Cowboys get 25th commitment to 2010 Class

Austin Daniels a 5'10 170lb DB from Mt. SAC (CA) committed to the Wyoming Cowboys for the 2010 season thus becoming the 25th and final recruit. Barring any surprises the Pokes are finished with recruiting two days before the February 3rd signing date.

It's interesting that the Pokes went with a JUCO DB to complete the class. The Pokes already had three DB commits prior to Daniels and the Cowboys are returning all their starters in the secondary next year. I would have loved for the Pokes to grab one more High School Wide Receiver or TE to complete the class.

Daniels finished the year with 55 tackles and 2 interceptions. Though small in stature Daniels is quick with a 4.45 time for the 40. Arizona, Arizona State, Auburn, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State and Oregon all had interest in Daniels but it appears that none had officially offered him.

Coach Christensen and his staff have a system they use for recruiting that is different than most schools. So if they like Daniels then I'm glad he is on board. They know the team and where they need to add depth so they must really like Daniels. It is pretty hard to find much on him besides stats. There are no pictures or highlight videos posted on the web of Daniels so he is definitely an under the radar recruit.

Once the full class is finalized and introduced on Wednesday expect a full analysis from Cowboy Altitude. Congrats to the Cowboys staff for having such a successful year recruiting. I doubt they rest much as recruiting for 2011 has already begun.

Loss to Air Force: UGLY

The Air Force Falcons (9-11, 1-6) had lost six in a row and have been win less in Mountain West play since March 5th, 2008. Until now, thanks to a disappointing performance by the Cowboys. The Pokes (9-12, 2-5) also remain win less on the road this year and will probably finish the year the 0-11 on the road after the 70-63 loss. Air Force was the closest thing to a gimme game on the road this season and the Pokes failed.

The Falcons run a very well disciplined offense that controls the ball and waits to find a shot. Imagine that a well disciplined team from a Military school. Wyoming played uninspired ball on the road and failed to be aggressive and get to the basket.

On Wednesday nights win the Pokes did a great job of limiting their three point shooting. Long range shooting is not this team's forte and they seem to forget that fairly often. The Pokes went from 5 of 22 from behind the arc for a disappointing 22%. Just because your opponent is hitting three pointers doesn't mean you match them - play your game. Ryan Dermody is the big culprit here - Derm's played 20 minutes and took eight attempts but only hit on trey.

Desmar Jackson was the lone bright spot for Wyoming with 21 points on 10 of 13 shooting and six rebounds. This Jackson's second consecutive game leading the team in scoring and putting up 21 points. Djibril Thiam nearly had a double double with 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Evan Washington led the Falcons with 23 points and 7 assists in a career best game. Michael Lyons added 16 and Grant Parker had 12. The Falcons hit 11 of their 25 three pointers including their first three.

Next week the Cowboys host the UNLV Rebels on Wednesday and on Saturday the Pokes travel to Fort Collins.

AWARDS

Cowboy Joe: Desmar Jackson has another 21 point game. Glad he is making the most of his minutes.

Cowboy Low: Ryan Dermody can't make a basket this year. Well I guess did he did make one.

Cowboy Foe: Evan Washington had 23 points to lead all scorers.

Preview: Wyoming Cowboys at Air Force Falcons

Wyoming Cowboys at Air Force Falcons
1:30 PM MST
TV: The Mtn

The Wyoming Cowboys (9-11, 2-4) will be looking to extend one streak and break another when the head down to Colorado Springs on Saturday to face the Air Force Falcons (8-11, 0-6). The Cowboys are looking for their first winning streak since November after defeating the Utah Utes on Wednesday. Standing in their way is a winless record on the road this season and scrappy young Falcons squad. Will the Falcons get their first conference win in 23 tries or will the Pokes grab their first road win? Let's see who has the advantage.

Wyoming is without their leading scorer Afam Muojeke for the rest of the season but others are stepping up to fill that role. Adam Waddell has been playing his best ball of the season recently and his coming off a 13 point 22 rebound effort. Waddell did injure his ankle on Wednesday and is questionable for this weekend. That would leave the Pokes very thin inside as 7-3 Boubacar Sylla is the only other center on the roster and has not been impressive so far this year. Freshman Desmar Jackson has been a spark plug off the bench for the Pokes and put 21 point in 20 minutes against the Utes.

Wyoming uses a full court press that forces lots of turnovers but have struggled on defense and allow a league high 74 points a game. The Falcons have been riddled with injuries all season but are nearing full strength. The Falcons run a slow and deliberate offense that hasn't managed more than 54 points in their six conference losses.

Senior Grant Parker has appeared in the last two games for the Zoomies after missing 10 games with a pelvic injury. Parker leads the team with 15 points and 5 rebounds a game. Evan Washington and Tom Fow are the only other Falcons to average double digits in scoring this season. Parker could give the Pokes trouble inside if Waddell is unable to go for the Cowboys. Seven players have missed a total of 43 games for Air Force this year.

Wyoming swept the season series last year while Air Force took both 2008 meetings. Elevation shouldn't be a factor as both teams are used to playing in the thin air of the Front Range.

	W-L	PF	PA	HOME	ROAD	STK
WYO	9-11	77.3	74.7	9-6	0-5	W1
AFA	8-11	60.2	62.8	7-4	0-7	L6

Six Bowl Games for Mountain West in 2010?

Is the Mountain West sticking with the Humanitarian Bowl?

With the addition of the Independence Bowl to the Mountain West Bowl season it seemed like the Mountain West would be dropping it's lowest ranked bowl the Humanitarian Bowl which is played in Boise, ID.

According to Pete Fiutak from College Football News the Mountain West is keeping the affiliation with the Humanitarian Bowl which brings its bowl affiliations up to six from five last year. With TCU making the Fiesta Bowl the Cowboys ended up in New Mexico and Bowling Green filled the MWC slot in Boise since no other Mountain West team had the required six wins. Fiutak does say that there are a few educated guesses in these matchups so maybe something will change. I wrote the Director of the Humanitarian Bowl Kevin McDonald to find out more.

Here is the quick response from Humanitarian Bowl Executive Director Kevin McDonald:

We are working on a four year deal…it should be done in the next 30 days….can’t say which conference!

The Humanitarian Bowl does make sense geographically for the Mountain West but do we really want three bowl matchups versus the WAC in one year? More on that in two paragraphs.

If TCU were to qualify for another BCS game next season the Mountain West could possibly send seven teams to the post season. Though it could be nearly impossible for a league with only nine teams to have seven teams post six victories in the same season.

Bad news for the Mountain West is that the Poinsettia Bowl is dropping it's Pac 10 affiliation for Navy for WAC #5 starting in 2010. The Midshipmen have posted a solid squad the last few years but the the #5 WAC team will be a huge mismatch. Last year Utah embarrassed the Cal Bears in the Poinsettia Bowl. In 2013 the Mountain West team would face the Army Black Knights if they qualify. If you think I'm joking... sorry. Check out the news release from the P Bowl.

Mountain West Bowl Lineup

1) Las Vegas vs. Pac 10 No. 5,
2) Poinsettia vs. Navy or WAC No. 5,
3) Independence vs. ACC No. 7,
4) Armed Forced vs. Conference USA No. 4,
5) New Mexico vs. WAC No. 3,
6) Humanitarian vs. WAC No. 2 ?????

Cowboy gets back on the winning track

Muojeke who? Without their leading scorer for the rest of the season the Wyoming Cowboys defended their home turf in a 75-69 victory over the Utah Utes. The Cowboys (9-11, 2-4) snapped their three game losing streak with huge games from Adam Waddell and Desmar Jackson. Waddell was a monster on the boards grabbing 22 rebounds as well as 13 points. Desmar Jackson came off the bench to score 21 points in 20 minutes to lead the Pokes offensively.

Wyoming led 35-32 at halftime then built a 12 point lead early in the second. Utah made a 9-0 run led by Carlon Butler who scored 22 of his 31 points in the second half. The Utes led 67-66 with 2:27 remaining but the Cowboys hit seven free throws in the final 46 seconds to seal the victory.

Wyoming scored 22 points off 19 Ute turnovers. The Pokes made the game much closer than it needed to be by hitting only 23 of their 44 free throw attempts. Besides Waddell and Jackson two other Cowboys reached double digit scoring: Djibril Thiam added 16 and A.J. Davis chipped in 10. The Pokes had 11 assists to only 10 turnovers for the game.

Carlon Brown was the main weapon for the Utes tonight, his 31 points were more than the Utes next highest scorers Marshall Henderson (13) and Jay Watkins (12) combined. With the loss Utah (10-10, 3-3) continued their up and down season with another surprising loss. Last week the Utes knocked off the UNLV Rebels on in Las Vegas.

The game wasn't televised so only the 4,000 in attendance were able to watch the game live. Utah leads the series 92-75 while the Pokes hold a 49-32 home court advantage. These two teams will face off in Salt Lake City on February 27th.

AWARDS

Cowboy Joe: This one is tough so I'll have to give it to both Adam Waddell and Desmar Jackson. When the Pokes needed it most these two youngsters served notice that they want to take a leadership role on this team.

Cowboy Low: Ryan Dermody had an opportunity to step up with Muojeke out but managed only 3 points in 18 minutes. He'll need to be more aggressive if he expects to make the most of his Senior season.

Cowboy Foe: Carlon Brown was on fire connecting for 31 points.

Love for DC and Wyoming from ESPN

Graham Watson a blogger from ESPN wrote a nice article on the Cowboys under first year head coach Dave Christensen.

“It really solidifies what we’re trying to do,” Christensen said. “I don’t
have to sell on my philosophy and my vision because now it's there. And now [the
current players] are going to sell it because they got through it and they know
how it works.”

The success from the 2009 season will hopefully create a snowball effect. The Cowboys have a very bright future thanks to Christensen.

Read the full article.

Video of QB Emory Miller

Emory Miller out of Mesquite, TX (HORN HS) committed to the Cowboys on Monday. Here is some video footage of Miller and his team. Pretty entertaining stuff here, gives you a good feel for him as a person and an athlete.


Find more videos like this on FOX HiLites DFW


Here is the intro video for Horn HS that played on their video screen before every home game. Pretty impressive production value for a high school. Miller is #11.

Preview: Runnin' Utes at Wyoming Cowboys

Utah Utes at Wyoming Cowboys

Wednesday, January 27th
7:00pm MST
Arena-Auditorium
TV: none

With a week off to clear their minds and prepare the Wyoming Cowboys (8-11, 1-4) need a new vibe as they prepare for the last 11 games this season. Missing will be leading scorer Afam Muojeke the MWC Freshman of the Year last season. Muojeke had surgery over the weekend to repair his left knee which he injured in last weeks loss at BYU.

The Runnin' Utes (10-9, 3-2) bring a Jekyll and Hyde squad to Laramie for the first meeting of these teams this year. With wins over Illinois, Michigan and UNLV the Utes can play with nearly any team. Losses to Pepperdine, Seattle and Idaho show they lack consistency. Carlon Brown leads the Utes with 13 points a game despite coming off the bench for the last nine games. Freshman guard Marshall Henderson takes nearly seven 3 point attempts each game hitting a third and averaging 11 points. David Foster is a beast at 7-3 and averages 4.4 blocks a game.

Who will step up for Wyoming with Muojeke out? That is a hard question to answer. Adam Waddell is the most likely candidate with four double digit games in his last five. Arthur Bouedo has averaged 7 points a game in his last five games this year and shown a knack for hitting threes. A.J. Davis is the second leading scorer for the Pokes but saw only limited minutes prior to Muojeke going down.

Both games this week are winnable for the Pokes. A bid advantage at home should help against Utah and then on Saturday the Pokes travel to Colorado Springs to face a young Air Force team that is winless in conference play.

Hoops: Rotation down the stretch

GIVE DESMAR THE BALL THE LAST TWO MONTHS

With Afam Muojeke out the remainder of this season the Pokes rotation could get a overhaul with 11 games remaining in the regular season. With a 1-4 conference record so far Wyoming should focus on getting the younger players as much playing time as possible to help speed their development.

I'm not saying bench the starters but aside from Adam Waddell no one really has a starting spot locked down in my opinion.

So a college basketball game has 200 minutes in regulation. Here is my ideal rotation for the remainder of the season.

Center:

30 minutes - Adam Waddell could be the center of the Pokes offense now with Muojeke out. Should continue to start and see plenty of minutes.

10 minutes - Boubacar Sylla has seen less minutes lately but sitting on the bench isn't going to help his development. He should play at least 10 minutes each game.

Power Forward:

18 minutes - Amath M'Baye. Has a trouble with fouls but provides great energy off the bench. M'Baye should have a chance at starting and see if that helps his game.

15 minutes -Djibril Thiam has been the starter here for most for most of the season averaging 9/5. Thiam will be a Senior next year and will still have the inside track on starting next year.

7 minutes - Daylen Harrison is a rollie pollie 6'6 220 lbs bowling ball. His body type gives him the widest size on the Pokes front court. Also want him to see 7 minutes at SF for a total of 14 minutes to see what the kid can do.

Small Forward:

20 minutes - A.J. Davis at 6'6 is a versatile wingman. Want to see what he can do at the three spot for most of each game.

13 minutes -Ryan Dermody. A three point threat but has shoot only33% from the field this year. Should start on Senior Day as he is the only Senior on the team.

7 minutes - Daylen Harrison another 7 minutes per game at SF for him. Give the Pokes a little bit larger lineup at times.

Shooting Guard:

30 minutes - Arthur Bouedo has shown moments of brilliance at times this season. Since he sat out of the first half of the season let's make him a primary option in the offense for the rest of this year.

10 minutes - Desmar Jackson at 6'5 is a combo guard that has shown some nice hustle on defense lately. His size and passing abilities could him in handy when he is on the floor at the same time as Luster.

Point Guard:

25 minutes - Jaydee Luster is the team captain and does a nice job of distibuting the ball. His offensive game is improving with a new found ability to hit the three.

15 minutes - Desmar Jackson should see lots of playing time down the stretch. Hopefully he can average 20-25 minutes a game while playing the 1 and 2 for the Pokes.


Breakdown:

Waddell - 30 minutes
Bouedo - 30 minutes
Jackson - 25 minutes
Luster - 25 minutes
Davis - 20 minutes
M'Baye - 18 minutes
Thiam - 15 minutes
Harrison - 14 minutes
Dermody - 13 minutes
Sylla - 10 Minutes

What do you think? Who deserves more minutes? Less?

Interested to see what lineup Schroyer throws out there on Wednesday against the Utes. Let's see what some of these guys can do... who will become a LEADER on the team?

23 and 24

Wyoming received two more commitments from athletes that visited Laramie over the weekend. These are two key recruits for the Pokes who could help right away in 2010. These commits are #23 and #24 for Wyoming with less than 10 days remaining until the February 3rd signing date. The Pokes are looking sign one more recruit to make their class a NCAA maximum 25 recruits.




QB Emory Miller - Mesquite, TX (HORN HS)

At 5'10 190 pounds Miller isn't the largest QB in the land but that isn't the end of the world. As the Pokes found out with ACS last year good things can come in small packages. Miller is a dual threat QB like ACS and should fit the the offensive scheme better than CJ Bennett who had previously committed to Wyoming.

Bringing in another QB for the Pokes is vital with backup QB Robert Benjamin transferring this semester. Dax Crum would have been the backup QB to start the year and I don't think anyone really wanted that except Crum. QB Sam Stratton has also commited this year but he is coming off a major knee injury suffered in the Fall and will most likely red shirt his first year in Laramie.

Playing in Texas where high school football is life is great for building players that can handle pressure. The Pokes now have four recruits in the last two years who hail from the Lone Star State. Air Force and Navy had also offered.




DT BJ Sumter - Roswell, NM (New Mexico Military Institute)

The Defensive Line was a worry with three starts lost to graduation but things are looking up now. After visiting on Saturday Sumter committed on Sunday. Along with fellow linemen from New Mexico Military Institure Kurt Taufa'asau the D line should be in much better shape in the Fall.

Sumter is originally from Columbia, SC and will have two years of eligibility left when he arrives in Laramie.