West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

Great points boat. I thought we were making the extra pass against frostburg. It was beautiful basketball. If we can maintain that level of play, we could go deep in the tourney.

When WLU plays it's game, it is beautiful. But what we forget is that everything is interconnected. Mess with one part and it has a ripple effect that effects the other parts in unintended ways. Playing dribble drive seems like a small thing, but when one of our players does that, it gives the other four defenders a moment to rest. Same with not making that extra pass or not pressuring quite as hard as you should in the press. Gives the other team a moment to rest. Seems like small, insignifigant things but when you add them up over the course of a half or game it gives the other team a little more air in their lungs and jump in their jump shot. Add in trading 2 for 2 vice 3 for 2 and it can bight you...like it did at Concord.

[Columbuseer]

Great points boat. I thought we were making the extra pass against frostburg. It was beautiful basketball. If we can maintain that level of play, we could go deep in the tourney.

[boatcapt]

My real issue is how we are processing the game shot selection wise. Years past players who maybe weren't hitting from 3 but faced with a somewhat contested, but still makeable 3 would pass to a more open player or close the distance to the basket and pullup and take a shorter (and more makable) intermediate jumper. This year it seems like it is an all or nothing thing...either take somewhat contested 3 or take it all the way inside on the dribble. That last pass or intermediate range jumper seems to have left the Toppers inventory of things to do.

I hope we get things figured out because what I saw against Concord and in at least one of the other games will not get us very far in the NCAA tourney which is now between 12 and 14 games away.

[Scrub]

The slump I'm most worried about right now is Will Yoakum. One could have argued that by the end of last year that he was the BEST player on the team (which is saying quite a lot on a team that has Bolon and Robinson).

But so far this year, Yoakum has looked really off (both behind the arc and going to the rim).

Howlett must agree that he's off, too. If you notice, when the game was on the line last night and WLU was pulling within 2, Yoakum was on the bench and Butler was on the floor. WLU is much more dangerous when teams have to pick their poison between shutting down Bolon, Robinson, AND Yoakum. Without Yoakum clicking, WLU is significantly less dangerous than they could be.

[Columbuseer]

WLU's style is much more than the quality of the players running it. It is a prescription for beating better and more gifted athletic teams. But it comes at a cost...that cost being commitment and practice. You can't just flip a switch and turn this style on. It takes practice, practice, practice for a team to be effective at it. As a team, when you spend half your time running a dribble drive offense and the other half running the WLU style, the effectiveness of the WLU style is going to become dramatically less effective. IMHO, you can run an effective dribble drive offense on an as needed basis...Same can not be said about the WLU style. Try to do both and we will fail.

is your statement about half dribble drive in practice hypothetical or just conjecture? I have attended practices and I have seen nothing but the wlu style. Now one might have a difference of opinion on a player's judgment on a specific play, but that is not uncommon.
regarding 3 pt percentage, we have had two games in the 20s and 2 in the 40s and one in the thirties as a team. definitely streaky. Some great shooters are going through horrendous slumps so we have wide variation in individual shooting %. Four are over 46%, with Patrick leading the way at 54%. He was over 50% much of last year before tailing off to 44%. Other elite 3 point shooters from last year are struggling. It may be that teams are focusing on stopping the three, but they have to give patrick room because of his first step to the rim. they will get the shooting fixed.

[boatcapt]

Despite losing last night's game, I think it is prudent for all of us to remember how blessed we are to have better athletes who can dribble drive AND shoot the three. Our best athletes are also some of our best 3 point shooters. We no longer have to rely on the three.

In past years, we had few players who were shutdown defenders against talented guards. We had few players who could stop a talented big man inside. On offense, they had to rely on the three point shot because they had limited dribble drive capability. If we were not getting points off turnovers or making our threes, we nearly always lost (Concord beat us in Athens when we were #1 in the country). Also, when our legs were tired on the 2nd or 3rd day of a tourney, our three point accuracy declined, we did not get many rebounds and we were in jeopardy of losing the game.

Already this year, we have won games because of athletic ability on offense and defense when we were not shooting well, due to generating turnovers and offensive rebounding.

IMHO, for us to make a run at the national title, we had to recruit better athletes who:
- play shutdown defense against talented scorers
- Score when we are not making threes.
- Generate turnovers
- Defend bigs
- Control the glass to get second shots

With this year's team, we have far more weapons and options than we have ever had and we are 10 deep. When we have players who can score in so many different ways, it is a learning process to choose the best way to score for the team (especially when our players are tempted by the fact that they are far more talented than the opponent guarding them). I think that is why players sometimes revert to familiar (but bad) habits of trying to create their shot rather than let the ball movement enable them to get an easy shot with an and-one.

The WLU style is so much different than playing years of AAU ball, so it is a big adjustment to trust the WLU process in a tough game. I think this loss can prove to be very beneficial, long term.

WLU's style is much more than the quality of the players running it. It is a prescription for beating better and more gifted athletic teams. But it comes at a cost...that cost being commitment and practice. You can't just flip a switch and turn this style on. It takes practice, practice, practice for a team to be effective at it. As a team, when you spend half your time running a dribble drive offense and the other half running the WLU style, the effectiveness of the WLU style is going to become dramatically less effective. IMHO, you can run an effective dribble drive offense on an as needed basis...Same can not be said about the WLU style. Try to do both and we will fail.

[boatcapt]

All though 3 pt shooting % is an important measure, there are other things that tell the 3 point story of a team. Things like quanty of shots and when those shots are taken are equally important. Comparing WLU's first half 3 pt shooting from last seasons first five games to this seasons first five:

Last Year This Year
Shooting % .393 .289
Avg # of tries 16.8 13.8
Avg # of shots made 6.6 4

Long and short, we are shooting the 3 in the first half MUCH worse this year than last, we are taking fewer 3 point shots and obviously are making considerably fewer. Bottom, bottom line is that we are scoring 8 fewer first half points off of 3's than they were at the same time last season.

And it's not like we are killing it from 3 in the second half either.

[Columbuseer]

Despite losing last night's game, I think it is prudent for all of us to remember how blessed we are to have better athletes who can dribble drive AND shoot the three. Our best athletes are also some of our best 3 point shooters. We no longer have to rely on the three.

In past years, we had few players who were shutdown defenders against talented guards. We had few players who could stop a talented big man inside. On offense, they had to rely on the three point shot because they had limited dribble drive capability. If we were not getting points off turnovers or making our threes, we nearly always lost (Concord beat us in Athens when we were #1 in the country). Also, when our legs were tired on the 2nd or 3rd day of a tourney, our three point accuracy declined, we did not get many rebounds and we were in jeopardy of losing the game.

Already this year, we have won games because of athletic ability on offense and defense when we were not shooting well, due to generating turnovers and offensive rebounding.

IMHO, for us to make a run at the national title, we had to recruit better athletes who:
- play shutdown defense against talented scorers
- Score when we are not making threes.
- Generate turnovers
- Defend bigs
- Control the glass to get second shots

With this year's team, we have far more weapons and options than we have ever had and we are 10 deep. When we have players who can score in so many different ways, it is a learning process to choose the best way to score for the team (especially when our players are tempted by the fact that they are far more talented than the opponent guarding them). I think that is why players sometimes revert to familiar (but bad) habits of trying to create their shot rather than let the ball movement enable them to get an easy shot with an and-one.

The WLU style is so much different than playing years of AAU ball, so it is a big adjustment to trust the WLU process in a tough game. I think this loss can prove to be very beneficial, long term.

[Columbuseer]

Before this game wlu had 4 players shooting 50% from three. We had assist to turnover ratio of 1.6. Last night we were under 0.5 (8/17). We were one of the best rebounding teams in country and got out rebounded!
we played like Frostburg!

I attribute most of the issues to 1 on 1 dribble drive play along with lack of movement and energy.

On defense, We gave up open shots (the kind we usually get) and they made us pay. Very bad team defense.

Ball was sticking and folks were not moving without the ball and standing around the perimeter. Much easier to block us out for rebounds. I am ok with going to the rim if it is set up by ball movement and is relatively uncontested, and if folks pass to the open man when the defense collapses on them. But taking shots or trying to dribble in traffic with a 9.5 degree of difficulty is not elite basketball, especially when fouls are not being called on the shot attempts. We had guys doing this when it is clearly not their strength and turning the ball over. In fairness, I think some of the dribble drive late in the game was driven by a sense of desperation to score quickly and get some and ones to try to close the deficit.

To their credit. Wlu turned up the intensity in the last 3 minutes, going from a 14 point deficit to 2 with 1 minute remaining and they nearly pulled it out.
we have to ignore competition, players out, etc. and play to our standards and not down to competition.

[IUPalum]

Sinking ship!!!

[boatcapt]

Last nights "effort" showed a number of issues that I have seen pop up so far this year. To start, this team is VERY streaky shooting the 3. In almost every game, we have had a half were we shot sub 15% from 3 and maybe even more concerning, weve taken shockingly LOW number of tries. As the saying goes, you need to shot your way out of a slump. That is completely unlike any Topper team I remember seeing. Second, seems like this team, to a man is almost desperate to take the ball to the hole. Our offense seems to have devolved into pass the ball 2 or 3 times around the parimeter and who ever has the ball in his hand after that does an up fake from three and then drives to the rim. I've seen numerous times were players have passed up decent looks from 3 in favor of driving inside to challenge 3 defenders! And once they commit to going inside, they are going all the way inside! Not even a thought of pulling up to take a short jumper or kicking out to an open wing...They are GOING ALL THE WAY to the rim!! Again, that is NOT the WLU system that has won countless games over the years. Lastly, their defense seems to have sagged. Not calling it a zone but it certainly doesn't really "start" until an offensive player get's inside the 3 arc. Two problems with that, 1 it gives the other team time to breath and rest for a couple of seconds (big when part of your game is predicated on gassing the other team) and second, it lets 3 point shooters get uncontested looks were they can set, square up and fire.

One of the down sides to having "better athletes" is they all can drive. I would add that most of them think that they SHOULD drive! Years past, WLU had mostly players who could handle the ball but were not really a threat to beat a defender off the dribble. They used their ball handling to move a couple of steps left/right/forward to get a better look from the outside but were not really capable of consistently beating their defender and driving inside. Seems like our current team of "better athletes" is convinced, to a man, that the CAN and MUST beat their defender off the dribble and drive, drive, drive inside.

[Scrub]

And Concord's top two players were sidelined with injuries last night--shades of WVSU from last year when 4 starters had the flu and the bench took it to the Toppers. Apparently, nothing strikes fear in the heart of WLU more than the phrase "starters out." LOL

[boatcapt]

Ive been afraid of this all year. For whatever reason, WLU's players have decided they are going to take almost every ball to the hole this year. They did it again in the first half and it ended up costing them the game. Toppers took EIGHT 3 point shots in the first half and made ONE. Net result was 7 point half time deficit. Ended up losing by 8 points. Our big 3 of Bolin, Robinson and Yoakum finished the night a collective 2 for 13 from the arc.

I watched the game and what I saw was a team of individuals passing up good look 3's and then stuffing it all the way to the rim for contested shots.

I've said this before, if WLU is not taking 28 three attempts per game (roughly 14 per half) and making over 40% of them, they become very average and very beatable.

They better figure out what WLU basketball is before Saturday or they will get run out of the gym by Glenville.

[IUPalum]

WLU recruits smart players. You have to be a quick thinker who can reach the right decision acurately. That ability has a direct correlation to the classroom.

Basket weaving 101 at it's finest!

[boatcapt]

https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...ic-streak.aspx

WLU recruits smart players. You have to be a quick thinker who can reach the right decision acurately. That ability has a direct correlation to the classroom.