I am of course extremely happy about the general state of the program. I do have a couple disappointments thus far that I would bet Shyatt and staff are working on and there's no sense whitewashing them:
- Herndon looks to me like he has fallen in love with playing on the perimeter. If he wants to play at the next level he needs to commit to learning how to play with his back to the basket. With his size as an inside-out threat he could be a player of the year in the league. If he's going to be a 6'10" guy on offense who shoots under 30% from the arc he doesn't do us a lot of good.
- We are showing two main deficiencies on defense - guarding the ball and protecting the rim. The way we play the passing lanes and our rotations have looked generally ok to me. Rim protection will be an issue all year given our personnel and it will be especially glaring after being spoiled with DC and Nance. Our defense on the ball has been bad. It just has. If you were wondering why Marshall wasn't getting more run just watch him guard the ball.
- Rebounding is and will continue to be a problem we're going to have to play around a little bit.
Something I thought I appreciated, but it turns out I didn't in its entirety, is the fact that this is a completely different team than the Shyatt model we saw the last 4 years. It will take time for us as fans to forget what we thought we knew. Some examples:
Last season was a senior-heavy group that could handle a LOT of different offensive and defensive concepts. Last year we ran three distinct zone concepts (that I remember) on defense and Shyatt would deploy them situationally. We would often run our base pack-line man for most of the game and then spring a 1-3-1 out of an opposition timeout as a change of pace. In fact Wyoming would very rarely show the same defense after an opponent's time out as we were in before the time out. I also saw us play a 1-3-1 amoeba style as well as something that I thought was a triangle and two but to be honest I could never quite figure it out completely. That was on top of the occasional half and three-quarter court traps Shyatt would call as needed (i.e. the closing moments of the UNM game).
It was similar on offense. The last couple years we ran a TON of pick and roll sets, a basic motion, a 4-out-1-in motion, what I think was a 5 Out motion that would change every once in a while as we ran different actions for about 20 seconds of the shot clock before turning it into a fixed set piece for the last 10 seconds or so as well as all the various set "special" plays we had that often turned into lobs for Nance, Cooke or Adams.
Basically, and not surprisingly, I haven't seen any of that this year. Intellectually I knew this group would not have the level of sophistication of the past few years but goddamnit we've all been spoiled. It takes time (and a hell of a lot more than 4 games) to build that level of depth into what you can do offensively and defensively.
To this point all I've seen on offense (and I haven't watched every minute we've played so don't shoot me if I missed something) is our basic 4 out 1 in set. On defense the only variant I've seen so far is a 1-3-1 a little bit against UNM Highlands.
Beyond the sets we are running (or not running) it also looks like we are playing a completely different game philosophically than what we saw in years past. Everything we've run on offense since Shyatt came back has basically been a power set of some kind because we had guys like Leonard, Waddell, Nance and Cooke. Almost everything I've seen this year is focused on the three-ball and dribble drive penetration. For my money neither is right or wrong or "better" than the other. But my guess is that this is a more clear expression of the kind of ball Shyatt wants to play.
For four years, we basically watched a sophisticated, physical brand of basketball designed to win games in the low 60's. What we are now seeing installed, slowly but surely, is a faster, more "modern" version focused on the way basketball is evolving... Lots of 3's and dribble penetration. Basically, what we're seeing this year is more Duke but less Wisconsin - at least on offense.
I knew we were in for a change like this given the way Shyatt has been recruiting but it would be a lie to say it isn't a little jarring. If I'm being honest I would say I probably need to temper my expectations for the near term but I think I would actually expand them for the long run.
At the beginning of the year I found it laughable that we were picked eighth and I thought it would be possible, though not likely, for us to finish in the top half of the league and potentially finish higher if we got some breaks. Given what I've seen so far I still believe a top-half finish is possible, though if I had to guess I would say we might end up somewhere between fourth and sixth. We are going to win some games that will shock people and we are going to lose some that will drive us all insane with rage.
But in the long run I think the sky is the limit. I desperately want to see a team with Herndon as a seasoned senior along with a junior James. Our backcourt in those seasons could be among the best in our history with an upper class group of Washington, Lieberman and Conway as a redshirt sophomore.
We have learned over the past few years that nothing is guaranteed, especially when it comes to Wyoming basketball. But it seems to me that this group, down the road, is built for a possible extended run in March into a Sweet Sixteen or beyond. Nothing I've seen this year tells me that isn't true, even if I am starting to understand that this season will present even more challenges for Shyatt and staff than even their first season back.
- Herndon looks to me like he has fallen in love with playing on the perimeter. If he wants to play at the next level he needs to commit to learning how to play with his back to the basket. With his size as an inside-out threat he could be a player of the year in the league. If he's going to be a 6'10" guy on offense who shoots under 30% from the arc he doesn't do us a lot of good.
- We are showing two main deficiencies on defense - guarding the ball and protecting the rim. The way we play the passing lanes and our rotations have looked generally ok to me. Rim protection will be an issue all year given our personnel and it will be especially glaring after being spoiled with DC and Nance. Our defense on the ball has been bad. It just has. If you were wondering why Marshall wasn't getting more run just watch him guard the ball.
- Rebounding is and will continue to be a problem we're going to have to play around a little bit.
Something I thought I appreciated, but it turns out I didn't in its entirety, is the fact that this is a completely different team than the Shyatt model we saw the last 4 years. It will take time for us as fans to forget what we thought we knew. Some examples:
Last season was a senior-heavy group that could handle a LOT of different offensive and defensive concepts. Last year we ran three distinct zone concepts (that I remember) on defense and Shyatt would deploy them situationally. We would often run our base pack-line man for most of the game and then spring a 1-3-1 out of an opposition timeout as a change of pace. In fact Wyoming would very rarely show the same defense after an opponent's time out as we were in before the time out. I also saw us play a 1-3-1 amoeba style as well as something that I thought was a triangle and two but to be honest I could never quite figure it out completely. That was on top of the occasional half and three-quarter court traps Shyatt would call as needed (i.e. the closing moments of the UNM game).
It was similar on offense. The last couple years we ran a TON of pick and roll sets, a basic motion, a 4-out-1-in motion, what I think was a 5 Out motion that would change every once in a while as we ran different actions for about 20 seconds of the shot clock before turning it into a fixed set piece for the last 10 seconds or so as well as all the various set "special" plays we had that often turned into lobs for Nance, Cooke or Adams.
Basically, and not surprisingly, I haven't seen any of that this year. Intellectually I knew this group would not have the level of sophistication of the past few years but goddamnit we've all been spoiled. It takes time (and a hell of a lot more than 4 games) to build that level of depth into what you can do offensively and defensively.
To this point all I've seen on offense (and I haven't watched every minute we've played so don't shoot me if I missed something) is our basic 4 out 1 in set. On defense the only variant I've seen so far is a 1-3-1 a little bit against UNM Highlands.
Beyond the sets we are running (or not running) it also looks like we are playing a completely different game philosophically than what we saw in years past. Everything we've run on offense since Shyatt came back has basically been a power set of some kind because we had guys like Leonard, Waddell, Nance and Cooke. Almost everything I've seen this year is focused on the three-ball and dribble drive penetration. For my money neither is right or wrong or "better" than the other. But my guess is that this is a more clear expression of the kind of ball Shyatt wants to play.
For four years, we basically watched a sophisticated, physical brand of basketball designed to win games in the low 60's. What we are now seeing installed, slowly but surely, is a faster, more "modern" version focused on the way basketball is evolving... Lots of 3's and dribble penetration. Basically, what we're seeing this year is more Duke but less Wisconsin - at least on offense.
I knew we were in for a change like this given the way Shyatt has been recruiting but it would be a lie to say it isn't a little jarring. If I'm being honest I would say I probably need to temper my expectations for the near term but I think I would actually expand them for the long run.
At the beginning of the year I found it laughable that we were picked eighth and I thought it would be possible, though not likely, for us to finish in the top half of the league and potentially finish higher if we got some breaks. Given what I've seen so far I still believe a top-half finish is possible, though if I had to guess I would say we might end up somewhere between fourth and sixth. We are going to win some games that will shock people and we are going to lose some that will drive us all insane with rage.
But in the long run I think the sky is the limit. I desperately want to see a team with Herndon as a seasoned senior along with a junior James. Our backcourt in those seasons could be among the best in our history with an upper class group of Washington, Lieberman and Conway as a redshirt sophomore.
We have learned over the past few years that nothing is guaranteed, especially when it comes to Wyoming basketball. But it seems to me that this group, down the road, is built for a possible extended run in March into a Sweet Sixteen or beyond. Nothing I've seen this year tells me that isn't true, even if I am starting to understand that this season will present even more challenges for Shyatt and staff than even their first season back.
