Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer offers encouragement earlier at UCLA.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
It’s now a 16-game season for the Wyoming Cowboys … the 16 games that count the most.
Wyoming opens Mountain West Conference play Saturday at Utah, with a 2 p.m. tip-off at the Jon Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.
“It’s that time of the year. It’s January,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “If we can just continue to play well, obviously good things will happen.”
The Cowboys are 11-3 heading into league play with a schedule that has been criticized as a little soft. Wyoming, however, picked up the strength of schedule as of late, with meetings at nationally-ranked UCLA, and earlier this week at Utah State. The game at UCLA was a 51-point blowout loss, but the Utah State game, a five-point overtime defeat, picked up the intensity for the Cowboys.
“I think every coach in any league is never ready, but I think our guys are looking forward to it,” Schroyer said. “We did what we needed to do in the preseason. We had chances to win at Boise and obviously a chance to win at Utah State. I think we understand that the intensity level that we have to play at.”
The 14 non-conference games were used as learning tools, especially for the young Cowboys like redshirt freshmen Adam Waddell and Afam Muojeke and true freshman A.J. Davis. Schroyer said that all three were able to grow up during the preseason.
“There are a lot of young guys who have gained some valuable experience through the preseason,” he said. “Now, we’ll go at it and see what happens in the league.”
Saturday’s game will mark the fifth straight contest away from home, beginning at UCLA. It will also be the fourth game in the state of Utah this week, as the Cowboys played three times in three days at the Duel in the Desert tournament in Logan.
Schroyer said that any time you play five straight games away from home, it can be tough. At the same time, it was a good learning and bonding experience for the team.
“I think it has been good for us to be on the road together, be through adversity together. I think our guys really rallied around he other for the Utah State game,” he said. “Obviously, we lost and it was a great game. The one thing I was proud of was, I think our team grew up a little bit and that is what our preseason is for. Utah State was the third game in three nights and I thought our guys fought and grew up that night.”
The Cowboys will face a team that has also been a little inconsistent this preseason, but the Utes (8-5) are coming into league on a roll, beating No. 16 Gonzaga 66-65 on Wednesday.
“They are pretty good. Obviously, you don’t beat a Top 20 team in the country is you are not pretty good,” Schroyer said. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us. We’ll have to mix up our looks and do some different things throughout the game.”
As has been the case for the past couple of years, the main emphasis to defend the Utes begins with 7-foot-2 center Luke Nevill, who is averaging 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds a game. Nevill has led Utah in scoring nine times this season.
Waddell and 7-foot sophomore Makhail Linskens will get plenty of minutes, with sophomores Djibril Thiam and Mahamoud Diakite also expected to be steady influences defensively.
Waddell is coming off one of his best games of the year against Utah State with 10 points and five rebounds.
“I think Adam is really coming into his own,” Schroyer said. “He’s providing us a presence and he’s a guy who is just bringing his lunch pale mentality that this team needs. He had his best game in his last game at Utah State. The nice is as a coach is you are looking down there and the kid is just a freshman and will continue to evolve into a really good player before it is all said and done.”
Although Linskens didn’t play much against Utah State, he is a big body who has experience playing against Nevill.
“I think Mikhail is a post guy who is obviously going to play a lot of minutes, just because of the matchup,” Schroyer said. “We’re going to have to play a lot of people.”
After Saturday’s game, the Cowboys won’t return to action until Jan. 14 when they host San Diego State
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Wyoming Cowboys (11-3 Overall)
2008-09 Avgs.
Probable Starters Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG APG/BPG
F #11 Afam Muojeke 6-7 210 R-Fr. Jamaica, N.Y. 15.8 4.1 1.6
F #21 Tyson Johnson 6-7 245 Sr. Long Island, N.Y. 15.3 8.8 2.2
C #15 Adam Waddell 6-10 235 R-Fr. Cody, Wyo. 6.7 4.7 1.0*
G # 0 Sean Ogirri 6-3 200 R-Sr. Denver, Colo. 15.1 1.9 2.9
G #23 Brandon Ewing 6-2 190 Sr. Chicago, Ill. 18.6 3.3 5.6
Reserves
PG # 1 JayDee Luster^ 5-9 165 So. San Diego, Calif. Redshirting
G # 2 Arthur Bouëdo 6-2 165 Fr. Aix en Provence, France Hasn't yet played
F # 5 Ryan Dermody 6-9 205 Jr. Loveland, Colo. Hasn't yet played
G #12 Galand Thaxton 6-2 175 Fr. Laramie, Wyo. 0.5 0.3 0.0
C #13 Mikhail Linskens 7-0 260 So. Bredene, Belgium 3.9 4.5 1.0*
F #25 Djibril Thiam 6-10 205 So. Dakar, Senegal 5.6 8.1 1.4*
F #32 Mahamoud Diakite 6-7 225 Jr. Paris, France 1.6 2.3 0.6*
C #33 Boubacar Sylla^ 7-2 275 So. Paris, France Redshirting
G #51 A.J. Davis 6-6 195 Fr. Columbus, Ohio 3.3 2.8 1.1
*Indicates blocked shot average
^Luster and Sylla will have to sit out of competition during the 2008-09
season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules.
Head Coach: Heath Schroyer (Armstrong Atlantic State ‘95)
Overall Record: 58-68 (.460), Fifth year
Record at Wyoming: 23-21 (.523), Second year
Assistant Coaches: Fred Langley (Fresno State ‘87), Shaun Vandiver (Colorado ‘02) and Anthony Stewart (Mount Union ‘93).
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Utah Utes (8-5 overall)
Probable Starters Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG APG
F #14 Kim Tillie 6-10 215 Jr. Cagnes-sur-Mer, France 3.9 5.0 0.6
C #50 Luke Nevill 7-2 265 Sr. Perth, Australia 16.8 8.2 2.2*
G # 5 Luka Drca 6-5 205 Jr. Belgrade, Serbia 7.8 2.0 4.0
G #11 Lawrence Borha 6-3 205 Sr. Staten Island, N.Y. 10.8 3.2 1.6
G #15 Carlon Brown 6-5 205 So. Riverside, Calif. 9.6 5.3 3.0
Reserves
G/F # 1 Jordan Cyphers 6-4 185 Fr. Wichita, Kan. 3.8 0.9 0.1
G/F # 2 Jace Tavita 6-4 190 Fr. Brighton, Utah 0.2 0.4 1.0
G # 3 Chris Hines 6-1 180 Fr. Houston, Texas Hasn’t yet played
G #10 Tre Smith 5-10 165 So. Magna, Utah Hasn’t yet played
F #21 Shaun Green 6-8 220 Sr. Salt Lake City 10.4 5.1 2.0
F #30 Josh Sharp 6-7 185 Fr. Highland, Utah Hasn’t yet played
F #31 Jonathan Downie 6-8 225 Sr. Bountiful, Utah 0.0 0.0 0.0
G #32 Tyler Kepkay 6-0 185 Sr. Vancouver, B.C. 9.8 3.0 1.2
C #42 Jason Washburn 7-0 210 Fr. Battle Creek, Mich. Hasn’t yet played
F #45 Morgan Grim 6-8 220 So. Riverton, Utah 0.8 0.6 0.3
Head Coach: Jim Boylen (Maine, ’87)
Overall Record: 26-20 (.565), 2nd Season
Record at Utah: Same
Assistant Coaches: Jeff Smith, Barret Peery and Stan Johnson
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