Dinged up, Thiam stays aggressive

Wyoming sophomore Djibril Thiam

By Richard Anderson

Wyoming Sports.org

Going into Wednesday’s game with UNLV, Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer didn’t know what he was going to get out of sophomore Djibril Thiam.

Thiam separated his shoulder in Saturday’s loss to San Diego State and was considered only probable as late as Tuesday.

Thiam, however, didn’t show any ill affects of the injury, as his aggressive play down the stretch helped the Cowboys hold off the Rebels 77-68.

Thiam’s shoulder is not completely torn, but he said it was still sore. “Once I warmed up, I didn’t really think about it,” Thiam said. “I just went out there and played. Coach told me not to think about it. Once you start thinking, it just affects your game. I just went out there and tried to do my best to help this team win.”

Thiam finished with nine points and four rebounds in 25 minutes off of the bench.

“I thought it was the best game from Djibril in a Cowboy uniform,” Schroyer said.

Thiam came up with two big baskets late in the game, including an aggressive dunk with 1:07 left that put the Cowboys up by seven.

Thiam said he was just playing his game, regardless of the situation and time left on the clock.

“Honestly, I don’t think. I just let my instincts go and try to execute,” Thiam said. “I felt like I could take them anytime, but I think that was the best time. I just went out there and did what I do.”

Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing said the Cowboys probably have more faith in Thiam down the stretch than Thiam does in himself.

“Djibril does it all of the time in practice, I don’t know why he doesn’t do it in the game,” Ewing said. “He’s my roommate on the road, so I get on him all of the time, to be aggressive and just play his game. Djibril is always a team player and that is good on a team that has so much talent. He is giving up some of his game so we can get some wins. Tonight, we needed him to be aggressive; we needed some big moves from him. He came through for us.”

Schroyer said that Thiam will have to rehab his shoulder for the rest of the season and then they’ll take a look at it at the end to see if surgery is needed. He credits his training staff for getting him ready to play.

“Joi Thomas is as good of a trainer as I have been around,” Schroyer said.

Board work

The Cowboys did an about face on the boards Wednesday, out-rebounding UNLV 44-29.

While UNLV is a smaller team, the Rebels dominated on the boards in the first meeting, especially on the offensive end with 22 rebounds for 24 second-chance points.

On Wednesday, the Rebels had just 11 offensive boards for four second-chance points. Schroyer said that they went small on the court a times and tried to do switch-ball screens as much as possible to stop UNLV’s Rene Rougeau, who hurt them in Vegas.

“They use him (Rougeau) as a ball screener a lot and he roams,” Schroyer said. “We wanted to take our chances with him on the block because you trap the ball screen, you have to sit and they stretch you so far. We switched a lot of ball screens on top. I thought we did a nice job of taking away the catch and shoot 3s for the most part.”

Thiam said it all started in preparation for the Rebels in practice.

“Coach makes us faceguard their best rebounded and that is why we had Afam (Muojeke) coming in,” Thiam said. “Usually he leads the break, but this time he face guarded Rougeau, their best offensive rebounded. We have been practicing that all of the time.”

Muojeke finished with a career high 13 rebounds and set the tone early in the game, grabbing six boards in the first five minutes. UNLV never got untracked.

“There was a lot of activity on the boards and loose balls that Wyoming took advantage of, and they were a lot quicker than we were,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “We just didn’t win many of those battles.”