Thursday, January 29, 2009

Muojeke improving on the boards

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming freshman Afam Muojeke looks to pass the ball against Air Force.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

From the very beginning, Wyoming redshirt freshman Afam Muojeke has shown the ability to score. The lanky 6-foot-7 forward scored 31 points in the season opener against Cal State Bakersfield.

What Muojeke has been a little slower to develop on the Division I level has been his defense and rebounding. Both are coming along and Muojeke showed that rebounding can be a big part of his game, with his first double-double on Tuesday against Air Force, when he scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

Muojeke, who averages 15.5 points a game, went into the game grabbing just 4.1 rebounds a contest, with his previous high of nine boards against Sacramento State early in the season.

“One thing that I thought he could always do better is rebound the ball,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “It has really showed that in the last couple of games. He is a special player, a special talent and he’s just a freshman. He’s going to have ups and downs. The one thing that I talked about is rebounding is something that is a constant. When you are struggling from the field, getting one or two offensive rebounds and put-backs can help you; also it can help ignite our break by him getting a defensive rebound.”

Schroyer said the nice thing about Muojeke is that he is very coachable.

“He wants to be the best player that he can be,” he said. “For me, as a coach and as a coaching staff, he is a great guy to coach.”

Defensively, Schroyer said that like the team, Muojeke is improving.

“He’s continuing to get better. He works hard at it and he watches film,” Schroyer said. “He is doing all of the things to make him a well-rounded player. Unfortunately, it takes some time. He is a freshman and he is playing 35-plus minutes. But he is going to be a special player. As his career goes on, he is not only going to be just a scorer, but a very rounded basketball player.”

Free throws are charitable for Cowboys
Wyoming went into Tuesday’s game as the top free throws made team in the country and No. 2 in free throws attempted. They likely didn’t hurt that ranking by sinking 26 of 35 free throws against the Falcons.

Free-throw shooting hasn’t always been a strength for the Wyoming program, but it is being emphasized under Schroyer. As a team, the Cowboys are shooting .741 (.434-of-586) for the season. Individually, three Cowboys are shooting over 80 percent -- senior guard Sean Ogirri at .935 (43-of-46), senior forward Tyson Johnson at .856 (113-of-132) and senior guard Brandon Ewing at .809 (140-of-173).

Schroyer said that they chart their free throws and he has one assistant keep him informed on where they are at throughout the game.

“We have a goal and our goal is to get there 40 times a game,” Schroyer said. “We talk about getting the ball to the third side, getting the ball to the post and back out, creating close-outs on the perimeter. Those are things, concept-wise, that we really talk about. I learned a long time ago that whatever you emphasize a lot, then you are pretty good at it and we emphasize it.”

Schroyer said that getting to the free-throw line leads to unselfishness.

“A lot of times when teams foul you it is because you have made them rotate and rotate two or three times, which means we are sharing the ball,” he said. “Assists don’t show up on a free-throw attempt, but there are times that when you are getting to the free-throw line, it is because of the extra pass that makes a defense rotate a second time.”

Dermody closer to return
Wyoming junior wing Ryan Dermody, who has been out the entire season with an elbow injury, is getting closer to making his first appearance. On Thursday, Dermody practiced in full contact for the first time.

“Maybe New Mexico,” Schroyer said earlier on Thursday about Dermody’s first game. The Cowboys play the Lobos Tuesday in Albuquerque.

Dermody averaged 9.3 points a game last season in his first year as a starter.

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