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watta game

Sunday at 1pm

Rammies are getting boatraced

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any Cowboys?

of players to the transfer portal. They lost 6 women

Link

Show me a bracket of the tournament that the girls are playing in.

Making the MWC look good so far tonight.

It’s dang hard to cheer for the Rams, but since we beat them, I hope they win a game or two.

How many MBB games did you attend in Laramie this year-s 2023-2024 season?

It's time for a major house cleaning at UW athletics and it starts with the Board of Trustees (BoT). The BoT selects the university president and the BoT and university president select the AD that runs UW athletics. Clearly, based on performance, the BoT and university president have a different vision of what UW athletics success means compared to what the fans, alumni and supporters believe. From the time I graduated from UW in 99, I have been a financial supporter and football season ticket holder and I have steadily increased my donations over that time. I waited patiently during the Koenning, Glenn, Christiensen, Bohl, Schroyer and Edwards years for meaningful change. There were signs of hope here and there, but no clear signal mediocrity across all sports at UW wouldn't be accepted.

So how do we as fans, alumni and supporters of UW force change? Unfortunately, we have to do it through donations and ticket sales. For 20 years, I was absolutely against this approach because it hurts the student-athletes we all want to support and I bleed brown and gold just like most of us on this board. The UW fans are sending a message with the men's basketball attendance, but the same thing has to happen with football. Football is the revenue generator and if attendance and ticket sales drop to unprecedented levels for football, the BoT, president and AD will get the message. I have nothing against Saw and what he's doing with the program, and I wish him nothing but success. He just happens to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Maybe the same could be said for Linder.

Over the next week, I will be contacting all my friends, family members and those that I know who are financial supporters of UW athletics asking them to give up their season tickets and stop all donations to UW athletics until a clear path to UW athletics success is communicated by the BoT and university president. For those of you that can't sit around for another 20 years and wait patiently for a MWC championship, it's time!

I love this time of year

The only way to make an NIL collective work is to tie it directly to the administration. NCAA guidance is very clear that certain kinds of institutional support are now ok.

For this to happen, the AD needs to make it a priority. To date, this has not happened.

The successful collectives around the country all have some things in common:
- Management staff with with direct ties to the athletics department (former AD's, deputy AD's, high-profile former players)... If Wyoming was serious about our collective, you'd see someone like Stark, Welniak, Blaylock, McKinney etc. step out of their current or recently retired roles to set up the collective.

- Buy-in from high profile athletics alumni, especially through participation on an "advisory board" or similar. Jordan Love has done this for Utah State, for example. This should have been job #1. An advisory board with Dave Walsh, Slater, Josh, Logan, Gipson, Leckner, Dembo, Josh Adams, Maldo or others should be in place. They don't even have to give money, though some certainly would. It's their prestige that is really valuable. Why this hasn't happened is a complete mystery.

- Contractual relationships with Learfield. Utah State was actually the first to get this done. Learfield controls all the game day signage and football and basketball broadcasts. The USU collective has a deal with them that provides them signage and advertising time. I believe this is provided for a very low or nominal cost, with the idea being that a successful collective will help create more successful teams, and more successful teams will draw more eyeballs to the advertising Learfield promotes and sells to their other clients.

- A contractual relationship with a significant, national 501c3 organization to make tax deductible gifts possible. The largest one in this space is called the BPS Foundation. It was established by a company called Blueprint Sports. Schools as diverse as Arizona, Penn State and some MW schools use this. They were established because of the IRS guidance that denied non-profit status for collectives. The typical arrangement is that a large-gift donor (anything greater than $1,000) can give tax free dollars to the BPS Foundation. BPS Foundation then pays the athletes directly at the direction of the individual collectives (for a small administrative fee, of course). It's like money laundering but legal, and very common.

Wyoming's collective has been set up to fail. The items I listed above are so simple that it's impossible to draw any other conclusion. That's the sad reality. Burman made very clear that he doesn't think NIL fits the Wyoming mindset, and also that he is concerned that collective fundraising could harm the prospects of the Cowboy Joe Club. Until we get a change at the top, we're stuck where we are.

We likely have four wins against NCAA Tourney teams, and two conference champions, regular season and Tourney champs on top of it. For a team one game under .500 we didn't do that bad this year and we still have a game or game(s) to go. Linder has the chops to get this ship righted I believe.

Can someone please find Sternberg's Athletic Department report from the trash heap?

I will preface this by saying that I do not agree in the overall principle of allowing player transfer without any implications. Not saying I am in favor of the old ways but I think the new rules need tweaking. With the NIL money and the portal, the state of college athletics has become a state of chaos and I think long term it ultimately hurts the college athlete, teaching them that any obstacle in their way can be easily be solved by giving up and moving on.

But to use the cliche, it is what it is. College coaches with have to adapt or die. UW is a good example of two different ways of approaching the changing ways of the world. The Wyoming football program is disintegrating before our eyes, but the basketball team is thriving. Bohl has put a band aid over a flesh wound by fixing the attrition with the portal but his 1950s offense is the elephant in the room. Bohl can find linebackers and defensive linemen but finding another Neyor is a pipe dream. Using Bohl's logic the portal hurts the program, big time. No longer can he con athletes to play wide out and block all game. And any conference title aspirations are probably done as long as Bohl is at the helm. In 2022, there is no such thing as a "developmental program".

Meanwhile Linder has an up and coming program and if he chooses, can rapidly make the Cowboy roster a conference power by adding a few older transfer players. Most Cowboy hoops fans would acknowledge we are roughly two or three players away from being a serious contender. In addition, in the old days, players like Dut that didn't really fit would hesitate to leave because they didnt want to sit out the transfer year, but now can clear a roster spot immediately for the Cowboys and the athlete can go find a program that fits their skills. Its a win, win.

Its apparent that the portal is not really bad or good, it is a tool. If you are an old has-been, stuck in the days of leather helmets you will suffer. If you are innovative and progressive, not only will you survive, you will thrive. The transfer portal will FORCE the college coaches to fix the issues in their program IMMEDIATELY instead of kicking the can down the road or ignoring it. I am done bitching about the portal and hope that leadership and the AD will adapt. Again, it is, what it is.

Does UW and its' fans support basketball enough to make you want to coach here? I'd argue we don't. I'd be looking!

no surprise

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Seeds headed into the tourney:
As mentioned by SWWYOPOKE, Volk is number five and will wrestle the #28 seed from Harvard.

Novak is the #17 seed and will wrestle the #16 seed from Princeton.

Willochell is the #22 seed and will wrestle the #11 seed from Rider.

Release:

These wrestlers represent a sophomore, a freshman, and a redshirt sophomore respectively.

Not making an at a large bid was #33 Cole Brooks (the NCAA takes 33 wrestlers per weight class…so he was close)…also a freshman.

So, there is some really good youth on this team and Branch did a great job with the last class concerning both true freshman and transfers and I hope none transfer out.

One thing I wonder about is the assistant coaches….the two main assistants both being former Wyoming wrestlers and both in their first jobs. They seem to be doing well, but the lack of experience is noticeable at least on paper. Not sure how that compares to OU, OSU, etc….or maybe it is not a concern at all as Branch certainly appears comfortable with them, especially after the last assistant went back to OU and took multiple Wyoming wrestlers with him.

Regardless, Wyoming very much needs to keep climbing the hill and improving. Looking across teams, the following all qualified a wrestler for NCAAs in every weight class: Cornell, Minnesota, Missouri,
Oklahoma State, Penn State, Virginia Tech, NC State. Surprised that Navy even had five qualifiers.

• Wyoming Game Notes
• Live Coverage

LARAMIE, Wyo. (March 7, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowboys close the regular season on Saturday at 5 p.m MT with a trip to Fresno State. It will be the first of back-to-back contests against the two schools as the two will meet in the first round of the Mountain West Championship next Wednesday in Las Vegas.



The contest will be streamed on the Mountain West Network. Fans can watch, listen to the contest, as well as follow stats on GoWyo.com. The game will be broadcast live on radio over the 26 affiliate stations of the Cowboy Sports Network, as Keith Kelly will be on the call alongside Kevin McKinney.



About The Teams

Wyoming is 14-16 overall and 7-10 in conference play after defeating Air force 74-63 on Tuesday. Wyoming is shooting 44.7 percent from the field for the season and allowing opponents to shoot 45.7 percent. UW is shooting 36.6 percent from behind the arc, a number that ranks first in the MW. UW grabs 34.4 rebounds per game and are +0.9 on the glass this season. Wyoming is shooting 74.6 percent from the free throw line to rank second in the conference.



Fresno State heads into the contest with a 11-19 overall record and a 4-13 mark in conference play after falling on the road to New Mexico by a score of 79-58 on Wednesday. The Bulldogs are scoring 678 points per game and are allowing 73.1 points per game. Fresno State is shooting 45.7 percent from the field and opponents are shooting 46.0 percent. Fresno forces 6.1 turnovers per game.



About The Players

Wyoming is led in scoring this season by Sam Griffin at 17 points per game for fourth in the MW. He has scored 20 or more points in 11 games this season. He also leads the team adding 3.3 assists per game. He went over 2,000 career points on Tuesday against Air Force. Akuel Kot adds 13.6 points per game. He has scored in double-figures in 23 games this season. Mason Walters adds 12.4 points per game and Brendan Wenzel adds 11.5 per night and scored 20 points against Air Force. Cam Manyawu adds 6.9 rebounds per game to lead the Pokes this season and rank eighth in the conference. He had a career-high 14 against Air Force on Tuesday.



The Bulldogs are led in scoring by Isaiah Hill at 12.3 points per game for the season. He also adds six assists per game and 3.2 rebounds. He also leads the team with 38 steals. Xavier DuSell adds 11.8 points per game and has recorded 83 triples for the season shooting 39.5 percent. Donovan Yap adds 8.7 points per game.



About The Series

The Cowboys trail the all-time series against the Bulldogs 22-16 in a series that dates back to 1972. UW is 4-15 against Fresno State in Fresno. UW has won four of the last five meeting between the schools.



Up Next

Wyoming heads to the Mountain West Tournament on Wednesday in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and will be the eighth seed facing No. 9 Fresno State at Noon MT in a contest on the Mountain West Network.