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Wyoming High School Basketball Players

C

Coeur d' Alene

Well-known member
The contributions of Wyoming basketball players to the UW programs history is a pretty crazy thing to think about. I wanted to talk about the last 20 years and hoped to hear about the last 100

Wyoming HS players and their recruitment/lack of recruitment is a huge deal in the UW basketball fan base.

There's some important names/guys that have shaped this programs name/recent history. A lot of them are from Wyoming. Jaycee Carroll, James, Johnson, Garret Patik are almost as important of names to this program as joby, joe Abunasar, and I dare say Marc Bailey.


Does anyone want to share their thoughts (for entertainment purposes) on any Wyoming HS basketball player that was or wasn't a Wyo player?

Gregg Sawyer- this guy is the ultimate "Hoosier" movie character guy there will ever be. Don't ever hope for Kenny sailors part 2. It already happened. Gregg Sawyer.

Patik- luckiest Wyoming ever got PR wise? Patik getting hurt in high school. joby (and I'm a HUGE Joby guy) dropped the ball on Patik (and we barely even know). Pre injury Patik? Best player to play high school basketball in Wyoming I've seen (and I'm a huge James Johnson guy in addition to being a big Joby guy.) Patik ended up the best player on his d1 team. That team was csu and it could've been Wyoming instead.

Carroll- this guy could've been Wyoming. Wyoming coaches just didn't believe in it. He was wildly successful for every team that ever wanted to give them that shot. 45 a game in high school should always get attention. Even in wyo. even if it was at Wyoming Indian or chug water. This was at Evanston. In 4A

Johnson. I hold a strong belief that this guy could have easily played at UW. McClains 2 strikes for me (and I love Joby, James Johnson, and McClain) were Jaycee Caroll and James Johnson handling.


Anyone else have anything about Wyoming high school players that were or should have been Cowboys?
 
Patik his dad was my head coach and i watched this kid grow and grow and grow, he's truly a good kid although he went to Sheeep U.

Johnson coulda been one of the best athletes we woulda ever seen at UW, but he had dreams of the $$ far too soon, he was ok at Wake

Carroll don't remember much cuz i lived outta state at the time, but from what i heard he was a true shooter, too bad the Brown and Gold couldn't keep him in state, but I do remember him at USU, good guy

Sawyer was a good player wouldn't say great but was a good support player for us.

Bailey, well we all know quite the player just too bad that injury cuz the sky coulda been the limit for him

I really can't think of too many more, as at 1st i didn't think Jason was gonna pan out to much, but man with all his hard work and dedication becoming quite the Cowboy.

Being from Buffalo i wish Tyser coulda saw a bit more P.T.

I remember Enzi, Scott Powers from Sheridan, Brian Rewers from Thermop, Lee Mayberry from East, Traylor from East, right now that's all i can think of.....sure wish we could get a few more to come to UW as i think Hunter Thompson from Pine Bluffs could be a great addition for us as well....
 
A couple of thoughts:

1. I can't speak to Patik in High School, but I saw him in College plenty and your description of him as a college player misses the mark by a mile. He was a role player at best and didn't start until his senior year at CSU when he was still just the 5th leading scorer on a 6th place MWC team (the Pokes were a 1st place team with a frontcourt of Uche/Davis backed up Ugo/Mingo, we didn't miss Patik).

2. Other than Patik, it is interesting how Wyoming has produced a handful of really high level college basketball players (Carroll, Sawyer, Bailey, Johnson) with relatively few role players (JMac, Waddell, Patik, Bullinger) considering the majority of D1 players are role players.

3. The other thing that jumps out is just how few D-1 players we have produced in the last 10 years or so and despite the high profile of Carroll and Johnson, just how few we have missed out on. If you look over the last 10-15 years, I would say those are the only two players that we really missed out on. Bullinger had a decent career at Weber, but would not have been a game changer in the MWC. Tim Thomas (Pacific), Jake Schmidt (Utah) and Andy Martin (Montana) were all big guys that didn't pan out at the D1 level.

The biggest recent miss on a Wyoming kid is a kid that isn't technically a Wyoming HS player, but played at Kimball HS in Nebraska and is the son of two UW athletes. Michael Daum is having a great RS Fr. season at South Dakota State (a team better than the Pokes). We missed on that one.
 
NowherePoke said:
A couple of thoughts:

The biggest recent miss on a Wyoming kid is a kid that isn't technically a Wyoming HS player, but played at Kimball HS in Nebraska and is the son of two UW athletes. Michael Daum is having a great RS Fr. season at South Dakota State (a team better than the Pokes). We missed on that one.
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Maybe, but definitely not a slam dunk. Both teams have played two similar opponents. Wyoming beat Omaha in Laramie (close win) and blew out DU in Denver. SDST split with Omaha and beat DU, by a smaller margin, on their home court. I'd give them the advantage based on record.

Daum does look like he could have been a good get. Who would you have traded for him?

One Wyoming high school player that I remember from back in the day was Rod Tyson. We a star for Laramie (beat my hometown Lander team in the state tourney). Was a decent roll player for the Pokes.
 
JimmyDimes said:
NowherePoke said:
A couple of thoughts:

The biggest recent miss on a Wyoming kid is a kid that isn't technically a Wyoming HS player, but played at Kimball HS in Nebraska and is the son of two UW athletes. Michael Daum is having a great RS Fr. season at South Dakota State (a team better than the Pokes). We missed on that one.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but definitely not a slam dunk. Both teams have played two similar opponents. Wyoming beat Omaha in Laramie (close win) and blew out DU in Denver. SDST split with Omaha and beat DU, by a smaller margin, on their home court. I'd give them the advantage based on record.

Daum does look like he could have been a good get. Who would you have traded for him?

One Wyoming high school player that I remember from back in the day was Rod Tyson. We a star for Laramie (beat my hometown Lander team in the state tourney). Was a decent roll player for the Pokes.
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In terms of South Dakota St., they are a Top 50 RPI team that will be at minimum in the NIT. We aren't even close. Isolating a couple of games doesn't really give you a complete picture. We won in the Pit and took Cal to OT. We also lost to Montana St., AFA, and SJSU.

In terms of who I would trade for Daum, the easy answer in the class is Diontae Jones, but that is with the benefit of hindsight. The reality is that it probably would have been in place of Barnes.
 
Also Dale Reed out of Baggs, went to Iowa then transferred to Washington State I think.

What ever happened to the kid out of Thermopolis? He was a big scoring player, not sure he played d1 though.
 
NowherePoke said:
A couple of thoughts:

1. I can't speak to Patik in High School, but I saw him in College plenty and your description of him as a college player misses the mark by a mile. He was a role player at best and didn't start until his senior year at CSU when he was still just the 5th leading scorer on a 6th place MWC team (the Pokes were a 1st place team with a frontcourt of Uche/Davis backed up Ugo/Mingo, we didn't miss Patik).

2. Other than Patik, it is interesting how Wyoming has produced a handful of really high level college basketball players (Carroll, Sawyer, Bailey, Johnson) with relatively few role players (JMac, Waddell, Patik, Bullinger) considering the majority of D1 players are role players.

3. The other thing that jumps out is just how few D-1 players we have produced in the last 10 years or so and despite the high profile of Carroll and Johnson, just how few we have missed out on. If you look over the last 10-15 years, I would say those are the only two players that we really missed out on. Bullinger had a decent career at Weber, but would not have been a game changer in the MWC. Tim Thomas (Pacific), Jake Schmidt (Utah) and Andy Martin (Montana) were all big guys that didn't pan out at the D1 level.

The biggest recent miss on a Wyoming kid is a kid that isn't technically a Wyoming HS player, but played at Kimball HS in Nebraska and is the son of two UW athletes. Michael Daum is having a great RS Fr. season at South Dakota State (a team better than the Pokes). We missed on that one.
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That's why I say Wyoming got lucky with Patik getting hurt. Yeah the stats show him as the 5th leading scorer for that csu team but he was really the guy that kind of got that team together. He was the best player on csu his senior year. Junior in high school? (Pre knee injury). He was the best high school player you could see in Wyoming. He would've been in the big 12 prob.


This daum kid is an interesting case. This is def a guy Wyoming "turned down". Hope he does well, too bad it isn't at Wyoming. But we don't know. I still believe Dalton gives this program a lot down the road.
 
The Thermopolis kid you may be thinking of is Jake Schmidt. Recruited by Majerus at Utah and played one season. Majerus stepped down and the new coaching staff did not renew his scholarship. Not sure what happened to him after leaving Utah.

Wyoming really missed on Collins and Smith in the mid-70's. Led Weber State to two consecutive NCAA tourney bids. Another kid around that time that was quite the player was Gary Phipps out of Glenrock. Believe he was D-1 material but had ankle/foot issues that ended his career. Was too bad as he could really play.
 
Coeur d' Alene said:
Hunter Thompson is huge for this program. I would count Parker Stewart as home grown as well.
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And it is cool to see Larry at the 1A/2A state tourney in Casper to watch Hunter and others play shows that he's invested in trying to find Wyo kids to come to UW, Good job Papa Shy, readers here get out to a regional or state there is some good ball in W.Y.O
 
stymeman said:
Coeur d' Alene said:
Hunter Thompson is huge for this program. I would count Parker Stewart as home grown as well.
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And it is cool to see Larry at the 1A/2A state tourney in Casper to watch Hunter and others play shows that he's invested in trying to find Wyo kids to come to UW, Good job Papa Shy, readers here get out to a regional or state there is some good ball in W.Y.O
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He's only interested in one kid. He's not wasting time on Wyoming state tournaments unless there is real talent there.
 
Patik wasn't coming to UW, it was as simple as that. I dated a girl from Buffalo who knew him pretty well, and there was never any thought for him of coming to UW. I can't remember exactly why - maybe there was a family connection to CSEwe? - but he wasn't coming here, no matter how much Joby recruited him.

Water under the bridge though. As long as Shyatt is trying to get the good ones from here on out, I'm good with it.

GO POKES!
 
Vancopoke said:
The Thermopolis kid you may be thinking of is Jake Schmidt. Recruited by Majerus at Utah and played one season. Majerus stepped down and the new coaching staff did not renew his scholarship. Not sure what happened to him after leaving Utah.

Wyoming really missed on Collins and Smith in the mid-70's. Led Weber State to two consecutive NCAA tourney bids. Another kid around that time that was quite the player was Gary Phipps out of Glenrock. Believe he was D-1 material but had ankle/foot issues that ended his career. Was too bad as he could really play.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't the Schmidt kid, the guy I'm thinking was a guard don't think he played d1. For some reason I'm thinking his name was Miller or something.
 
wyo 1 said:
Vancopoke said:
The Thermopolis kid you may be thinking of is Jake Schmidt. Recruited by Majerus at Utah and played one season. Majerus stepped down and the new coaching staff did not renew his scholarship. Not sure what happened to him after leaving Utah.

Wyoming really missed on Collins and Smith in the mid-70's. Led Weber State to two consecutive NCAA tourney bids. Another kid around that time that was quite the player was Gary Phipps out of Glenrock. Believe he was D-1 material but had ankle/foot issues that ended his career. Was too bad as he could really play.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't the Schmidt kid, the guy I'm thinking was a guard don't think he played d1. For some reason I'm thinking his name was Miller or something.
Click to expand...

Nathan Miller. He was right after Schmidt I think. Not sure what happened to him.

That did remind me though of a Wyoming HS player that I completely forgot about which is Michael Dietz. Signed with the Pokes but didn't pan out.

I also forgot to mention Taran Brown, who played quite a bit at UCSB (played against WYO a couple of years ago).
 
NowherePoke said:
wyo 1 said:
Vancopoke said:
The Thermopolis kid you may be thinking of is Jake Schmidt. Recruited by Majerus at Utah and played one season. Majerus stepped down and the new coaching staff did not renew his scholarship. Not sure what happened to him after leaving Utah.

Wyoming really missed on Collins and Smith in the mid-70's. Led Weber State to two consecutive NCAA tourney bids. Another kid around that time that was quite the player was Gary Phipps out of Glenrock. Believe he was D-1 material but had ankle/foot issues that ended his career. Was too bad as he could really play.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't the Schmidt kid, the guy I'm thinking was a guard don't think he played d1. For some reason I'm thinking his name was Miller or something.
Click to expand...

Nathan Miller. He was right after Schmidt I think. Not sure what happened to him.

That did remind me though of a Wyoming HS player that I completely forgot about which is Michael Dietz. Signed with the Pokes but didn't pan out.

I also forgot to mention Taran Brown, who played quite a bit at UCSB (played against WYO a couple of years ago).
Click to expand...

That's the guy Nowhere, as for Dietz, I think he went somewhere in South Dakota. You mention Dietz, reminded me his teammate Tommy Earl went and played at Metro state I think.
 
wyo 1 said:
NowherePoke said:
wyo 1 said:
Vancopoke said:
The Thermopolis kid you may be thinking of is Jake Schmidt. Recruited by Majerus at Utah and played one season. Majerus stepped down and the new coaching staff did not renew his scholarship. Not sure what happened to him after leaving Utah.

Wyoming really missed on Collins and Smith in the mid-70's. Led Weber State to two consecutive NCAA tourney bids. Another kid around that time that was quite the player was Gary Phipps out of Glenrock. Believe he was D-1 material but had ankle/foot issues that ended his career. Was too bad as he could really play.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't the Schmidt kid, the guy I'm thinking was a guard don't think he played d1. For some reason I'm thinking his name was Miller or something.
Click to expand...

Nathan Miller. He was right after Schmidt I think. Not sure what happened to him.

That did remind me though of a Wyoming HS player that I completely forgot about which is Michael Dietz. Signed with the Pokes but didn't pan out.

I also forgot to mention Taran Brown, who played quite a bit at UCSB (played against WYO a couple of years ago).
Click to expand...

That's the guy Nowhere, as for Dietz, I think he went somewhere in South Dakota. You mention Dietz, reminded me his teammate Tommy Earl went and played at Metro state I think.
Click to expand...

Your comment just reminded me of one player that I actually think really could have helped the Pokes and I can't believe I forgot: Art Steward. He played JC ball and then had a solid 2 years at Montana. His brother played D1 as well (NMSU/UNC) but never seemed to have a big impact. Art could have played at UW though.
 
Galand Thaxton Jr. I was out of the country and I came back and heard that Galand grew like 8 inches and played one season for the Cowboys and I was like wtf, Galand? Wonder what happened to him.
 
Myron Chavez could have played at UW. Went to UNLV, then Casper College, and eventually back to the reservation. Great talent and should have stayed in State immediately, might have adapted to college life being closer to home.
 
NowherePoke said:
wyo 1 said:
Vancopoke said:
The Thermopolis kid you may be thinking of is Jake Schmidt. Recruited by Majerus at Utah and played one season. Majerus stepped down and the new coaching staff did not renew his scholarship. Not sure what happened to him after leaving Utah.

Wyoming really missed on Collins and Smith in the mid-70's. Led Weber State to two consecutive NCAA tourney bids. Another kid around that time that was quite the player was Gary Phipps out of Glenrock. Believe he was D-1 material but had ankle/foot issues that ended his career. Was too bad as he could really play.
Click to expand...

No it wasn't the Schmidt kid, the guy I'm thinking was a guard don't think he played d1. For some reason I'm thinking his name was Miller or something.
Click to expand...

Nathan Miller. He was right after Schmidt I think. Not sure what happened to him.

That did remind me though of a Wyoming HS player that I completely forgot about which is Michael Dietz. Signed with the Pokes but didn't pan out.

I also forgot to mention Taran Brown, who played quite a bit at UCSB (played against WYO a couple of years ago).
Click to expand...
All I remember was Miller getting into trouble for blowing up a mailbox while he was at Northwest College.
http://trib.com/sports/college/two-northwest-college-athletes-face-arson-charges/article_f646be0a-e26d-5d16-948b-183d0361c7dc.html
 
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