IT
SUCKS
TO
BE
A
CSU
RAM
Just had to throw that out there in case anyone forgot.
Holy hell, what a game. I barely even slept last night. This is what College Basketball is all about. Two really good teams, fierce rivals, battling for the top of the league and NCAA tourney position in front of a raucous crowd and needing 5 extra minutes to settle it. My thoughts:
1. Hunter Maldonado Memorial Game MVP - University of Wyoming Student Section - It's only fair after I gave them a couple of LVP's early in the season. That was an incredible student section. Great job. I renamed this award to honor Maldo because I got tired of giving it to Maldo every game. More on him in a minute.
2. LVP - Block/Charge calls - Thanks to Maldo, we give as good as we get in this category, but it is still annoying. Graham is going to really have to learn how to adjust as teams are going to be flopping all over themselves moving forward (I mean, Graham is a big dude but even Graham couldn't send David Roddy flying backwards with a shoulder bump). The bad part is that if the Pokes somehow make the NCAA tourney he is going to have to adjust again, because that weak crap is not getting called in the tourney. It's annoying.
3. Atmosphere/Setting/Stage - First of all, great job by the Athletic Department as I was a little skeptical of the "One Wyoming" jerseys and "White Out" but they looked great. The student section was not just large but very active (the rest of the crowd could take some tips from them, but I digress). Combine the crowd, and the stakes, with the added juice of a rivalry and a game that was basically a one possession game 90% of the way and that was one of the more intense College Basketball games you will see. Monday night isn't a great time for fans to attend, but that time slot (7 PM Central) on a Monday meant that a lot of the College Basketball world was tuning in as there wasn't a lot of other important games at that time, no NFL, a modest NBA slate, etc. This was probably the first time a lot of general College Basketball fans had seen UW this year and while the team earned kudos, the game experience at Wyoming really shined as well. Just awesome.
4. X-Man - This is the missing ingredient right now. We need a healthy DuSell and soon. Even hobbled, I thought he probably did better defensively than most of our other perimeter guys. When he is healthy, he brings some really critical components as our best perimeter defender, one of our better ball handlers, and a little bit more of an all-around threat on offense compared to some of our other wings. Wenzel had a tough game, but he brings a lot of positives. Still, this team is at it's best with the core lineup of Maldo/X/Jeffries/Oden/Ike. That's the group.
5. Oden - Great game by JO. Hit a couple of big three's early and then arguably the biggest moment outside of the last 2 minutes and OT was when he got back in transition and made that huge block on what looked like a breakaway (and no CSU fans, it was not a goaltend. I rewatched and zoomed in and his hand hit the ball before it hit the glass..just barely, but it was legit). The resulted in a semi-transition 3 from Jeffries on the other side and culminated a 8-0 run for the Pokes. The crowd was going nuts and it was just a great moment. Nobody else on the Pokes can make that play. The best part was that you could see him sizing it up and coming for it. He knew he could get it and I knew watching that he could get it. It's fun to have that type of talent. He just makes a lot of good plays. He isn't asked to do a ton on this team, but Oden is going to have a major, major impact at UW before he is done.
6. Defending the post - The chess match in this game centered around how both teams would defend their respective front court all-conference level talents. Linder made the decision to have Ike guard Roddy early and often at the risk of foul trouble. I thought it was a good move. I am a big fan of Oden (see #5), but he is giving up 50 pounds to Roddy, that's too easy. CSU doesn't have another front court player that can really punish a smaller player and make us pay for putting Graham on Ike. On the other side, Medved did the same for long periods with Roddy on Ike. While Roddy gives up some height in that matchup, he can match Graham with strength and his athleticism allows him to challenge the feed pass. The other thing that Medved did is he brought hard doubles on Ike early. No soft double to allow Graham to get comfortable, he was being doubled hard on the catch. That caused some turnovers and made it a little bit of a challenge. Later in the game, he tried Moors on Graham for a while. Graham got it going a little bit right then (and gave Moors a solid shot to the chest when he tried to body up Graham), but they fronted the post and challenged Wyoming to throw perfect passes. You can second guess all these decisions, but overall I saw (2) teams and coaching staffs locked in. Well thought out game plans that were well executed by the players.
7. What's Next - It doesn't get any easier. MWC leader, and winners of 14 in a row, BSU come to town on Thursday. We need another large crowd and we really need a healthier X. Expect BSU to try to get Graham in foul trouble and also expect a full court press to take advantage of our ball handling weaknesses. Pokes can't afford a let down after an emotional win.
SUCKS
TO
BE
A
CSU
RAM
Just had to throw that out there in case anyone forgot.
Holy hell, what a game. I barely even slept last night. This is what College Basketball is all about. Two really good teams, fierce rivals, battling for the top of the league and NCAA tourney position in front of a raucous crowd and needing 5 extra minutes to settle it. My thoughts:
1. Hunter Maldonado Memorial Game MVP - University of Wyoming Student Section - It's only fair after I gave them a couple of LVP's early in the season. That was an incredible student section. Great job. I renamed this award to honor Maldo because I got tired of giving it to Maldo every game. More on him in a minute.
2. LVP - Block/Charge calls - Thanks to Maldo, we give as good as we get in this category, but it is still annoying. Graham is going to really have to learn how to adjust as teams are going to be flopping all over themselves moving forward (I mean, Graham is a big dude but even Graham couldn't send David Roddy flying backwards with a shoulder bump). The bad part is that if the Pokes somehow make the NCAA tourney he is going to have to adjust again, because that weak crap is not getting called in the tourney. It's annoying.
3. Atmosphere/Setting/Stage - First of all, great job by the Athletic Department as I was a little skeptical of the "One Wyoming" jerseys and "White Out" but they looked great. The student section was not just large but very active (the rest of the crowd could take some tips from them, but I digress). Combine the crowd, and the stakes, with the added juice of a rivalry and a game that was basically a one possession game 90% of the way and that was one of the more intense College Basketball games you will see. Monday night isn't a great time for fans to attend, but that time slot (7 PM Central) on a Monday meant that a lot of the College Basketball world was tuning in as there wasn't a lot of other important games at that time, no NFL, a modest NBA slate, etc. This was probably the first time a lot of general College Basketball fans had seen UW this year and while the team earned kudos, the game experience at Wyoming really shined as well. Just awesome.
4. X-Man - This is the missing ingredient right now. We need a healthy DuSell and soon. Even hobbled, I thought he probably did better defensively than most of our other perimeter guys. When he is healthy, he brings some really critical components as our best perimeter defender, one of our better ball handlers, and a little bit more of an all-around threat on offense compared to some of our other wings. Wenzel had a tough game, but he brings a lot of positives. Still, this team is at it's best with the core lineup of Maldo/X/Jeffries/Oden/Ike. That's the group.
5. Oden - Great game by JO. Hit a couple of big three's early and then arguably the biggest moment outside of the last 2 minutes and OT was when he got back in transition and made that huge block on what looked like a breakaway (and no CSU fans, it was not a goaltend. I rewatched and zoomed in and his hand hit the ball before it hit the glass..just barely, but it was legit). The resulted in a semi-transition 3 from Jeffries on the other side and culminated a 8-0 run for the Pokes. The crowd was going nuts and it was just a great moment. Nobody else on the Pokes can make that play. The best part was that you could see him sizing it up and coming for it. He knew he could get it and I knew watching that he could get it. It's fun to have that type of talent. He just makes a lot of good plays. He isn't asked to do a ton on this team, but Oden is going to have a major, major impact at UW before he is done.
6. Defending the post - The chess match in this game centered around how both teams would defend their respective front court all-conference level talents. Linder made the decision to have Ike guard Roddy early and often at the risk of foul trouble. I thought it was a good move. I am a big fan of Oden (see #5), but he is giving up 50 pounds to Roddy, that's too easy. CSU doesn't have another front court player that can really punish a smaller player and make us pay for putting Graham on Ike. On the other side, Medved did the same for long periods with Roddy on Ike. While Roddy gives up some height in that matchup, he can match Graham with strength and his athleticism allows him to challenge the feed pass. The other thing that Medved did is he brought hard doubles on Ike early. No soft double to allow Graham to get comfortable, he was being doubled hard on the catch. That caused some turnovers and made it a little bit of a challenge. Later in the game, he tried Moors on Graham for a while. Graham got it going a little bit right then (and gave Moors a solid shot to the chest when he tried to body up Graham), but they fronted the post and challenged Wyoming to throw perfect passes. You can second guess all these decisions, but overall I saw (2) teams and coaching staffs locked in. Well thought out game plans that were well executed by the players.
7. What's Next - It doesn't get any easier. MWC leader, and winners of 14 in a row, BSU come to town on Thursday. We need another large crowd and we really need a healthier X. Expect BSU to try to get Graham in foul trouble and also expect a full court press to take advantage of our ball handling weaknesses. Pokes can't afford a let down after an emotional win.
