WTF

[stymeman]

i've never ever been worried about our D, it's our streaky shooting that causing pepto bismol moments!!!

 

[BeaverPoke]

Our perimeter problems are on the offense not defense? What?
We give up SO many 3's to nobody teams EVERY game.
And we have Grabau who is among the nations leaders in 3 point percentage...How is that an offensive problem???

We give up so many 3's on defense...

Opponents shoot 30% from 3 against the Pokes. That puts the Pokes in the top 25% of teams nationally in opponent 3FG%.

Of course, we play a lot of weak teams, so that is part of it.

Still, even if you adjust for opponent strength, the Pokes are a much better defensive team than offensive (AdjD ranking on KenPom = 77, AdjO = 172) and while the lack of production from Cooke is an issue, the production from Nance offsets that. The weak offensive ranking is because our guards can't create looks on offense.

Instead of looking at the stats for the entire game, watch when the Pokes are in a struggle with someone. When it comes down to crunch time, the other team ALWAYS gets open for 3. I've been noticing it all season. Maybe throughout the rest of the game, they can't shoot on us, but when it's crunch time, we suck at defending the 3. In 3 of our 4 losses, that happened.

 

[NowherePoke]

Our perimeter problems are on the offense not defense? What?
We give up SO many 3's to nobody teams EVERY game.
And we have Grabau who is among the nations leaders in 3 point percentage...How is that an offensive problem???

We give up so many 3's on defense...

Opponents shoot 30% from 3 against the Pokes. That puts the Pokes in the top 25% of teams nationally in opponent 3FG%.

Of course, we play a lot of weak teams, so that is part of it.

Still, even if you adjust for opponent strength, the Pokes are a much better defensive team than offensive (AdjD ranking on KenPom = 77, AdjO = 172) and while the lack of production from Cooke is an issue, the production from Nance offsets that. The weak offensive ranking is because our guards can't create looks on offense.

Instead of looking at the stats for the entire game, watch when the Pokes are in a struggle with someone. When it comes down to crunch time, the other team ALWAYS gets open for 3. I've been noticing it all season. Maybe throughout the rest of the game, they can't shoot on us, but when it's crunch time, we suck at defending the 3. In 3 of our 4 losses, that happened.

I've seen most of the games and all of the losses and I don't see it that way.

CU: CU only went 3-12 in the whole game and only one down the stretch (Booker hit one with 5 min to go)

OSU: OSU went 8-23, which is more than you would like to give up, but only two in the 2nd half and frankly OSU is the best team we will play all year.

DU: 6-18 and only one in the last 15 min

SMU: 2-7, which we would gladly take in any game


The CU and SMU games had great perimeter defensive production, while the other two were average but against difficult teams to defend.

 

[laxwyo]

We cannot hit jumpshots is out main problem. Other teams can.

 

[NowherePoke]

Well guys, all in all- we don't have much in the cupboard right now. Very unimpressive performance thus far, especially in the recruiting ranks. We will struggle against opponents w/ taller athletic guards, and if Nance is not on the floor- we will be exposed for no real scoring options. It really doesn't matter if we love Shyatt or not, his Coaching ability is not the question in this thread; his players performance on the court is. I will be surprised if we go .500 in conference- even in a down year, at this juncture of the schedule. Fingers crossed, not a good feeling.

I agree with this for the most part. Shyatt's recruiting has been very underwhelming. This most recent class gives me some hope, but I'm still not convinced it is where it needs to be to be a title contender in the MWC. We have way too many guys incapable of contributing on this team right now. Regardless of what has occurred in the past, Wyoming is not a place that is likely to get commits straight from the high school ranks with the talent level to be a MWC title contender. With UNLV, Sand Diego State, and New Mexico routinely pulling in 4 star guys, Wyoming just isn't going to be able to match that talent level by farming the high school ranks alone. I've stated this before, but I really believe Wyoming needs to concentrate on transfers and JC guys for the majority of their high level talent. The high school ranks are great for filling out the team with role players and solid, fundamentally sound basketball players.

CSU is a great example of this. Look at last years team. Colton Iverson, a transfer from Minnesota, and Wes Eikmeirer, a transfer from Iowa State, were two huge pices of that team. Without those two players, there is no way CSU performs as well as they did last year. Their best player this year, JJ Avila, is a Navy transfer and has single handedly prevented a catastrophic drop in the MWC conference for CSU this year. They would be a bottom feeder this year without him. The whole transfer thing seems to working out pretty well for CSU. Half of UNLV's roster is transfers. While they started the season slowly, that team has looked legitimate in the past few weeks. Add in the fact that Wyoming has some of the top JC programs in the nation, and I'm a bit perplexed why those guys aren't more heavily recruited. Remi Dibo, a versatile forward out of Casper College, has looked pretty good this season for Bob Huggins and West Virginia. Just my thoughts though.

Agree on transfers. Of course, the reality is that the current Wyoming team plays 7 players significant minutes and 4 of them are transfers, so we already head down that road to an extent.

We recruited Dibo (twice, under two different coaching staffs actually), we just lost. That is a recurring theme and probably more concerning than Shyatt's actual recruiting strategy. We have targeted some quality HS, JC, and D-1 transfers that we have lost out on.

Rashad Muhammad has been very impressive as a true freshman for an admittedly poor SJSU team. We had him on campus and lost out to a team that plays in front of nobody and was objectively awful last year (albeit with a new coach this year of course).

TJ Sapp is another one, a D-1 transfer from Clemson that chose Murray State instead. He was a mid-year transfer and has averaged 20 ppg in his first two games at Murray (an admittedly small sample).

There were several others as well.

Another note on recruiting and transfers: I have been disappointed in the general lack of recruiting impact from Duncan, and in particular I am wondering why we couldn't get involved on two key UCLA transfers that ended up in the Big West/WCC despite his UCLA ties and the fact that he coached those players. One is Brendan Lane(6'9", 235) who is averaging 15/9 for Pepperdine. He only had one year of eligibility, but still. The other is Tyler Lamb(6'5", 205) who is averaging over 20 ppg for LBSU since becoming eligible at midseason.

 

[WyoExpat]

Well guys, all in all- we don't have much in the cupboard right now. Very unimpressive performance thus far, especially in the recruiting ranks. We will struggle against opponents w/ taller athletic guards, and if Nance is not on the floor- we will be exposed for no real scoring options. It really doesn't matter if we love Shyatt or not, his Coaching ability is not the question in this thread; his players performance on the court is. I will be surprised if we go .500 in conference- even in a down year, at this juncture of the schedule. Fingers crossed, not a good feeling.

I agree with this for the most part. Shyatt's recruiting has been very underwhelming. This most recent class gives me some hope, but I'm still not convinced it is where it needs to be to be a title contender in the MWC. We have way too many guys incapable of contributing on this team right now. Regardless of what has occurred in the past, Wyoming is not a place that is likely to get commits straight from the high school ranks with the talent level to be a MWC title contender. With UNLV, Sand Diego State, and New Mexico routinely pulling in 4 star guys, Wyoming just isn't going to be able to match that talent level by farming the high school ranks alone. I've stated this before, but I really believe Wyoming needs to concentrate on transfers and JC guys for the majority of their high level talent. The high school ranks are great for filling out the team with role players and solid, fundamentally sound basketball players.

CSU is a great example of this. Look at last years team. Colton Iverson, a transfer from Minnesota, and Wes Eikmeirer, a transfer from Iowa State, were two huge pices of that team. Without those two players, there is no way CSU performs as well as they did last year. Their best player this year, JJ Avila, is a Navy transfer and has single handedly prevented a catastrophic drop in the MWC conference for CSU this year. They would be a bottom feeder this year without him. The whole transfer thing seems to working out pretty well for CSU. Half of UNLV's roster is transfers. While they started the season slowly, that team has looked legitimate in the past few weeks. Add in the fact that Wyoming has some of the top JC programs in the nation, and I'm a bit perplexed why those guys aren't more heavily recruited. Remi Dibo, a versatile forward out of Casper College, has looked pretty good this season for Bob Huggins and West Virginia. Just my thoughts though.

Agree on transfers. Of course, the reality is that the current Wyoming team plays 7 players significant minutes and 4 of them are transfers, so we already head down that road to an extent.

We recruited Dibo (twice, under two different coaching staffs actually), we just lost. That is a recurring theme and probably more concerning than Shyatt's actual recruiting strategy. We have targeted some quality HS, JC, and D-1 transfers that we have lost out on.

Rashad Muhammad has been very impressive as a true freshman for an admittedly poor SJSU team. We had him on campus and lost out to a team that plays in front of nobody and was objectively awful last year (albeit with a new coach this year of course).

TJ Sapp is another one, a D-1 transfer from Clemson that chose Murray State instead. He was a mid-year transfer and has averaged 20 ppg in his first two games at Murray (an admittedly small sample).

There were several others as well.

Another note on recruiting and transfers: I have been disappointed in the general lack of recruiting impact from Duncan, and in particular I am wondering why we couldn't get involved on two key UCLA transfers that ended up in the Big West/WCC despite his UCLA ties and the fact that he coached those players. One is Brendan Lane(6'9", 235) who is averaging 15/9 for Pepperdine. He only had one year of eligibility, but still. The other is Tyler Lamb(6'5", 205) who is averaging over 20 ppg for LBSU since becoming eligible at midseason.

Perhaps Coach Duncan knows something about the whole package on those guys that the box score does not show?

I heard Coach Farenz of Iowa on a radio interview tonight and he made a comment about how both his administration and Iowans know that even a good program has up years and down years. It seems that he and Bob Stoops are among the longest-serving coaches at their respective programs. I think we can learn from these examples. Even in the bad years we cannot assume that either Iowa or Oklahoma are hopeless against any team they play. Is there any team on the schedule this year that we know we will lose to? I say 'No' and therefore we are in a good place. We will not win them all, but I expect this team to beat teams they are supposed to lose to. The football team under DC could not do that. Coach Glenn got some unexpected wins.

I do not expect perfection. I do like that the individual players seem to be getting better the longer they work with Coach Shyatt. I also note that the Pokes are more apt to run on someone this year with more guards than they were in past years when we had a dominant-but-shallow frontcourt.

At the end of the day, we will not win games when we cannot hit jumpshots. However, Coach Shyatt has a system in place that puts the team in contention for every game--even if they are shooting ice cold.

 

[TheRealUW]

Another note on recruiting and transfers: I have been disappointed in the general lack of recruiting impact from Duncan, and in particular I am wondering why we couldn't get involved on two key UCLA transfers that ended up in the Big West/WCC despite his UCLA ties and the fact that he coached those players. One is Brendan Lane(6'9", 235) who is averaging 15/9 for Pepperdine. He only had one year of eligibility, but still. The other is Tyler Lamb(6'5", 205) who is averaging over 20 ppg for LBSU since becoming eligible at midseason.

I agree completely with you. I was especially disappointed to not see UW involved on Tyler Lamb. There are so many high level transfers every single year in college basketball that there is no reason UW can't land one on a consistent basis, especially with all of the "contacts" Shyatt and Duncan supposedly have within the college basketball world.

Unfortunately, highly skilled transfers and JUCO players often have off-court concerns that have led to their transfer or being in JUCO in the first place. Shyatt has really made it a point of emphasis to avoid guys with these sorts of issues, whether they be academic or behavioral. Shyatt's recruiting model has been to look for high character players first and then go for the best talent within that pool. So far, he has missed on many of his top prospects and it shows on the court in MWC play. His guys play with hustle and guts, but are overmatched in terms of talent when it comes to the best MWC teams. Outside of Nance, this year's team is honestly made up of lower tier MWC talent that will likely overachieve and finish in the middle of the pack.

I wonder how long it will be until Shyatt realizes he may have to take a chance on a player or two should he want to compete for a MWC crown. I just don't see UW ever getting the necessary talent straight out of high school to be a conference title contender, at least not as long as SDSU, New Mexico, and UNLV are in the league.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Again, people talk about how Nance is the only player we have. Meanwhile Adams is just putting up over 11 points a game and can guard the best guards in the MWC.

And with the talk of the transfer play, we do have Hankseron and Granberry. Will it pan out? I don't know, I am not really expecting it but don't think it's fair to say that they haven't panned out.

We can all see it, they are on the verge of being really good. If they would shoot the damn ball.