Year 2 of Jeff Linder and company starts now....

Thu Sep 30, 2021 11:45 am

The first practice is today. It feels like the late 80's to be this excited about football and basketball at the same time. Hopefully the football attendance will carry over to basketball and we'll make the AA the most difficult road trip in America again.

https://gowyo.com/news/2021/9/29/mens-b ... rsday.aspx

Thu Sep 30, 2021 1:32 pm

What will the starting lineup be? Who else will see significant minutes?

Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:28 pm

Our games at Arizona and Washington will both probably end up on the Pac 12 network. I would imagine the game against Stanford will end up on national t.v. as well. A couple of other non-conference road games could possibly end up on t.v. This is a great opportunity for some national exposure this year as Wyoming will probably end up on national t.v. about 10 times this season.

Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:40 pm

LanderPoke wrote: ↑Thu Sep 30, 2021 1:32 pm What will the starting lineup be? Who else will see significant minutes?

These are all guesses.

Starters:

PG: Deng Dut
SG: Xavier Dusell
SF: Hunter Maldonado
PF: Brendan Wenzel or Jeremiah Oden
C: Graham Ike

Both Ken Deweese and Sunny had interviews this summer saying they expect Deng Dut to have a big impact. Jeremiah Oden put on 15-20 pounds of muscle. I think he gets a lot more minutes.

Kenny Foster, Drake Jeffries, Hunter Thompson, and Eoin Nelson should all play a lot. A few of them could end up starters. That's ten guys.

I don't expect Barnhart or Bowen to get much time. Barnhart needs to eat a cow. Bowen has a log jam of guys his size in front of him with Dusell, Foster, and Jeffries on the roster. It would seem logical to redshirt Barnhart and Bowen out of the huge freshmen class.

Noah Reynolds is the wild card to me. He's the other ball handler we signed. Sunny had good things to say about him this summer. With only one other point guard on the roster, you would think minutes are available there, but Wyoming likes to run Hunter Maldonado as a point forward, so who knows.

Like I said, these are all just guesses, but I would imagine it will be close and a couple of guys might surprise us.

Thu Sep 30, 2021 4:19 pm

1st day of practice article...

https://gowyo.com/news/2021/9/30/mens-b ... ctice.aspx

Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:56 pm

Thu Sep 30, 2021 11:08 pm

Here's a few interviews from the off-season that you may have missed....

Dan Dickau interviewed Jeff Linder recently...

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t ... 0536175060

KFBC Sports Zone interviewed Sunny Wicks on July 7th...

https://www.kfbcradio.com/wyoming-assis ... e-audio-2/

KFBC-Ken Deweese(July 7)

https://www.kfbcradio.com/wyoming-assis ... e-audio-2/

KFBC-Deng Dut(May 12)

https://www.kfbcradio.com/wyoming-hoops ... one-audio/

KFBC-Noah Reynolds(Apr 21)

https://www.kfbcradio.com/wyoming-baske ... one-audio/

Fri Oct 01, 2021 8:38 am

I love listening to Linder. Whatever the man says just makes sense. Seems very smart.

Old Bull - thanks for the links

Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:58 am

Hey OB, thanks for the links. As much as I'm enjoying football, I've been seriously jonesing for some hoop news, esp about our PG's. Good referrals!

Fri Oct 01, 2021 3:52 pm

Here's an interview with Kevin McKinney
https://gowyo.com/podcasts/conversation ... inson/1047

Coach Linder mentioned that he had elite defensive teams at Northern Colorado. He gave several reasons why he was not able to accomplish that last year. Super young team including many true freshman, lots of injuries, covid, lack of practice, and lack of bodies to scrimmage in practice.

I'm looking forward to seeing improvement on the defensive end. If we can make a major jump on that end of the court we are going to be NASTY this year. Super excited.

Fri Oct 01, 2021 10:36 pm

You're both welcome. Good find on the other Linder interview.

The complete transformation of Cowboy hoops in such a short period of time is nothing short of remarkable.

Now, if he can fix the attendance and put the Doom back in the Dome were in for a fun ride the next few years.

Sun Oct 03, 2021 11:52 am

Its nice having Ryan Thorburn at the CST. They just earned some links.

https://trib.com/sports/college/wyoming ... ssion=true

Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:12 pm

People are scared to play in Laramie.

https://7220sports.com/getting-teams-to ... er-and-co/

Mon Oct 04, 2021 9:13 am

Old-Bull wrote: ↑Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:12 pm People are scared to play in Laramie.

https://7220sports.com/getting-teams-to ... er-and-co/

Yeah. It's tough to be kind of good. To get legit opponents to Laramie you either need to suck really bad so we're a sure win for opponents or or be really good so a loss to us isn't devastating for NCAA tournament chances.

Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:25 am

Yeah I think our best chance of getting quality opponents here is having as good of a team as possible and then targeting quality opponents that also have a difficult time finding teams willing to visit: Gonzaga, Wichita....

The only real way is to get more quality opponents in our conference that have to come here.

Mon Oct 04, 2021 7:05 pm

Ike is going to be hard to guard.

https://7220sports.com/they-have-no-ide ... this-year/

Tue Oct 05, 2021 5:29 pm

Maldonado is going to have the rock a lot.

https://7220sports.com/pokes-offense-wi ... maldonado/

Wed Oct 06, 2021 12:34 pm

Foster isn't scared of doing the dirt.

https://7220sports.com/kenny-fosters-ha ... uw-lineup/

Thu Oct 07, 2021 12:54 pm

Keith Kelley interviews the head coach....Graham Ike is hitting close to 40 percent from deep right now.

https://www.kfbcradio.com/wyoming-hoops ... one-audio/

Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:18 am

The Pokes have a full sized squad this year.

https://7220sports.com/practice-report- ... newcomers/