Black Hills State @ Wyo

[fromolwyoming]

It looks like there is 11 people at the game tonight. What is going on in Laramie!?!???

Week before finals. D2 opponent. Monday game.

Weather has also been kind of hazardous. Pretty strong winds the last couple of days. Plus, Thanksgiving just ended and Christmas break is coming up soon as well.

 

[seattlecowboy]

I turned it on late as I just got in. Thus far I have seen BHSU go 4-4 from the line while WYO has gone 0-4 including missing the front end of a one and one, so basically leaving 5 points on the floor.

No intensity of defense either. Pokes can get whatever they want on offense, as you would expect against this level of opposition, but the defense is just bad. No hand in the face of shooters or anything.

Yeah it was pretty much this way the whole game. Wyoming finally decided to play a little bit with about 5 minutes left in the game.

 

[NowherePoke]

I turned it on late as I just got in. Thus far I have seen BHSU go 4-4 from the line while WYO has gone 0-4 including missing the front end of a one and one, so basically leaving 5 points on the floor.

No intensity of defense either. Pokes can get whatever they want on offense, as you would expect against this level of opposition, but the defense is just bad. No hand in the face of shooters or anything.

Yeah it was pretty much this way the whole game. Wyoming finally decided to play a little bit with about 5 minutes left in the game.

Looking at the stats, the issue I see is possessions. Pokes out-shot BHSU 60% to 38% which is in-line with what you would expect in this type of mismatch. The difference is that they didn't have a large FT discrepancy (Pokes shot 16 to their 11, should have been larger in this type of game) and they lost the possession battle with -4 in turnovers and -3 in offensive rebounds. No excuse for giving up 9 offensive boards to this type of team and only turning them over 8 times. That is lack of intensity IMO.

I would like to see Shyatt free Larry Nance. I obviously just caught the end and the quality of opposition must be noted, but Larry really has some nice moves in the post. I don't think the ball goes into him enough.

 

[ProudWYOAlum]

Not the best game so far. Still like what I'm seeing from Granberry, Nance, and Grabau. Trey Washington got some good playing time tonight as well.

 

[NowherePoke]

Not the best game so far. Still like what I'm seeing from Granberry, Nance, and Grabau. Trey Washington got some good playing time tonight as well.

Agreed with all 3 guys. My only beef with Granberry is that he isn't selfish enough. I only saw about 12 minutes of the game, but I saw him turn down at least two good perimeter looks. This has been an ongoing issue all year. He is an excellent perimeter shooter. He needs to let it fly.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Not the best game so far. Still like what I'm seeing from Granberry, Nance, and Grabau. Trey Washington got some good playing time tonight as well.

Agreed with all 3 guys. My only beef with Granberry is that he isn't selfish enough. I only saw about 12 minutes of the game, but I saw him turn down at least two good perimeter looks. This has been an ongoing issue all year. He is an excellent perimeter shooter. He needs to let it fly.

I feel ya, but don't worry, he is shooting it a little bit more each and every game.
I think by MWC play he may be one of our main scorers.

 

[seattlecowboy]

Love that Grabau leads the country in 3 point shooting. Granberry does need to fire up the 3 ball more.

I think Wyoming just wasn't really motivated at all tonight. If they would have played the whole game like they did the last 5 minutes they would have won by 40. They took the night off for the most part obviously.

 

[kansasCowboy]

Nance is not impressing me. One game he goes off and shows us what he's capable of (17 points, 12 boards) against some top recuited bigs. We thought, maybe this was his coming out party. Then we watch him the next two games against medial talent play like a "pussy" and show no authority down low. WTF Nance? Your play is so freaking bipolar!
Seriously, with the way he played to end the game, if he had played the entire game like that, he easily could've had 30 points and 15 boards. But I guess 14 points and 6 boards is okay. :roll:

 

[TheRealUW]

Nance is not impressing me. One game he goes off and shows us what he's capable of (17 points, 12 boards) against some top recuited bigs. We thought, maybe this was his coming out party. Then we watch him the next two games against medial talent play like a "pussy" and show no authority down low. WTF Nance? Your play is so freaking bipolar!
Seriously, with the way he played to end the game, if he had played the entire game like that, he easily could've had 30 points and 15 boards. But I guess 14 points and 6 boards is okay. :roll:

What worries me is that Nance may have hit his ceiling as far as development as a basketball player. Shyatt is a great coach when it comes to player development, so I trust that Nance has been given all the tools from the coaches to develop maximally. If you aren't a program who can land blue chippers in every class, the challenge year in and year out is to be able to project what the ceiling is for recruits. Coaches become pretty good at projecting a recruits physical development, but even the best of the best have a difficult time projecting a player's mental development when it comes to the game of basketball. Understanding the intricacies of the game, work ethic, and will-power are qualities just as important as vertical jump and projected height/weight.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning Nance's work-ethic. He seems like a guy who wants to win and is willing to put in the time to become the best player he can be in order to increase the team's chances of winning basketball games. However, I do think it's at least a legitimate question as to how much more improvement we can expect out of Nance as a basketball player. Right now, he's a good MWC player, but this Cowboy's team really needs him to be very good or great if they want to make any kind of noise this year. Any thoughts on this?

 

[BeaverPoke]

Nance is not impressing me. One game he goes off and shows us what he's capable of (17 points, 12 boards) against some top recuited bigs. We thought, maybe this was his coming out party. Then we watch him the next two games against medial talent play like a "pussy" and show no authority down low. WTF Nance? Your play is so freaking bipolar!
Seriously, with the way he played to end the game, if he had played the entire game like that, he easily could've had 30 points and 15 boards. But I guess 14 points and 6 boards is okay. :roll:

What worries me is that Nance may have hit his ceiling as far as development as a basketball player. Shyatt is a great coach when it comes to player development, so I trust that Nance has been given all the tools from the coaches to develop maximally. If you aren't a program who can land blue chippers in every class, the challenge year in and year out is to be able to project what the ceiling is for recruits. Coaches become pretty good at projecting a recruits physical development, but even the best of the best have a difficult time projecting a player's mental development when it comes to the game of basketball. Understanding the intricacies of the game, work ethic, and will-power are qualities just as important as vertical jump and projected height/weight.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning Nance's work-ethic. He seems like a guy who wants to win and is willing to put in the time to become the best player he can be in order to increase the team's chances of winning basketball games. However, I do think it's at least a legitimate question as to how much more improvement we can expect out of Nance as a basketball player. Right now, he's a good MWC player, but this Cowboy's team really needs him to be very good or great if they want to make any kind of noise this year. Any thoughts on this?

I think that Nance needs to "get mean".
Nance has shown he can dominate, but he seems to be too unselfish at times.
A trend we have noticed with Granberry as well.

The game following the Ohio State game, Nance has 3 points, but only had 1 FG attempt. He did grab 11 boards though.
The team may just be balanced to the point where we don't need our bigs to score.
Hell, Joakin Noah didn't even average 10 PPG when Florida won that 2nd title.
Our offense is set up to have the guard score points, and the bigs grab boards.

Nance showed in the 2nd half of the game last night that he can take it over. Hell he showed against Ohio State he can take it over.
Do we need Nance to take it over?
Nance is a fan favorite because he came in with Larry Shyatts first class, and has shown how much he loves UW.
So do we look at Nance through extra thick brown and gold glasses?
Do we really need Nance to go and put up 20-12 every game?
I think he can do it, but with as talented as our team is, especially in OOC play, our guards are going to do the majority of the damage.

But when it comes to MWC play, we will, without a doubt, need Nance to step up. His 14-8 in OOC play won't transfer to 14-8 in MWC play, but against Ohio State, he showed that it can transfer to 17-12.

I really think that each and every game will be totally different with Nance. And not based off of the bigs he is playing against, but rather the guards our guards are playing against.
Nance can get us some points against good and bad teams, but he isn't the main scoring threat, that belongs to our handful of guard.
If they shut the guards down, then Nance will do what he does.

I think Nance is fine, and maybe needs to get a little meaner, and become a little bit more selfish though.

 

[WYCowboy]

Don't give up on Larry Nance. Like Coach Cravens said on the broadcast last night - Larry Nance is a very patient player and lets the game come to him. When we get him the ball in a good scoring position, he knows what to do with it.
It was pretty obvious we were not motivated for this game and played pretty flat through about 3/4s of the game.

 

[stymeman]

Since when did the colors change the brown gold and GREY??? NOT A FAN!

those jerseys take some getting used to, man those Yellowjackets were sure pesky like at a picnic in late summer...Those Wyo boys wanted to show everybody who they were and what they(UW) may have been missing.
Regardless a win's a win!!!
Beat South Dakota in Rapid City!!!!

 

[NowherePoke]

Nance is not impressing me. One game he goes off and shows us what he's capable of (17 points, 12 boards) against some top recuited bigs. We thought, maybe this was his coming out party. Then we watch him the next two games against medial talent play like a "pussy" and show no authority down low. WTF Nance? Your play is so freaking bipolar!
Seriously, with the way he played to end the game, if he had played the entire game like that, he easily could've had 30 points and 15 boards. But I guess 14 points and 6 boards is okay. :roll:

What worries me is that Nance may have hit his ceiling as far as development as a basketball player. Shyatt is a great coach when it comes to player development, so I trust that Nance has been given all the tools from the coaches to develop maximally. If you aren't a program who can land blue chippers in every class, the challenge year in and year out is to be able to project what the ceiling is for recruits. Coaches become pretty good at projecting a recruits physical development, but even the best of the best have a difficult time projecting a player's mental development when it comes to the game of basketball. Understanding the intricacies of the game, work ethic, and will-power are qualities just as important as vertical jump and projected height/weight.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning Nance's work-ethic. He seems like a guy who wants to win and is willing to put in the time to become the best player he can be in order to increase the team's chances of winning basketball games. However, I do think it's at least a legitimate question as to how much more improvement we can expect out of Nance as a basketball player. Right now, he's a good MWC player, but this Cowboy's team really needs him to be very good or great if they want to make any kind of noise this year. Any thoughts on this?

I actually think the opposite, at least in terms of his skill set. While the level of opposition must be noted, the array of post moves he showed in about a 7 possession span in the 2nd half last night exceeds anything I have seen at UW in a long time. He had a quick move to the center of the lane with a nice elevated finish, a dominating quick move and dunk over the top of a hapless defender, a face-up banker off the short elbow (Tim Duncan style) and another nice move I can't recall exactly.

He did not have all of those moves in his repertoire last year. He is also noticeably stronger, particularly attacking the glass. His development is impressive to me.

However, he has not shown the consistent desire to dominate. He needs to demand the ball and frankly the other players and Shyatt need to make a more concerted effort to get him the ball in quality position. I understand Shyatt's preference for the perimeter weave and drive game considering our roster limitations with only two frontcourt players, which requires us to play with 4 guards for long stretches. However, the offense needs to initiate through Larry more frequently and he needs to demand it.

To your point about his ceiling, I am not sure he will ever have the mentality of a primary scorer. However, his skill set and physical abilities continue to improve IMHO.