Cowboys basketball head coach Allen Edwards has the necessary experience and the knowledge to bring the Pokes basketball team back to an NCAA tournament berth.
Edwards has lived basketball for most his life, and has picked up a great deal of experience and basketball knowledge during this time. After high school, he played for the Kentucky Wildcats during the 1994-1998 seasons. During this period, the team won three SEC championships and two NCAA National Championship titles. Edwards started as a guard in the last two out of three NCAA championship appearances during this time, and helped the Wildcats win their second title during this span.
He averaged 9.2 points during his senior season, but went undrafted in the NBA draft and went to the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), which were the official minor leagues to the NBA until 2001. After the CBA disbanded, Edwards returned to Kentucky to act as an unofficial assistant for the 2002-2003 Wildcats, who reached the Elite Eight but lost to Marquette.
The Kentucky alum went on to become an assistant over the next 13 years at schools like Morehead State, VCU, Towson, Western Kentucky and finally, Wyoming. Head coach at the time Larry Shyatt hired Edwards in 2011, and he has been on the staff since then. When he was hired as the UW’s 21st basketball coach since the team’s inception in 1904, it was no doubt because of his experience coaching and playing for many great teams. Also, Shyatt must have had faith in Edwards to allow him to take the helm when he left to be an assistant for the Dallas Mavericks.
As a UW basketball fan, I’m hoping to see the team get back to what it was in the 2014-2015 season when they made the NCAA tournament. They broke the NCAA top 25 for the first time since 1988, and although they lost the pretty lopsided game against Northern Iowa in the tournament, I thought that that season was just the start of what was to come.
The problem was that the team lost a large number of key players after the 14-15 season. Larry Nance went on to be drafted by the Lakers, Derek Cooke, Jr. went to play for the NBA D-League, and free-throw aficionado Riley Grabau graduated. The team lost a great deal of their inside presence, and the UW Dunk Town was disbanded. In the 2015-16 season, the Pokes finished 14-18, 7-11 in the MWC, and lost in the first round of the Mountain West tournament. Shyatt also left the team for a great NBA opportunity, and the team was looking pretty rough.
This year has showed that the Pokes are definitely in a rebuilding stage. I’m hoping Edwards will be able to pick up some solid recruits this next year and build up a more physical presence inside to allow the team to shy away from the three-ball a little. The Pokes had some shooters this year, but lost many games because of poor shooting nights, which can be expected from a team that relies on threes.
The Pokes currently have some promising recruits coming up. Wyoming’s own Hunter Thompson from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming has verbally committed and was listed as a four-star recruit by ESPN, and at 6’9” and 225 lbs., could be a promising addition to the paint for the Cowboys.
Another verbal commit is shooting guard Anthony Mack from New Jersey. He was listed as a three-star recruit by Rivals, and at 6’5” might even be converted into a three or four position. Wyoming has also reached out to four-star recruits Darius Banks and Tyler Bey. Banks is listed at the small forward position, and Bey at the power forward. Looking at these recruits, it looks as if Edwards is trying to beef up near the rim.
It’ll be interesting to see what Edwards will do in his sophomore coaching season. His years of experience and knowledge of basketball will definitely be assets to the team, and I’m predicting that in the next three years, when his recruits have replaced the old guard, we will see Wyoming basketball make it back to the NCAA tournament.
