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Too early for optimism?

PokeTransplant

PokeTransplant

Well-known member
After today's game and looking at what we have left in conference, I'm feeling pretty good that the Pokes will end up in the top 5 at the end of conference play.

The next three games are going to be tough, and honestly don't see us winning them...I do think we have a good shot at stealing one of them, but hard to pick considering we should be pretty heavy underdogs in each of them.

So, that puts us at 5-6 going into the homestretch. I don't see any remaining game outside of the Boise game at home that we shouldn't win playing like we did tonight. The Boise game will be a toss-up as far as I'm concerned. I really do see a good possibility of ending 12-6 or 11-7 going into the tourney.

Just one hungry fans perspective after being BB starved for a decade....

What do you guys think?
 
Too early for optimism? Maybe.
Wyo fans get too up and too down on the team.

After dropping games to CU, SMU, DU, Nevada, NM, and Fresno, fans were pretty down on the team.
But after beating teams like AFA, Boise, and the blowout today, fans get really excited.

I think we have a good chance of stealing one MAYBE 2 games of the next 3.
I am not convinced UNLV is all that.

Especially if we lose at NM, I think the team will be ready to play.
SDSU at home, I am actually pretty optimistic for. SDSU hates coming here (9 points anyone?) and Fisher makes a big deal about traveling to FoCo and Laramie everytime.

With it being a short rest for them, they could be in a weird funk.

They are EXTREMELY good, and a Top 5 team, with their only loss being to Arizona, but we can beat them, especially in Laramie.

I would be happy with 1 of those 3, and BEYOND stoked with 2 of those 3.

Wyo still needs to steal 2 more on the road this season to make me convinced.
 
This team has been unbelievably consistent this year. It's the fans who have reacted wildly to every win/loss with hilarious mood swings.

I still think this team is a .500 MWC team, just like I did after the non-conference slate ended. We will be tough at home and we will drop some games to inferior teams on the road. I think we finish in 6th behind SDSU, UNM, BSU, UNLV, and UNR.

An improvement? Yeah, I guess.
 
TheRealUW said:
This team has been unbelievably consistent this year. It's the fans who have reacted wildly to every win/loss with hilarious mood swings.

I still think this team is a .500 MWC team, just like I did after the non-conference slate ended. We will be tough at home and we will drop some games to inferior teams on the road. I think we finish in 6th behind SDSU, UNM, BSU, UNLV, and UNR.

An improvement? Yeah, I guess.
Click to expand...

Improvement from 4-12 to 9-9?
Yeah...obviously.

UNR isn't going to sustain their winning.
Wyo can grab 4th or 5th.
I would love to play Nevada in a 4/5 match-up in the 2nd round of the MWC Tourney.
 
I think we can beat anyone in conference play. Just depends on which offense shows for Wyoming on each night. We were shooting pretty well tonight and driving when we had it
 
This team is missing just a soupcon of offense that is the difference between a troublesome team and a dangerous one.

If we get one win out of the next three games, I'll be on board with this team being a legitimate post-season threat.
 
PokeTransplant said:
After today's game and looking at what we have left in conference, I'm feeling pretty good that the Pokes will end up in the top 5 at the end of conference play.

The next three games are going to be tough, and honestly don't see us winning them...I do think we have a good shot at stealing one of them, but hard to pick considering we should be pretty heavy underdogs in each of them.

So, that puts us at 5-6 going into the homestretch. I don't see any remaining game outside of the Boise game at home that we shouldn't win playing like we did tonight. The Boise game will be a toss-up as far as I'm concerned. I really do see a good possibility of ending 12-6 or 11-7 going into the tourney.

Just one hungry fans perspective after being BB starved for a decade....

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...


I think a 5th place finish is achievable. I would lean more towards 10-8 at this point, with tiebreakers possibly deciding 5th/6th. Still, it's a positive direction. The poor OOC play will hamper any hopes of postseason above CBI/CIT, but getting back to .500 in MWC play would be a big step in the right direction.
 
TheRealUW said:
This team has been unbelievably consistent this year. It's the fans who have reacted wildly to every win/loss with hilarious mood swings.

I still think this team is a .500 MWC team, just like I did after the non-conference slate ended. We will be tough at home and we will drop some games to inferior teams on the road. I think we finish in 6th behind SDSU, UNM, BSU, UNLV, and UNR.

An improvement? Yeah, I guess.
Click to expand...

Pretty much agree, but I think it will be very close in terms of 4-6 and it could come down to tiebreakers, etc. I have the Pokes finishing at 10-8 right now, but obviously that is with my Brown and Gold glasses on. The BSU game in the AA could be the difference. SDSU, UNM, and UNLV will be the Top 3 when all is said and done. Nevada will come back to the pack, but not sure if it will be enough for the Pokes to catch them. However, if the Pokes sweep BSU I could see the Pokes earning 5th in a tiebreaker.

The loss at Fresno is the killer since UNLV and Nevada both won there.
 
we can beat anyone, will we, time will tell, that's why we play them 1 at a time, we will be factors in the tourney this year
 
We will definitely finish ahead of Nevada this year. Have you guys looked at their remaining schedule?

@ USU
@ #5 SDSU
vs FRES
@ UNM
vs SJSU
@ AFA
vs UNM
@ BSU
vs UNLV

Do you think they'll win any of those road games? Maybe at Air Force. They're gonna get swept by New Mexico. I bet Nevada wins 3, maybe 4, more games.

On the other hand, look at our schedule:

@ UNM
@ UNLV
vs #5 SDSU
@ SJSU
vs FRES
@ CSU
vs AFA
vs BSU
@ USU
vs CSU

Conservatively optimistic, I say we win one of the next 3, we win all our home games after SDSU, and pick up 2 road wins between SJSU, CSU, and USU. That's 7 more wins. Of course we'll drop a game that we shouldn't, but I think we have a decent enough sample size at this point to know what the league is made of. If we finish league play with 11 or 12 wins, we'll definitely finish in the top 4 or 5. I bet Nevada finishes 5th or 6th.
 
The remaining home games are all winnable.. the road games will be killer. Would assume a win at SJSU, but California hasn't always been too friendly for Wyoming in any sport. :?
 
Maybe it's just the Cubs fan in me, but I think it is too early for optimism still. I agree that our last stretch of schedule looks favorable and the home games especially look winnable, but I honestly don't trust this team to win all the games it could or even should be able to win. I think a lot of us are overlooking CSU, I think we are just as likely to get swept by them as we are to sweep them, it's not hard at all for me to envision us losing to BSU and USU. And I feel like as a Poke fan I've witnessed enough crappy teams having their best game and picking up their first win over us that even SJSU scares me.

I think 5th in the conference is doable, and while an improvement, that's still not that good and we could very easily drop to 7th. I also don't see where people are getting this idea that we're going to be a "threat" in the tourney either. I guess if you're defining it by winning our first game and playing our next one close vs a superior opponent, then I could see it, but that's a pretty low bar that I bet few other fan bases would ever define as a "threat." We couldn't close out either NM game, despite the fact that they may have had the worst shooting night they may ever have the rest of this season, very few of us think we really will steal any of the upcoming games against UNLV or SDSU. Those are the caliber of teams we will be playing and needing to beat as early as our second game in the tournament if we are truly going to be a threat. And if we can't close out those games in the regular season, what makes anybody think we will in the tourney when the games are bigger and more is at stake?

I know I've sounded a lot like a Debbie Downer, and the truth is this team has already exceeded my expectations for this year, but my expectations were pretty low. I feel like we are just rebuilding for the umpteenth time, nothing more.
 
Shut up. I'm so sick of fans saying that we only won or almost won because the other team played bad. Why does every team play bad against Wyoming? I'm sure it's a crazy coincidence that has nothing to do with Wyoming being a good, disruptive, and competitive basketball team this year.

Nobody scores on us. We're one of the best shooting teams in the nation. We consistently beat or almost beat teams with superior size, talent, and depth. Yeah, we're definitely not headed in the right direction.

Anyone that can't get on board now is blind.
 
wyopig said:
Shut up. I'm so sick of fans saying that we only won or almost won because the other team played bad. Why does every team play bad against Wyoming? I'm sure it's a crazy coincidence that has nothing to do with Wyoming being a good, disruptive, and competitive basketball team this year.

Nobody scores on us. We're one of the best shooting teams in the nation. We consistently beat or almost beat teams with superior size, talent, and depth. Yeah, we're definitely not headed in the right direction.

Anyone that can't get on board now is blind.
Click to expand...

+1!
Our fans are ridiculous.
Beat Boise in Boise and we are the best team ever. Lose to Fresno in Fresno and the sky is falling, fire Shyatt and Burman and hire someone who knows how to win!
 
We do have a really good defense, no doubt about it, and all the players play defense fairly well (to one degree or another), but it is getting frustrating losing so many winnable games like this because of a missed FG or missed free throw or something along those lines. CU, DU, OSU, SMU, Nevada, Fresno, and UNM both times? And only OSU was by double digits. To lose that many winnable games makes me want to tear my hair out at times.

I'm not going full sheep fan and saying "End of the world! Fire Shyatt!" nor am I going full Beaver with "We almost beat these teams and we would be undefeated and top 3 in the country!" I just want to see some more of these close games go our way then the other team's.
 
fromolwyoming said:
We do have a really good defense, no doubt about it, and all the players play defense fairly well (to one degree or another), but it is getting frustrating losing so many winnable games like this because of a missed FG or missed free throw or something along those lines. CU, DU, OSU, SMU, Nevada, Fresno, and UNM both times? And only OSU was by double digits. To lose that many winnable games makes me want to tear my hair out at times.

I'm not going full sheep fan and saying "End of the world! Fire Shyatt!" nor am I going full Beaver with "We almost beat these teams and we would be undefeated and top 3 in the country!" I just want to see some more of these close games go our way then the other team's.
Click to expand...

For a while, they were never going our way (@ DU, SMU, @ Nevada, UNM). Then we had a run where a lot of them went our way (@ Boise, @ Air Force, Nevada). I wish as much as anyone that they'd all go our way, but I think that the team has shown great strides in learning how to finish a game. Even in the UNM loss the other day, we hit some HUGE shots down the stretch that were necessary to win the game. Unfortunately, Bairstow made a great shot to tie it, and Nance couldn't convert like he has a few times recently.

As frustrating as it is to lose these games, I'm more or less sick of fans not buying in for one reason or another. I'm sick of fans saying that we only won at Boise because Boise played bad. I'm sick of hearing that we were only in the game at New Mexico the other night because New Mexico wasn't shooting well. That's the point! Good defenses make teams look bad. The Denver Broncos, with the best offense in football history, looked like clowns last weekend against the Seahawks.

I saw a great quote on Twitter last night that said something about how the Wyoming program is at the point that there isn't a single game on the schedule that's considered a certain loss. I wouldn't say that every game is a certain win either, but neither can SDSU. San Jose pushed them to the brink. Teams, like Wyoming, that can beat any team that they're going to play against from here on out, desperately need fan support to get over the hump in some of these games. I just don't understand what it's going to take to get more than 7,000 people in that arena. We have a good team in Laramie. Are they championship caliber yet? Almost. We're going to finish in the top 4 in the conference this year, and next year we'll be competing for the championship. Yet people are bitching about how we're just lucky. Yeah, we're lucky. It's really lucky when 7 of your 8 losses came down to the last 30 seconds...and probably 5 or 6 of those outcomes could have been changed in the last possession of regulation.
 
wyopig said:
fromolwyoming said:
We do have a really good defense, no doubt about it, and all the players play defense fairly well (to one degree or another), but it is getting frustrating losing so many winnable games like this because of a missed FG or missed free throw or something along those lines. CU, DU, OSU, SMU, Nevada, Fresno, and UNM both times? And only OSU was by double digits. To lose that many winnable games makes me want to tear my hair out at times.

I'm not going full sheep fan and saying "End of the world! Fire Shyatt!" nor am I going full Beaver with "We almost beat these teams and we would be undefeated and top 3 in the country!" I just want to see some more of these close games go our way then the other team's.
Click to expand...

For a while, they were never going our way (@ DU, SMU, @ Nevada, UNM). Then we had a run where a lot of them went our way (@ Boise, @ Air Force, Nevada). I wish as much as anyone that they'd all go our way, but I think that the team has shown great strides in learning how to finish a game. Even in the UNM loss the other day, we hit some HUGE shots down the stretch that were necessary to win the game. Unfortunately, Bairstow made a great shot to tie it, and Nance couldn't convert like he has a few times recently.

As frustrating as it is to lose these games, I'm more or less sick of fans not buying in for one reason or another. I'm sick of fans saying that we only won at Boise because Boise played bad. I'm sick of hearing that we were only in the game at New Mexico the other night because New Mexico wasn't shooting well. That's the point! Good defenses make teams look bad. The Denver Broncos, with the best offense in football history, looked like clowns last weekend against the Seahawks.

I saw a great quote on Twitter last night that said something about how the Wyoming program is at the point that there isn't a single game on the schedule that's considered a certain loss. I wouldn't say that every game is a certain win either, but neither can SDSU. San Jose pushed them to the brink. Teams, like Wyoming, that can beat any team that they're going to play against from here on out, desperately need fan support to get over the hump in some of these games. I just don't understand what it's going to take to get more than 7,000 people in that arena. We have a good team in Laramie. Are they championship caliber yet? Almost. We're going to finish in the top 4 in the conference this year, and next year we'll be competing for the championship. Yet people are bitching about how we're just lucky. Yeah, we're lucky. It's really lucky when 7 of your 8 losses came down to the last 30 seconds...and probably 5 or 6 of those outcomes could have been changed in the last possession of regulation.
Click to expand...

Amen. Spot on post. I'd kill to be within 200 miles of Laramie so I could watch this team in person. Get on the train, Poke fans. These guys are at the crest of the mountain and need your help to get over.
 
HighPlainsDrifter said:
wyopig said:
fromolwyoming said:
We do have a really good defense, no doubt about it, and all the players play defense fairly well (to one degree or another), but it is getting frustrating losing so many winnable games like this because of a missed FG or missed free throw or something along those lines. CU, DU, OSU, SMU, Nevada, Fresno, and UNM both times? And only OSU was by double digits. To lose that many winnable games makes me want to tear my hair out at times.

I'm not going full sheep fan and saying "End of the world! Fire Shyatt!" nor am I going full Beaver with "We almost beat these teams and we would be undefeated and top 3 in the country!" I just want to see some more of these close games go our way then the other team's.
Click to expand...

For a while, they were never going our way (@ DU, SMU, @ Nevada, UNM). Then we had a run where a lot of them went our way (@ Boise, @ Air Force, Nevada). I wish as much as anyone that they'd all go our way, but I think that the team has shown great strides in learning how to finish a game. Even in the UNM loss the other day, we hit some HUGE shots down the stretch that were necessary to win the game. Unfortunately, Bairstow made a great shot to tie it, and Nance couldn't convert like he has a few times recently.

As frustrating as it is to lose these games, I'm more or less sick of fans not buying in for one reason or another. I'm sick of fans saying that we only won at Boise because Boise played bad. I'm sick of hearing that we were only in the game at New Mexico the other night because New Mexico wasn't shooting well. That's the point! Good defenses make teams look bad. The Denver Broncos, with the best offense in football history, looked like clowns last weekend against the Seahawks.

I saw a great quote on Twitter last night that said something about how the Wyoming program is at the point that there isn't a single game on the schedule that's considered a certain loss. I wouldn't say that every game is a certain win either, but neither can SDSU. San Jose pushed them to the brink. Teams, like Wyoming, that can beat any team that they're going to play against from here on out, desperately need fan support to get over the hump in some of these games. I just don't understand what it's going to take to get more than 7,000 people in that arena. We have a good team in Laramie. Are they championship caliber yet? Almost. We're going to finish in the top 4 in the conference this year, and next year we'll be competing for the championship. Yet people are bitching about how we're just lucky. Yeah, we're lucky. It's really lucky when 7 of your 8 losses came down to the last 30 seconds...and probably 5 or 6 of those outcomes could have been changed in the last possession of regulation.
Click to expand...

Amen. Spot on post. I'd kill to be within 200 miles of Laramie so I could watch this team in person. Get on the train, Poke fans. These guys are at the crest of the mountain and need your help to get over.
Click to expand...
Amen as well, I don't understand how people won't come out and support this team. They are a fun one to watch and give it their all every game. Our fans care more about the opponent than supporting the best basketball team we have probably had in 10 years.
 
Oh I'm buying in. We're clearly moving in the right direction. Our defense is why teams have bad games against us. Our shooting has improved. I don't think any of our conference wins were lucky, and I don't believe that we were lucky to be in so many games either. I just don't believe we finish top 4 THIS YEAR or that we win more than one game in the conference tourney THIS YEAR.

I believe that we are a young and unfinished product that is inconsistent, sometimes playing well enough to beat superior talent, and sometimes missing shots and committing turnovers in key moments. I really don't think we're good enough to beat SDSU/New Mexico/UNLV in a high stakes game on a neutral court in the conference tourney, which we will probably have to do as early as game 2 with only a 1 day turnaround. I don't think we'll be able to finish higher than them in the regular season either. I think Nevada slides some, but they have a big enough lead over us in the conference that they will be hard to catch. I think that Boise State is very talented team, and even if we sweep them, I think we'll be fighting just to finish ahead of them too. I think CSU is a wild-card, I suspect we'll finish ahead of them, but I just don't know. I think that although we are more talented than SJSU, CSU, and USU, we have a harder time putting away games on the road than at home and wouldn't be shocked if we go 1 for 3 in those road games. I also wouldn't be surprised if we blow 1 home game against either BSU, CSU, or Fresno. And I think those losses, combined with the Fresno loss could really hurt in a competitive conference.

I'm actually happy with what's going on, I'm just not putting the cart in front of the horse.
 
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