Wow I read this thread and decided I must step in. It's easy as an older fan to sit back and defend this team without knowing some backstory, but let me chime in as an anonymous (yes we are allowed to that, but more on that in a minute) gentleman who happens to go to school at UW and see these guys on a routine basis. Did stuff like this happen back in the day? Sure, but I can assure you all that I am flat out embarrassed by not just our player's reactions on twitter, but the off the court conduct. Here's a rundown:
1. This runs far deeper than any of you know. As someone pointed out Larry does not follow this kid but there is absolutely a deeper connection via the two males which is likely why Larry saw it. Some of you may know the connection, others may not. I will not go into it but you may be able to fathom a guess. Certain things have a knack of changing a guy, one of those things being money. In this case it's not money, it's that "other" thing. What makes it worse is the connection is only secondary affiliation. (None of that makes any sense but moral of the story is there is a reason for why Larry called out this particular fan). For Larry to stoop to these lows of calling out a fan for tweeting an opinion is absolutely ridiculous plain and simple. Grow some thick skin, quit being a baby, and get over it.
2. The level they took it too is absurd. To go as far as to say "we don't want you as a fan, don't come to our games". Jesus you'd think he stole the players' mother's Wyoming shirts and was burning them in the town square. Look I get the we got our brother's back mentality, hell I respect it even....but under different circumstances. Since when are fans not allowed to be disgruntled and vent. He said what we were all thinking. He backed up his opinion with facts. Now YikYak is a different story. People get down right dumb aggressive and mean about our players on there. Say disgusting things. Had the team banded together and responded to that I wouldn't have batted an eye. But instead they make asses of themselves for getting on a kid who said what we all were thinking. What's the danger in playing someone else for a change? No need to be crybabies on social media.
2a. In response to the players asking what that kid ever did with his life or how he has no room to talk never having played college basketball. I hate to break it to them but people can be informative without having played college basketball. Heck, I know several people who are great basketball players, incredibly skilled, and have a great basketball iq (something this team lacks in my opinion) but lacked the body type to play at this level. It's tough to argue that DC is not athletically gifted, but could you imagine if he had the other essentials? Simply put, people can know the fundamentals of basketball and basketball strategy without having played. I would even go as far as to say that ones who have played or coached, have thought exactly what that kid tweeted. To me the players came off as bullies in this situation basically saying "shut your damn mouth. you don't even play college basketball". That is where the stats don't lie as much as the players would like you to believe. They say he brings passion and energy, which can be a good thing, but what else? You can dress my 90 grandmother who is in a wheelchair (dire hard pokes fan btw) up in a #1 pokes jersey and she could fire up the team like you wouldn't believe!! But I wouldn't hesitate to bench her if she was failing time and time again to convert in areas that a Division I basketball player should. Fan's have a right to voice their opinions.
3. Trey Washington....what an idiot. This one's almost too easy to criticize. Seriously wtf kind of reaction is that? Do we really want that to be the face of the University? Scary to me. It's also scary to me that we have students like this on campus. But it seems to fit in with another issue that will be once again discussed later in this post.
4. To the guy who insists that everyone is a coward for hiding behind a message board: What do you think the point of a message board is? Most fans like to anonymously voice their concerns about the athletics program without fearing the repercussions that could happen otherwise. Not to mention, why are you openly advocating that someone should try and fight one of our student athletes? Did we not learn our lesson from that 2 years ago? Sports fans are notorious for being brutal on social media. Most players feed off of that and turn it into passion and motivation. Instead ours went on a butthurt rant saying "don't come watch us. You're not a true pokes fan". This is irritating to no end. In the words of Coach Bohl, he wants players that come to play for the University of Wyoming, not just at it. Almost all of our players are the latter. I've might as well had a steamboat tattooed on my chest the day I came out of the womb. I drank brown and gold milk straight from the teet. I've shed more tears of both sadness and joy for this program over the years to fill a swimming pool. I've stood solo in a section of 5,000 screaming BYU fans in Provo proudly wearing my brown and gold. I would do anything to see Wyoming athletics excel short of giving up my first born child. I would be absolutely pissed if a player who simply came to play at a school told me to not come to games for simply voicing an opinion (which was tame considering the choke job we watched). An opinion not tweeted directly at anyone about what that person truly felt was at least worth consideration for potentially giving this team a spark. Questioning someone's fan-hood or in this case trying to revoke might as well be fighting words.
5) Oh those off the court issues. Happens everywhere no doubt. My childhood idols on the 2002 championship team probably were just as bad, but can these players at least consider the fact that little kids look up to them? The stories I know about some of the individuals on this team make me sick to my stomach. I pray that none of them are true for all parties involved. Some things most people are better off knowing but it's too the point I cannot even clap my hands for certain individuals on this team. It would be comparable to rooting for Ray Rice for me. If a player is reading this, please take a good hard look in the mirror. Quintillion believed being a good man meant imitating the good people you idolized. You are idols to kids, please act like it and not like someone who belongs in the state pen. I see no need to be in the Buckhorn every waking moment but that is college. Hopefully someday we can get some gym rats who would maybe take a Thursday or Friday night to go to an empty gym and practice free throws. I hate BYU to death and beyond, but I will give them that. They have hard workers who care about winning more than acting like celebrities to get the "local cuisine" that night.
Grow up and act like men, don't ostracize your fanbase. It's comparable to a bratty child who always gets what they want and throw a fit when they get told no for the first time. Our players are idolized to an extreme level and get insane amounts of SportsCenter tweets, etc. When things go bad the first thing you do is verbally attack someone for expressing a largely irrelevant tweet, you are showing weakness. It shows the kind of character you have. When you get a bad grade are you the type who bitches and moans that the teacher is unfair, or are you the person who studies harder and leaves no doubt on the next exam? When the going gets rough you find out a lot about person/team. I don't like what we've seen from this one.
This post is extremely long, and most will not read, but I spent a great deal of time typing it because I'm exercising my right to opinion on my Wyoming Cowboys. I will always root for the Pokes thick and thin regardless of circumstances. I hope this season ends up with us holding the trophy. Call me what you will. Delete it if you want. It's just one college kid's take.
