Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming freshman Adam Waddell battles with a couple San Diego State players for position.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
The Wyoming Cowboys have had a little vagabond in them in the first half of the Mountain West Conference season.
They’ve found their way home, as they host rival Colorado State on Saturday at 4 p.m., before entertaining Air Force on Tuesday. It will be the first time in over one month that Wyoming has been home for two straight games.
“It’s great to be home,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “We have five of our first eight on the road in league; it is the toughest schedule in our conference in league play. Anytime you are home, you are excited to play in front of your home fans, on your own rims. Obviously, you always want to take care of home and that’s what we want to do.”
Despite both Wyoming and Colorado State being a little down the last couple of years, it is still the Border War. That should be enough incentive for the Cowboys on Saturday.
“I think anytime it is a rivalry, you can throw everything out the window,” Schroyer said. “I know they will come in here with a lot of confidence, a lot of energy. We have to match that. Hopefully, we’ll have a great crowd. Our crowd against San Diego State was phenomenal, hopefully we have a better crowd Saturday afternoon.”
Saturday and Tuesday will also give the Cowboys a chance to pick up some much needed momentum, as they look to make a little move in league play. Wyoming is 1-3 in the MWC (12-6 overall), but have shown marked improvement since its 27-point loss to Utah in the opener in Salt Lake City. Since then, the Cowboys beat San Diego State in Laramie, played well at times before losing to UNLV in Las Vegas before falling to first-place TCU by one point in overtime Wednesday in Fort Worth.
“When you are a coach, you want to win every game. But when you look at our first road game at Utah and when you look at our third one, we have obviously gotten a lot better,” Schroyer said. “We’ve played a lot of games on the road -- 7 of our last 8 -- so I was encouraged. “We’ve gotten better, I like this team, and a lot of guys are growing up fast. That is nice to see.”
Schroyer also likes the Rams, who are 2-3 and 7-12 overall. CSU lost all of its league games under Tim Miles last season before knocking off the Cowboys in the league tournament.
At times CSU has maintained a little bit of that momentum this season.
“They are a good team. Anytime you can beat Vegas, and they beat Air Force, which is not easy to do in itself, especially without their leading scorer, they are much improved,” Schroyer said. “Tim went out and signed a group of junior college kids and those kids are growing up and starting to perform really well. We’re obviously going to have to play very well.”
The Rams might be without top scorer Marcus Walker again, as Walker (15.2 ppg) and Harvey Perry are suspended indefinitely for academic reasons. Schroyer said that while they are preparing with the idea that Walker and Perry will be in the lineup, they have be ready for anything against the Rams.
Schroyer added that the Rams are better in transition that people give them credit for because they can push the ball with two or three different players.
“That concerns me. They have done a nice job of isolating the post off of different cutters, different sets,” he said. “They have guys who are knocking down shots. They are knocking down 3s, they are very tough to beat. Just ask Vegas. They are good defensively and they play with a lot of energy.”
If Walker can’t go, 6-foot-9, 245-pound sophomore forward Andy Ogide will be the top scorer in the lineup at 10.7 points and 7.1 rebounds a game. Another player to watch, Schroyer said, is freshman point guard Jesse Carr, who is scoring 8.1 points a game.
“I think he (Carr) is going to be a really good player,” Schroyer said. “He is smart, he is heady, he knocks down open shots and doesn’t make mistakes with the ball. He is going to be a very, very good point guard in this league. It’s funny, if you play freshmen early, when they get into the later part of the year, they stop being freshman anymore. That kid is starting to come into his own. I think he is a very good player right now, he is going to be an outstanding player when it is all said and done.”
---
Wyoming Cowboys (12-6 Overall, 1-3 in MWC))
2008-09 Avgs.
Probable Starters Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG APG/BPG
F #11 Afam Muojeke 6-7 210 R-Fr. Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. 14.9 4.0 1.6
F #21 Tyson Johnson 6-7 245 Sr. Long Island, N.Y. 15.3 8.3 2.2
C #15 Adam Waddell 6-10 235 R-Fr. Cody, Wyo. 6.0 4.1 0.9*
G # 0 Sean Ogirri 6-3 200 R-Sr. Denver, Colo. 15.2 2.5 2.7
G #23 Brandon Ewing 6-2 190 Sr. Chicago, Ill. 18.5 3.3 5.2
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 3.3 4.2 0.8*
F #25 Djibril Thiam 6-10 205 So. Dakar, Senegal 5.1 7.1 1.0*
F #32 Mahamoud Diakite 6-7 225 Jr. Paris, France 1.7 2.2 0.5*
C #33 Boubacar Sylla^ 7-2 275 So. Paris, France Redshirting
G #51 A.J. Davis 6-6 195 Fr. Columbus, Ohio 3.3 4.2 0.9
*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: 59-71 (.454), Fifth year
Record at Wyoming: 24-24 (.500), Second year
Assistant Coaches: Fred Langley (Fresno State ‘87), Shaun Vandiver (Colorado ‘02) and Anthony Stewart (Mount Union ‘93)
---
Colorado State Rams (7-12, 2-3 in MWC)
Probable Starters Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG APG
F #13 Andre McFarland 6-6 225 So. Las Vegas, Nev. 8.9 4.6 1.1
F #32 Andy Ogide 6-9 245 So. Marietta, Ga. 10.7 7.1 0.6*
G #11 Jesse Carr 6-2 180 Fr. Ainsworth, Neb. 8.1 2.1 2.3
G #12 Adam Nigon 6-3 175 Jr. Broomfield, Colo. 2.9 1.9 0.9
G #43 Willis Gardner 6-1 182 Sr. Norristown, Penn 9.3 2.2 1.9
Reserves
F # 1 Travis Franklin 6-7 215 So. Baton Rouge, La. 6.3 3.6 0.8
F # 3 Flynn Clayman 6-9 205 So. Los Angeles, Calif. 0.0 0.3 0.0
G # 4 Marcus Walker 6-0 175 Sr. Kansas City, Mo. 15.2 2.5 1.8
G #15 Mike Annese 6-1 155 Jr. Littleton, Colo. 1.0 0.0 0.2
G #20 Harvey Perry 6-5 205 Jr. Las Vegas, Nev. 3.8 3.6 1.5
F #33 Michael Lebsack 6-4 190 Jr. Yuma, Colo. 0.0 0.5 0.5
G #40 Arin Dunn 6-1 185 Jr. Broomfield, Colo. 6.5 1.0 0.0
F #44 Mame Bocar Ba 6-9 245 Jr. Dakar, Senegal 2.1 2.4 0.2
C #54 Dan Vandervieren 6-10 260 So. Eden Prairie, Minn. 6.5 4.1 0.7*
*Indicates blocked shot average
Head Coach: Tim Miles (University of Mary ’89)
Overall Record: 232-181 (.562), 14th Season
Record at CSU: 20-50 (.286), Second Season
Assistant Coaches: Niko Medved (Minnesota '96), Mark Amaral (Coll. of Idaho '90) and DeMarlo Slocum (Ga. Southern '01)
No comments:
Post a Comment