Muojeke out for the rest of season

UW sophomore Afam Muojeke will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

When it rains, it pours for the Wyoming Cowboys, even in the middle of January.

The Cowboys lost their leading scorer, sophomore wing Afam Muojeke, for the season after he ruptured the patellar tendon in his left knee in the first half of UW’s game at BYU on Wednesday night.

Muojeke is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday.

“First and foremost, I feel really bad for Afam,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “In the last couple of games, especially against San Diego State and TCU. He was getting his offensive flow back.”

Muojeke was averaging 17.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.7 steals a game entering the BYU game. He ranked second in the Mountain West Conference in scoring and fourth in steals. He had scored 15 or more points in 13 of 15 games prior to the injury.

Last season, Muojeke was selected as the MWC’s Freshman of the Year. With 454 points, he broke the conference’s all-time scoring record for freshmen. He was also selected as an Honorable Mention All-Freshman by Collegehoops.net.

Muojeke has scored in double figures in 71.4 percent of his career games (35 of 49 games). He has scored 20 or more points 11 times.

Muojeke injured his knee when he was chasing BYU’s Tyler Haws, as Haws was going in for a layup. He played just eight minutes and did not score.

“As far as I now, it happened when he planted,” Schroyer said.

It was pretty obviously, especially to those who watched the game and the Cowboys themselves, that the injury was serious. A MRI conformed that Thursday afternoon.

“I think everyone knew from Wednesday that he was going to be out for a while,” Schroyer said. “This is a very resilient group. I really like this group, they are young and they have some spunk to them. It said a lot when Afam was on crutches in the last 10 minutes of the first half and we went out after halftime and competed hard.”

The Cowboys hung tough with the No. 13/14 Cougars for much of the first half and trailed by just five points early in the second half, before BYU used a 12-0 run to pull away for the 81-66 win.

Because Muojeke had previously played in 15 games -- he injured his knee early in the season against Denver and missed three games -- Schroyer said a redshirt year was pretty much out of the question.

“We expect full recovery, and he will be ready to go to start next year,” Schroyer said.

It’s been a tough year for the young Cowboys, who were coming off a 19-win season last year. Wyoming opened the season with disappointing loses to South Dakota State, Denver, Hampton and Monmouth, fighting off previous injuries to Muojeke, sophomore post Adam Waddell and sophomore point guard JayDee Luster.

The Cowboys, 8-11 overall, have started league play 1-4, with a three-point loss at TCU and a two-point loss at home to New Mexico.

“I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason,” Schroyer said. “Sometimes you don’t understand that reason, but we’ll be better from it as a basketball team and move forward as a basketball program. Those things are a part of sports. There’s no question that it has rained a few times here.”

Without the scoring and leadership of Muojeke, the Cowboys will need several players stepping up. Schroyer looks for sophomore A.J. Davis and freshmen Desmar Jackson and Daylen Harrison to see added minutes on the floor.

“If you look at the forest among the trees, it is a chance for a lot of these young guys to get valuable experience and get thrown into the fire, and that‘s a good thing,” Schroyer said. “It is tough for Afam and I feel horrible for him. He was a leader in a lot of ways on the basketball court. We’ll just circle the wagons and rally the troops and win basketball games.”

“Schroyer said that at this time of the season, there will be no major overhaul offensively or defensively.

“You can tweak some things and make some adjustments,” he said. “Our job is to go out and prepare and try to win some basketball games and that’s what we’ll do.”

It will be a challenge for the Wyoming coaching staff, to say the least.

“This is a very resilient group and there is a lot of character on this team,” Schroyer added. “When times like this come, they have to rally around it. Obviously, injuries are a part of sports. It is our job to move forward as coaches and players and make sure that Afam gets the best medical treatment and he rehabs his butt off.”

While it is the same knee that Muojeke injured earlier (tendinitis), Schroyer doesn’t think it played a part in the Wednesday’s injury.

“The only thing is, it is just the same knee,” he said.

Schroyer said he feels that Muojeke is handling the situation as well as expected.

“Obviously, he is doing as good as you can under the circumstances,” Schroyer said. “He looked me in the eye and said, ‘Coach, let’s get this done. I’m going to rehab my butt off and be ready to go and be better than ever next year.’”

The Cowboys don’t return to action until Wednesday when they host Utah.