{"id":1045,"date":"2012-01-31T11:10:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T18:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wyonation.com\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2012-01-31T11:17:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T18:17:13","slug":"ncaa-tournament-for-the-cowboys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/ncaa-tournament-for-the-cowboys\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament For The Cowboys?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am pleased as anyone about the progress Larry Shyatt\u00a0has made with this basketball team in just\u00a0two-thirds of a season. We have come a long way in terms of playing as a team since last year and the end of the used car salesman era. Wyoming’s record currently sits at 17-4 and many national experts say Wyoming at this point in time is an NCAA Tournament bubble team. I would urge you to listen to these “experts” with caution so you are not upset at the end of the year\u00a0if the Pokes are blocked from NCAA play. Why do I urge caution? Look at the chart below with RPI’s and strength of schedule for Mountain West teams from statsheet.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Team<\/strong><\/td>\nRPI<\/strong><\/td>\nSOS<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UNLV<\/span><\/td>\n8<\/td>\n58<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
CSU<\/span><\/td>\n15<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
SDSU<\/span><\/td>\n21<\/td>\n79<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
New Mexico<\/span><\/td>\n44<\/td>\n102<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wyoming<\/span><\/td>\n80<\/td>\n188<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TCU<\/span><\/td>\n100<\/td>\n89<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Air Force<\/span><\/td>\n162<\/td>\n137<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boise State<\/span><\/td>\n199<\/td>\n148<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Wyoming has\u00a0played the weakest strength of schedule in the Mountain West\u00a0with a 188th ranking. The projected SOS at the end of the regular season according\u00a0to statsheet is 101 so conference play will improve that figure quite a bit. That along with an RPI of 80 though will not be enough to get Wyoming an NCAA at-large\u00a0spot. The NCAA has left out\u00a0schools with much higher RPI ratings (50 and below) and similar\u00a0strengths of schedule in the last few years so the Pokes are facing an uphill battle.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t say these things to be a downer. I just want to be as realistic as possible and I think most Wyoming fans understand that\u00a0our schedule\u00a0has not been good enough to merit an at-large selection. The good news is this is just year one of a rebuilding process under Shyatt and it is safe to say he is ahead of schedule. This team plays solid defense and if over time the offensive problems can be worked out (through better recruiting) the Wyoming basketball program has a very bright future. \u00a0So enjoy the ride, pack the AA, and remember there is an automatic berth at-stake at the end of the conference season in Vegas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am pleased as anyone about the progress Larry Shyatt\u00a0has made with this basketball team in just\u00a0two-thirds of a season. We have come a long way in terms of playing as a team since last year and the end of the used car salesman era. Wyoming’s record currently sits at 17-4 and many national experts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[96,152,153,154,151],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cowboy-tough","tag-larry-shyatt","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-rpi","tag-sos","tag-wyoming-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyonation.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}