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OrediggerPoke wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:57 pm Wyoming signs Akuel Kot from Division 2 Fort Lewis College (Durango, CO). He has one year of eligibility remaining. Wyoming has completed the trifecta having signed players from Division 2, NAIA and JUCO.

Not wanting to be a wet blanket, but, is that a good thing? I hope these guys work out. But this is been really underwhelming, imo. The Nebraska kid hardly saw the floor. There's a reason for that.
I haven't seen anything that would indicate we will improve on last place. I will keep my trap shut until we see these guys play. But signing a D2 player and an NAIA player smacks of desperation.
Sorry we could not get the Cheyenne kid, Lovering. I watched him play and he has real ability. He was very poorly utilized in Boulder.

bladerunnr wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:41 pm

OrediggerPoke wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:57 pm Wyoming signs Akuel Kot from Division 2 Fort Lewis College (Durango, CO). He has one year of eligibility remaining. Wyoming has completed the trifecta having signed players from Division 2, NAIA and JUCO.

Not wanting to be a wet blanket, but, is that a good thing? I hope these guys work out. But this is been really underwhelming, imo. The Nebraska kid hardly saw the floor. There's a reason for that.
I haven't seen anything that would indicate we will improve on last place. I will keep my trap shut until we see these guys play. But signing a D2 player and an NAIA player smacks of desperation.
Sorry we could not get the Cheyenne kid, Lovering. I watched him play and he has real ability. He was very poorly utilized in Boulder.

Do I know how it will turn out? No. Do I find it underwhelming on paper? Yes.

But this is exactly what Wyoming should be doing. We aren’t going to compete for top D1 talent in the portal. Furthermore, it is a waste of time to develop young players just so they can leave. By targeting such transfers we will really see Linder’s coaching ability and we really don’t have to worry about them being poached. Theoretically, these players should come in hungry to prove they belong at the D1 level. I’ll take that any day over PAC-12 quitters.

bladerunnr wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:41 pm

OrediggerPoke wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 3:57 pm Wyoming signs Akuel Kot from Division 2 Fort Lewis College (Durango, CO). He has one year of eligibility remaining. Wyoming has completed the trifecta having signed players from Division 2, NAIA and JUCO.

Not wanting to be a wet blanket, but, is that a good thing? I hope these guys work out. But this is been really underwhelming, imo. The Nebraska kid hardly saw the floor. There's a reason for that.
I haven't seen anything that would indicate we will improve on last place. I will keep my trap shut until we see these guys play. But signing a D2 player and an NAIA player smacks of desperation.
Sorry we could not get the Cheyenne kid, Lovering. I watched him play and he has real ability. He was very poorly utilized in Boulder.

Can’t argue with this take, but I will say I am hopeful because of the balance between freshman with upside and experienced transfers. It remains to be seen if they can make the jump up. We are also in the running for a few more D1 transfers including a freshman who road the bench for U Conn. lots of questions going forward SMS you could very well be right.

Pokes fan 24-7 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 12:47 pm

bladerunnr wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:41 pm

Not wanting to be a wet blanket, but, is that a good thing? I hope these guys work out. But this is been really underwhelming, imo. The Nebraska kid hardly saw the floor. There's a reason for that.
I haven't seen anything that would indicate we will improve on last place. I will keep my trap shut until we see these guys play. But signing a D2 player and an NAIA player smacks of desperation.
Sorry we could not get the Cheyenne kid, Lovering. I watched him play and he has real ability. He was very poorly utilized in Boulder.

Can’t argue with this take, but I will say I am hopeful because of the balance between freshman with upside and experienced transfers. It remains to be seen if they can make the jump up. We are also in the running for a few more D1 transfers including a freshman who road the bench for U Conn. lots of questions going forward SMS you could very well be right.

I am in the Wholly Unimpressed camp. I hope that these kids can play - and more importantly that Linder has dropped his banty rooster schtick - but NAIA and D2 players and kids at D1 schools that never smelled the court don't scream success to me. This class, as was mentioned earlier, is wrought from desperation. Even with these additions Linder has made, I see 10-15 wins to be the upper limit - which is the very definition of mediocre and milquetoast.

It would make me feel a lot better if we could get a couple D-1 transfers that scored like 10 ppg or better last year.

COMMITTED TO SOUTHERN INDIANA

COMMITTED TO UC IRVINE

OrediggerPoke wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 5:08 am

bladerunnr wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 10:41 pm

Not wanting to be a wet blanket, but, is that a good thing? I hope these guys work out. But this is been really underwhelming, imo. The Nebraska kid hardly saw the floor. There's a reason for that.
I haven't seen anything that would indicate we will improve on last place. I will keep my trap shut until we see these guys play. But signing a D2 player and an NAIA player smacks of desperation.
Sorry we could not get the Cheyenne kid, Lovering. I watched him play and he has real ability. He was very poorly utilized in Boulder.

Do I know how it will turn out? No. Do I find it underwhelming on paper? Yes.

But this is exactly what Wyoming should be doing. We aren’t going to compete for top D1 talent in the portal. Furthermore, it is a waste of time to develop young players just so they can leave. By targeting such transfers we will really see Linder’s coaching ability and we really don’t have to worry about them being poached. Theoretically, these players should come in hungry to prove they belong at the D1 level. I’ll take that any day over PAC-12 quitters.

I agree 1000%, with all these thoughts. I’m tired of recruiting and seeing players leave. If Linder is as good at development as I hope, this is our best chance at keeping a team.

WYO1016 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 4:25 pm Nice to see all of these signings, but I'm getting a little nervous about the roster being super guard heavy with no front court depth.

I would guess Linder has a system in mind with the players he’s picking up.

I’m still % supportive of and believe Linder is a good coach. Time will tell.

Go Pokes!

Itsux2beaewe wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 3:27 pm

WYO1016 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 4:25 pm Nice to see all of these signings, but I'm getting a little nervous about the roster being super guard heavy with no front court depth.

I would guess Linder has a system in mind with the players he’s picking up.

I’m still % supportive of and believe Linder is a good coach. Time will tell.

Go Pokes!

I am willing to give Linder a chance to turn it around this year. Next season will be make or break as far as my support for him as coach goes.

doreno5 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 3:50 pm

Itsux2beaewe wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 3:27 pm

I would guess Linder has a system in mind with the players he’s picking up.

I’m still % supportive of and believe Linder is a good coach. Time will tell.

Go Pokes!

I am willing to give Linder a chance to turn it around this year. Next season will be make or break as far as my support for him as coach goes.

We will need to adjust our expectations moving forward unless or until we build a competitive collective capable of competing for players on the open market.

As recently as when Linder started, we could legitimately beat out some P5 schools and “bigger” MWC programs for recruits. His initial class includes guys that had offers from schools like DePaul, Washington State, New Mexico, etc. Unless something changes drastically that will never happen again. Linder is the same coach, but it’s one thing to recruit when the compensation is just a scholarship and some modest supplementary funds ($5k/yr) and was the same for every school (except for really high level players being paid off the books but that was really limited to high end guys)., it’s completely different when it comes down to who makes the best offer. Playing time is nice, but $50k/yr extra to do the same thing is pretty nice for a 18 year old.

Coaches have no real control over that. That’s on us. Can we raise the funds? Should we?

I have been a hard core UW hoops fan for 35 years. I don’t even remember not being in live with UW hoops, but the writing is on the wall. We are f’d and changing coaches won’t fix it. Any funds that we could raise to buy out Linder in a year or two would be better directed to player recruitment if we want to play this game.

Sam Griffin signed from Tulsa. Pretty decent scorer at 15 points per game.

Good signing. Welcome, Sam!

LanderPoke wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 8:43 pm Good signing. Welcome, Sam!

Very positive. Proven scorer. Man, I hope they can build some chemistry

Takes care of our PG vacancy?

Wonder if we will be playing smaller lineups next year. Certainly have focused on guard. I’d guess that Caden Powell and Mason Walters are set for big minutes next year.

Interested to see how this team meshes. We will really get an idea of what kind of a coach Linder is next year.

OrediggerPoke wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 6:28 am Wonder if we will be playing smaller lineups next year. Certainly have focused on guard. I’d guess that Caden Powell and Mason Walters are set for big minutes next year.

Interested to see how this team meshes. We will really get an idea of what kind of a coach Linder is next year.

I’m really hoping they can get 1 more D1 transfer forward.

I think we'll win more games than last year (shouldn't be hard). As much as I liked Oden, Reynolds and DuSell as players, each had serious deficiencies. DuSell was not athletic, Oden weighed like 17 lbs and got abused on defense and on the boards against anyone that wasn't built like a 12 year old boy, and Reynolds couldn't cut it as an athlete against good competition. Really all three couldn't cut it as athletes against good competition. All three would get their shot blocked frequently. Reynolds three point % really dropped towards the end of the year (I always saw his excellent 3 pt % an anomaly) he was pretty useless. And Barnhardt? meh. Maldo will be a big loss, but what if having a ball dominant guard that couldn't shoot from the outside very well limited us and what Linder wants to do on offense? Maldo wasn't the greatest raw athlete, either. My hope is we significantly upgraded our team athletically, allowing us to play better defense and control the boards and maybe even fast break and press. Who knows.

Going back through this entire thread, the ONLY recruit we've signed out of the umpteen "has heard from Wyoming" tweets is Mason Walters.

WYO1016 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 10:02 am Going back through this entire thread, the ONLY recruit we've signed out of the umpteen "has heard from Wyoming" tweets is Mason Walters.

With as many vacancies as we've had...I'd bet we reached out to about 10 times as many players as even referenced in this thread. I imagine we cast our net pretty wide this year to field a team. This has included bringing in a few with only one season of eligibility remaining (Walters, Griffin).