West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

My guess would be yes...as would the mix and match position less nature of how they play (practice). Seems like the goal is to get 10 players that are completely comfortable with each other and that know exactly how the other 9 players are going to react to situations...for example if you know that French is most comfortable at the 3 line in the corner and that he drifts to that area almost all the time (because you've seen it a thousand times in "game" practice), you can be pretty comfortable knowing that if he's on the court with you, wipping a largely blind pass to that area is probably going to be rewarded with a 3.

French what a shooter. If only he had remained healthy... That might have put us over the top for he would have likely been in platoon 1 which would have given us more experience. Academic all American and elite 90 winner too

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Well said. Wonder if that is a reason for the unconventional practice method of playing games to 100?

My guess would be yes...as would the mix and match position less nature of how they play (practice). Seems like the goal is to get 10 players that are completely comfortable with each other and that know exactly how the other 9 players are going to react to situations...for example if you know that French is most comfortable at the 3 line in the corner and that he drifts to that area almost all the time (because you've seen it a thousand times in "game" practice), you can be pretty comfortable knowing that if he's on the court with you, wipping a largely blind pass to that area is probably going to be rewarded with a 3.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

The freedom WLU's style offers is probably difficult for players to adjust to. But to paraphrase the old saying - With great freedom comes great responsibility. It's not about taking a shot every time the ball hits your hands...it's not about jumping passing lanes every time the opponent passes...it IS about knowing when you should take the shot and when the better option is to pass to a more open teammate...it IS about knowing what your defensive teammates are doing so if you miss jumping a pass, you have backup. Seems like WLU players have to know what every one of their teammates are doing and be able to act correctly on that knowledge immediately.

Being able to drain 3's is important...knowing when to pass to a more open teammate is even more important.

Well said. Wonder if that is a reason for the unconventional practice method of playing games to 100?

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

LOL You are a wise man, Boat. Very good counsel to a young player. From his highlights, it looks like he likes defense too. Both he and Robinson have a great first step, but they don't slash out of control to the basket - they appear to change their angle to avoid charges. They also appear strong enough to score after contact to get the and-one.

Without knowing them and just generally speaking, I would suspect that another difficult adjustment for a new player is to adjust to the freedom given to players to make good decisions in rapidly changing dynamic situations under duress, when there are no set plays. Kind of rare in today's environment of micro-managing coaches.

The freedom WLU's style offers is probably difficult for players to adjust to. But to paraphrase the old saying - With great freedom comes great responsibility. It's not about taking a shot every time the ball hits your hands...it's not about jumping passing lanes every time the opponent passes...it IS about knowing when you should take the shot and when the better option is to pass to a more open teammate...it IS about knowing what your defensive teammates are doing so if you miss jumping a pass, you have backup. Seems like WLU players have to know what every one of their teammates are doing and be able to act correctly on that knowledge immediately.

Being able to drain 3's is important...knowing when to pass to a more open teammate is even more important.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

If he does that he should have his head examined. Lol.

LOL. I agree, unless he cannot afford MIT or CMU - what is it $50K a year?
Or maybe he falls in love on his recruiting trip!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

You raise an interesting point. With no seniors, how many scholarships are available next year?
I can see it now - Player X with 5.0 GPA turns down MIT and Carnegie Mellon for academic scholarship and basketball at WL :-)

If he does that he should have his head examined. Lol.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

A lot of talent with a years experience could pay off in a big way. No seniors so everyone back the following year is kinda crazy.

You raise an interesting point. With no seniors, how many scholarships are available next year?
I can see it now - Player X with 5.0 GPA turns down MIT and Carnegie Mellon for academic scholarship and basketball at WL :-)

[Dirtybird]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

A lot of talent with a years experience could pay off in a big way. No seniors so everyone back the following year is kinda crazy.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Had a brief Twitter exchange with McKinney after he transferred. Told him he needs to start doing an INSANE number of suicides EVERY day and start practicing an INSANE number of 3 point shots EVERY day starting THAT day and to never stop! He laughed and said he was headed to the gym to do just that and that he was stoked to show that he has what it takes to play on one of the best teams in the nation!

LOL You are a wise man, Boat. Very good counsel to a young player. From his highlights, it looks like he likes defense too. Both he and Robinson have a great first step, but they don't slash out of control to the basket - they appear to change their angle to avoid charges. They also appear strong enough to score after contact to get the and-one.

Without knowing them and just generally speaking, I would suspect that another difficult adjustment for a new player is to adjust to the freedom given to players to make good decisions in rapidly changing dynamic situations under duress, when there are no set plays. Kind of rare in today's environment of micro-managing coaches.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Anyone heard how new guys are doing? It has got to be a shock to experience the intensity and pace.
If they can adjust the transfers could thrive in this free flowing offense. From highlights They look like they could deadly in an open court up and down game.

Had a brief Twitter exchange with McKinney after he transferred. Told him he needs to start doing an INSANE number of suicides EVERY day and start practicing an INSANE number of 3 point shots EVERY day starting THAT day and to never stop! He laughed and said he was headed to the gym to do just that and that he was stoked to show that he has what it takes to play on one of the best teams in the nation!

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Pretty clear that with this years team, Ben is doubling down on "WLU Style" players! I think they could move the 3 point line to half court and every player on the squad would make 50% of their shots!!!! If we have a night were ALL our many, many, many shooters go cold, it will be proof that god hates us and won't let us win!!!!!!

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Anyone heard how new guys are doing? It has got to be a shock to experience the intensity and pace.
If they can adjust the transfers could thrive in this free flowing offense. From highlights They look like they could deadly in an open court up and down game.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

FYI here is an in depth look at the wlu style from an analytical perspective. It provides the rationale for the type of player west liberty recruits.

https://statsbywill.com/2019/06/19/b...ter-actions/2/

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

...What I'm advocating for is having some sort of plan to combat a dominant big man who is eating our lunch...maybe it means you try and recruit that "unicorn" who is big and can shoot and run and play shut-down inside D...maybe you recruit a "defensive specialist" who can run but can't hit the broad side of a barn from farther than 10 feet...maybe it is a defensive scheme that you use on those isolated night when you are getting hammered inside. Point is, we need an answer beyond just trying to do MORE of what we do. That is, if we truly want to win a NC.

I am not as pessimistic about the NC chances. How many teams can say they have gone as far as WLU in the tournament over the last decade? We played in the national finals! It is really, really hard to win the national title.
Why I think the future is bright:
- the word is getting out about WLU style.
- The head coach of the Miami Heat spend 5 hours picking Crutchfield's brain.
- I am seeing better and better players show serious interest in WL. Some went ahead and signed with D1 but the fact they visited is impressive.
- In the past, I perceived WL as having very high basketball IQ players, but maybe somewhat average in physical athletic skills. The physical limitations would sometimes get exposed in the NCAA tournament. That is changing. We are getting high basketball IQ players who are much better athletes. We are getting guys who can create their own shot and also slash to the basket in addition to hitting the 3 and can defend talented athletes.
- In the past, we had to rely on turnover margin and superior 3 point shooting to win games, as they typically did not rebound well. This year WL did not get as many turnovers but was among the nation's leaders in offensive rebounding. They were better than any D1 or D2 school in 3 point shooting too. That will help us when we run into great well-coached teams who don't commit turnovers.

In any style, if one does not have a player who can handle a dominant big man, the traditional approach is to have a guard sag down and make the big pick up his dribble early and disrupt. Of course, that leaves a guard open for a three. IMHO It is the combination of the dominant big and a hot 3 point shooter that is deadly. For example, Fairmont focused on Voorhees and left the guy open in the corner 3 who killed them.

Regarding the unicorn, most the bigs I have seen in USA cannot handle the running and intensity and don't have the all around game, including passing, dribbling, shooting and deadly free throw shooting. WL had the bigs from Charleston and Shepherd gasping for air after about 8 minutes. One possibility is to find a talented, tall, undernourished scrawny deadeye shooter and lock him in the weight room without losing his speed and hope he can learn to defend natural bigs.

imho, we will have to expand recruiting beyond the USA and find a big who played soccer as a child and is raw, but has the physical tools and a good grasp of the fundamentals of basketball. I would look in Nigeria, Cameroon, Sudan, Republic of Congo, Serbia, Russia, Croatia, Greece, etc. AAU weasels have not ruined their athletes there.

But that takes boosters opening their wallets.

I am looking forward to seeing if Alessandro and Hazelbaker can help us in that area. Alessandro looks like he is 6-7 and has gotten stronger. When I saw him in high school he reminded me a lot of a bigger yoakum in his playing style.

Hazelbaker loves to mix it up inside and could be still growing. Just needs to develop his power and quickness vertically by not playing quite so upright and flexing his knees more to generate more power on his elevation IMHO.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Interesting stuff. Easy to agree with all most all of it. Until, of course, a 6'3" guard has to defend Dustin Sleva for 40 minutes. But, by and large, that will obviously work for 95 percent of the season. Mercyhurst wore WL out in that final game. I saw it in person. That said, WL stayed in that press way too long. It was useless in that game and just wore themselves out.

That is the flaw with the style...just as the flaw with a defensive team is usually the ability to score when necessary, WLU's position less approach struggles when they are faced with a gifted big man. Not saying WLU should scrap it's style in favor of having a big man in the low post the whole game, but they need to have some sort of counter when they do face a big who is eating up that 6'3" (or 6'4" or 6'5") guy in the low post. Contrary to what Christopher Walken may think, the prescription to the problem WLU faces is not MORE cowbell!

Most nights during the season, WLU is going to be able to overcome any inside deficiency with a blizzard of 3. But in the playoffs, seems like consistently they run up against a team with a dominant inside presence that WLU has zero answer for. If your only plan is I hope we are hot from 3 and I hope their big has an off night, you don't really have much of a plan.

Each part of the season has different team and strategy requirements. WLU has one of if not the best team/strategy/style makeups for the regular season and in many years, it carries them deep into the NCAA tourney. But eventually, our weakness get's exposed and we falter and fall. If our goal is to win a NC, which I think it is, as a team we need to have a counter to what has proven to be our Achilles heal in the playoffs. I'm not advocating for a fundamental change in what we do or how we do it on most nights. I'm not arguing for a drastic change in team makeup either. What I'm advocating for is having some sort of plan to combat a dominant big man who is eating our lunch...maybe it means you try and recruit that "unicorn" who is big and can shoot and run and play shut-down inside D...maybe you recruit a "defensive specialist" who can run but can't hit the broad side of a barn from farther than 10 feet...maybe it is a defensive scheme that you use on those isolated night when you are getting hammered inside. Point is, we need an answer beyond just trying to do MORE of what we do. That is, if we truly want to win a NC.