Thiam gives Cowboys a spark

At left, Djibril Thiam


By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Djibril Thiam has progressed for the Cowboys, just over a month into officially beginning his Wyoming career.

A transfer from Baylor, Thiam was not eligible until the middle of December, just at the end of the first semester at UW.

On Saturday, he showed glimpses of what head coach Heath Schroyer saw in getting him to become a Cowboy.

Thiam scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and finished with two blocks and one steal in 25 minutes in the 83-74 win over Colorado State.

During a late 45-second time span, Thiam was instrumental in the Cowboys ability to hold on for the win, as he had a big offensive rebound off of a missed free throw, scored a basket and then had a big block on the other end of the court.

Schroyer said that the 6-foot-10 Thiam is beginning to come into his own.

“I don’t think you can pigeon-hole Djibril into one thing. I don’t think you can say he’s a scorer on the block, or he’s a shooter or he’s just a defender,” Schroyer said. “He just does so many different things. Again, he hasn’t played a full year at this level and you can start to see that he is going to be a real special player. I thought he gave us great minutes. He does a lot of things; block a shot here, get a steal there, get an offensive rebound on a free throw. Those are so many things that lead to wins.”

Thiam echoed Schroyer’s thoughts by saying there are a lot of different things he can bring to the Cowboys.

“With all of the offense that we have with Sean (Ogirri), Brandon (Ewing), Afam (Muojeke) and Tyson, (Johnson), I don’t need to go out there and be a big scorer,” Thiam said. “I can bring energy, defense and rebounding. Then I can just let my flow go. I’m starting to feel pretty comfortable with my offense, so I just let it happen.”

Thiam is also the spark off the bench for the Cowboys. That was evident in the second half against CSU when Wyoming was struggling and the Rams had cut the lead to two points.

“We came out a little flat in the second half because I guess we got a little overconfident,” Thiam said. “Once they got back in the game, all of the 3s that they had from the past, we knew better, that we had to pick it up. Coach told me, you have to lock up and provide some energy so we could finish up. That’s what I did, I just went out there and went as hard as I could.”

Another big Sixth-Man lift
Saturday’s announced attendance of 7,014 the highest attended game in the A-A in Schroyer’s tenure at Wyoming.

As was the case in the Cowboys’ win over San Diego State, the Wyoming faithful’s participation in the game didn’t go unnoticed by Schroyer.

The second-year UW coach said the Cowboys’ quick start had a lot to do with their playing at home.

“To all of the fans out there, I can’t thank you enough,” he said. “People have no idea what it means when our kids come back from warm-up and see the student section there, and they are excited to play.”

Schroyer said that as a basketball team and as a program, if they want to get where they want to go, they have to have that dominant home-court advantage.

“The only way we are going to do that is get 7-,8-, 9-, 10-thousand fans in there on a regular basis,” Schroyer added.

Official goes down
Veteran official Lonnie Dixon gave the crowd a little scare a little over four minutes into the second half when he collapsed near mid-court just in front of The Mtn. television crew.
Dixon laid on his back motionless for a couple minutes as The Mtn. announcer Andrea Lloyd motioned for some help. As it turned out, Dixon injured his left calf. He had to leave the game and left the A-A on crutches.

The other two game officials -- Verne Harris and Winston Stith -- finished the game by themselves.

“I wish him nothing but the best,” Schroyer said. “I was really scared the way he was laying there. ... Lonnie’s a pro. Of anybody that’s been around this league and this game, Lonnie Dixon’s a pro in every aspect, and I wish him a speedy recovery.”