Thank you to both Basketball teams (Men's and Women's) for giving us a silver lining this weekend. A few thoughts about both:
Men's
1. Our Turn - We pretty much stole that one like Texas Southern stole the game from us last week. Not that either team was underserving, but in both cases the home team is pretty much left like "what the hell just happened". I guess this makes us even on the season in that regard.
2. The Future (Part 1) - I still think we have a lot of losses coming our way this year, but even with that this team is just fun in ways that AE's teams weren't. Part of it is that we are young and nothing is more fun as a college basketball fan at this level than watching a group grow over a couple of years. I know some on here didn't like the Shyatt teams, but that core Grabau/Adams/Nance/Hankerson/Cooke group will always hold a special place to me, not just because of the MWCT and NCAA appearance, but because of how we were able to watch them grow and develop together over 3 years (4 for Nance/Grabau). This group of underclassmen (Oden, DuSell, Williams, Foster, Marble, Nelson, and Ike) is poised to develop the same way. The second part is how this team plays. Good energy, communication, and working together. It doesn't always work out, but there is a lot to enjoy.
3. The Future (Part 2) - Let's discuss more about the freshmen, because I really can't remember a group of freshmen that have been this productive this quickly in their college careers. Marcus Williams (future MWC Freshman of the Year) was the 3rd leading scorer yesterday....among freshmen! One thing that really stood out to me was near the very end of the game, we were up 3 and getting ready to play defense on a critical position and Linder had (3) true freshmen on the court (DuSell committed a foul and fouled out on the possession). IOW, at the absolute most critical moment he trusted (3) true freshmen to defend a PAC12 opponent on the road. That says something about Linder, but it says a lot about the players. Oden's ability just jumps off the screen, not just the athleticism, but he is pretty smooth and skilled. Still getting used to D-1 and could use some additional strength, but he is going to be really good. Williams looks like a senior out there at times. If you didn't know better, there is no way you would guess he is a freshman. DuSell has really impressed me the last couple of games. He came billed as a shooter, which he is, but is pretty good off the dribble as well. He isn't a Jeffries/Hendricks type 3-point specialist at all, he has a much more diverse offensive game.
4. Linder Recruiting - Building on the last item, obviously we have to be impressed with Linder's first recruiting class. The type of player he recruits is interesting to me. When you are coaching at a place like Wyoming there will always be some trade-offs in recruiting. You may occasionally win a battle against a school higher up the food chain (or go the opposite way in AE's case), but in general the recruiting level will settle in at an Upper Mid-Major/Mid-Lower tier MWC level. Success is built on talent evaluation, development, roster management, and game preparation. The trade-offs in recruiting can come in many forms, it could be height, athleticism, strength, skill set, or even academics/character. Most of the time you will have a mix on the roster. I referenced the Nance team earlier, that group included a phyiscal late-bloomer (Nance), a big time athlete with raw skills (Cooke), a limited athlete with high skill/IQ (Grabau), a tremendous athlete/competitor who lacked ideal height and perimeter shooting coming out of HS (Adams), and a player with good size but limited bounce (Hankerson). It appears to me that Linder really does not sacrifice skill. Dribble/Pass/Shoot in a nutshell. Obviously there will be some exceptions (Nelson is pretty raw in some ways), but it's clear that Linder has a defined plan on how to build a roster. I feel like AE really lost his way by sacrificing skill/basketball IQ in recruiting. Not across the board obviously as he recruited Foster/Marble/Maldonado, but enough that it was really hard to build a successful offense around limited skill sets.
5. Summary - I still think we have a ways to go before we are even a mid-tier MWC team, but the building blocks are here and it is going to be a fun ride. I really encourage anyone that can go to the games (because I can't) to do so, because this is a group we can really get behind over the next few years.
Women's
1. "The more things change...." - It's hard to develop too many conclusions off the very first game, but one thing is clear, this is a Legerski/Mattinson team. Quite a bit of shooting, ball movement, etc. but quite limited athletically overall.
2. "The little engine that could" - The smallest player on the court grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked a shot. This is nothing new of course, but Olson is really a joy to watch and has to be an absolute pain to play against. She never gives up on a play, there were at least two times when there was a whole pack of players fighting for a rebound and somehow she comes out of there with it (one time I really didn't even know she was in there, she just popped out with the ball suddenly).
3. Newcomers - What newcomers? Where is everybody? I didn't really get the full story but we have a whole bunch of players that didn't even play. Not exactly sure why in many cases. Having said that, there were (3) newcomers that played and (2) really stood out. Davidsdottir really had a nice game and she is going to be critical for this team. I wasn't sure how much impact she would have, but we had a huge hole in the middle with Vitulova transferring and Vaifanua going on her mission. Davidsdottir isn't the offensive presence that Vitulova is, but she is solid in the post, pretty skilled and with good size. The other is Ola Ustowska, the freshman from Poland. She can really shoot it in ways we don't usually see a lot of. She has a pretty quick release and can shoot the 3 off the dribble. I think she will be very good. Ellis was the other one who played but she didn't look ready from a conditioning standpoint.
4. Summary - I don't think this team is anywhere near ready for a test like Gonzaga, but with Davidsdottir filling the hole in the middle I feel a lot better about this team's ability to finish in the top half of the MWC which has been the baseline expectation for this program (only one losing conference record in the last 16 years). I was worried with all the roster flux that we might slip. It still might happen, but Olson/Weideman/Sanchez Ramos/Bradshaw/Davidsdottir is a pretty solid experienced group. This group needs a little dose of athleticism in the front court, but it doesn't appear to be present on this roster.
Men's
1. Our Turn - We pretty much stole that one like Texas Southern stole the game from us last week. Not that either team was underserving, but in both cases the home team is pretty much left like "what the hell just happened". I guess this makes us even on the season in that regard.
2. The Future (Part 1) - I still think we have a lot of losses coming our way this year, but even with that this team is just fun in ways that AE's teams weren't. Part of it is that we are young and nothing is more fun as a college basketball fan at this level than watching a group grow over a couple of years. I know some on here didn't like the Shyatt teams, but that core Grabau/Adams/Nance/Hankerson/Cooke group will always hold a special place to me, not just because of the MWCT and NCAA appearance, but because of how we were able to watch them grow and develop together over 3 years (4 for Nance/Grabau). This group of underclassmen (Oden, DuSell, Williams, Foster, Marble, Nelson, and Ike) is poised to develop the same way. The second part is how this team plays. Good energy, communication, and working together. It doesn't always work out, but there is a lot to enjoy.
3. The Future (Part 2) - Let's discuss more about the freshmen, because I really can't remember a group of freshmen that have been this productive this quickly in their college careers. Marcus Williams (future MWC Freshman of the Year) was the 3rd leading scorer yesterday....among freshmen! One thing that really stood out to me was near the very end of the game, we were up 3 and getting ready to play defense on a critical position and Linder had (3) true freshmen on the court (DuSell committed a foul and fouled out on the possession). IOW, at the absolute most critical moment he trusted (3) true freshmen to defend a PAC12 opponent on the road. That says something about Linder, but it says a lot about the players. Oden's ability just jumps off the screen, not just the athleticism, but he is pretty smooth and skilled. Still getting used to D-1 and could use some additional strength, but he is going to be really good. Williams looks like a senior out there at times. If you didn't know better, there is no way you would guess he is a freshman. DuSell has really impressed me the last couple of games. He came billed as a shooter, which he is, but is pretty good off the dribble as well. He isn't a Jeffries/Hendricks type 3-point specialist at all, he has a much more diverse offensive game.
4. Linder Recruiting - Building on the last item, obviously we have to be impressed with Linder's first recruiting class. The type of player he recruits is interesting to me. When you are coaching at a place like Wyoming there will always be some trade-offs in recruiting. You may occasionally win a battle against a school higher up the food chain (or go the opposite way in AE's case), but in general the recruiting level will settle in at an Upper Mid-Major/Mid-Lower tier MWC level. Success is built on talent evaluation, development, roster management, and game preparation. The trade-offs in recruiting can come in many forms, it could be height, athleticism, strength, skill set, or even academics/character. Most of the time you will have a mix on the roster. I referenced the Nance team earlier, that group included a phyiscal late-bloomer (Nance), a big time athlete with raw skills (Cooke), a limited athlete with high skill/IQ (Grabau), a tremendous athlete/competitor who lacked ideal height and perimeter shooting coming out of HS (Adams), and a player with good size but limited bounce (Hankerson). It appears to me that Linder really does not sacrifice skill. Dribble/Pass/Shoot in a nutshell. Obviously there will be some exceptions (Nelson is pretty raw in some ways), but it's clear that Linder has a defined plan on how to build a roster. I feel like AE really lost his way by sacrificing skill/basketball IQ in recruiting. Not across the board obviously as he recruited Foster/Marble/Maldonado, but enough that it was really hard to build a successful offense around limited skill sets.
5. Summary - I still think we have a ways to go before we are even a mid-tier MWC team, but the building blocks are here and it is going to be a fun ride. I really encourage anyone that can go to the games (because I can't) to do so, because this is a group we can really get behind over the next few years.
Women's
1. "The more things change...." - It's hard to develop too many conclusions off the very first game, but one thing is clear, this is a Legerski/Mattinson team. Quite a bit of shooting, ball movement, etc. but quite limited athletically overall.
2. "The little engine that could" - The smallest player on the court grabbed 9 rebounds and blocked a shot. This is nothing new of course, but Olson is really a joy to watch and has to be an absolute pain to play against. She never gives up on a play, there were at least two times when there was a whole pack of players fighting for a rebound and somehow she comes out of there with it (one time I really didn't even know she was in there, she just popped out with the ball suddenly).
3. Newcomers - What newcomers? Where is everybody? I didn't really get the full story but we have a whole bunch of players that didn't even play. Not exactly sure why in many cases. Having said that, there were (3) newcomers that played and (2) really stood out. Davidsdottir really had a nice game and she is going to be critical for this team. I wasn't sure how much impact she would have, but we had a huge hole in the middle with Vitulova transferring and Vaifanua going on her mission. Davidsdottir isn't the offensive presence that Vitulova is, but she is solid in the post, pretty skilled and with good size. The other is Ola Ustowska, the freshman from Poland. She can really shoot it in ways we don't usually see a lot of. She has a pretty quick release and can shoot the 3 off the dribble. I think she will be very good. Ellis was the other one who played but she didn't look ready from a conditioning standpoint.
4. Summary - I don't think this team is anywhere near ready for a test like Gonzaga, but with Davidsdottir filling the hole in the middle I feel a lot better about this team's ability to finish in the top half of the MWC which has been the baseline expectation for this program (only one losing conference record in the last 16 years). I was worried with all the roster flux that we might slip. It still might happen, but Olson/Weideman/Sanchez Ramos/Bradshaw/Davidsdottir is a pretty solid experienced group. This group needs a little dose of athleticism in the front court, but it doesn't appear to be present on this roster.
