With the scholarship limitations, the margin of error in judging talent in basketball is much narrower than it is in football. You can make a mistake in football with a scholarship and be able to overcome it a lot easier. But in basketball if you make a mistake in giving out a scholarship to a player that doesn't stay and become a productive player the problems can be felt for years.
Wyopoke was rightly talking about depth and the lack there of, and I agree with much of what he says, especially about the future. The critical part is that the big men that Wyoming has recruited have to stay and develop or we will be talking about the lack of depth for years to come, and frankly I don't care to keep having this problem.
As much as I respect Coach Shyatt, which is huge, in all honesty I think that we have to look at several recruiting "mistakes" as to why we don't have the depth now that we should with our bigs.
These bigs were recruited by Shyatt and his staff and they have left the program for whatever reason and it has left Wyoming with huge holes in Shyatt's fourth year. I am not trying to necessarily lay blame on why these young men left, the fact remains they were recruited by Shyatt and his staff and for whatever reasons they didn't stay or develop and that is why I list them as scholarship "mistakes".
2011 (Same year as Riley and Larry)
Lekan Ajayi - 6-9 240 PF from North Carolina, left the program early.
2012
Austin Haldorson - 6-8 190 from Colorado, stayed around for acouple of seasons but never developed and eventually transferred.
Matt Sellers - 6-10 240 from Minnesota, stayed around for 4 years but never developed into a player that saw meaningful minutes and never became a major contributor. Left in the middle of his senior season.
While all of these guys left for their own reasons, the problem remains the coaching staff gave a critical scholarship to a big that never developed and in the end left a big hole in the "depth" area. A basketball staff can't have a number of recruiting mistakes, especially in one area, and not have issues with depth after awhile.
Hopefully, the bigs that Coach Shyatt and his staff have recruited will stay, develop and become quality players, this is the only way that the depth issue can be solved.
Wyopoke was rightly talking about depth and the lack there of, and I agree with much of what he says, especially about the future. The critical part is that the big men that Wyoming has recruited have to stay and develop or we will be talking about the lack of depth for years to come, and frankly I don't care to keep having this problem.
As much as I respect Coach Shyatt, which is huge, in all honesty I think that we have to look at several recruiting "mistakes" as to why we don't have the depth now that we should with our bigs.
These bigs were recruited by Shyatt and his staff and they have left the program for whatever reason and it has left Wyoming with huge holes in Shyatt's fourth year. I am not trying to necessarily lay blame on why these young men left, the fact remains they were recruited by Shyatt and his staff and for whatever reasons they didn't stay or develop and that is why I list them as scholarship "mistakes".
2011 (Same year as Riley and Larry)
Lekan Ajayi - 6-9 240 PF from North Carolina, left the program early.
2012
Austin Haldorson - 6-8 190 from Colorado, stayed around for acouple of seasons but never developed and eventually transferred.
Matt Sellers - 6-10 240 from Minnesota, stayed around for 4 years but never developed into a player that saw meaningful minutes and never became a major contributor. Left in the middle of his senior season.
While all of these guys left for their own reasons, the problem remains the coaching staff gave a critical scholarship to a big that never developed and in the end left a big hole in the "depth" area. A basketball staff can't have a number of recruiting mistakes, especially in one area, and not have issues with depth after awhile.
Hopefully, the bigs that Coach Shyatt and his staff have recruited will stay, develop and become quality players, this is the only way that the depth issue can be solved.
