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.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by boatcapt View PostHad 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!
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.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by Columbuseer View PostAnyone 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.
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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!!!!!!
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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.
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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/
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by boatcapt View Post...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.
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.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View PostInteresting 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.
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.Last edited by boatcapt; 06-19-2019, 08:44 AM.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by IUPbigINDIANS View PostInteresting 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.
I have felt at the Regional level, every team has some matchup problems, and it comes down to points per possession, usually due to shooting and turnovers.
For the season, Mercyhurst averaged 1.15 pts per possesion while holding opponents to .95 points per possession.
Both are impressive stats.
WLU averaged 1.33 pts per possession, while holding opponents to 1.17.
In the regional game, Merchyhurst averaged 1.19 pts per possession (a little above their average), while WLU averaged 1.01 points per possession.
I would have to watch the game to see how much of the subpar scoring was due to Mercyhurst defense and also how many easy points Mercyhurst got off the press to help their scoring. But against great teams, the achilles heel for WLU has always been a poor shooting night.
It is really hard to find a strong big defender who can play a Sleva or Smith one on one and who has all of the other skills required of WLU players. Long term, incoming freshman Hazelbaker could be a strong defender who hit 38% of this threes (also 4.0+ student) who may be still growing at 6-7. Have to see how fast he develops and adjusts to the game.
Every system has its strengths and weaknesses and it sometimes comes down to who is "on their game" that night. But based on year-in and year-out performance, it is hard to argue to change the WLU system.
That said, I think WLU far exceeded expectations with their young team. Folks generally thought their strong year was going to be 2019-2020, not the 2018-2019 season. We will have to wait and see.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by Columbuseer View PostThanks Boat! Very informative podcast - Crutch is really a deep thinker on the game. He answered the recommendation that some have posed that WLU needs a traditional low post player. He says that won't happen because it would require him to change his offense. In his system there is only one position, ideally. Depending on the situation, a tall guy could be a point guard while a guard could be posting up his player in the low post.
He does not pull guys for missing shots. He pulls guys for lack of effort.
He wants the players to be free to make decisions on the court. He says the players love the freedom that he gives them as well as the uptempo style.
He says the area for improvement of his players in his system is spacing on the court - He said if they could significantly improve in that area they would be really good.
He wants continuous mental and physical pressure on the opponent regardless of whether the opponent is on offense and defense. He said gaps get wider due to fatigue after about 10 minutes, even for strong defensive opponents.
Great insight into his coaching philosophy. Definitely worth a listen, even for non WLU fans.
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.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by boatcapt View Post"
In this day and age of cottled players, everyone is a winner and there are no losers as long as we really try mentality, a coach even saying he rates everything his players do through the lens of winners and losers, that he TRACKS it AND it's being put on display for all to see is simply amazing!
https://basketballimmersion.com/the-...m-crutchfield/
He does not pull guys for missing shots. He pulls guys for lack of effort.
He wants the players to be free to make decisions on the court. He says the players love the freedom that he gives them as well as the uptempo style.
He says the area for improvement of his players in his system is spacing on the court - He said if they could significantly improve in that area they would be really good.
He wants continuous mental and physical pressure on the opponent regardless of whether the opponent is on offense and defense. He said gaps get wider due to fatigue after about 10 minutes, even for strong defensive opponents.
Great insight into his coaching philosophy. Definitely worth a listen, even for non WLU fans.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Originally posted by Columbuseer View PostFYI
Frostburg has their entire basketball schedule online.
Suspect they got their out of conference games finalized before other MEC schools.
WLU goes to Frostburg on Sat Jan 18.
Frostburg comes to WLU on Wed Feb 19.
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"
In this day and age of cottled players, everyone is a winner and there are no losers as long as we really try mentality, a coach even saying he rates everything his players do through the lens of winners and losers, that he TRACKS it AND it's being put on display for all to see is simply amazing!
https://basketballimmersion.com/the-...m-crutchfield/
Leave a comment:
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
FYI
Frostburg has their entire basketball schedule online.
Suspect they got their out of conference games finalized before other MEC schools.
WLU goes to Frostburg on Sat Jan 18.
Frostburg comes to WLU on Wed Feb 19.
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Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball
Boy...Don't show up of one day and new players start popping up! Unfortunately I can't get to the WLU website because my computer is using IE 11 and apparently SideArmSports (the web site developer) has declared them No Bueno. To access any Sidearm developed site you HAVE to use Chrome or Firefox or the dumpster fire that is Edge!
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