West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

Not really joking. The two would be a perfect match. A toxic coach joining a toxic situation. I know the past two coaches put together pretty good teams. Amazingly. But, that's not going to repeat itself every June if you have a new coach.

So, they'll either continue to hire young coaches (who will leave at first chance) or they'll have to go for that 'second chance' type of coach like KR. Remember, we don't have access to the actual portal. So, we can't say for certain none of Wheeling's players have left.

KR may have baggage ... but, he's a really good basketball coach. And, he'd probably stay there so long as Wheeling can still pay the electric bill. They get KR in there by July 5, ... he'd still have plenty of time to scour the sewers and put a tough, physical team of 'last chancers' on the court.

Hardly call the situation at WU highly toxic.

Nor would I say whom ever the new HC is will have to put together a new team after June 1. There already is a pretty good team in place that lost no one of any importance.. New HC will just need to take a good young team and make it better. KRs forte seems to be bring in a bunch of transfers every year. Also KR seems to play a style of basketball that probably wouldn't be very successful in the MEC.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I know you were joking but I would note that Wheeling was already a good team that doesn't appear to have lost anyone of note from last seasons team. The real question will be if KR can raise them back to the upper level of the MEC? Who would have thought that would even be a possibility two short years after firing Sancomb? Universal wisdom around this board two years ago was that Sancombs departure would doom Wheeling to at LEAST a decade of abject basketball failure!!

Guess as with the "Wheeling is going to close any day now" prognostications that have popped up at least once a month for the last four or five years, us posters quite often show how little we really know about ANYTHING!!!

Not really joking. The two would be a perfect match. A toxic coach joining a toxic situation. I know the past two coaches put together pretty good teams. Amazingly. But, that's not going to repeat itself every June if you have a new coach.

So, they'll either continue to hire young coaches (who will leave at first chance) or they'll have to go for that 'second chance' type of coach like KR. Remember, we don't have access to the actual portal. So, we can't say for certain none of Wheeling's players have left.

KR may have baggage ... but, he's a really good basketball coach. And, he'd probably stay there so long as Wheeling can still pay the electric bill. They get KR in there by July 5, ... he'd still have plenty of time to scour the sewers and put a tough, physical team of 'last chancers' on the court.

[boatcapt]

Lol great comments Boat. Loved the warm up statenent. So true! We are definitely trending toward warm up parity! Lol! Had forgotten about Nick smith. Next star at nova.

an amazing job by ben. Concurrently Notre dame and concord had once in a decade teams with players in Voorhees and Bolte.


Seems like he also recruits players who can both lead and folliw. Those that can't do both transfer. If some one transfers, next man up.
I loved interview with patrick who was freshman of year in his conference at holy famiy. He said he could have gone anywhere and scored a bunch of points and been the star. But he wanted first and foremost to win! What a great young man! He will go far in life!

The success of the transfered WLU players, coupled with the continued WLU success under Ben speaks volumes about what Ben ment to the success of Crutch. Clearly Ben was much more than just an assistant.

Given a choice between the two as a new HC, I'd probably still take Crutch over Ben...but not by much!!!

[Columbuseer]

Lol great comments Boat. Loved the warm up statenent. So true! We are definitely trending toward warm up parity! Lol! Had forgotten about Nick smith. Next star at nova.

an amazing job by ben. Concurrently Notre dame and concord had once in a decade teams with players in Voorhees and Bolte.


Seems like he also recruits players who can both lead and follow. Those that can't do both transfer. If some one transfers, next man up.
I loved interview with patrick who was freshman of year in his conference at holy family. He said he could have gone anywhere and scored a bunch of points and been the star. But he wanted first and foremost to win! What a great young man! He will go far in life!

[boatcapt]

good points Boat. I think the season to season progression that you mention was a disruption caused primarily by the cumulative effect of transfers and injuries before and just after crutch left.

Justice - transferred to Valdosta where he became all American and all time leading scorer i think. Played as true freshman for Crutchfield. Transferred before coach's last season.

guillozet - transferred to Valdosta and became a star. Played as freshman while Bolon redshirted.

Dennis jr. - started as true freshman and was freshman all anerican . Transferred and became star of nova team

French - two devastating knee injuries. Playing on one leg.

Arnold - cancer


The remaining players stepped up big time. However even looking back to 33-1 team in 2011 WL rarely had the best raw athletes on the floor or rim protectors. But they had great synergy as a team and played intensely.

Now we have yoakum, McKinney, Robinson iii, dyer and Moore jr. who are very athletic. Add in Watson and sarson ( his coach called him sneaky athletic). We are now able to play shutdown half court defense.

As word gets out at the grass roots level about how fun it is to play at WL i could see the matriculation of even better athletes to WL.

Oh I agree...WLU is getting better athletes now than they were early and even late in the Crutch administration. To modify a previous Crutch saying, we now win about half of the pre-game warmups! But better athletes can be a double edge sword...makes them more desirable come transfer time!

Just sticking to transfers, Justice, Guillozet and Dennis along with Nick Smith's de-commit to follow Crutch to Nova, really put Ben in a hole starting out. It was a perfect opportunity for WLU to fall from what is a VERY lofty purch, and in all honesty, we did fall a little...not from a regular season stand point but from a playoff standpoint. 2018-19 Ben righted the ship after the storm and got us to the Regional Champ game. 2019-20, we probably would have seen WLU win the Region again and from there, who knows? Obviously Corona stopped that!

Starting to seem like, to paraphrase Samuel Clements...The reports of the death of WLU have been greatly exagerated!!

[boatcapt]

Kevin Reynolds will have Wheeling a good team by January. #FreeKR

I know you were joking but I would note that Wheeling was already a good team that doesn't appear to have lost anyone of note from last seasons team. The real question will be if KR can raise them back to the upper level of the MEC? Who would have thought that would even be a possibility two short years after firing Sancomb? Universal wisdom around this board two years ago was that Sancombs departure would doom Wheeling to at LEAST a decade of abject basketball failure!!

Guess as with the "Wheeling is going to close any day now" prognostications that have popped up at least once a month for the last four or five years, us posters quite often show how little we really know about ANYTHING!!!

[Columbuseer]

Last year and this coming year were the two years WLU has been building toward. Obviously last year was cut short before WLU could show what they were made of. Soooo this is THE year. WLU is returning three 18+ pt scorers (backed by a 10+ ppg scorer) and a 100+ assist man to their starting five with a bench that returns four and averages over 14 minutes and 23 points per game. Add to that several highly gifted freshmen playing for a coach that is not afraid of putting freshmen on the court if they show they can play.

But even beyond this coming season, WLU seems to have reestablished a process that "keeps the pump primed" year after year. Even though WLU played well and won a LOT of games in the first couple of years after Crutch left, their season to season player progression seemed a little off. Last three years Ben has seemed to get that back in order which bodes well for seasons after this one. This years senior leaders are Bolon, Dyer and Moore...Next year it will be Yoakum, Robinson and McKinney...following that it will be Butler, Hazelbaker and Hilles...and then some combination of the Fab Four Freshmen (Powell, Risile, Watson and Sarson) coming in this year.

good points Boat. I think the season to season progression that you mention was a disruption caused primarily by the cumulative effect of transfers and injuries before and just after crutch left.

Justice - transferred to Valdosta where he became all American and all time leading scorer i think. Played as true freshman for Crutchfield. Transferred before coach's last season.

guillozet - transferred to Valdosta and became a star. Played as freshman while Bolon redshirted.

Dennis jr. - started as true freshman and was freshman all anerican . Transferred and became star of nova team

French - two devastating knee injuries. Playing on one leg.

Arnold - cancer


The remaining players stepped up big time. However even looking back to 33-1 team in 2011 WL rarely had the best raw athletes on the floor or rim protectors. But they had great synergy as a team and played intensely.

Now we have yoakum, McKinney, Robinson iii, dyer and Moore jr. who are very athletic. Add in Watson and sarson ( his coach called him sneaky athletic). We are now able to play shutdown half court defense.

As word gets out at the grass roots level about how fun it is to play at WL i could see the matriculation of even better athletes to WL.

[boatcapt]

Good analysis IUPBig.
i am sensing an evolution of WL. They are getting better raw athletes who want to buy into the system and play unselfishly. At the end of last season they were separating from the other very good teams in the MEC and playing at a higher level. They now have shutdown defenders. I know it is risky to predict the future but The new recruits could probably play as freshmen elsewhere but there are Just not enough minutes at WL.

one example: I saw Zach Rasile play in open gym against college players and I thought he was a d2 transfer and not a junior in high school. This guy understands the game and is more than just a scorer from 35 feet in.

WL could be very dangerous this year.

Last year and this coming year were the two years WLU has been building toward. Obviously last year was cut short before WLU could show what they were made of. Soooo this is THE year. WLU is returning three 18+ pt scorers (backed by a 10+ ppg scorer) and a 100+ assist man to their starting five with a bench that returns four and averages over 14 minutes and 23 points per game. Add to that several highly gifted freshmen playing for a coach that is not afraid of putting freshmen on the court if they show they can play.

But even beyond this coming season, WLU seems to have reestablished a process that "keeps the pump primed" year after year. Even though WLU played well and won a LOT of games in the first couple of years after Crutch left, their season to season player progression seemed a little off. Last three years Ben has seemed to get that back in order which bodes well for seasons after this one. This years senior leaders are Bolon, Dyer and Moore...Next year it will be Yoakum, Robinson and McKinney...following that it will be Butler, Hazelbaker and Hilles...and then some combination of the Fab Four Freshmen (Powell, Risile, Watson and Sarson) coming in this year.

[Columbuseer]

Good analysis IUPBig.
i am sensing an evolution of WL. They are getting better raw athletes who want to buy into the system and play unselfishly. At the end of last season they were separating from the other very good teams in the MEC and playing at a higher level. They now have shutdown defenders. I know it is risky to predict the future but The new recruits could probably play as freshmen elsewhere but there are Just not enough minutes at WL.

one example: I saw Zach Rasile play in open gym against college players and I thought he was a d2 transfer and not a junior in high school. This guy understands the game and is more than just a scorer from 35 feet in.

WL could be very dangerous this year.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

And without an OOC schedule, there won't be an Andrew Sischo lurking in those first few games. Let's just hope those first few include a Frostburg or a Glenville instead of a WVSU or a Fairmont.

There could be several strong MEC teams this year.

Concord really got a raw deal last year when their big guy quit in early December. They were also pretty young last year.

Charleston has a lot back and added some nice imports.

Fairmont State will be much better in Year 2 of the new regime. That guy is a proven winner and they'll be a year older. FSU has had a really good off-season.

WL will be WL.

Notre Dame was in a rebuild last year and should be better.

Glenville will score 110 ppg and give up 125 ppg. LOL.

West Virginia State is really on the rise.

Kevin Reynolds will have Wheeling a good team by January. #FreeKR


The PSAC, my opinion, won't be real deep in 2020-21. Joe is loaded up and really deep. East Stroudsburg was really young last year but will be much stronger this year. Shippensburg took some major losses but returns a lot. West Chester is a wild card. They've had a good off-season. Kutztown was devastated by injuries last year but returns a ton. Mercyhurst always manages to be tough. Cal will again be a tough out despite all the losses. Gannon lost a lot.

I long ago quit trying to predict anything in the CIAA. A gambler would go broke real fast betting games down there.

[Scrub]

Soooo...are you advocating for easier games to start the season???? Hahahahaha!!!

In a season with an abnormal preseason? You bet!!

[Columbuseer]

I would imagine that the players will get plenty of basketball work in over the summer regardless of wether it is at WLU or some other place. Dont think many of the Topper players are the kind that need to be forced to tend to their off season work.

I would imagine Ben has been in contact with each player and has provided them with a daily workout schedule. Those who do their work will be in better shape once practice begins.

Worst case scenario is that WLU isn't quite as polished the first couple of games.

Good points Boat. To compete at WLU one has to be a gym rat and abhor losing. However the open gym games to 100 are so important to the WLU success where players become so familiar with each other that they can predict each other's movements in real time. Coach said he would love to have games where he never had to call a play. The intensity and pressure of these games to 100 is a sight to behold, with pileups as multiple bodies dive for loose balls. Can't get that in the high ball screen dribble drive playground games. Also they track wins and losses of each player. Losing has consequences too where they might have to run some wind sprints.

[boatcapt]

And without an OOC schedule, there won't be an Andrew Sischo lurking in those first few games. Let's just hope those first few include a Frostburg or a Glenville instead of a WVSU or a Fairmont.

Soooo...are you advocating for easier games to start the season???? Hahahahaha!!!

[Scrub]

I would imagine that the players will get plenty of basketball work in over the summer regardless of wether it is at WLU or some other place. Dont think many of the Topper players are the kind that need to be forced to tend to their off season work.

I would imagine Ben has been in contact with each player and has provided them with a daily workout schedule. Those who do their work will be in better shape once practice begins.

Worst case scenario is that WLU isn't quite as polished the first couple of games.

And without an OOC schedule, there won't be an Andrew Sischo lurking in those first few games. Let's just hope those first few include a Frostburg or a Glenville instead of a WVSU or a Fairmont.

[boatcapt]

I would imagine that the players will get plenty of basketball work in over the summer regardless of wether it is at WLU or some other place. Dont think many of the Topper players are the kind that need to be forced to tend to their off season work.

I would imagine Ben has been in contact with each player and has provided them with a daily workout schedule. Those who do their work will be in better shape once practice begins.

Worst case scenario is that WLU isn't quite as polished the first couple of games.