West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

FYI
preliminary rounds of d2 tourney will be hosted at pre-determined sites, independent of whether team is in tourney. Sites to be named next week.

[Columbuseer]

Getting to 1.0 points per possession (PPP) places a D1 offense in the upper echelon of the competitive D1 landscape, which is dominated by 1-on-1, dribble drive and high ball screen concepts with relatively little effective passing.
(per Synergy Sports

The style may be why WL players have a future in Europe.

WEST Lib Stats	2020-2021 West Liberty	2019-2020 West Liberty	2018-2019 West Liberty	2017-2018 West Liberty	2016-2017 West Liberty	2015-2016 West Liberty	2014-2015 West Liberty	2013-2014 West Liberty
Points per Possession	1.22	1.27	1.27	1.28	1.25	1.25	1.28	1.26

The tremendous opportunity for WLU is that they have exceptional athletes, arguably more than any past WLU team. They are elite shooters and are better rebounders than past great WLU teams.

If they can continue to increase their PPP by:

• Lowering their turnovers per 100 possessions,
• Increase assists per 100 possessions through ball movement,
• Make the extra pass for a great shot as opposed to a difficult shot,
• Continue to kick out ball for threes from the lane, which ironically allows for much easier drives to the basket because the defense must defend the kickout pass from the lane; As witnessed in the A-B game, without help defense, they had no hope in stopping slashes to the rim for easy finishes,
• Increase their shooting % through better shot selection,
• Continue to hit the offensive glass hard,

Then

[Columbuseer]

Wlu stats
FYI west lib team national d2 stat ranking, (through midnight Feb 3 unless otherwise noted)

# 1
Scoring 104.2

#3
Assists per game 20
Offensive rebounds per game 16.33

#4
Scoring margin 22

#5
Steals per Game 10.3
Total Rebounds Per Game 45.11
Turnovers forced per game 19.78

#6
Rebound Margin 9

#7
Turnover margin 5.7

#11
Free Throw % 80.00

#13
Blocked shots per game 4.1

#14
Assist to turnover ratio 1.42

#21
Defensive Rebounds per game 28.78

#30
FG percentage 48.03%

#32
3 pt FG defense 30.1%

[boatcapt]

You two should box and the winner gets Jake Paul.

We'd schedule the bout but he would cancel claiming that the governor wouldn't let him fight. Either that or he'd claim that everyone was afraid to fight him in warm up fights because he was so big and bad!!

[Columbuseer]

You two should box and the winner gets Jake Paul.

Lol. Good one. Need a fine for wasting electrons.

[IUPalum]

You two should box and the winner gets Jake Paul.

His ship has already suck...

[IUPbigINDIANS]

So much wrong with your post I can't begin to unpack it. Love the "inside scoop!" If I had a dollar for everyone who said that on this board, I'd have quite the pile of cash. Fantasy world indeed...keep passing on those "inside scoops" that you create!

You two should box and the winner gets Jake Paul.

[boatcapt]

Funny thing is it's the truth. I have inside scoop but you wouldn't know that. You'd rather sit in your fantasy world down there in inbreeding country!

So much wrong with your post I can't begin to unpack it. Love the "inside scoop!" If I had a dollar for everyone who said that on this board, I'd have quite the pile of cash. Fantasy world indeed...keep passing on those "inside scoops" that you create!

[IUPalum]

Ahhhh...I see, it is every one elses fault that IUP is not playing! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!

You aren't good for much, but at least you make me laugh every now and then!

Funny thing is it's the truth. I have inside scoop but you wouldn't know that. You'd rather sit in your fantasy world down there in inbreeding country!

[boatcapt]

Nice problem to have and wlu is not alone in this regard. Best players play based on performance in scrimmages. I don't think anyone will be encouraged to leave on this basis. Not wlu culture. They may decide to leave for more minutes or to be a big fish in a little pond.. However minutes are a deceiving metric. 20 mins at wlu may actually be more possessions than 30+ minutes at other schools due to the pace of play. Like an immersion language course.

For any d2 teams, I would imagine options include, but are not limited to:
-redshirts - Dalton and will redshirted even though they could have played.
- go with 3 rotations and dial up the pressure even more. I see this being more likely to happen when game is out of reach in second half. Bad news for wlu opponents because pressure won't relent even in 3rd rotation. This could allow wlu to turn the game of basketball more toward an anaerobic game like hockey.

It is a good "problem" to have...but it is a problem. It's a kin to the "only one football" problem. I would imagine that a couple players will leave for greener pastures...question is, which ones? I believe college teams can only dress 13 players for games so we couldn't trot out THREE platoons (I think that would demand some sort of health related Mercy Rule!!), but we could get close! Put your #1 (Bolon) and #2 (Yoakum/Robinson?) on the floor with the #1's AND #3's...Or keep your top second 5 player out with the 3rd's and put Bolon, Yoakum or Robinson in with the 3'rd unit.

Imagine a 3rd unit consisting of a rotating group of 3 chosen from:

Sarson
Connley
Spadafora
Webb
Saterfield
Hiles

Paired with say:

Bolon
Butler

That would be a pretty good 5 in it's own right!

Interesting observation (at least to me!)...There will probably be a couple of transfers from WLU and a couple from Nova as well due to the "playing time/additional year of eligibility" issue. Seems like the perfect situation for a young coach at a struggling DII or low level D1 who might have thought about instituting the WLU System, to jump start the process. If you can bring in 4 or 5 players who know what the WLU Style is and have successfully delt with the pressure of WLU practices and games, you could really get a leg up over trying to build from scratch. Bring in 5 WLU/Nova transfers, recruit 3-4 all effort/coaches son/gym rat type players and a couple of hold overs that buy into the system, roll the balls out and see what you might have!!

[boatcapt]

Here is where you are wrong... Notice how Mercyhurst and Gannon are playing once! Someone doesn't want to risk losing because the schedule is so thin then wouldn't make the playoffs. So now imagine IUP throwing their hat in the the mix. Do you really think Gannon and/or Mercyhurst would want to risk their good record going against IUP? Highly doubtful. There has to be a reason IUP opted out once they were one of the votes to play! It's obvious that certain teams didn't want to play them independently! Clarion obviously doesn't care. They already knew they wouldn't make it so they are using the experience to get better and recruit! Gannon/Mercyhurst on the other hand... one of them doesn't want to play. I'm not 100% sure which BUT I have a hunch!

Ahhhh...I see, it is every one elses fault that IUP is not playing! Hahahahahahahahahaha!!!

You aren't good for much, but at least you make me laugh every now and then!

[Scrub]

Nice problem to have and wlu is not alone in this regard. Best players play based on performance in scrimmages. I don't think anyone will be encouraged to leave on this basis. Not wlu culture. They may decide to leave for more minutes or to be a big fish in a little pond.. However minutes are a deceiving metric. 20 mins at wlu may actually be more possessions than 30+ minutes at other schools due to the pace of play. Like an immersion language course.

For any d2 teams, I would imagine options include, but are not limited to:
-redshirts - Dalton and will redshirted even though they could have played.
- go with 3 rotations and dial up the pressure even more. I see this being more likely to happen when game is out of reach in second half. Bad news for wlu opponents because pressure won't relent even in 3rd rotation. This could allow wlu to turn the game of basketball more toward an anaerobic game like hockey.

But let's be honest, folks. This is DII. As the DII commercials often point out, most of these players are going on to become professionals in an arena other than their sport. I would guess that a lot of folks choose to move on with their lives.

As an example, the WLU Twitter account recently had a video where they were highlighting successful recent grads. There was a nice video showing a young woman named Kat Donzella who graduated with her Criminal Justice degree and is now working a good job with the local police department. Kat was an All-Conference Catcher on the softball team and the team captain/leader (the softball team's Bolon, if you will). And athletically she is listed, I believe, as a Junior. With getting that extra year back, she potentially had two more years of softball to play (and the softball team is really ramping up for a nice run over the next few years as well). But, in the end, two more years of softball perhaps pales in comparison to spending the next two years working in her dream job, getting paid, and beginning her adult life. I have a feeling plenty of DII athletes will follow that same pattern. It's been fun, but time to hang it up and move on with real life.

[Columbuseer]

He is...But with all the players getting a Mulligan eligibility wise, who exactly do you bench to get him (and the other new freshmen) in the game? We already have several touted players not playing and a couple freshmen who were heralded coming in getting very limited minutes. Who do we "encourage to leave" to get players like Dante minutes?

Nice problem to have and wlu is not alone in this regard. Best players play based on performance in scrimmages. I don't think anyone will be encouraged to leave on this basis. Not wlu culture. They may decide to leave for more minutes or to be a big fish in a little pond.. However minutes are a deceiving metric. 20 mins at wlu may actually be more possessions than 30+ minutes at other schools due to the pace of play. Like an immersion language course.

For any d2 teams, I would imagine options include, but are not limited to:
-redshirts - Dalton and will redshirted even though they could have played.
- go with 3 rotations and dial up the pressure even more. I see this being more likely to happen when game is out of reach in second half. Bad news for wlu opponents because pressure won't relent even in 3rd rotation. This could allow wlu to turn the game of basketball more toward an anaerobic game like hockey.

[IUPalum]

I requoted my response to you since you forgot to. IUP could have joined fellow PSAC conference mates Clarion, Gannon and Mercyhurst and played home-and-home games against each other...That would have gotten them to each to 6 games...Add a home-and-home vs Bluefield, and Lincoln PA and you are at 10 games...Add in a two game sets vs Farris and Ashland (or similar) and you are at 14 games...Have an end of season "Pennsylvania DII Championship Tourney" with IUP, Clarion, Gannon, Mercyhurst and Lincoln and the two finalists get to 16 OR 17 games. Then stack up your W/L record and see if you make it into the NCAA Tourney and play from there.

It could have been easily done by IUP, but as you point out, they didn't want to pay the money to test. Soooooo...They made a financial decision NOT to play this year. So yes, the fact that they are 0-0 is indeed theirs.

Here is where you are wrong... Notice how Mercyhurst and Gannon are playing once! Someone doesn't want to risk losing because the schedule is so thin then wouldn't make the playoffs. So now imagine IUP throwing their hat in the the mix. Do you really think Gannon and/or Mercyhurst would want to risk their good record going against IUP? Highly doubtful. There has to be a reason IUP opted out once they were one of the votes to play! It's obvious that certain teams didn't want to play them independently! Clarion obviously doesn't care. They already knew they wouldn't make it so they are using the experience to get better and recruit! Gannon/Mercyhurst on the other hand... one of them doesn't want to play. I'm not 100% sure which BUT I have a hunch!

[boatcapt]

He is...But with all the players getting a Mulligan eligibility wise, who exactly do you bench to get him (and the other new freshmen) in the game? We already have several touted players not playing and a couple freshmen who were heralded coming in getting very limited minutes. Who do we "encourage to leave" to get players like Dante minutes?