Wyoming Cowboys Basketball Wrap Up

The Cowboys were not to be anything special this year but injuries really derailed their second half of the season.  The downfall of the season was when leading scorer Afam Muojeke who had a knee injury and missed half of the season, and the good news is that he will be fully recovered from that injury and be back for next year.  Muojeke was injured during their January 21st game against BYU, and for the rest of the year the Pokes won only two games for the rest of the year. He was an explosive player who was a real play maker as he averaged nearly 17 points per game, but besides him the Cowboys were not that good.  Their next best player was Desmaar Jackson and AJ Davis both who averaged about 10 a game, and even when Muojeke was in the lineup the Pokes were an average team at best with an 8-8 record but did beat San Diego State.

Not much went right as this was as it was their worst since 1976 as this year ended on a tail spin by losing 13 of their last 15 games.  The Pokes used to be a formidable opponent in the middle part of this decade, but they hired a new coach after a down turn and have yet to put the pieces together.  At home where Wyoming has an edge due to the altitude was able to have a 10-9 finish, but playing away from Laramie the Cowboys were a mess getting zero wins and not able to compete with anyone. 

The team does lose AJ Davis who plans to transfer which brings up an alarming six total players to transfer under head coach Heath Schroyer.  The bright side is that the Cowboys return nearly everyone on the roster and should be better next year, but the bad news is that nearly every other MWC team returns their star players as well.

Injuries and team cohesiveness was the main reason for the downfall and lead to this quote in regards to the 2010-2011 season from Schroyer:

"We've got to address a few needs. We will do that. But you know, I think that we got to get our guys healthy, and we'll do that. And then this group's going to be together for quite a while."

 

Getting back to this season the best win was the shocker of San Diego State who was a very good team, and that win is still a mystery to how they pulled that heist off.  That was the only really good news for Wyoming this year.  They were a poor shooting team from the field (.438), three point (.267) and from the line (.674).  Then they also had trouble handling the ball by averaging over 15 turnovers per game.  Had they been just slightly better at those stats Wyoming may have been able to pull off a few more wins even with the injuries they suffered.

The Pokes look to 2010 with their core team back, but it was a team that won 10 games, but they will have one of the leagues better players in Afam Muojeke to help attempt to get Wyoming to their typical mid and sometimes upper level within the league.