West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Hey...Don't get me wrong, I like almost everything they have done so far. Just a few things to clean up though before you can really say they are hitting on all cylinders. Probably just me but I find the free throw % particularly annoying. It should be nearly automatic for a team that shoots so well. These are free points we are just leaving.

Hey Boat, surprised you didn't dive in deeper to the FT shooting. They have two outliers:
Bolon--has shown to be a lights out 3 pt shooter--is 8-13 FT, only 61%. It's a small sample size so far, and I'll take bets he gets it to at least 70% by end of year. He has good form (saw him FRiday), and it will correct itself.

Griffin is their other poor FT shooter. He wasn't good last year (59%), and this year has started out 8-15 FT, only 53%. I'm not sure he'll gain a ton, but let's hope he gets to 60%.

You take away the two outliers, Bolon and Griffin, and anyone want to guess what they are shooting from line? 82%. 51-62. So there are two players who have exhibited poor FT shooting, but everyone else is the 80% you want.

Again small sample size but Monty 80%, Meiny 87%, French 100%, Watson 89%, Primmer 100%, Dyer 100%, Saben 75%, Smith 75%.

Now the downside is Bolon and Griff have shot almost a 1/3rd of their total FT's.

My take is the FT shooting is not as dire as once thought.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Wow tough crowd on here. I'll go the opposite direction and point out some positives from the game and ones that seem to be trending the first 3 games.

43% from 3.
23 assists on 40 baskets.
Created 34 TO's while only having 8 TO's of their own.
21 steals.
123 points!!

Keep in mind this team has an active roster of 6 new players that were not in a WL uniform last year and only 2 starters returning.

Hey...Don't get me wrong, I like almost everything they have done so far. Just a few things to clean up though before you can really say they are hitting on all cylinders. Probably just me but I find the free throw % particularly annoying. It should be nearly automatic for a team that shoots so well. These are free points we are just leaving.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

I'm with you, DownLow... A team that lost 6 players, 5 "arguable" starters from last years team (hoehn, gross, dennis, arnold, clay, kirk), is looking pretty good. I love love love the pressure defense...it's suffocating... It's glorious to watch...the ball moves crisply, nobody is overdribbling...they are spaced well...and of course hitting 15 + 3's a game makes it all go together... I'm impressed...

I am very impressed by this team. Watson , saben and Allen getting more comfortable each game. Look out for them in Jan 2018! They are shooting better than last year's team. Intensity seems to be higher. My prior observations for improvement are for situations when 3 is not falling or opponent is not committing turnovers when your goal is the final four.

[IUP Extra Mile]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Wow tough crowd on here. I'll go the opposite direction and point out some positives from the game and ones that seem to be trending the first 3 games.

43% from 3.
23 assists on 40 baskets.
Created 34 TO's while only having 8 TO's of their own.
21 steals.
123 points!!

Keep in mind this team has an active roster of 6 new players that were not in a WL uniform last year and only 2 starters returning.

I'm with you, DownLow... A team that lost 6 players, 5 "arguable" starters from last years team (hoehn, gross, dennis, arnold, clay, kirk), is looking pretty good. I love love love the pressure defense...it's suffocating... It's glorious to watch...the ball moves crisply, nobody is overdribbling...they are spaced well...and of course hitting 15 + 3's a game makes it all go together... I'm impressed...

[Layton]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Bolon was 7/11 from 3, going to be a deadly shooter, also the the highest scorer the last two games

[DownLow55]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

In addition they need to tighten up half court defense. Too many open, uncontested looks for 3s for d and e.

Wow tough crowd on here. I'll go the opposite direction and point out some positives from the game and ones that seem to be trending the first 3 games.

43% from 3.
23 assists on 40 baskets.
Created 34 TO's while only having 8 TO's of their own.
21 steals.
123 points!!

Keep in mind this team has an active roster of 6 new players that were not in a WL uniform last year and only 2 starters returning.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

So now the MEC schedule begins with three teams that are struggling. Should give us some additional time to work on a couple of the things that are still below were they should be like:

Free throw shooting - A team this good at shooting should be draining 85 to 90% every night! Come on guys, these are FREE points! Take your time and focus.
Rebounding - This team is not going to win the rebounding battle most nights but we do need to at least try to clean the glass a little better.
Monteroso - Yea, he is scoring in the 15 PPG range and doing plenty of other things (assists, rebounds, free throws) but I can't help think he should be doing a little more. Yea he's slashing and shooting a high % but I'd like him to hit a few 3's to keep the defense honest. He's taken three on the season and hasn't made any of them.

I know I'm probably picking at nits and I AM happy with the overall play and results. But I think if we can address these few things we will be in better shape down the stretch when we start playing Fairmont, WJ, and NDC.

In addition they need to tighten up half court defense. Too many open, uncontested looks for 3s for d and e.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

So now the MEC schedule begins with three teams that are struggling. Should give us some additional time to work on a couple of the things that are still below were they should be like:

Free throw shooting - A team this good at shooting should be draining 85 to 90% every night! Come on guys, these are FREE points! Take your time and focus.
Rebounding - This team is not going to win the rebounding battle most nights but we do need to at least try to clean the glass a little better.
Monteroso - Yea, he is scoring in the 15 PPG range and doing plenty of other things (assists, rebounds, free throws) but I can't help think he should be doing a little more. Yea he's slashing and shooting a high % but I'd like him to hit a few 3's to keep the defense honest. He's taken three on the season and hasn't made any of them.

I know I'm probably picking at nits and I AM happy with the overall play and results. But I think if we can address these few things we will be in better shape down the stretch when we start playing Fairmont, WJ, and NDC.

[Layton]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Through 3 games WL is averaging 123 points, opponents are averaging 74, and the average point difference is 49. Not bad.

[Columbuseer]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

So I guess D&E wouldn't let WLU broadcast the game. Have to watch it on the D&E web feed...two web cams, a hot mic and no announcers. It's the 90's ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!

Watching d and e video and hilltoppersports audio. Videeo us about 5 secs behind audio. Kind of like watching continuous instant replay.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

So I guess D&E wouldn't let WLU broadcast the game. Have to watch it on the D&E web feed...two web cams, a hot mic and no announcers. It's the 90's ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

So it's WLU at D&E out of the GMAC tonight. D&E gave WLU a good game last year so it will be interesting to see how this years game turns out. With D&E being roughly a 500 team last year, this will probably be a bit sterner of a test than either Cheyney or Seton Hill. It will be interesting to see how WLU plays on the road.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Yeah ... we ALREADY know the feeling.


Next year Joe should schedule Duke, UNC and Kentucky to open the season.

Just a hunch ... but IUP won't be playing this type of schedule next year. He won't go the Penn State-Altoona route like so many others in the PSAC but it will be a dramatic step down in competition.

I understand that many coaches schedule tough OOC to "toughen up" their teams but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me in basketball. Find it hard to believe that playing a hard game in mid November is going to make you a better team four months later in mid March. I MIGHT understand it if a good team is playing in a very poor conference but the PSAC is not a poor conference and a team like IUP is going to have plenty of chances during the conference season to prove it's metal against tough competition. Same with WLU...MEC is a tough conference so they get plenty of chances to play top tier opponents without having to schedule difficult games in November.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

Yeah ... we ALREADY know the feeling.


Next year Joe should schedule Duke, UNC and Kentucky to open the season.

Just a hunch ... but IUP won't be playing this type of schedule next year. He won't go the Penn State-Altoona route like so many others in the PSAC but it will be a dramatic step down in competition.

[boatcapt]

Re: West Liberty Hilltopper Basketball

My defintion of "decent". WVW picked as 6th team out of 12, no?

Is Cheyney considered a PSAC "back-marker"? Throw those out as well...

I would define decent as a border line playoff team. Middle of the pack is not that. We're talking about a team that is going to finish roughly 500.