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Pokes vs. SMU

T

TheRealUW

Well-known member
The Cowboys are finally back in action tomorrow night! Here is a quick look at the Pokes opponent tomorrow night, SMU.

Interestingly, Conference USA is the only conference in the nation I am aware of who does not have any sort of preseason poll. What's more is that they have a preseason poll for women's basketball but not for men's. Anyways, a meta-analysis of the college basketball previews reveals that SMU had very low expectations headed into this season. Most previews predicted them to finish at or near the bottom of Conference USA. Even though they have played a fairly weak schedule up to this point, it is fair to say that at 10-4, they have exceeded expectations.

Player to Watch: #21 Jalen Jones
Mr. Jones is a 6'6 sophomore small forward. He is the most skilled offensive player that SMU has and also leads the team in rebounding. Jones presents a very interesting match-up for the Cowboys. Luke Martinez likely would have drawn the defensive assignment on Jones before his injury. Jones' length and athleticism will give him an advantage over both Adams or Sobey. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jones have a big game, but I'm hoping the Pokes can find a way to keep him in check. FYI, Jones was highly recruited coming out of high school. He received nearly 15 scholarship offers, including one from none other than the Wyoming Cowboys. It would be nice to have this kid on our side.

This game is a complete toss up in my mind. I think the Cowboys are the better overall basketball team, but the individual match-ups may favor SMU. Add in the fact that this is a road game after a long layoff, and I think this is going to be a very tough contest for the Pokes. A win in Dallas without Martinez would a mighty impressive feat in my mind.
 
Line on the Pokes is +4-1/2, but I think that is very optimistic. This could easily be the end of the streak. Depends on whether Grabau is taking/making threes and whether Sobey can contribute, in my opinion.
 
Adv8RU12 said:
Depends on whether Grabau is taking/making threes and whether Sobey can contribute, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I'm not as worried about how Luke's absence will affect the offense as I am about how it will affect the defense. Our offense is not exactly what one would call "high powered". I think that we will look more to Larry Nance Jr. and Leonard Washington down low to replace Luke's scoring than we will to his replacements. In my opinion, I don't think this team will have too much difficulty maintaining a similar offensive output with Luke out.

However, defense could be another story. Luke is a very underrated defender. Unfortunately, we don't really have another player with Luke's length who is ready to step in at this point. Adams, Grabau, and Sobey are serviceable players, but they will struggle if forced to match-up with the strong forward spot. They just don't have the length. This SMU game will tell us a lot right away. As I mentioned, I will be keeping a close eye on Jalen Jones and how our smaller guards do on the defensive end against him. I'm hoping they surprise me.
 
TheRealUW said:
Adv8RU12 said:
Depends on whether Grabau is taking/making threes and whether Sobey can contribute, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I'm not as worried about how Luke's absence will affect the offense as I am about how it will affect the defense. Our offense is not exactly what one would call "high powered". I think that we will look more to Larry Nance Jr. and Leonard Washington down low to replace Luke's scoring than we will to his replacements. In my opinion, I don't think this team will have too much difficulty maintaining a similar offensive output with Luke out.

However, defense could be another story. Luke is a very underrated defender. Unfortunately, we don't really have another player with Luke's length who is ready to step in at this point. Adams, Grabau, and Sobey are serviceable players, but they will struggle if forced to match-up with the strong forward spot. They just don't have the length. This SMU game will tell us a lot right away. As I mentioned, I will be keeping a close eye on Jalen Jones and how our smaller guards do on the defensive end against him. I'm hoping they surprise me.
Click to expand...
A certain 5'9 PG last year locked down players last year who all towered over him, and was named the defensive player of the year.
 
As it is game day, I am nervous but I am thinking that with Adams, Gilmore, and Grabau on the court we will be fine today. I expect Adams to play big tonight.
Soon, Adams will become a consistent scorer and hopefully that consistency starts when Luke is out.
 
Adv8RU12 said:
Line on the Pokes is +4-1/2, but I think that is very optimistic. This could easily be the end of the streak. Depends on whether Grabau is taking/making threes and whether Sobey can contribute, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

The line is actually Wyoming favored -4.5. You have them listed +4.5 like they were the underdog. Just a tiny correction there. :thumb: If Martinez was playing the line would be Wyoming by 6.5 to 7 so not a big difference.

Wyoming will be fine. I would be more concerned if it was Washington or Nance out for a couple of games. We play great team defense so we will be fine there and Gilmore, Adams, Grabau, Sobey and even Nance can hit 3's, so while it sucks losing Martinez we have guys who can step up with a lot of the things he does.

We would be in bigger trouble if it was one of the big guys that was out. SMU can't match up with us down low. We will see some new wrinkles in the defense tonight that they implemented over the break and a heavy dose of Nance and Washington and you will see Gilmore and Adams attacking the basket more.

I'm not nearly as concerend about this game as I was the Illinois St. game. Illinois St. and SMU are on two very different levels talent wise. As long as Wyoming shows up to play they will win. Hopefully they play two halves of basketball, I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Wyoming seems to play down to the competition for one half of the game this year and then the next half they start playing like they are one of the better teams in the country. Lets hope they play both halves tonight like the latter.

Go Pokes!
 
seattlecowboy said:
Adv8RU12 said:
Line on the Pokes is +4-1/2, but I think that is very optimistic. This could easily be the end of the streak. Depends on whether Grabau is taking/making threes and whether Sobey can contribute, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

The line is actually Wyoming favored -4.5. You have them listed +4.5 like they were the underdog. Just a tiny correction there. :thumb: If Martinez was playing the line would be Wyoming by 6.5 to 7 so not a big difference.

Wyoming will be fine. I would be more concerned if it was Washington or Nance out for a couple of games. We play great team defense so we will be fine there and Gilmore, Adams, Grabau, Sobey and even Nance can hit 3's, so while it sucks losing Martinez we have guys who can step up with a lot of the things he does.

We would be in bigger trouble if it was one of the big guys that was out. SMU can't match up with us down low. We will see some new wrinkles in the defense tonight that they implemented over the break and a heavy dose of Nance and Washington and you will see Gilmore and Adams attacking the basket more.

I'm not nearly as concerend about this game as I was the Illinois St. game. Illinois St. and SMU are on two very different levels talent wise. As long as Wyoming shows up to play they will win. Hopefully they play two halves of basketball, I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Wyoming seems to play down to the competition for one half of the game this year and then the next half they start playing like they are one of the better teams in the country. Lets hope they play both halves tonight like the latter.

Go Pokes!
Click to expand...


Illinois State is much better than SMU, but this isn't the same team that beat ISU. Martinez is a huge loss. Yes, Leonard would be a bigger loss (possibly Nance as well since we really lack depth in the frontcourt), but on a team with this type of limited depth, our best perimeter player (on both ends of the court) is a huge loss.

My biggest concern is defensively. I wasn't worried about this game until Luke's injury. Now I am very concerned.
 
NowherePoke said:
seattlecowboy said:
Adv8RU12 said:
Line on the Pokes is +4-1/2, but I think that is very optimistic. This could easily be the end of the streak. Depends on whether Grabau is taking/making threes and whether Sobey can contribute, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

The line is actually Wyoming favored -4.5. You have them listed +4.5 like they were the underdog. Just a tiny correction there. :thumb: If Martinez was playing the line would be Wyoming by 6.5 to 7 so not a big difference.

Wyoming will be fine. I would be more concerned if it was Washington or Nance out for a couple of games. We play great team defense so we will be fine there and Gilmore, Adams, Grabau, Sobey and even Nance can hit 3's, so while it sucks losing Martinez we have guys who can step up with a lot of the things he does.

We would be in bigger trouble if it was one of the big guys that was out. SMU can't match up with us down low. We will see some new wrinkles in the defense tonight that they implemented over the break and a heavy dose of Nance and Washington and you will see Gilmore and Adams attacking the basket more.

I'm not nearly as concerend about this game as I was the Illinois St. game. Illinois St. and SMU are on two very different levels talent wise. As long as Wyoming shows up to play they will win. Hopefully they play two halves of basketball, I don't know if anyone else has noticed but Wyoming seems to play down to the competition for one half of the game this year and then the next half they start playing like they are one of the better teams in the country. Lets hope they play both halves tonight like the latter.

Go Pokes!
Click to expand...


Illinois State is much better than SMU, but this isn't the same team that beat ISU. Martinez is a huge loss. Yes, Leonard would be a bigger loss (possibly Nance as well since we really lack depth in the frontcourt), but on a team with this type of limited depth, our best perimeter player (on both ends of the court) is a huge loss.

My biggest concern is defensively. I wasn't worried about this game until Luke's injury. Now I am very concerned.
Click to expand...

I understand everyones concern as I was very concerned at first and still am somewhat but like you said the biggest impact I think will be the depth more than anything. I still think we will be fine defensively if for no other reason than the way we play team defense and sometimes when you have a guy out for a game it can make the team come together and have an even better game.
Obviously we don't want Luke out for too many games and it wouldn't be good over the course of the season to not have him but for one game you might see the team concentrate and focus in even more tonight because of his abcense and they will play a great game. Hopefully the troops circle the wagons and rally together and bring home another road victory and we can get Luke back with in a couple of weeks.

The only reason I am concerned is because it is a road game. If we were playing at home tonight I wouldn't be worried at all against this SMU team. Guess we will all know how it turns out in the next few hours lol
 
I would like to see McManamen play tonight against Jones. Would be a good match up, Wyoming kids always play with attitude, and Jason could come out and surprise. Bentz was good full in, but I agree that Sobey needs to step up and Cooke needs to fill the lane to help with match up problems.
 
We aren't going to get the benefit of any call offense or defense they are not going to call in our favor.
 
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