Thoughts so far

[LanderPoke]

I think we struck gold with Sunny as our coach. I feel he is getting the most out of this team. I love his energy, albeit corny. He is a breath of fresh air from Linder and Edwards. I love that we try to rebound! I LOATHED us surrendering rebounds without trying for the last decade.

Obi is a star. He is a really good player. So happy we have him this year.

Kobe newton is just a solid player. He’s a very steadying force on our team.

Tinamo plays pretty well but can’t guard or rebound with the big dogs of this conference. Like him

Nesbit plays so hard. Love him on our team. Super defender and rebounder

Henry is tough and a skilled offensive player, but kind of the same as Tinamo. Deficient in d and rebounding.

Ebube is the man. Love his hustle and he is really the only one that can rebound and play d with other big dogs. Hope he gets more minutes and stays out of foul trouble.

I like Wills a lot . He is getting better and better.

Magassa will continue to improve. I like him for a freshman.

Belic is interesting. He seems to have found favor with Sunny already. He is a solid all around player. Good ball handling for his size and a good shooter

Allen is finally showing some signs of life after a nightmarish start to the year. If he turns into the player he can be we’ll be good

 

[TheRealUW]

I think we struck gold with Sunny as our coach. I feel he is getting the most out of this team. I love his energy, albeit corny. He is a breath of fresh air from Linder and Edwards. I love that we try to rebound! I LOATHED us surrendering rebounds without trying for the last decade.

Obi is a star. He is a really good player. So happy we have him this year.

Kobe newton is just a solid player. He’s a very steadying force on our team.

Tinamo plays pretty well but can’t guard or rebound with the big dogs of this conference. Like him

Nesbit plays so hard. Love him on our team. Super defender and rebounder

Henry is tough and a skilled offensive player, but kind of the same as Tinamo. Deficient in d and rebounding.

Ebube is the man. Love his hustle and he is really the only one that can rebound and play d with other big dogs. Hope he gets more minutes and stays out of foul trouble.

I like Wills a lot . He is getting better and better.

Magassa will continue to improve. I like him for a freshman.

Belic is interesting. He seems to have found favor with Sunny already. He is a solid all around player. Good ball handling for his size and a good shooter

Allen is finally showing some signs of life after a nightmarish start to the year. If he turns into the player he can be we’ll be good

Obi is a fantastic player for sure. Hard to believe he was at the D2 level for most of his college career. Really wish we had him for more than 1 year.

Wills and Magassa have been pleasant surprises. Both of them are outperforming my expectations. Both are solid players that can be contributors at this level.

Belic is another player I’ve really liked. He isn’t a star, but he is a solid basketball player. He does a lot of little things right. Very fundamentally sound player like a lot of European players are.

Newton is really best suited to be a spot up shooter who can also defend. Ideally, he would be a 15-20 mins a game guy that is out there to hit some threes and help spread the floor for other playmakers.

Henry and Tainamo both look like they are playing at a level slightly higher than their skill sets. Especially Henry. They can contribute, but really don't have the skill sets to be starters at the MWC level.

Ebube is a guy that you watch and see massive potential. But he is a junior! I'm just not sure that potential is ever going to come to fruition with him.

Nesbitt is a player I’m very glad to have on the team. He is easily our most well rounded player and can do a little bit of everything. As well as he has played so far, I just can’t shake the feeling that he is capable of more. A guy with his size and athleticism should be dominating teams, especially lower level teams like we played in preseason action.

By far, the most disappointing performance this season has come from Dontae Allen. I thought the guy was a starter for sure and even had potential for earning all-MWC recognition. I was way off the mark. Props to him for keeping a good attitude and being willing to have his minutes cut without pouting. He has been more effective in his limited minutes off the bench in the last couple games then he was in all the minutes he saw as a starter earlier in the season.

 

[Cowboy20]

This whole team is built on hard work and effort. Obi is clearly the most consistent offensive threat on the team and then every other player is capable of having a complimentary role in any given game. If they can cut down on the turnovers, they can beat anyone in the league. I love their defensive efforts and the way they hit the boards! Overall, if the students start to come out and get behind them, and the crowds grow, the dome could rock once again! There’s no doubt that this would fire up this bunch and we would all be treated with some special victories this conference season! Sunny is doing an amazing job and he deserves the support! Go Pokes! Beat Boise!

 

[TheRealUW]

This whole team is built on hard work and effort. Obi is clearly the most consistent offensive threat on the team and then every other player is capable of having a complimentary role in any given game. If they can cut down on the turnovers, they can beat anyone in the league. I love their defensive efforts and the way they hit the boards! Overall, if the students start to come out and get behind them, and the crowds grow, the dome could rock once again! There’s no doubt that this would fire up this bunch and we would all be treated with some special victories this conference season! Sunny is doing an amazing job and he deserves the support! Go Pokes! Beat Boise!

Rebounding will be key to the outcome of the Boise State game.

Last year when we played them, shooting percentages were fairly evenly matched and we actually had 4 less turnovers than they did, yet we lost by 20 points. Why? They killed us on the glass 43-19. Of their 43 boards, 17 of them were offensive rebounds!

If we can keep them off the offensive glass, we will have a chance to win this game. If not, it will be another blowout.

 

[Bryoming]

The key to every game this season is turnovers. We're one of the worst teams in the country for turnover margin.

 

[TheRealUW]

The key to every game this season is turnovers. We're one of the worst teams in the country for turnover margin.

It would definitely be ideal if we could cut down on TO's, but I doubt we see that happen. We are just a turnover prone team. Unfortunately, I think we can pretty much expect 15+ turnovers in every conference game this season.

The good news is that a poor turnover margin can be compensated for by other things we do well. We shoot fairly well from the field and behind the arc, have vastly improved our rebounding, and play adequate defense. To beat BSU, we will have to at least break even on the rebounding side of things.

We could be a top 5 MWC team this year if we could limit our turnover to no more than 12 per game on average. But we haven't seen any improvement on the turnover side of things two months into the season. I'm sure the coaches are aware it's a problem and have tried to fix it. It may just be something we have to live with this season.

 

[rocket city poke]

Mountain West is very mediocre which should help Wyoming. They can beat anybody (even on the road - with the exception of maybe New Mexico) which never happens. I would point out that all the guys everybody is raving about including Obi were portal guys that Linder brought in. Most are also foreigners, which is where i think Wyoming needs to be getting kids from. They have the most upside.

 

[PokeTransplant]

It would definitely be ideal if we could cut down on TO's, but I doubt we see that happen. We are just a turnover prone team. Unfortunately, I think we can pretty much expect 15+ turnovers in every conference game this season.

The good news is that a poor turnover margin can be compensated for by other things we do well. We shoot fairly well from the field and behind the arc, have vastly improved our rebounding, and play adequate defense. To beat BSU, we will have to at least break even on the rebounding side of things.

We could be a top 5 MWC team this year if we could limit our turnover to no more than 12 per game on average. But we haven't seen any improvement on the turnover side of things two months into the season. I'm sure the coaches are aware it's a problem and have tried to fix it. It may just be something we have to live with this season.

Just a theory, but teams that are young or have little playing time together tend to have turnover problems outside of coaching. Sunny is a hell of a coach (we need to throw whatever is in the coffers at him...) but when you have a ragtag team of players that haven't been on the court together outside of a couple of months, you will have a turnover problem. Continuity is the key to cutting down turnovers, and I honestly believe that there will be a noticeable decrease in the number of turnovers during conference play. I could be wildly wrong, but trust my gut on this one.....

 

[TheRealUW]

Just a theory, but teams that are young or have little playing time together tend to have turnover problems outside of coaching. Sunny is a hell of a coach (we need to throw whatever is in the coffers at him...) but when you have a ragtag team of players that haven't been on the court together outside of a couple of months, you will have a turnover problem. Continuity is the key to cutting down turnovers, and I honestly believe that there will be a noticeable decrease in the number of turnovers during conference play. I could be wildly wrong, but trust my gut on this one.....

Familiarity with teammates definitely helps.

That being said, we have a lot of turnovers when we get into traffic in the lane on dribble drives. That is simply just not having a lot of players who are good with the basketball in tight spaces. Outside of Obi and Wills, we are not very strong with the ball under even the slightest pressure.

If I were an opposing coach, I would put full court pressure on Wyoming after every made basket with an emphasis on denying Obi/Wills the basketball. We saw how Wyoming dealt with that pressure in the game against Texas Tech - not very well at all. And it wasn't like Texas Tech was running some sort of elaborate full court press/trapping scheme. They were simply playing full court man to man defense and we could not deal with it.

 

[Bryoming]

Mountain West is very mediocre which should help Wyoming. They can beat anybody (even on the road - with the exception of maybe New Mexico) which never happens. I would point out that all the guys everybody is raving about including Obi were portal guys that Linder brought in. Most are also foreigners, which is where i think Wyoming needs to be getting kids from. They have the most upside.

Linder's contributions to the roster are Tainamo, Belic, Starwood, Roberson, Newton, Kojenets, Cook, and Brown. I'm not counting Agbim because he had to be re-recruited by Wicks after Linder left and he jumped back into the portal. There's one guy in that list that people are "raving" about, which is Belic. Everyone else is a role player at best this season (Newton, Tainamo) or a benchwarmer.

 

[Itsux2beaewe]

I’m very impressed with this team with no longer than Sundance had to recruit. It’s his discipline and methods that have allowed him to field a competitive team. I’m pretty encouraged for the future.

 

[stymeman]

Sunny is the passion our bench has needed for a loooong time...hope he stays at least 12 years or so and builds something special at the dome of doom!!! I'm ready!!!

 

[NowherePoke]

I think we struck gold with Sunny as our coach. I feel he is getting the most out of this team. I love his energy, albeit corny. He is a breath of fresh air from Linder and Edwards. I love that we try to rebound! I LOATHED us surrendering rebounds without trying for the last decade.

Obi is a star. He is a really good player. So happy we have him this year.

Kobe newton is just a solid player. He’s a very steadying force on our team.

Tinamo plays pretty well but can’t guard or rebound with the big dogs of this conference. Like him

Nesbit plays so hard. Love him on our team. Super defender and rebounder

Henry is tough and a skilled offensive player, but kind of the same as Tinamo. Deficient in d and rebounding.

Ebube is the man. Love his hustle and he is really the only one that can rebound and play d with other big dogs. Hope he gets more minutes and stays out of foul trouble.

I like Wills a lot . He is getting better and better.

Magassa will continue to improve. I like him for a freshman.

Belic is interesting. He seems to have found favor with Sunny already. He is a solid all around player. Good ball handling for his size and a good shooter

Allen is finally showing some signs of life after a nightmarish start to the year. If he turns into the player he can be we’ll be good

Really like this team. I don’t think we are any better competitively than last year to be honest, but it just seems like more fun. Maybe it’s the mix of players, or Sunny’s demeanor, but it feels a little different (although certainly enjoyed the big shot Kot moments last year).

Really impressed with Allen’s demeanor going through challenges and reduced playing time. Will need him down the stretch.

 

[NowherePoke]

Mountain West is very mediocre which should help Wyoming. They can beat anybody (even on the road - with the exception of maybe New Mexico) which never happens. I would point out that all the guys everybody is raving about including Obi were portal guys that Linder brought in. Most are also foreigners, which is where i think Wyoming needs to be getting kids from. They have the most upside.

We only have 4 guys with international backgrounds unless I am missing one.