West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Also think we need to be more realistic with our expectations for Rasile IF there is a season in the spring. Not trying to minimize any of his high school accolades but adjusting to college basketball is still such a tremendous change. Hoping for an easy transition but we know about the West Lib learning curve. Gotta think Conley Hiles Robinson McKinney Dyer have the advantage on a LOADED guard team in that aspect. Definitely could benefit Rasile though if the season is PPD.

https://www.vindy.com/sports/high-sc...looking-ahead/

[wheelingtopper62]

Starting to look more and more like no season this fall. Having a hard time believing athletes buy into a condensed season (25-50%) while using an entire year of eligibility. Some poor kid is going to miss 1000 points by a field goal or breaking a school record due to lack of attempts/min. Games played.

[wheelingtopper62]

Also think we need to be more realistic with our expectations for Rasile IF there is a season in the spring. Not trying to minimize any of his high school accolades but adjusting to college basketball is still such a tremendous change. Hoping for an easy transition but we know about the West Lib learning curve. Gotta think Conley Hiles Robinson McKinney Dyer have the advantage on a LOADED guard team in that aspect. Definitely could benefit Rasile though if the season is PPD.

[wheelingtopper62]

Starting to look more and more like no season this fall. Having a hard time believing athletes buy into a condensed season (25-50%) while using an entire year of eligibility. Some poor kid is going to miss 1000 points by a field goal or breaking a school record due to lack of attempts/min. Games played.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Luke Powell is #10 in three pointers made in a season at 105!
He may be the surprise of this class. He is very athletic and can hit contested 3 point shots due to great elevation. Just needs to get familiar with the WLU style with its emphasis on passing, movement without the ball and defense.

He'll have plenty of time before the next game in November of 2021.

[Columbuseer]

Luke Powell is #10 in three pointers made in a season at 105!
He may be the surprise of this class. He is very athletic and can hit contested 3 point shots due to great elevation. Just needs to get familiar with the WLU style with its emphasis on passing, movement without the ball and defense.

[Scrub]

https://ohsaa.org/sports/staterecords/boysbasketball

There were some other familiar WLU-centric names on the list of Career Points Leaders:

2. Zach Rasile
18. Luke Powell
19. Beau Justice
23. Dan Monteroso

And I noticed throwback WLU name on the Career 3FG List: Jerry Ammirante

[Columbuseer]

https://ohsaa.org/sports/staterecords/boysbasketball

[CALUPA69]

Disregard...bad info.

[Columbuseer]

BTW, Ben Howlett is #18 with 36 consecutive free throws made across multiple games.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j7b...x5rPU97If/view

Zach Rasile stats:
#1 in Three-point shots made in a career at 485. This may be very difficult to surpass as #2 is 329.
# 1, #2, #5 and #11 in Three-point shots made in a season with a high of 140.
#2 in career points at 3,013.
#9 (ties) in most three-pointers made in a game at 12 (record is 17). He is listed 5 times. No one else is listed more than once (minimum of 11 shots made to qualify). He made 12 on three separate occasions and 11 on two other occasions.
#6 most field goals made in a season at 331
#7 in points in one season at 987
#10 most steals in a career at 314
#11 in consecutive free throws made in a game at 18
#11 most free throws made in a career at 528
#14 highest three point shooting % in a career 44.0% 485/1103

[Columbuseer]

IMHO, Unless everyone, especially young people, get serious about wearing masks and social distancing, the statistics are not in favor of having a football or basketball season, with or without fans. Furthermore, if we don't take these measures, insurance rates are going to skyrocket for everyone next year because of the cost of hospital stays with COVID-19. One guy spent 29 days in ICU - bill was $1.1M.

[Columbuseer]

FYI - If you know of a promising young player, please pass it on!

For Boys Entering Grades 9-12

Reminder: WLU Elite Camp:
12 noon to 5 PM July 19, 2020
Sign up by Jul 10.
- 11 Days Left to Sign up for Camp
- 30 Campers from 5 States confirmed. Room for 75
- 12 D3/NAIA Coaches Confirmed Attending

Here is sign up form with info. Call Coach Lamberti with questions.
https://hilltoppersports.com/documents/2020/6/15//WLU_2020_Elite_Camp.pdf?id=1744

Due to COVID-19, The WLU Elite Camp has been cancelled.
Hopefully, it will return in 2021.

[Columbuseer]

FYI - If you know of a promising young player, please pass it on!

For Boys Entering Grades 9-12

Reminder: WLU Elite Camp:
12 noon to 5 PM July 19, 2020
Sign up by Jul 10.
- 11 Days Left to Sign up for Camp
- 30 Campers from 5 States confirmed. Room for 75
- 12 D3/NAIA Coaches Confirmed Attending

Here is sign up form with info. Call Coach Lamberti with questions.
https://hilltoppersports.com/documents/2020/6/15//WLU_2020_Elite_Camp.pdf?id=1744

[Columbuseer]

https://hilltoppersports.com/news/20...berty-men.aspx

[Columbuseer]

I think it's pretty easy to make yourself a "star" at WLU...at least until Ben has had enough and bounces you off the team! At WLU, if you get on the floor, you are going to get the ball and probably in a decent shooting position. If you see yourself as a star, you are probably going to take that shot and have a pretty good chance of making it...if you see yourself as a cog in the wheel, you are going to pass up that decent shot in favor of a teammate that has a great look. Perfect example of this was Aeril Watson. Dude could shoot the lights out! But in his mind, he was ALWAYS open and when the ball made it's way to his hands, pretty good chance he was going to take the shot. Ben would put him in...he'd start gunning...Ben would take him out and typically DNP him the next game to "help" him think about what WLU was and why they were successful. Next game Watson would get into, he's jacking up shots again. Played 13 games at WLU...AND DNP'ed 13 games before Ben had had enough and invited him to explore the transfer portal!

Star was probably not the best word choice for me to use, as it often has selfish connotations. I was thinking of players who went from solid role players to really good impact players in one year.
Eric Meininger comes to mind. He lost 15 lbs before his senior year and it completely changed his game.
Keene Cockburn is another from years past.

I think a Coach can ask folks to leave the team if they are disruptive in practice, not going to class, refusing to accept coaching or violation of team rules.
Do you have first hand knowledge of scenarios when Ben asked someone to leave the team for reasons other than those similar to the ones I mentioned?
He does not churn and burn players, where he takes scholarships away even though they are doing their best. He is honest with them about the areas of their game that will hinder them from getting more minutes, which is the right thing to do with young people. Folks can choose to work on those areas with no guarantees, or go somewhere else where they can play earlier.
Also, if you don't live basketball at WLU, then you will fall behind your peers, just due to the effort invested. Loving basketball is not sufficient.

IMHO, Aerial Watson was not a typical example for WLU. His offensive skills were so great, that I could see a coach taking a risk on recruiting him. He understood that he had to work on defense, passing and turnovers. I talked to him personally early in the season, where he acknowledged those facts. I was a big fan and envisioned what he could have become. He had the physical skills to be a shutdown defender and develop those deficient aspects of the game which were probably at a middle school level. But so much of defense is about "Want to" rather than physical ability. His points per minute would have extrapolated to 40 points a game over 40 minutes. The problem is during those 40 minutes he would have committed over 7 fouls and committed 9 turnovers, based on his minutes played. I saw no improvement in his buy-in to the WLU system and his minutes declined as the season progressed to mop-up duty.

Also if my memory serves me correctly, he departed the team before the end of the season, so he did not really sit for 13 games. Can't remember the exact date.