Good D for that possesion. It is like getting stabbed every time it happens. Then the refs were pretty inconsistent, leading to rough play which we never handle very well. We need a Summners/Washington type of player in the lineup to bring a little toughness to this team.
We had way too many turnovers and when we did get a lead we couldn't make two stops in a row or score to extend it. Other teams are figuring out to foul Cooke before his dunks and put him at the line. And I know this won't change but we are playing a team that plays at a low elevation and we walk the ball down the court. One of the main reasons teams don't want to play in Laramie is because of our elevation. Between our slow down style of play and media timeouts, and opposing coaches calling timeouts when their team is winded, our elevation advantage is now gone. Last night Nance was winded and we had to slow it down if we wanted to keep him in the game, which is understandable. But playing and practicing at this level should give us an advantage. Plus I don't feel our D is as good as it used to be. Add it all up and we are playing about where we should be. Plus good teams figure out how to beat you the second time they see you. We have to hold home court against teams in the middle of the standings. Five years into the program our staff should have figured out how to recruit and have a style of offense to take advantage of our elevation.
I like Shyatt and know that he knows how to coach a team that plays tough D and runs uptempo like he did at Florida, winning two national championships. He is a quality coach who will hopefully have the type of players in place to finally use our elevation against our opponents. But not boxing out and not keeping people back to rebound is doing us no favors either.
We had way too many turnovers and when we did get a lead we couldn't make two stops in a row or score to extend it. Other teams are figuring out to foul Cooke before his dunks and put him at the line. And I know this won't change but we are playing a team that plays at a low elevation and we walk the ball down the court. One of the main reasons teams don't want to play in Laramie is because of our elevation. Between our slow down style of play and media timeouts, and opposing coaches calling timeouts when their team is winded, our elevation advantage is now gone. Last night Nance was winded and we had to slow it down if we wanted to keep him in the game, which is understandable. But playing and practicing at this level should give us an advantage. Plus I don't feel our D is as good as it used to be. Add it all up and we are playing about where we should be. Plus good teams figure out how to beat you the second time they see you. We have to hold home court against teams in the middle of the standings. Five years into the program our staff should have figured out how to recruit and have a style of offense to take advantage of our elevation.
I like Shyatt and know that he knows how to coach a team that plays tough D and runs uptempo like he did at Florida, winning two national championships. He is a quality coach who will hopefully have the type of players in place to finally use our elevation against our opponents. But not boxing out and not keeping people back to rebound is doing us no favors either.
