We've got a Mountain to climb!

[wyokoke]

Postby LanderPoke » Fri Mar 18, 2016 3:25 pm

Shyatt is getting worked in recruiting. He's a fantastic coach, man and developer of talent, but not sure he can recruit.

Would have to say the same about Branch (wrestling). At some point the question again comes up, "Why aren't coaches that are great in every other aspects, not getting great athletes to Laramie?"

Cause, to beat a dead horse, Laramie is not that attractive to a lot of kids. Especially the football/basketball studs who are largely from warm weather cities. Wrestlers (and other individual sports) are a little bit of a different story, but the same deal

I am not going to disagree, but keep in mind we are losing kids from Sheridan, Gillette, Pine Bluffs, etc. I know very little about wrestling or where the recruits are from but it seems like the majority of the program's we compete against are in smaller Midwestern communities, so not sure that is a huge factor in that sport.

In terms of basketball I am sitting here watching another good NCAA performance from a team from Cedar Rapids, IA right after watching a great performance from a team from Nacogdoches, TX. We will never land Top 25 type classes or anything, but we can recruit quality players to UW.

That's fair, but also the majority of in state kids we lose, regardless of whether it's football or basketball, are going to teams a level up on us. Boucher plays for a 1 seed. Thompson is going to a perennial tournament team. Bryan and Bartlett went to SEC and Pac 12 teams, respectively. Maybe I'm jsut forgetting someone, but I can't think of any in state kid recently that dogged us for similar, MWC type competition.

And I think you're right about it not being a huge factor with wrestling, and I also think the Big 12 logo will help with that in the next few years

Johnson - Wake Forest?

You're right, ACC teams are teams we should always out recruit

 

[GetRealMan]

Were at a crossroads with both football and basketball. Two or three years ago I thought we finally broke the competitive curse for both programs. Bohl and Shyatt seemed to be the saviors that would not only win but stay in Laramie throughout their golden years. Love 'em both but have to wonder if I was wrong, and I hate that feeling.

Recruiting seems to be the albatross for both programs. I don't buy into the "Laramie not being attractive" when I see some of these 12-15 NCAA tourney seeds and where they're located. Plus, we've proven to find high caliber athletes in both sports, albeit not many in any one year.

As for BBall, outside of Josh and possibly Jason, our players would not sniff a roster of any MWC team outside of Air Force who actually have some respectable and impressive players.

Seriously love Shyatt, but was down in Vegas for the 5th year in a row and regardless of the player suspensions, this team didn't show up. Women and Men out first game, ouch. Five days in Vegas with no teams in the tourney.

Only two of the suspended players saw much playing time but neither are considered "impact". But without them we had zero depth. We need more players who contribute something, anything. If were going to recruit overseas, please make sure they are better players than we can find at Juco's in Wyoming or Colorado. Otherwise don't waste your time.

Shyatt seemed to have recruiting issues at Clemson too, and that's not a bad area to live and attend a large ACC school. Not to mention the fertile HS potential recruiting within a 500 mile radius. I think his coaching and development abilities make up for recruiting weaknesses but it will not get us a consistent MWC champion caliber program.

 

[WyoExpat]

Not many campuses have snow laying on the ground in May during finals week every year. Most other places, the sundresses are out long before May. Snow from Sept.-May can't help.

If I have choices, I would be very tempted to take legs over carhartts when it comes to "scenery" once the season is over.

 

[kansasCowboy]

IDK. Most say we are doing horrid at recruiting. Are we? Five year stint for Shy is young in a "career". In that time we had Nance (NBA); Grabau (Built into a great on the floor leader and ft shooter); DC (had him two years and he became a force); Adams (Record breaker and future NBA). McMan!! ( this guy is exactly what I talk about a few sentences below. Jr and Sr years)
Everyone is big on Naughton. In his freshman year he has shown flashes of being a force down low. Momeka, with a year RS, will be a fresh next year and more of a force as well. People are down on Barnes, but the dude was highly recruited, and I wouldn't call him a bust yet. He's a Soph. One thing that has been very noticeable on a Shy coached team is that players begin to excel at the jr and sr years. Let's see what Barnes brings to the table next year before we call him a bust. Herndon is also young, but is getting into that jr year. He has done well early in his career with a few stumbles here and there. James; everyone is big on him, and he showed flashes of great athleticism his Frosh year. If this kid can control himself off the court, we have a guy who is a mix between Nance and Adams! Conway has a good shot as well of being a good leader. But will need to control himself off the court. Dalton did not come in to the program as anything special, but he worked his ass off and turned into something special himself, and again needs to control off court issues. These guys, on the court, are primed for greatness.
The reason everyone thinks our recruiting is lacking have been the players causing turnover. K. Vernon, would have been a good 6-8 low block guy. He chose to leave. Now he's enjoying a sixth man stint at Grand Canyon avging 8ppg and 5 rpg. I think every recruiting class has had turnover. And one or two of them were significant. This turnover is what has caused us to be such a youthful group this last year.
And as youthful as we were we competed to a 14-18 record. And easily could've been 21-11! That's how close these guys are to turning the corner. Adams did a lot, but I bet we see Shy take this group that will be with eachother for a few more years and slow them back down to grinding out wins.
Off court issues aside, there is a lot of potential on this roster. The same potential that beat NCAA tourney CSB! And went on the road and beat NIT tourney NMSU.

 

[WyoExpat]

IDK. Most say we are doing horrid at recruiting. Are we? Five year stint for Shy is young in a "career". In that time we had Nance (NBA); Grabau (Built into a great on the floor leader and ft shooter); DC (had him two years and he became a force); Adams (Record breaker and future NBA). McMan!! ( this guy is exactly what I talk about a few sentences below. Jr and Sr years)
Everyone is big on Naughton. In his freshman year he has shown flashes of being a force down low. Momeka, with a year RS, will be a fresh next year and more of a force as well. People are down on Barnes, but the dude was highly recruited, and I wouldn't call him a bust yet. He's a Soph. One thing that has been very noticeable on a Shy coached team is that players begin to excel at the jr and sr years. Let's see what Barnes brings to the table next year before we call him a bust. Herndon is also young, but is getting into that jr year. He has done well early in his career with a few stumbles here and there. James; everyone is big on him, and he showed flashes of great athleticism his Frosh year. If this kid can control himself off the court, we have a guy who is a mix between Nance and Adams! Conway has a good shot as well of being a good leader. But will need to control himself off the court. Dalton did not come in to the program as anything special, but he worked his ass off and turned into something special himself, and again needs to control off court issues. These guys, on the court, are primed for greatness.
The reason everyone thinks our recruiting is lacking have been the players causing turnover. K. Vernon, would have been a good 6-8 low block guy. He chose to leave. Now he's enjoying a sixth man stint at Grand Canyon avging 8ppg and 5 rpg. I think every recruiting class has had turnover. And one or two of them were significant. This turnover is what has caused us to be such a youthful group this last year.
And as youthful as we were we competed to a 14-18 record. And easily could've been 21-11! That's how close these guys are to turning the corner. Adams did a lot, but I bet we see Shy take this group that will be with eachother for a few more years and slow them back down to grinding out wins.
Off court issues aside, there is a lot of potential on this roster. The same potential that beat NCAA tourney CSB! And went on the road and beat NIT tourney NMSU.

Great points. Our young team had a down year, but there were flashes of what we have to build on. I am frankly not worried about the state of our program and said as much to a Utah alumnus friend of mine who still pays attention to the MWC from out in California.

 

[NowherePoke]

IDK. Most say we are doing horrid at recruiting. Are we? Five year stint for Shy is young in a "career". In that time we had Nance (NBA); Grabau (Built into a great on the floor leader and ft shooter); DC (had him two years and he became a force); Adams (Record breaker and future NBA). McMan!! ( this guy is exactly what I talk about a few sentences below. Jr and Sr years)
Everyone is big on Naughton. In his freshman year he has shown flashes of being a force down low. Momeka, with a year RS, will be a fresh next year and more of a force as well. People are down on Barnes, but the dude was highly recruited, and I wouldn't call him a bust yet. He's a Soph. One thing that has been very noticeable on a Shy coached team is that players begin to excel at the jr and sr years. Let's see what Barnes brings to the table next year before we call him a bust. Herndon is also young, but is getting into that jr year. He has done well early in his career with a few stumbles here and there. James; everyone is big on him, and he showed flashes of great athleticism his Frosh year. If this kid can control himself off the court, we have a guy who is a mix between Nance and Adams! Conway has a good shot as well of being a good leader. But will need to control himself off the court. Dalton did not come in to the program as anything special, but he worked his ass off and turned into something special himself, and again needs to control off court issues. These guys, on the court, are primed for greatness.
The reason everyone thinks our recruiting is lacking have been the players causing turnover. K. Vernon, would have been a good 6-8 low block guy. He chose to leave. Now he's enjoying a sixth man stint at Grand Canyon avging 8ppg and 5 rpg. I think every recruiting class has had turnover. And one or two of them were significant. This turnover is what has caused us to be such a youthful group this last year.
And as youthful as we were we competed to a 14-18 record. And easily could've been 21-11! That's how close these guys are to turning the corner. Adams did a lot, but I bet we see Shy take this group that will be with eachother for a few more years and slow them back down to grinding out wins.
Off court issues aside, there is a lot of potential on this roster. The same potential that beat NCAA tourney CSB! And went on the road and beat NIT tourney NMSU.

I think Shyatt did a solid job with the 2011, 2012, and 2015 classes, but he whiffed on the 2013/2014 classes and 2016 doesn't look good. Just too tough to build a program that way.

2011 was a mixed bag, but considering he only had the late period and had to sign a large number of players the outcome was pretty solid. Nance by himself makes that class worthwhile, but adding a decent starter in Grabau and another D-1 player in Gilmore is pretty solid considering the late start.

2012 was solid, but a missed opportunity in some ways. Adams/Cooke/Hankerson made up 3 starters on a NCAA team. Combine that with a local project that has developed into a MWC caliber player in JMac and you have a pretty good class. Sellers and Halderson were misses, but that happens. The missed opportunity is that Shyatt had Erik McCree and Stephon Blair on campus with Adams/JMac/Haldorson and couldn't reel them in. Blair was never a dominant force at UCF, but was much better than Sellers and McCree is a stud. Oh well.

2013 is where the problems started, which is kind of ironic because that was right when the program was starting to get some positive momentum as Shyatt had just doubled the program's win total in his first year and brought in some good players in the class of 2012. Instead, we never seemed to get much traction with the 2013 class and ended up signing Vernon, Trey Washington, and Herndon in the fall and Granberry in the spring. Granberry was solid, but Vernon left after never playing, Washington left after several issues and limited on court impact and Herndon has struggled to compete at this level even in his 3rd year although he has some potential. 4 players, only one still on the roster and no impact guys. That's tough.

2014 isn't shaping up much better. Diontae Jones and Tyrell Williams both gone without ever playing. Barnes/Lieberman/Gorski all struggling to keep up athletically at this level.

2015 is the class that can get us back on track. James and Naughton are the most impressive freshmen since Nance in 11-12 and Adams in 12-13. That is no guarantee, but the potential is there. We don't know yet what we have in Moemeka and Conway, but both were highly recruited (by our standards) and are very athletic. I am excited for their potential. Dalton was a reach, but he plays hard and knows how to relax off the court (too soon?).

2016 is very disappointing to me thus far and reminds me of the Steve McClain era. Once again we finally have some success (not as much as with McClain, but some) and we are unable to build on that on the recruiting trail. We had opportunities with some high level prospects but couldn't close the deal.