• Hi Guest, want to participate in the discussions, keep track of read/unread posts and more? Create your free account and increase the benefits of your WyoNation.com experience today!

Something to think about...

BeaverPoke

BeaverPoke

Well-known member
So with the MWC hoops league being at 11, and football at 12. We could add Gonzaga to the MWC for oly's.
Well then we would have a league consisting of good hoops programs such as...
CSU, Wyo, UNLV, New Mexico, SDSU, Boise State, Utah state, and Gonzaga. With the other 4 being decent.
Well what if Steve McClain comes back to the MWC with a National Championship ring from Indiana soon, and Tim Miles gets shelled from Nebraska and wants to come back to the MWC.
Let's say these guys turn programs like Nevada, and SJSU or Frenso St. around.

There is no rumor to this at all, I just got thinking about it. A lot of good coaches here in the MWC, and if those 2 coaches came back and we could Zaga, we literally might be sending 10/12 teams a year to the NCAA tourney.

Anyways... done with the day dreaming.
 
Steve McClain is an awful head coach. He won 2 championships with Shyatt's players. If Shyatt coached the 2001-02 team, they would have gone to the Final Four.

I'd welcome McClain back in the MWC...as long as it's coaching Wyoming.
 
wyopig said:
Steve McClain is an awful head coach. He won 2 championships with Shyatt's players. If Shyatt coached the 2001-02 team, they would have gone to the Final Four.

I'd welcome McClain back in the MWC...as long as it's coaching Wyoming.
Click to expand...

What????

You think he is an awful coach yet you would want him at wyoming?
 
Oh and I did a little bit of research Larry Shyatt did not recruit Marcus Bailey.

Bailey only got one college hoops offer. It was the Colorado School of Mines.
He came to UW thinking he was done playing basketball, then Steven McClain got ahold of him and had him walk on to the team.
Bailey thought by his jr and sr years he might be a solid bench player, but ended up starting as a freshman.

So I am sick of the whole if thing about Shyatt recruiting Bailey.
He didn't.
 
And no McClain is not an awful coach, you don't just happen to win 2 MWC championships, and beat Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament if you are an awful coach.
You don't just happen to help turn CU around if you are an awful coach.
You don't just happen to be on Indianas coaching staff as a top assistant if you are an awful coach.

Schroyer is an afwul coach. McClain is a decent coach who knows a lot about basketball. And he will get his chance to lead a program in the Big 10 or ACC when he is done at Indiana.
 
BeaverPoke said:
And no McClain is not an awful coach, you don't just happen to win 2 MWC championships, and beat Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament if you are an awful coach.
You don't just happen to help turn CU around if you are an awful coach.
You don't just happen to be on Indianas coaching staff as a top assistant if you are an awful coach.

Schroyer is an afwul coach. McClain is a decent coach who knows a lot about basketball. And he will get his chance to lead a program in the Big 10 or ACC when he is done at Indiana.
Click to expand...


Um NO. Not even. He might get a chance at a smaller school and might be able to work his way back up if he has success at a smaller school but he won't ever start out at an ACC or Big 10 school. No way no how.
 
I had a typo. I don't want him back at Wyoming. Yes, he was awful.

Let's look at the NCAA Tournament team:

Bailey - McClain recruit. He needed an in-state kid and Bailey was the best at the time, even though he wasn't expected to be a particularly good college player. It's not that tough to land unrecruited players from Wyoming.
Davis - Shyatt recruit
Ugo - Shyatt recruit
Uche - cousin of Ugo. I'll give Ugo more credit than McClain for bringing him in.
Straight - McClain recruit. Good job there.
Richardson - JUCO transfer from Sheridan. We were his best option.
Ries - McClain recruit - future starter on an 11-win team.
Rottinghaus - McClain recruit - future starter on an 11-win team.
Corner - Iowa State transfer, McClain recruit
Mingo - JUCO transfer from Compton, McClain recruit
Dunn- McClain recruit - future starter on an 11-win team

The starters were either Shyatt recruits, came from Shyatt recruits, came from Shyatt momentum, or were a vastly overachieving kid from Cheyenne (to the point where he's one of the all-time Wyoming greats). Some of the bench players were decent to good, and some just couldn't cut it.

McClain would always bring in 1 great player every couple years. It's just that the rest of the players on the team weren't very good and they weren't developed. There was very little player development under McClain. Almost nobody got particularly better throughout their careers under McClain.

We look fondly on players like Brandon Ewing, Brad Jones, and Justin Williams. Imagine having players like that in our starting lineup right now. McClain had that, and they went 12-17 in the regular season and somehow reached the MWC title game. That tournament run gave McClain one more year at Wyoming, in which he coached a .500 ball team.

Let's take another look at the NCAA tournament team. They lost, oftentimes handedly, to inferior teams on the road with regularity. We lost at a terrible USC team to open the season. We got killed at Detroit-Mercy, who was terrible. We lost to Boise State when they were practically still a JUCO. We lost to Bobby Knight at Texas Tech, which was reasonably understandable. The final score of that one was much closer than the game. We were never close. We got drilled at BYU and New Mexico. BYU was understandable, but that New Mexico team was horrible. They weren't even a good home team that year.

We did win at Utah (which was huge), at SDSU (which wasn't as big of a deal as it is now), and at UNLV (which was a big time win). We also lost twice to an SDSU team that wasn't very good.

Anyway, Steve McClain drained any momentum that we got from one year of Larry Shyatt and his recruits, and he nearly drove the program into the ground. He left rock bottom to Heath Schroyer. Beyond not being able to win games, McClain's teams had horrible academics and cost us scholarships. He was a cocky asshole to media and fans. He got desperate at the end and started bringing in players like Joseph Taylor, which didn't do much for the University's image.

Anyway, I will always live believing that Steve McClain is a terrible head basketball coach.
 
BeaverPoke said:
And no McClain is not an awful coach, you don't just happen to win 2 MWC championships, and beat Gonzaga in the NCAA tournament if you are an awful coach.
You don't just happen to help turn CU around if you are an awful coach.
You don't just happen to be on Indianas coaching staff as a top assistant if you are an awful coach.

Schroyer is an afwul coach. McClain is a decent coach who knows a lot about basketball. And he will get his chance to lead a program in the Big 10 or ACC when he is done at Indiana.
Click to expand...

Bailey only started as a freshman because Ugo got hurt. Davis actually ended up playing center that year. I'm glad Bailey got that experience that year, but he wasn't overly productive as a freshman.

CU didn't turn around when McClain was there. It turned around when they hired Tad Boyle. They were just less awful when Bzdelik was coaching.

Notice I said he's an awful head basketball coach. He can't develop players or recruit with the best teams in the MWC. He would bring in talent, but so would Joby Wright and Benny Dees. They'd bring in real NBA talent, but would go .500. McClain is in that same boat.

Jim Brandenburg and Larry Shyatt are the only good basketball coaches that Wyoming has had in about 40 years. They have the coaching ability to win at Wyoming. They know what we are and what we aren't. They can develop players and make in-game adjustments. They can motivate players to play hard for them. McClain started with great players and some momentum. Once those players started thinning out, we'd be lucky to win 15 games.

If Steve McClain coached this year's team, it would win 10 total games...if we're lucky.
 
My only comments on McClain are:
1. He was a better coach when he started at Wyoming than he was when he finished at Wyoming.

2. At the end, his teams had no discipline.

3. At the end, his teams played only street ball (no offense or defense plan).

4. At the end, there was no monitoring of his player's academics & we lost scholarships because of this.

At the end, this was not a good coaching staff - I think most of them wanted out of Laramie. I came as close to giving up my season tickets his last year as I ever have. I would walk out of the AA after a game just disgusted with what I had just seen - same goes for Shroyer's teams.
 
i didn't mind him, but when i watch a IU game now I'm so glad we don't have him anymore, Papa is the best fit for us!!
 
BeaverPoke said:
McClain couldn't recruit? Who recruited Brandon Ewing?
Click to expand...

You're naming one player. Ewing was great. He was surrounded by players like Jerry Webb, Kevin Lewis, Ryan Wildenborg, Steve Leven, Chris Anderson, Derek Wabbington, etc.

By that rationale, Benny Dees was a great Wyoming coach because he recruited Reggie Slater, Tim Breaux, Theo Ratliff, etc. Even though he had all those players, he couldn't get a team to the NCAA Tournament. Yes, he went to the big dance with Dembo and Leckner their senior year, but Brandenburg would have taken that team to the Final Four.

One year, Ewing had Jones and Williams in the starting lineup with him and they won 12 regular season games. That's my point. When talented teams can't even go .500, it's a coach problem. Steve McClain was awful.


Let's get to the bottom of this...how in the hell can you claim that McClain was such an amazing coach when he got fired? Yes, he won 2 MWC championships within 3 years of Shyatt leaving. His record up until the game Bailey got hurt, which was 9 games into his 5th season at Wyoming, was 86-43. After Bailey got hurt, his overall record was 71-72. What's even more disturbing is that his overall record in conference play is 73-71. That includes the good years.
 
Hey wyopig, you say that if Shyatt were the coach of the team that McClain took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four. Not sure what you're basing that on, it's purely hypothetical. Same with saying if Brandenburg coached the team that Benny Dees took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four, he did coach that team, the year before and they made a nice run to the Sweet Sixteen. The Loyola Marymount team that Wyoming matched up with in the first round was pretty good, even if Wyoming were to have won that game they would've matched up with UNC and then a matchup with Michigan, probably not real good odds of victory, oh yeah then just to get to the Final Four they would've had to beat Arizona--7 and 11 seeds rarely make it to the Final Four.
 
Well.....aside from the McClain pissing match, Gonzaga to the MWC is just fantasy talk. Its far easier typed than done. They will not leave the Catholic schools, bottom line.
 
gbpoke said:
Hey wyopig, you say that if Shyatt were the coach of the team that McClain took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four. Not sure what you're basing that on, it's purely hypothetical. Same with saying if Brandenburg coached the team that Benny Dees took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four, he did coach that team, the year before and they made a nice run to the Sweet Sixteen. The Loyola Marymount team that Wyoming matched up with in the first round was pretty good, even if Wyoming were to have won that game they would've matched up with UNC and then a matchup with Michigan, probably not real good odds of victory, oh yeah then just to get to the Final Four they would've had to beat Arizona--7 and 11 seeds rarely make it to the Final Four.
Click to expand...

It's not actually hypothetical. It would have happened. I have proof.
 
wyopig said:
gbpoke said:
Hey wyopig, you say that if Shyatt were the coach of the team that McClain took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four. Not sure what you're basing that on, it's purely hypothetical. Same with saying if Brandenburg coached the team that Benny Dees took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four, he did coach that team, the year before and they made a nice run to the Sweet Sixteen. The Loyola Marymount team that Wyoming matched up with in the first round was pretty good, even if Wyoming were to have won that game they would've matched up with UNC and then a matchup with Michigan, probably not real good odds of victory, oh yeah then just to get to the Final Four they would've had to beat Arizona--7 and 11 seeds rarely make it to the Final Four.
Click to expand...

It's not actually hypothetical. It would have happened. I have proof.
Click to expand...

Are you being serious? You have proof of what would have happened? :lol:
 
BeaverPoke said:
wyopig said:
gbpoke said:
Hey wyopig, you say that if Shyatt were the coach of the team that McClain took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four. Not sure what you're basing that on, it's purely hypothetical. Same with saying if Brandenburg coached the team that Benny Dees took to the NCAA tourny they would've gone to the Final Four, he did coach that team, the year before and they made a nice run to the Sweet Sixteen. The Loyola Marymount team that Wyoming matched up with in the first round was pretty good, even if Wyoming were to have won that game they would've matched up with UNC and then a matchup with Michigan, probably not real good odds of victory, oh yeah then just to get to the Final Four they would've had to beat Arizona--7 and 11 seeds rarely make it to the Final Four.
Click to expand...

It's not actually hypothetical. It would have happened. I have proof.
Click to expand...

Are you being serious? You have proof of what would have happened? :lol:
Click to expand...

If he's serious then, I'm Hugh Hefner!!! :roll:
 
Also wyopig I like how you try and justify the fact the Bailey was a McClain commit.
2 of the greatest Wyoming players in Wyoming history are because of McClain. Marcus Bailey and Brandon Ewing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top