It seems forever ago, but earlier this year there was a definite buzz about Cowboy basketball. Undefeated non-conference play even had the Pokes in the top-25 for a brief, sweet period of time.
Then conference play happened.
Then the kick heard round the world happened.
Wyoming went from tourney talk to laughingstock. However, as this season winds down, UW fans should still be excited about our future under Larry Shyatt. He just needs to get a team of players he recruits.
This season has been filled with equal parts promise and parole. To be fair, Leonard Washington completed his second career turnaround this year, doing everything asked of him after a horrible end to a stellar season last year. Larry Nance Jr. also gave San Diego State a taste of his trunks, and UW fans a taste of the “Sports Center Top 10” last year. But for every good story, we have had a barrage of bad news.
First we heard that Luke Martinez broke his hand, and then we wished that was the only news we had heard from that evening. The best recruit we had in years, Lekan Ayaji, transferred before a single game was played. Multiple recruits also were kicked off the team for character misconduct, leaving the squad depleted and unable to keep up with the ever-improving Mountain West Conference. These players’ actions on the court were good, but the off the court problems proved to be the nail in the coffin for this year’s NCAA postseason hopes.
This should be a thing of the past once the transfer from Schroyer’s reign to Shyatt’s is complete.
Good character has always been the most important factor for Shyatt. One needs to look no further than the fact that he is back as the head coach of Wyoming to understand this. When he left for Clemson after one year at Wyoming, it was so his children could go to school there. Before returning to Wyoming, he was an assistant coach at Florida, where he was a top assistant for the back-to-back title teams in 2006 and 2007.
But he came back to Wyoming, where fans get ecstatic for College Basketball Invitational bids rather than national championships. When asked why he would come here, he talked about how he felt bad for the way things ended at Wyoming, and came to right the wrongs. With UW’s national media focusing on bar brawls and ‘Mr. Howdy Doody’ bashing the Air Force Academy on Military Appreciation Day, Shyatt’s return came as a breath of fresh air. And new recruits notice this.
Newly committed player Trey Washington had this to say about Shyatt in a November interview with Rivals.com: “Most coaches are looking for the best athlete or the best person that can shoot or handle the ball, but he is a big character guy. You can be the best player and have a terrible attitude and he won’t deal with you and I like that. He is a people person.”
You see his emphasis on character as well in the players that Shyatt worked with while at Florida. Corey Brewer, Al Horford and even the man I love to hate, Joakim Noah, are known in the NBA as hard-working and high-character players. While the talent gap may take some time to bridge, getting good character players to come to Wyoming should produce a team to be excited about in March, not just November.
