Washington earns accolade

[PokePride.com]

Named to NABC Second Team.

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[stymeman]

well deserved

[McPeachy]

well deserved

Not really. One more game of ill-advised air balls from 25' and I was going to poop myself. And the people next to me.

[WYO1016]

well deserved

Not really. One more game of ill-advised air balls from 25' and I was going to poop myself. And the people next to me.

...and everyone knows that stadium etiquette says you shouldn't poop on the people sitting next to you.

[NowherePoke]

well deserved

Not really. One more game of ill-advised air balls from 25' and I was going to poop myself. And the people next to me.

Criticisms of LW remind me of posters that criticized Ewing (not that I believe LW is the equivalent of Ewing, but he is very good). Remember some people posting that we would be better without Ewing because we would have a "True PG"? Sadly, it was more than one person.

Much like Ewing, next year we will see how much we miss LW.

[McPeachy]

well deserved

Not really. One more game of ill-advised air balls from 25' and I was going to poop myself. And the people next to me.

Criticisms of LW remind me of posters that criticized Ewing (not that I believe LW is the equivalent of Ewing, but he is very good). Remember some people posting that we would be better without Ewing because we would have a "True PG"? Sadly, it was more than one person.

Much like Ewing, next year we will see how much we miss LW.

Eh hell...will LW be missed at UW. Sure he will. Especially the LW that played November 2012 through mid-January 2013. After that he turned into a big VAG. And before that he was an off-court nightmare.

Oh, and IMO, LW couldn't hold Brandon Ewings jock strap.

[CowboyFan]

Wouldn't it be h*ll if you had a clue peaches? LOL You'd be 'more' confused to beat h*ll! LOL You're great at nailing UW players, and doing it WRONGLY seems to be your specialty. You meant to say, I'm sure, that you couldn't hold any of the trainers' jocks, let alone those of real players, and should therefore be ignored. Right? LOL Hey, believe me, the vast majority do already. LOL Leonard Washington is a great player and carried the Cowboys until injured. Once he couldn't jump and pivot he went to the outside shot as Coach Shyatt wanted Leonard on the floor, BADLY. Facts are h*ll aren't they peaches? LOL They spoil your macho computer man attacks so well. Da*n facts. LOL

[BeaverPoke]

Wouldn't it be h*ll if you had a clue peaches? LOL You'd be 'more' confused to beat h*ll! LOL You're great at nailing UW players, and doing it WRONGLY seems to be your specialty. You meant to say, I'm sure, that you couldn't hold any of the trainers' jocks, let alone those of real players, and should therefore be ignored. Right? LOL Hey, believe me, the vast majority do already. LOL Leonard Washington is a great player and carried the Cowboys until injured. Once he couldn't jump and pivot he went to the outside shot as Coach Shyatt wanted Leonard on the floor, BADLY. Facts are h*ll aren't they peaches? LOL They spoil your macho computer man attacks so well. Da*n facts. LOL

Lol finally...
I get called out for being optimistic and arguing with miserable people but for some reason talkin non stop poop on people is okay. haha.

[spindoctor02]

What does it say about the conference when a guy who shoots 16% from behind the arc (on 82 attempts), and 64% from the free throw line makes the 2nd team?

I know I didn't watch all the games, but the games I did see, I recall an occasional block, a couple of boards, and a lot of bad outside shots from Washington. Statistically he was worse in every aspect this season (other than blocks and assists) compared to his first season at Wyoming, despite an extra 4 min per game. I wish him luck in his future endeavors, but he wasn't 2nd Team All-Conference material this year.

[NowherePoke]

What does it say about the conference when a guy who shoots 16% from behind the arc (on 82 attempts), and 64% from the free throw line makes the 2nd team?

I know I didn't watch all the games, but the games I did see, I recall an occasional block, a couple of boards, and a lot of bad outside shots from Washington. Statistically he was worse in every aspect this season (other than blocks and assists) compared to his first season at Wyoming, despite an extra 4 min per game. I wish him luck in his future endeavors, but he wasn't 2nd Team All-Conference material this year.

How about this statistical comparison. These are both PF's in their senior season:

Player A: 30.4 mpg, 12.5 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 48.4% FG, 16% 3PT%, 64% FT

Player B: 27.3 mpg, 11.7 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.5 bpg, 53% FG, 18% 3PT%, 58% FT

On a per minute basis, the production is eerily similar. FG% favors B and FT% favors A. Incidentally both players had better Jr. Seasons than Sr. seasons in many respects.

LW may not have had a season worthy of 2nd team All-MWC status but he was by far UW's best player (until the injury).



ETA: Player B is Josh Davis obviously, a player that got several mentions on a recent thread discussing the greatest players in the history of our program. Not saying LW should be considered on par with Davis (putting up those kind of numbers on a conference champ is way more impressive than doing so on a pigtail team), but for my money he is our best PF since Davis. Justin Williams is the other name worth discussing in that race.

[spindoctor02]

Everytime I saw Washington launch a 3 into the vicinity of the hoop, I was reminded of how many times I would shudder watching Josh Davis (in person) miss all those three pointers, so it doesn't surprise me that their stats were similar. Davis (and I guess to a degree Washington) are what I would call energy guys. They make one or two big plays a game (dunk/block/etc.) and it's all you remember after the game.

Maybe I have higher standards, but a 2nd team all-conference player shouldn't disappear from a game for long stretches of time. You should always know they are there and can turn a game at any point.

[ProudWYOAlum]

The Leonard Washigton through January was a first team all-MW player. He also played on a better team that had confidence and didn't have players suspended.

Leonard absolutely dominated teams like CU in the early going. Coming out of HS he was one of the top recruits in the nation. He's probably one of the most talented players to put on a Cowboy uniform.

He was recruited alongside OJ Mayo and Taj Gibson at USC, he was NBA talent. Guys like him, Ewing, Straight, Ratliff, Bailey, and Dembo are a rare breed. The dude gave it everything he had and when healthy was one lf the best players around the rim in the country.

[spindoctor02]

The Leonard Washigton through January was a first team all-MW player. He also played on a better team that had confidence and didn't have players suspended. Leonard absolutely dominated teams like CU in the early going.

In non-conference play (14 games), he averaged 14.1 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 1.9 bpg, and shot 66-128 (51.5%) from the field and 8-34 (23.5%) from three.
In conference (and postseason) play (18 games), he averaged 11.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.6 bpg, and shot 81-176 (46.0%) from the field and 5-48 (10.4%) from three.

In conference play, against much tougher competition, he scored 3 less points, 1 less rebound, shot 6% worse from the field (on roughly 1 more field goal attempt per game), and 13% worse from 3 (on more attempts per game).

Looks to me like when the competition got harder, the production went down.

Coming out of HS he was one of the top recruits in the nation. He's probably one of the most talented players to put on a Cowboy uniform.

He was recruited alongside OJ Mayo and Taj Gibson at USC, he was NBA talent. Guys like him, Ewing, Straight, Ratliff, Bailey, and Dembo are a rare breed. The dude gave it everything he had and when healthy was one lf the best players around the rim in the country.

I don't recall saying anything about his talent. I actually think he's probably one of the more talented players to play at Wyoming in the past 10 years. But if someone has NBA talent (like you say), wouldn't a setback like Martinez's suspension motivate and give Washington an incentive to step up and fill that void and carry the team? But instead, he decided to hoist more 3 point attempts, making 1 of 24 attempts from February 1st through the end of the season.

Granted, the MWC might have been short on impact PF/C players this season, but put Alex Kirk's season up against Washington's and they'd look very similar. Also, just from the eye test, the latter half of the season I'd have taken Nance over Washington. All I'm arguing is that he didn't look like a 2nd team all-conference player to me, and if you take off the brown and gold glasses, you'll probably agree.

[NowherePoke]

The Leonard Washigton through January was a first team all-MW player. He also played on a better team that had confidence and didn't have players suspended. Leonard absolutely dominated teams like CU in the early going.

In non-conference play (14 games), he averaged 14.1 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 1.9 bpg, and shot 66-128 (51.5%) from the field and 8-34 (23.5%) from three.
In conference (and postseason) play (18 games), he averaged 11.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.6 bpg, and shot 81-176 (46.0%) from the field and 5-48 (10.4%) from three.

In conference play, against much tougher competition, he scored 3 less points, 1 less rebound, shot 6% worse from the field (on roughly 1 more field goal attempt per game), and 13% worse from 3 (on more attempts per game).

Looks to me like when the competition got harder, the production went down.

You have to break it down pre and post injury though IMO. He clearly wasn't the same player after he got hurt. In the 11 conference games he played prior to the injury:

13.4 ppg
9.7 rpg
2.4 bpg
51.6% FG (still terrible from 3 though)

Those numbers are very similar to his OOC play.

After he got hurt (including postseason), he missed two games and then played in 3 more. In those 3 games he only shot 35%, didn't hit a 3, only played 21 minutes per game and averaged about 6 ppg and 5 rpg without a single block (the last part being very indicative of the physical deterioration). He simply was not 100% after the Fresno game and it was obvious by watching him and the statistical production backs that up.


Also consider the fact that before he was injured, he anchored a pretty solid defensive team and frequently had to guard the opposing 5 (even though Leonard is probably only about 6'6") because of our overall weakness up front.

[NowherePoke]

Everytime I saw Washington launch a 3 into the vicinity of the hoop, I was reminded of how many times I would shudder watching Josh Davis (in person) miss all those three pointers, so it doesn't surprise me that their stats were similar. Davis (and I guess to a degree Washington) are what I would call energy guys. They make one or two big plays a game (dunk/block/etc.) and it's all you remember after the game.

Maybe I have higher standards, but a 2nd team all-conference player shouldn't disappear from a game for long stretches of time. You should always know they are there and can turn a game at any point.

It actually seems like all you are remembering are the missed 3's (which happened about twice per game). He had almost as many blocks as he did missed 3's and between all of his rebounds, charges taken, etc., the couple of poorly conceived 3's (which I agree are the worst part of his game, very similar to Davis in that regard) he took per game are not the overriding factor.

Now, he wasn't a factor down the stretch after the injury. I give him the benefit of the doubt and I don't think Shyatt was lying when he said Leonard was injured.

[Kwyo]

Everytime I saw Washington launch a 3 into the vicinity of the hoop, I was reminded of how many times I would shudder watching Josh Davis (in person) miss all those three pointers, so it doesn't surprise me that their stats were similar. Davis (and I guess to a degree Washington) are what I would call energy guys. They make one or two big plays a game (dunk/block/etc.) and it's all you remember after the game.

Maybe I have higher standards, but a 2nd team all-conference player shouldn't disappear from a game for long stretches of time. You should always know they are there and can turn a game at any point.

It actually seems like all you are remembering are the missed 3's (which happened about twice per game). He had almost as many blocks as he did missed 3's and between all of his rebounds, charges taken, etc., the couple of poorly conceived 3's (which I agree are the worst part of his game, very similar to Davis in that regard) he took per game are not the overriding factor.

Now, he wasn't a factor down the stretch after the injury. I give him the benefit of the doubt and I don't think Shyatt was lying when he said Leonard was injured.

Leonard Washington is by far the best man at 4. M'Baye has as much athleticism as Leonard Washington, but he was not as productive as Washington (as far as I remeber). Yes, he hesitated a lot when he held the ball from the downtown, but it was just the worst part of his game. It has never cost the team and he has done much more than some of you remeber.

[ProudWYOAlum]

Leonard had a good career at Wyoming. End of story.

He was unstoppable early on in the season. I was at the CU game and they couldn't do anything to slow him down. Injuries ruined his season.

[BackHarlowRoad]

I think some people are missing the point. Leonard is a fantastic athlete, a great basketball player, and had a good career at UW. He could have been better. MUCH better. If he played to his strengths and not his weaknesses (3's) he would have literally been unstoppable the entire year. LW will be remembered as a good player, a post-season recognizable player, but NOT as one of UW's greatest players ever like he should have been.

[ProudWYOAlum]

I think some people are missing the point. Leonard is a fantastic athlete, a great basketball player, and had a good career at UW. He could have been better. MUCH better. If he played to his strengths and not his weaknesses (3's) he would have literally been unstoppable the entire year. LW will be remembered as a good player, a post-season recognizable player, but NOT as one of UW's greatest players ever like he should have been.

Dead on.

[tweaked]

Look, Leonard was injured, plain and simple. When he was healthy, he was a force defensively as a shot blocker and he was a rebounding machine. I suspect he was working a little on his outside game to appeal to the pros but that was not the primary feature of his game. He always played hard, and he gave everything he had. Anyone who was there the last couple of games could see very clearly that Leonard was not even 50% of his normal self . The guy couldn't even dunk. But he was out there trying to take charges, do whatever he could, to give his team whatever he had. In terms of his legacy, sure, he won't go down as one of the Cowboy greats--not even close. Might've have been different if we had more horses and didn't lose Martinez (who opened up the interior for L.W.) and hadn't been hit with viruses and injuries. But we were, and the fact remains those things happened and Leonard, despite his best efforts, was just was not at 100%.