Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Djibril Thiam grabs a rebound earlier in the season against San Diego State.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
Teaching defense has always come easy for Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer … until the last couple of years.
The Cowboys haven’t been able to grasp on to his defensive philosophy as quickly as he had hoped, and the result is some nasty blowouts this season against quality offensive teams.
Saturday’s opponent -- Utah -- is once such team that seemed to score at will against Wyoming, winning the conference opener 91-67 in Salt Lake City about one month ago.
The two teams will meet again to begin the second half of the Mountain West Conference season Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium.
“It’s been the most frustrating thing for me the entire year, in probably my 15 years of really trying to coach that side of the ball,” Schroyer said. “This has been the longest that it has taken guys to understand. It comes down to being able to influence the ball where we want it to go, being able to rotate the right way, being able to finish off plays.”
The Cowboys are giving up an average of 76.5 points a game this season, including four games (three losses) in which they yielded at least 90 points. Wyoming’s opponents are shooting .433 from the field. In league play, the Cowboys are giving up 79 points a game and allowing opponents to shoot .492 from the field.
The key for the Wyoming defense, Schroyer said, is guarding the basketball.
“We’ve been put in situations where we have to help so much. I think our perimeter on-ball defense has not been very good,” Schroyer said. “I think our post defense is getting better and it will continue to get better because we are playing so many young guys in that spot. We also have to get back to rebounding the basketball and get out in transitions. We’re very good in transition, but if you take the ball out of the net half of the time, it really negates our offense.”
As a team, Schroyer said they have to mature and not let one area affect the other.
“If we have a turnover or if we miss a couple of shots, our maturity has to be better to go down to the other end and defend and not let runs happen the way we have let them happen,” he said.
The Cowboys can’t let the Utes on any big runs like they did in Salt Lake City. Utah is tied for first in the MWC at 6-2 and have won nine of its last 11 games to stand at 15-7 overall.
“Obviously, we know they’re very good and they’re in first place,” Schroyer said. “They’re probably the team to beat. I think they’ve had good road wins and they’ve won games at home.”
Utah has been led by 7-foot-2 senior Luke Nevill, who is averaging 17.4 points, as well an MWC leading 8.2 rebounds and 2.59 blocks per game. Senior Lawrence Borha is scoring 11.3 points per game, while seniors Shaun Green and Tyler Kepkay are adding 10.1 and 10.0 points respectively.
“I think you have Nevill and then I think you have three or four other seniors who have been there a long time,” Schroyer said. “Kepkay’s playing great, Borha’s playing great, Green’s playing great, (Luca) Drca’s a starter for three years and he’s playing great; they are very good. They are playing like you hope your seniors play.”
Schroyer also said that so many teams are playing with an untraditional four that causes them issues with how they want to defend that.
“This league has really evolved into that,” he said. “We have struggled to be able to switch off-screens, being able to get out and rotate to the shooters.”
Cowboy seniors Brandon Ewing and Sean Ogirri are on the verge of record-breaking performances. Ewing is only one start away from tying Josh Davis for the most games started in school history with 115. He is also only 21 minutes away from setting the MWC record for career minutes played. Ogirri needs to make just three 3-pointers to match Fennis Dembo (78) for the most made 3s in a single season in Wyoming history.
Ewing continues to lead the MWC in both scoring and assists, with 18.0 points and 5.41 assists per game. He is vying to become the first player in MWC history to lead the league in both categories. Ewing also ranks 34th in the nation in assists per game.
Ogirri is ranked 15th in the nation and leads the MWC in made 3-pointers per game with 3.41.
Ewing, redshirt freshman Afam Muojeke, senior Tyson Johnson and Ogirri all rank in the top-10 of the MWC in scoring. In addition to Ewing leading the league, Muojeke ranks sixth (15.5 ppg), Johnson is eighth (15.0 ppg) and Ogirri is ninth (14.7 ppg).
The Cowboys, 3-5, 14-8, will look to take advantage of a perfect home season (10-0) that includes league wins over San Diego State, Colorado State and Air Force.
They hope last week’s two lop-sided road losses to BYU and New Mexico are but a distant memory.
“The biggest thing is you have to continue to think about tomorrow and the next day,” Schroyer said. “If you sit and dwell too long in the past, you just can’t do that. We obviously have stuff we have to get better at and learn from and continue to improve and hopefully play really well down the stretch.’”
---
Wyoming Cowboys (14-8, 3-5)
Probable Starters Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG APG/BPG
F #11 Afam Muojeke 6-7 210 R-Fr. Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. 15.5 4.4 1.6
F #21 Tyson Johnson 6-7 245 Sr. Long Island, N.Y. 15.0 8.0 2.0
C #15 Adam Waddell 6-10 235 R-Fr. Cody, Wyo. 5.3 3.8 0.8*
G # 0 Sean Ogirri 6-3 200 R-Sr. Denver, Colo. 14.7 2.3 2.5
G #23 Brandon Ewing 6-2 190 Sr. Chicago, Ill. 18.0 3.5 5.4
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 Injured-Hasn't yet played
F # 5 Ryan Dermody 6-9 205 Jr. Loveland, Colo. 0.0 2.0 0.0
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 3.0 3.8 0.8*
F #25 Djibril Thiam 6-10 205 So. Dakar, Senegal 5.1 6.1 1.0*
F #32 Mahamoud Diakite 6-7 225 Jr. Paris, France 1.4 1.9 0.5*
C #33 Boubacar Sylla^ 7-2 275 So. Paris, France Redshirting
G #51 A.J. Davis 6-6 195 Fr. Columbus, Ohio 2.8 2.3 0.8
*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: 61-73 (.455), Fifth year
Record at Wyoming: 26-26 (.500), Second year
Assistant Coaches: Fred Langley (Fresno State ‘87), Shaun Vandiver (Colorado ‘02) and Anthony Stewart (Mount Union ‘93)
---
Utah Utes, 15-7, 6-2)
Probable Starters Ht. Wt. Cl. Hometown PPG RPG APG
F #14 Kim Tillie 6-10 215 Jr. Cagnes-sur-Mer, France 3.6 4.8 0.6
C #50 Luke Nevill 7-2 265 Sr. Perth, Australia 17.4 8.2 2.6*
G # 5 Luka Drca 6-5 205 Jr. Belgrade, Serbia 8.6 2.6 3.5
G #11 Lawrence Borha 6-3 205 Sr. Staten Island, N.Y. 11.3 3.1 1.5
G #15 Carlon Brown 6-5 205 So. Riverside, Calif. 9.8 5.8 3.5
Reserves
G/F # 1 Jordan Cyphers 6-4 185 Fr. Wichita, Kan. 3.4 0.7 0.1
G/F # 2 Jace Tavita 6-4 190 Fr. Brighton, Utah 0.1 0.4 0.6
G # 3 Chris Hines 6-1 180 Fr. Houston, Texas Injured-Redshirting
G #10 Tre Smith 5-10 165 So. Magna, Utah Redshirting
F #21 Shaun Green 6-8 220 Sr. Salt Lake City 10.1 5.1 1.0*
F #30 Josh Sharp 6-7 185 Fr. Highland, Utah Redshirting
F #31 Jonathan Downie 6-8 225 Sr. Bountiful, Utah 0.5 0.0 0.0
G #32 Tyler Kepkay 6-0 185 Sr. Vancouver, B.C. 10.0 2.8 1.0
C #42 Jason Washburn 7-0 210 Fr. Battle Creek, Mich. Redshirting
F #45 Morgan Grim 6-8 220 So. Riverton, Utah 0.8 0.9 0.5*
*Indicates blocked shot average
Head Coach: Jim Boylen (Maine ’87)
Overall Record: 33-22 (.600), 2nd Season
Record at Utah: Same
Assistant Coaches: Jeff Smith, Barret Peery and Stan Johnson
No comments:
Post a Comment