West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[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.

[Dirtybird]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Yeah the youth showed a little yesterday. Late in games there are possessions that they need to be a little more patient and run the shot clock down. It's tempting for competitive confident kids to want to hit the shot that is the dagger but when it doesn't fall it opens the door also. These young kids are getting the experience that you can only get in games like this. Yeah you wanna win them all but it doesnt work like that.
WL will make their run in the post season and who knows how far that could be but also let these youngsters get a year under their belt and then add who they are redshirtting and a couple key recruits and they will be in a good place.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Charleston is always a tough match-up for West Liberty. They threw an absolute blanket over Bolon and it looked like WLU - which still has two freshmen and two sophomores getting the bulk of the minutes - panicked a little bit when the shots they normally make weren't falling. Very little ball movement and way too much dribble-drive. UC had a 14-0 run early in the second half and West Liberty spent a lot of energy battling back. Went up 75-70 in the last minute but some bad shot selection left the door open and UC ran a great set to get an open look for their shooter to tie it with 15 seconds left in regulation. Charleston simply outplayed West Liberty in overtime. With the Hilltoppers down by 2, they got a big defensive stop with 10 seconds left but a horrible turnover gave it right back to UC. Two free throws made it a 4-point game and WLU hit a 3 at the buzzer for the final score. They've had issues closing out games with their youth all year and it finally came back to bite them. At least they got a good teaching tape out of it.

Thanks, timber. I'm with you that they seem to have had a bit of trouble closing it out throughout the year (i.e., recalling how they let Shepherd hang around way too long at home, gave up an easy layup to Bolte at the regulation buzzer, among others). So, the law of averages suggests they wouldn't always manage to escape. And I hope you're right that they use this one as a learning experience for the young guys moving forward.

But learning or not, they now have an almost guaranteed trip to Indiana coming up in March, and I gotta believe IUP will be a real tough customer in their building (well, anywhere, but especially in their building).

[timbertopper]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I'll be interested to hear from anyone who had a chance to watch the game today what was the game's narrative. I was unable to watch, but I admit I wasn't totally surprised to hear the result. Charleston has had their number at times in the past, and WLU is often guilty of at least one inexplicable late-season loss, so this one felt like a possibility. But I'll be interested to hear some analysis from those of you who got to see it.

Charleston is always a tough match-up for West Liberty. They threw an absolute blanket over Bolon and it looked like WLU - which still has two freshmen and two sophomores getting the bulk of the minutes - panicked a little bit when the shots they normally make weren't falling. Very little ball movement and way too much dribble-drive. UC had a 14-0 run early in the second half and West Liberty spent a lot of energy battling back. Went up 75-70 in the last minute but some bad shot selection left the door open and UC ran a great set to get an open look for their shooter to tie it with 15 seconds left in regulation. Charleston simply outplayed West Liberty in overtime. With the Hilltoppers down by 2, they got a big defensive stop with 10 seconds left but a horrible turnover gave it right back to UC. Two free throws made it a 4-point game and WLU hit a 3 at the buzzer for the final score. They've had issues closing out games with their youth all year and it finally came back to bite them. At least they got a good teaching tape out of it.

[Scrub]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I'll be interested to hear from anyone who had a chance to watch the game today what was the game's narrative. I was unable to watch, but I admit I wasn't totally surprised to hear the result. Charleston has had their number at times in the past, and WLU is often guilty of at least one inexplicable late-season loss, so this one felt like a possibility. But I'll be interested to hear some analysis from those of you who got to see it.

[timbertopper]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Talk about taking lemons and making lemon aid! Very few players can do what Bolon has done with TWO good eyes!!

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball...berty-dii-mens

From today's West Liberty/Charleston game notes....

Bolon has scored 125 points in 119 minutes (31.3 ppg.) in February while shooting 69% (38-55) from the floor and 73% (22-30) from the 3-point arc

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Talk about taking lemons and making lemon aid! Very few players can do what Bolon has done with TWO good eyes!!

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball...berty-dii-mens

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

71 points in the second half tonight...WOW!! Bolon goes over 30 for the fourth straight game. There are a number of SR1 teams that struggle to score 71 points in an entire game!

Bolon has to be a First Team All-American on the "one eyed player" team! Can anyone recall a player with an eye patch doing what he is doing??

[IUPalum]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Have to be about due for the actual regional rankings, right? Next week? That's when the real fun bantering starts.

Is it next Monday or 2 weeks from now?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Have to be about due for the actual regional rankings, right? Next week? That's when the real fun bantering starts.

[IUPalum]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I agree. All these in season polls are not worth the electrons used to post them. Buuuuutttttt...I do recall a rather lengthy discussion of the SIDA poll several weeks ago (month?) when IUP was #1.

Not by this guy...

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Most SID's only pay attention to their team. They look at records and if you lost most recently, they drop you. Dumb!

I agree. All these in season polls are not worth the electrons used to post them. Buuuuutttttt...I do recall a rather lengthy discussion of the SIDA poll several weeks ago (month?) when IUP was #1.

[IUPalum]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

If WLU had played Penn State-Fayette, we would be in better shape right now. Our PI would be higher and so would our SOS. As a D3, Fayette wouldn't count for or against WLU's record so we would be sitting at 17-1 with a higher PI.

Apparently the D2SIDA's think WLU is the best team in SR1 as they just elevated WLU to #1 over now #2 IUP.

Most SID's only pay attention to their team. They look at records and if you lost most recently, they drop you. Dumb!