West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Observations from a Dummy: WLU versus Concord MEC Quarterfinals 2021
IMHO defense was the dominating factor in the WLU victory, due to extraordinary effort by WLU to pressure and harass Concord throughout the game. The mental and physical fatigue took its toll, especially in the last 10 minutes of each half. WLU disrupted the offensive flow of Concord.

• Their strategy to deny Johnson the ball on the inbounds pass was very effective. They were making the Concord guards work very hard to even receive the inbounds pass.
• During their first half blackout, WLU had a 15-0 run and held Concord to 2-17 shooting during the latter part of the first half.
• Held Concord to 3 for 27 from three, or 11 %. Some of these were open looks, but WLU was doing a good job of denial of 3-pt looks by their best shooters.
• Concord is a good rebounding team and rebounds were an area of focus for them against WLU, as they demonstrated during their upset of WLU. However, WLU dominated them today, 50-37 overall and 14-9 on the offensive glass. WLU got 33% of their missed shots, which is outstanding, especially against a good rebounding team.
• They made Johnson and Heller work very hard to get the ball and score.
• The 4 blocks and 10 steals gave WLU more possessions

WLU spread the Concord defense, for they had to defend the three, as WLU made 38.5% from three and have at least 4 outstanding three-point shooters on the floor most of the time. By spreading the defense, it opened driving lanes as well as easy entry passes into the post, for there was no help defense. These factors, as well as the rebound put-backs, contributed to the somewhat lower assist numbers.
WLU had an outstanding 1.19 points per possession, despite missing more close-in shots at the rim than normal. I thought the officials were allowing more contact at the rim on contested shots, but overall, they did a good job.
Concord played WLU evenly for the first 10 minutes of each half, but the pressure and lack of depth took its toll. In the last 10 minutes of the game, WLU was scoring easily as Concord was struggling with getting back, which increased the 22-point half-time lead to the final 34-point victory margin.

Statistic	West Liberty Regular Season	vs Concord
POINTS	102	68
FGM	39	24
FGA	78	67
FGPCT	50.0%	35.8%
3FGM	10	3
3FGA	26	27
3FGPCT	38.5%	11.1%
FTM	14	17
FTA	19	21
FTPCT	73.7%	81.0%
REBOUND OFFENSIVE	14	9
REBOUND DEFENSIVE	36	28
REBOUND TOTAL	50	37
ASSISTS	13	13
TURNOVERS	14	16
BLOCKS	4	0
STEALS	10	7
Num Possessions	86	83
Points per Possession	1.19	0.82
Assists per 100 Possessions	15.1	15.7
Assists / FG Made %	33.33%	54.17%
Assist to Turnover Ratio	0.93	0.81
Turnovers per 100 Possessions (< better)	16.3	19.3
Opponent Defensive Rebounds	28	36
Offensive Rebound Efficiency %	33.3%	20.0%
Effective FG %	56.4%	38.1%
Effective FG% Difference (team- Opp.)	18.4%	-18.4%
FGA % Diff ((team FGA- Opp. FGA)/Opp. FGA)	16.4%	-14.1%
Forced Turnovers	16	14
Opponent Possessions	83	86
Forced Turnovers % of Opp. Possession	19.3%	16.3%

[Layton]

Dang that sucks

[Scrub]

Crutches make that seem pretty likely. Spotted on the broadcast today with both crutches and a big knee brace. Might be ACL based on the style of brace he was wearing. Not sure.

[Layton]

[Columbuseer]

Dante Spadafora sighting #4

won tourney game against cal pa 92-35

In transition, ball goes to left corner to teammate; as opponents rush to close out the expected deep three attempt, the teammate whips a 30 foot pass to dante 30 feet down the baseline under the right side of the basket

The opponents rush back down the baseline to contest Dante's anticipated shot.

Dante elevates high to catch the pass. While still in the air, in one smooth motion, he catches the ball and whips a one handed pass around the defenders that travels outside the end line and curves back to his teammate in the left corner who had just passed it to him. Now his teammate is really wide open and drains the three.

He made three opponents look like a yo-yo on a string running back and forth trying to close out shooters.

AMAZING!

[Columbuseer]

No vaccine, no game for me, regrettably.

[Layton]

[Columbuseer]

Totally agree. Best to stay away from Hurst if possible. I'd take my chances with a Findlay or Hillsdale before wanting to see Mercyhurst on WLU's bracket line. But in the end, if you want to win the Region, you have to beat the best teams one way or the other.

I watched hillsdale against Tribeca Nazarene. They might have issues with our pace of play, in the event that we would meet. It seems like it is all about matchups at regionals. Have to have some luck to avoid bad matchups. And you hope another team eliminates your bad matchup.

[Scrub]

IMHO WLU needs to win the tourney. I don't relish the thought of playing Hurst in 1st round.

Winning mec might move us to #2 seed or #1 if hillsdale loses and get us a bye.

Totally agree. Best to stay away from Hurst if possible. I'd take my chances with a Findlay or Hillsdale before wanting to see Mercyhurst on WLU's bracket line. But in the end, if you want to win the Region, you have to beat the best teams one way or the other.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IMHO WLU needs to win the tourney. I don't relish the thought of playing Hurst in 1st round.

Winning mec might move us to #2 seed or #1 if hillsdale loses and get us a bye.

There will be none of your blackouts against Mercyhurst. I promise.

[Columbuseer]

IMHO WLU needs to win the tourney. I don't relish the thought of playing Hurst in 1st round.

Winning mec might move us to #2 seed or #1 if hillsdale loses and get us a bye.

[Columbuseer]

[QUOTE=boatcapt;n567727]

Yep...Opponent fatigue is a fundamental part of the WLU style of play, along with trading 3 for 2. Playing dribble/drive, even if you make the shot, defeats BOTH. Not saying our players should never go one-on-one against their opponent but those times should be the vast exception to the rule...like when the clock (shot OR game) is a factor. Perfect situation for it's use would be 5 or 6 crisp passes around the parimeter making all the defenders expend energy, shot clock gets to 5 and Robinson beats his defender off the dribble and takes him to the rack.

Been analyzing blackouts. A common factor that closely tracks blackouts is opponent FG %. It goes way low, which one could attribute to cumulative effect of fatigue and stress. Even more positively correlated
With blackouts than turnovers, which surprised me.

[boatcapt]

[QUOTE=Columbuseer;n567724]

Glad you mentioned the fatigue factor, for it is likely the biggest contributor to wlu success.

Yep...Opponent fatigue is a fundamental part of the WLU style of play, along with trading 3 for 2. Playing dribble/drive, even if you make the shot, defeats BOTH. Not saying our players should never go one-on-one against their opponent but those times should be the vast exception to the rule...like when the clock (shot OR game) is a factor. Perfect situation for it's use would be 5 or 6 crisp passes around the parimeter making all the defenders expend energy, shot clock gets to 5 and Robinson beats his defender off the dribble and takes him to the rack.

[Columbuseer]

[QUOTE=boatcapt;n567706]

Observations from a Dummy: The Improvement of WLU Play since Their Three Losses

I would add, the lack of ball movement allowed the other team time to rest which means they are "fresher" late in the game. Can't emphasize this too much. A (THE) key component to WLU's success over the years is wearing their opponents down with constant pressure on defense AND on offense through constant ball and player movement. When the ball sticks in "physically gifted players" hands and they take their defender to the rack, the other four defenders have time to recover. Over the course of the game, these little rests add up making it harder to achieve the WLU "Black Out" that often results in WLU taking a 5 point lead to 15 in a short period of time.

Glad you mentioned the fatigue factor, for it is likely the biggest contributor to wlu success.

[Columbuseer]

Oh, don't worry, Columbus. You'll get no argument from me. I truly believe when Yoakum is healthy, he might actually be the best player on the WLU squad (even better than Bolon & Robinson, and that's really saying something because those two are studs). But I was just a little surprised that whomever votes for this thing didn't pass up a 3rd Hilltopper (and one who missed about 4 games with injuries) for a next-best guy to add to the first team.

Scrub,
I knew u were on board with the choice. I directed the stats at others who might have thought that Reid was slighted. Sorry I did not say that in the post.