Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

[mitchell]

Post below is a preview of Wyoming from writer Tyler Stimson at bleacherreport.com. Looks like the Cowboys will have alot of size, they start two 6'10" players and bring a 7'2" player off the bench. Hope Engen is ready.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...09-2010/page/8

HC: Heath Schroyer (31-32 at WYO, 47-65 Overall, 12-18 MWC)

2008-09: 19-14, 7-9

Returning Starters: 2

Projected Starting Lineup:

* G: JayDee Luster (5-9 165) So.

* G: Thomas Manzano (6-4 200) So.

* F: Afam Muojeke (6-7 210) So.

* F: Djibril Thiam (6-10 205) Jr.

* F: Adam Waddell (6-10 235) So.

Wyoming was not too bad last year, going 7-9 in conference, but this will be a tough rebuilding year for the Cowboys. They lose Brandon Ewing, who averaged over 18 points and 5 assists a game over his illustrious career with the Cowboys. I see them making some of the top teams sweat out victories over them, but ultimately Wyoming will take a step back this year, while developing young talent for the future. This team is definitely on the rise, looking at the long term, but it will be difficult task to eventually break into the top five in the Mountain West.

Key Losses: Daniel Ewing, Sean Ogirri, Tyson Johnson

These losses really hurt. All three were starters on last year's team. These were three of Wyoming's top four scorers from last year, and Johnson was their top rebounder. These players will definitely be missed, and leave a massive void.

Key Additions: JayDee Luster, Boubacar Sylla

Luster after transfering from New Mexico State, is the team captain as a newcomer and will be the team's leader from the start of the season.

Boubacar Sylla, at 7-2, is (literally) a massive addition to the Wyoming team. He transferred from Auburn and should eventually overtake Waddell for the starting five spot. He has the size to dominate in the conference, but does he have the talent?

Team MVP: Afam Muojeke

Conference Record: 4-12, 7th Place

Conference Tournament: Lose to San Diego State in first round

Post Season Finish: Will not play in a postseason tournament.

[SF_Rabbit_Fan]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Is this game on TV anywhere?

[Jacks99]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Don't think DI pre-season games a must-win by any means at this point, but they sure would set the tone for the season well, especially road games.

[WYO44]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Hey SDSU fans, I'm a Wyoming fan and have followed the Pokes closely so far this year. I don't know much about your team so I would appreciate a rundown; you know, what kind of offense you play, do you expect to play some zone, what players could cause match up problems for us, ect?

As for the Pokes, the bleacherreport preview is a bit misleading. Yes, the Pokes lost Ewing (thats Brandon Ewing not Daniel Ewing), Ogirri, and Johnson, but I think many around the program feel we have more talent this year, and that losing those players will not hurt us.

Ewing, as good as a scorer as he was, was not a good distributor and not a very good defender. Jaydee Luster, though less of a scorer, is a much better pure PG and his defense is much better as well.

Ogirri and Johnson were also good scorers but their defense was poor at times, and they were rather one deminsional scorers (Ogirri made a lot of 3's and Johnson scored in the post). This year Johnson's scoring production should be replaced by our 6-10 forward Thiam (he has improved greatly) and our center Waddell (who was a freshman last year). Both will also give us better defense than Johnson could. Orirri's production should be replaced by Manzano (much more of a slasher who can score in more ways than Ogirri) and Davis (a very athletic slasher scorer who plays great defense).

The pokes play a 4-1 motion offense, and will probably play man to man defense. Our strength at this point seems to be scoring at the hoop, and our fast break. We are young and inexperienced as a whole, so if SDSU plays disciplined defense and shoots well, the Pokes could struggle greatly. On the other hand the Pokes are very, very athletic and long, and we have some good scorers in Muojeke, Manzano and Thiam, so if SDSU doesn't match up athletically it could be a long night for SDSU.

Our best players are probably:

Muojeke: He is by far our best scorer. He's a 6-7 sophmore with a great first step, and a 7 ft. plus wingspan. He has a very diverse offensive game. He can shoot very well (though he was streaky last year) but he can also dunk on your face or drive and use his hangtime and length to create lay-ups and floaters.

Thiam: He is 6-10, very long, and very agile and athletic for his size.

Luster: He will be a difficult matchup for any PG with his quickness. He is only 5-9 though, so if you have a quick PG that is taller, Luster could have trouble finding passing lanes.

[mitchell]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

ESPN did a good job of breaking down this years Jacks team.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/insid...3fid%3d4536718


My take is that this SDSU team has the talent to play with most teams.

The Positives:
Outside Shooting
Good offense with balance
talented bench
Returning virtually all players
experience (for once)

The Negatives:
Low post size
Defense
Winning on the road
Winning tradition

[jack power]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

ESPN did a good job of breaking down this years Jacks team.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/insid...3fid%3d4536718


My take is that this SDSU team has the talent to play with most teams.

The Positives:
Outside Shooting
Good offense with balance
talented bench
Returning virtually all players
experience (for once)

The Negatives:
Low post size
Defense
Winning on the road
Winning tradition

"experience (for once)"
Amen to that! I think finally having a good core of veteran players is going to be huge this year.

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Welcome aboard WYO44. A good friend of mine is a former Wyoming football standout. Anyhoo....I think you're going to be a little too much for us tonight.

We return everyone from last year plus add 3 talented freshman and get two more kids off of redshirt (one of them is 6'8 James Rader from your kneck of the woods - Littleton, CO). For the first time in a long time we actually have decent depth. On problem is, as of right now, I don't expect the staff to know exactly who to play and when and for how long, etc. Our other real short coming, that will probably really be exposed against you, is lack of height. We have one guy over 6'8 and he rarely plays. One other problem is that Kai Williams, who is probably our one of our top players (top rebounder and top 3 in scoring each of his first 3 years here) is banged up and will play but how much is not known. A big problem of this current squad is road games. We have been in the Summit for two years now and haven't won a road game, though we've been close quite a bit. Oddly enough our only road win last year was at Iowa State. I think our road woes go away starting this year but Wyoming is still a tough place to play.

I see you have alot of transfers and lost some contributors from last year. I would like to think we have an advantage in chemistry. I still don't think that will be enough to get us the win. To win we'll need to rebound and make jumpers. We were 10-23 on 3's in our exhibition the other night and will need that and more.

My prediction:

Pokes 73
Jacks 61

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Players w/ somewhat of a tie to Wyoming....

Redshirt Sophmore Josh Cassaday is from Aurora, CO and redshirt Frosh James Rader is from Littleton, CO...both suburbs of Denver, which is about an hour and a half from the Wyo border if I remember correctly.

Also, true Freshman PG Nate Wolters was recruited by Wyoming rival Colorado State (as was next years incoming freshman Jordan Dykstra) before settling on SDSU. Not to mention that CSU head coach Tim Miles is a South Dakota native.

Kind of a stretch but it's always fun to see if there are any ties to the opponent. Yes, I'm kind of bored today

[TeaJackrabbit]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Notable Wyoming alumni.....

Jerry Buss, owner of Lakers

Dick Cheney, you know, that guy who shot that guy

Fennis Dembo, former college great and NBA player

Curt Gowdy, sportcaster

Art Howe, former MLB player and manager

Jay Novacek, former Dallas Cowboys TE

Gerry Spence, famous trial lawyer

[GopherHole]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

I appreciate the post from WYO44. It is nice to get their perspective on how the game could develop. I found it interesting that they play a 4-out motion offense.

"The pokes play a 4-1 motion offense, and will probably play man to man defense. Our strength at this point seems to be scoring at the hoop, and our fast break. We are young and inexperienced as a whole, so if SDSU plays disciplined defense and shoots well, the Pokes could struggle greatly. On the other hand the Pokes are very, very athletic and long, and we have some good scorers in Muojeke, Manzano and Thiam, so if SDSU doesn't match up athletically it could be a long night for SDSU."

At first glance I thought that either one of their 6'10" forwards must be a perimeter shooter. Thiam appears to be more of a slasher with his 205 pound frame. Normally, when you have a couple of post players with the size that they have you would play a 3-out, 2-in motion offense as it is easier to get the ball down low to one of your bigs. However, with Thiam, and some of the other slashers I could see them spreading the floor using a high post.

I'm trying to remember what the Gophers did last year against us as they were(are) a bigger team than the Cowboys and probably more athletic top to bottom. They also featured two bigs in Iverson and Sampson that had even more size than these Cowboys. Moreover, Damian Johnson was an All Big Ten defender last year and he could cut to the hole pretty good too. We had a big night from outside against Minnesota and it made things interesting.

While we may not have the vertical size to match up, we may be able to match up physically with AC. Bottom line is we will need to play outstanding D, and have to be able to hit from the arc. I'm looking forward to see how we match up, and I think we do have potential to break the road barrier in Wyoming.

[WYO44]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Your right about Thiam. He is less of a shooter and more of a slasher. He's very versatile because he has the athleticism to beat most defenders his size or bigger and he has the length to score over most defenders who can match his athleticism.

I think many Cowboy fans are worried about this game simply because its the first game, we have a lot of players playing together for the first time, and because our perimeter defense can be shaky. We've shown signs of being a good defensive team, but in our only exhibition game we left shooters open too often. If we don't improve a lot tonight in that area, it will be a close game with the shooters you have.

If we defend the perimeter, I think we can win big because we'll be able to run and take advantage of our athleticism. This is the most athletic team we've had in a long time, and its one of the most athletic teams in the MWC. As one Wyoming fan said, we have about 8 guys that can dunk on you in traffic. I'd put it at 7--Manzano (6-4, very athletic, top 100 player out of highschool), Muojeke (6-7, extremely long arms, not supremely athletic, but very quick, FOY in MWC), Davis (6-5, maybe the most athletic player on the team, quick, agile, long), Thiam (6-10, very long, very agile and quick, top 100 player out of high school, 4-stars by rivals), Jackson (6-5 PG, true freshman, long, and along with Davis the most complete athlete on the team), M'Baye--he isn't playing tonight (explosive 6-9), and Waddell--he isn't playing tonight (see youtube: Waddell dunk).

On the run we can play with any team. If we are forced to play more of a half-court game, I'm not sure how effective we'll be. We've got slashers, but we don't have any proven shooters outside of Muojeke.

All in all it should be a contrast in styles and very interesting to see. If you can't find the game video online, I'll give you an update on how the Jackrabbits looked tommorow.

[joeboo22]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Your right about Thiam. He is less of a shooter and more of a slasher. He's very versatile because he has the athleticism to beat most defenders his size or bigger and he has the length to score over most defenders who can match his athleticism.

I think many Cowboy fans are worried about this game simply because its the first game, we have a lot of players playing together for the first time, and because our perimeter defense can be shaky. We've shown signs of being a good defensive team, but in our only exhibition game we left shooters open too often. If we don't improve a lot tonight in that area, it will be a close game with the shooters you have.

If we defend the perimeter, I think we can win big because we'll be able to run and take advantage of our athleticism. This is the most athletic team we've had in a long time, and its one of the most athletic teams in the MWC. As one Wyoming fan said, we have about 8 guys that can dunk on you in traffic. I'd put it at 7--Manzano (6-4, very athletic, top 100 player out of highschool), Muojeke (6-7, extremely long arms, not supremely athletic, but very quick, FOY in MWC), Davis (6-5, maybe the most athletic player on the team, quick, agile, long), Thiam (6-10, very long, very agile and quick, top 100 player out of high school, 4-stars by rivals), Jackson (6-5 PG, true freshman, long, and along with Davis the most complete athlete on the team), M'Baye--he isn't playing tonight (explosive 6-9), and Waddell--he isn't playing tonight (see youtube: Waddell dunk).

On the run we can play with any team. If we are forced to play more of a half-court game, I'm not sure how effective we'll be. We've got slashers, but we don't have any proven shooters outside of Muojeke.

All in all it should be a contrast in styles and very interesting to see. If you can't find the game video online, I'll give you an update on how the Jackrabbits looked tommorow.

If I'm the Jacks, I go 12-13 deep, maybe deeper, and run Wyoming out of the gym. You are at elevation and Wyoming will only be dressing 9 scholarship players.... Like Nagy use to do in the 90's

[HoboD]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

If I'm the Jacks, I go 12-13 deep, maybe deeper, and run Wyoming out of the gym. You are at elevation and Wyoming will only be dressing 9 scholarship players.... Like Nagy use to do in the 90's

Huh? They live and practice and play at elevation....so thats to their advantage and to our disadvantage as far as trying run anyone off the court. Nagy has said we dont want to get into a running game with them.

[JimmyJack]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

Huh? They live and practice and play at elevation....so thats to their advantage and to our disadvantage as far as trying run anyone off the court. Nagy has said we dont want to get into a running game with them.

I went to the WNIT game there a couple of years ago. And I have visited a few times (my wife got her M.A. at Wyo). I can tell you from experience that I got winded carrying my video camera into Arena Auditorium. The altitude is a real factor. You feel it with every step. If we go 12-13 deep, we might be able to hang in there with their 9 players who play there all the time. Laramie is 7,200 feet up. Harney Peak, the highest peak in the Black Hills, is 7,244 feet.

That altitude is definitely a factor.

[rabbit_boy]

Re: Season Starts Friday with Wyoming

I hope Kai is playing tonight. I am only going to make my preiction once, another 20 loss season. We are no better than last year. I repeat my call, Nagy must go for progress to be made.