West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Seasons not over, but let's take a look at the three players who chose to leave WLU (or decommitted) after Crutch left. These three, Dave Dennis, Clay Guillozet, and Nick Smith, were supposed to be a large part of the WLU "core" starters/players last season along with Monteroso, Meininger, James Griffin, and Brady Arnold. Their departures, en mass, along with Crutchfield heading to Ft Lauderdale AND the graduation of three starters from the 2017-17 season, had a very real chance to seriously derail WLU's 2017-18 season before it began. Obviously that didn't happen. So how have these three "traitors" done so far this year for their current programs? Short answer is not bad at all. Here are their current stat lines:

Dave Dennis 16 PPG, .447 Shooting, .306 from 3, .651 Free Throw
Nick Smith 8 PPG, .428 Shooting, .416 from 3, .814 Free Throw
Clay Guillozet 13 PPG, .487 Shooting, .385 from 3, .753 Free Throw

All are starters for their respective teams and all appear to be headed to the NCAA Tourney.

Couple of points from this...First, WLU recruits some pretty good basketball players, contrary to what we might think and two, don't bet against the Toppers!!

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

There's a lot of context missing in that, though, ... very different situations. Ben inherited a well-oiled machine. Crutch/Jesus had to start with nothing prior to parting the sea.

Lol. Crutch first had to walk across the Ohio river to get many of his recruits too!

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Saw on verbalcommits that Ariel Watson is transferring from West Liberty.
If he would have developed his defensive and team game skills anywhere close to his prodigious offensive gifts, he would have started and would have had a future in Europe imho. If he could have played defense, he would have been the perfect player to guard concords bolti.

The sad part is that defense can be learned (if the desire is there) but his offensive gifts were a gift that is hard to coach.
Wish him well. Nice young man.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Regular season is over. WLU locked up another MEC title...that makes nine of the last 10 years WLU has won their conference regular season crown. On to the rough and tumble MEC tourney were the Toppers have again secured the #1 seed but have only won the Tourney title in four of the last eight years.

Couple of interesting "records" for Ben Howlett this year:

Fastest to 50 W...Ben took a mere 57 games to eclipse that mark while his mentor St Crutch took a FULL 70 games to get his 50'th W.
Ben's .877 winning % over his two seasons would stand him #1 for the all time leading coaches winning % ahead of St Crutch's current .845. But Ben has three more years before he's eligible to assume the #1 spot (5 year minimum).

There's a lot of context missing in that, though, ... very different situations. Ben inherited a well-oiled machine. Crutch/Jesus had to start with nothing prior to parting the sea.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Regular season is over. WLU locked up another MEC title...that makes nine of the last 10 years WLU has won their conference regular season crown. On to the rough and tumble MEC tourney were the Toppers have again secured the #1 seed but have only won the Tourney title in four of the last eight years.

Couple of interesting "records" for Ben Howlett this year:

Fastest to 50 W...Ben took a mere 57 games to eclipse that mark while his mentor St Crutch took a FULL 70 games to get his 50'th W.
Ben's .877 winning % over his two seasons would stand him #1 for the all time leading coaches winning % ahead of St Crutch's current .845. But Ben has three more years before he's eligible to assume the #1 spot (5 year minimum).

[timbertopper]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

With a week left to play in the regular season, WLU has locked up another MEC Title after their 98-77 beating of Glenville. Next up is a game v. NDC at the ARSC. Let's see if WLU can get up for this game seeing as they have little to play for.

They still haven't locked up the No. 1 seed in the MEC Tournament. If they lose the last two and Fairmont wins the last two, they will tie for the conference title. It's true that the MEC will recognize both as co-champions but after splitting their two head-to-head meetings, it's possible Fairmont could come out of the MEC's convoluted "matching cards" tiebreaker system with the No. 1 seed. Hilltoppers need to win one of the remaining two regular-season games for the outright title. As for hosting the regional, that ship has almost certainly sailed.

[Sportsnut]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Heard Crutch on statewide radio tonight. Great coach. He has recruited two players from Ohio for next year. All that talent in FL. and he is up here in Coach Ben's territory!

[Dirtybird]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

You would think they would have no problem getting up for this. Surely they realize if IUP hits a road bump WL could be back in the hosting conversation.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

With a week left to play in the regular season, WLU has locked up another MEC Title after their 98-77 beating of Glenville. Next up is a game v. NDC at the ARSC. Let's see if WLU can get up for this game seeing as they have little to play for.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

He was on Verbal Committs yesterday as an available transfer.

Your comment led me to look in on the VC site (I only pop in occasionally), but I noticed that the Hoban kid from WJU has also announced a transfer (and has disappeared from box scores lately). He started against WLU at the ASRC and, I believe, led the team in scoring that day. Looked like a real useful piece that game. Could have been a fluke or something, but it's interesting that he's now leaving.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Anyone have the story on GSC star Darhius Nunn? Last March he announced he was transferring because of the firing of his coach. But he must have ended up deciding to stick around, because he played 28 minutes and scord 13 in GSC's trip to the Hilltop earlier this season. But now, he's officially off the roster and has been absent from recent box scores. Did something happen (injury-wise or otherwise) to prompt him to leave the team midseason? Just curious if anyone saw anything about that.

He was on Verbal Committs yesterday as an available transfer.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Anyone have the story on GSC star Darhius Nunn? Last March he announced he was transferring because of the firing of his coach. But he must have ended up deciding to stick around, because he played 28 minutes and scord 13 in GSC's trip to the Hilltop earlier this season. But now, he's officially off the roster and has been absent from recent box scores. Did something happen (injury-wise or otherwise) to prompt him to leave the team midseason? Just curious if anyone saw anything about that.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Yep - Seemed like everyone was somewhat out of sync. Basket had a lid on it. But I was really impressed by how hard they played to overcome these issues. What is special about this team is that despite the fact that they are not forcing the huge turnover margins of other great WL teams, they compensate by being the best shooting WL team in the last 7 years and hitting the offensive glass much harder than the earlier teams.

I think they were down 13 in the second half, but they just kept the pressure and intensity up and had a 75-70 lead late. But as others have said, they just aren't experienced in clock management under 2 minutes. Also, too much dribble drive. We need to turn off the NBA channel in West Lib LOL. In general; dribble drive is not WL's game - what makes them difficult to beat is the rapid ball movement and great players passing up good shots to give someone else a great shot. With rapid ball movement no one can rest on team defense and every opponent's players cannot make a mental mistake.

There are no moral victories at this point on the season but I am impressed with how they came back. Ultimately they didnt close out when they should have in regulation even with a 5 point lead with 1 min to play. Hopefully they learned a lot about playing strong to the final horn.

But from a programmatic standpoint, what they have done so far with this super young team is really immpressive. WLU is really set up for next year when, barring injuries or sophomore slumps, they will be loaded.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I'm not terribly surprised that they lost to UC...disappointed, but not surprised. For all this years Topper team has done, we tend to forget how young they are. As pointed out, probably for the first time this year, that youth really showed through. Hopefully this loss will refocus the team and drive home that everyone they play is going to bring their A game and they need to respond in kind.

Seems like every year we have a "lose" game were nothing goes right for us and the other team plays over their heads. Until proven otherwise, I'll chalk this loss up to that.

Yep - Seemed like everyone was somewhat out of sync. Basket had a lid on it. But I was really impressed by how hard they played to overcome these issues. What is special about this team is that despite the fact that they are not forcing the huge turnover margins of other great WL teams, they compensate by being the best shooting WL team in the last 7 years and hitting the offensive glass much harder than the earlier teams.

I think they were down 13 in the second half, but they just kept the pressure and intensity up and had a 75-70 lead late. But as others have said, they just aren't experienced in clock management under 2 minutes. Also, too much dribble drive. We need to turn off the NBA channel in West Lib LOL. In general; dribble drive is not WL's game - what makes them difficult to beat is the rapid ball movement and great players passing up good shots to give someone else a great shot. With rapid ball movement no one can rest on team defense and every opponent's players cannot make a mental mistake.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I'm not terribly surprised that they lost to UC...disappointed, but not surprised. For all this years Topper team has done, we tend to forget how young they are. As pointed out, probably for the first time this year, that youth really showed through. Hopefully this loss will refocus the team and drive home that everyone they play is going to bring their A game and they need to respond in kind.

Seems like every year we have a "lose" game were nothing goes right for us and the other team plays over their heads. Until proven otherwise, I'll chalk this loss up to that.