Saturday, March 5, 2011, 1:30 PM PST
Marriott Center
First off I'm going to breakdown our last two game threads because I haven't done that yet.
In our past two game threads we broke the 100 comment threshold! In the first one (the SDSU game) the range of commenters could have been better but by the end more people were showing up. Same thing with the UNM game. But we're slowing increasing in number of commenters, which is encouraging. So come out and participate in the game threads.
Now to the preview:
This past week hasn't been great for Cougar fans; in fact, it's been somewhat depressing. (Forgive me for not having a Lots ‘o Links, I've been trying to avoid the negativity from media pundits.) You guys know what happened so I won't go over it here. But the team still has a chance to get it together. One game should dictate the outcome of the whole season, especially when it was an emotional game without one of their best players. So don't give up hope just yet.
For now the team has a game to play. A pretty easy game at that. The team has had more time to adjust, before the New Mexico game they only had one day to practice without him. I don't care how important the player is, if someone gets kicked off the team and they only have a day to practice there's going to be problems. But that wasn't our only problem; the team just could go out there and play basketball. End of story. I'm hoping for a better showing today. The team has had more time to practice and get their heads screwed on straight and Coach Rose does a pretty good job.
So as I said we have a pretty easy game coming up against 10-19 Wyoming. We should win this one, (knock on wood.) The last time we played them we shot worse in all categories-40.7% from the field, 20.8% from three, and 69.6% from the line opposed to 41.2%, 28.6%, and 72.7% respectively-and still found a way to beat them. But this was up in Laramie; we'll be at home today in our last home game as part of the MWC.
Jimmer was probably the worst offender for our bad shooting last February. He went 7-21, 30%, and 2-11, 18%, from three. But he did score 26 points due to 10-11from the stripe. But he wasn't the only one who couldn't hit shots, Emery was 3-9 from the field and 2-8 from three, and both Noah and KC were 1-4 from the field. But you can't expect a repeat performance.
In fact, I'm not exactly sure what to expect from this game. Of course I'm expecting a win but other than that I don't know what to think. Some thing's to watch for, though, would be the line ups; how the coaches are planning to use their big men. Also look for the game plan, will they run it all over the court and push the pace or slow it down? This game will say a lot about the future plans for the team. So I'd watch (or listen) carefully for any indications of what their plans are.
But for now, don't panic. We need to continue to support this team through all their trials and whether they win or lose. And always, GO COUGARS!
PS: Here are a couple other previews from Mountain West Connection and Cowboy Altitude.