.

IMHO, there were some black swan events in this game, which reduced the cumulative fatigue of GSC.

• Shot clock malfunction. The officials spent too much time before deciding to proceed in the first half.
• Lengthy video reviews also allowed GSC to rest. WLU should never attempt a defensive play that requires video review for a flagrant foul to avoid this delay.
• GSC shot an outstanding 41% from three in the second half, until the last 2 or 3 minutes of the game. During that period, they were 6 for 7 or 85%, just when players are supposed to be exhausted and shooting poorly. I think the previous delays played a significant role.

WLU won because of their incredible shooting % - They hit open looks from 3 consistently at 45.5% for an amazing Effective FG % of 63.3% for the game, versus 58.7% for GSC. Dalton carried WLU in the first half. The stats were incredibly close overall, with both teams committing only 11 turnovers on 73 possessions.

This was one high level basketball game.

Kudos to the coaching staff for the last inbounds play. It allowed Patrick to catch the ball on the run and beat his man to accelerate unimpeded down the sideline. Also, Patrick made an incredibly intelligent and unselfish play to pass the ball to Malik, which was much faster than dribbling and Patrick surely recognized that GSC was going to collapse on him.

Also, kudos for Malik for the quick ball fake and for maintaining a smooth stroke on the three with his normal rhythm. Most players would have rushed the shot, due to the time pressure. Looks like he released it with about 0.7 seconds left.



Areas for Improvement

• We are leaving points on the floor by committing offensive fouls due to being out of control. We could have reduced our turnovers by 20-30% by doing jump stops before we shoot or pass.
• Some GSC transition baskets for layups occurred because we were a step behind on recovering on the broken press. Some players were running at a 200-meter pace, rather than a 100-meter sprint. That made the difference between a layup for GSC and an intercepted pass for WLU.
• We still had a few bumbling, stumbling type drives. Officials are not going to call inadvertent tripping when you are surrounded by 2 or 3 people unless they clearly see it. Another 20% reduction possible in the 11 turnovers.

Statistic	West Liberty Regular Season	vs Glenville St.
POINTS	95	92
FGM	33	32
FGA	60	69
FGPCT	55.0%	46.4%
3FGM	10	17
3FGA	22	39
3FGPCT	45.5%	43.6%
FTM	19	11
FTA	28	16
FTPCT	67.9%	68.8%
REBOUND OFFENSIVE	10	14
REBOUND DEFENSIVE	25	23
REBOUND TOTAL	35	37
ASSISTS	12	18
TURNOVERS	11	11
BLOCKS	1	2
STEALS	5	3
Num Possessions	73	73
Points per Possession	1.30	1.26
Assists per 100 Possessions	16.4	24.7
Assists / FG Made %	36.36%	56.25%
Assist to Turnover Ratio	1.09	1.64
Turnovers per 100 Possessions (< better)	15.1	15.1
Opponent Defensive Rebounds	23	25
Offensive Rebound Efficiency %	30.3%	35.9%
Effective FG %	63.3%	58.7%
Effective FG% Difference (team- Opp.)	4.6%	-4.6%
FGA % Diff ((team FGA - Opp. FGA)/Opp. FGA)	-13.0%	15.0%
Forced Turnovers	11	11
Opponent Possessions	73	73
Forced Turnovers % of Opp. Possession	15.1%	15.1%

[Layton]

[Scrub]

(And in case you're interested, the MEC photographer also happened to capture the moment just seconds before Nick Edwards gets rolled under the dog pile: https://mountaineast.org/galleries/m...ge-75/306/6742. I'm pretty sure Watson, not realizing it was a GSC player, just wrapped his arms around Edwards right after the moment in this photo, so then Edwards became a part of the celebration. But again, even in his devastation, Edwards was a great sport about it. He calmly wiggled his way out of the pile and returned to the GSC bench. Could have been an ugly scene if Edwards hadn't been such a good sport)

[Scrub]

[Not sure if the photo link will work, but I'll give it a try.]

I'm not sure if this was shown on the broadcast or not, but I was lucky enough to be one of the 750 in attendance last night. After McKinney's last shot, the team naturally dog piles him. Funnily, Nick Edwards of GSC happened to be standing next to McKinney when the bench caught up to him and Edwards ended up on the bottom of the dog pile. But that's not the great moment--just a humorous side note (and Edwards was a good sport about it). The great moment was that Marlon Moore relatively quickly took himself off the celebratory dog pile and went right over to a devastated John Williams who had flown past McKinney on the pump fake on the last shot. Williams was still crouched on the floor by the 3-point line, and Moore--after guarding Williams all game (or at least trying to . . . sometimes not successfully)--took the time to go over and console Williams and show respect for a great effort. It was a nice and maybe not totally visible moment. A MEC photographer did manage to capture it though: https://mountaineast.org/galleries/m...ge-77/306/6744

[Scrub]

I'll be interested to see your write-up today, Columbus. But looking at the box score, WLU has now gotten away with two tourney wins while totaling only 13 & 12 assists respectively. If they're going to beat a game FSU team for a third time--and we all know how hard it is to beat a good team 3 times in one season--they're going to need to get back to sharing the ball.

They seemed to get lured into GSC's playground style a few times last night, and that likely isn't going to get the job done.

[Scrub]

Can you imagine that ending if COVID hadn't restricted the arena to 750 fans? Imagine if the 3,500 fans from last year's final had been in that building tonight!

[Layton]

Well, that was entertaining

[Layton]