Schroyer, Cowboys excited to get going

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Afam Muojeke returns as the Cowboys leading scorer.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

With the Mountain West Conference basketball preseason meetings in Denver today and Wednesday, optimism is overflowing.

After all, all teams are still unbeaten.

Many of the men’s head coaches who took the stage on Tuesday, however, are truly excited about the possibilities. Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer is one of those coaches.

Schroyer’s Cowboys, coming off of a CBI tournament appearance and 19 wins, can’t wait to get going officially in the next few days.

“Like everyone who sits here, they are excited about their team,” Schroyer said on The Mtn. live stream interview by Bill Doleman. “But I’m really excited because we’re talented, but so many of our guys, like Afam (Muojeke) and Adam (Waddell), are sophomores, but they are really redshirt sophomores. On paper, we have 10 freshmen and sophomores, but a lot of those guys have redshirted and been with us a while. I think that gives us a little bit of an advantage going into the season.”

Another advantage, Schroyer said, is the fact that the Cowboys are coming off a postseason birth, something Wyoming hadn’t done since the 2002-2003 season.

“The first things is it was a huge accomplishment. It was year two of our program,” he said. “Thirty-seven percent of all teams in college basketball go to the postseason. We were one of the top 37 percent. Now, what is the next step? That’s what I told our team when they got back here in August. Last year we went to the CBI. What do we want to do this year?"

The answer is simple. Play well into March. Year-in and year-out, Schroyer said he wants to be a spring break team or to put it simply, playing during spring break in the postseason.

“I told our freshmen that I hope you never go to spring break for four years," Schroyer said. “That’s our goal every year, to play in the postseason. Now we have to make the next step and climb up in the league.”

Schroyer was asked, likely the first of many times in the next couple of weeks: Where will the Cowboys get scoring from, with the graduation of Brandon Ewing, along with Tyson Johnson and Sean Ogirri. Ewing left Wyoming as the No. 2 all-time leading scorer in Wyoming history.

Muojeke, last year’s MWC Freshman of the Year, averaged 13.8 points a game last year and is expected to be the team’s go-to player offensively. Schroyer is also looking for big contributions from Waddell and sophomore Boubacar Sylla, both at post, along with junior forward Djbril Thiam. Sophomore wing A.J. Davis, sophomore point guard JayDee Luster and sophomore transfer, guard Thomas Manzano.

“Obviously, Brandon was a great player. I think that this team and our teams in the future will take on a different identity,” he said. “I think defensively we will be better. Brandon was a great player who scored a lot of points and won some basketball games for us. No one can ever take away that that kid is talented. But now we’ll just have a new look, a new identity and that is exciting for myself, for the players in the program and also the fans in Wyoming.”

That new identity officially begins on Oct. 16.