“We knew what they were going to do pretty much every single play. We knew their options and what they could possibly run,” said Air Force senior forward Grant Parker after his team beat Wyoming 59-40 Wednesday afternoon in the play-in game at the MWC Tournament here at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Talk about a slap in the face.
All UW could do was put the ball in true freshman guard Desmar Jackson’s hands and see if he could score. He had a game-high 18 points. But he also had seven turnovers.
Sophomore point guard JayDee Luster didn’t play because of a groin injury. UW’s two main ball-handlers — Jackson and sophomore Arthur Bouedo — had 10 of UW’s 13 turnovers. Most of those came early in the game.
Air Force made seven 3-pointers and shot 48 percent from the field.
Even though UW shot 45.5 percent, it attempted a season-low 33 shots.
“It’s not brain surgery. It’s pretty simple. When you shoot 2 of 16 from 3 and 42 percent from the free-throw line you’re not going to win,” UW coach Heath Schroyer said.
Some other notes from the game
–UW used its 13th different starting lineup of the season. It went with Jackson, Bouedo, senior forward Ryan Dermody, sophomore center Adam Waddell and junior forward Djibril Thiam.
–Jackson scored in double figures 11 times in his last 12 games.
–After losing 16 straight conference tournament games, Air Force has won two of its last three.
–UW is now 7-11 in the MWC Tournament.
–Waddell broke his nose near the end of the game, and didn’t attend the post-game interview session because he was having it set by doctors.
See Thursday’s paper for more coverage from the MWC Tournament, including my column on Jackson’s progression this season and how that was handled by the coaches.
Hope you will join me later for the live blog for the Cowgirls’ game with San Diego State at about 7:45 p.m. I’m hearing a win tonight would go a long, long way to securing a WNIT berth for UW.
Join me at http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2010/03/10/live-blog-wyoming-vs-san-diego-state-ladies-mwc-tournament/
Alright…it’s time for Schroyer to go. But, I doubt that Burman will have enough gumption to do it, and that’s sad. It’s past due for out AD to man-up and tell Schroyer “Nice try, but you have driven the men’s bball program down a hole. You schedule high school teams, and still manage to lose to them. Then you lose almost all the conference games, and come up with the same lame excuse every single time. Thanks for playing, but it’s over.”
having moved to florida, got to see wyo play bb only a few times on tv. what i saw, i was not that impressed. when we lived in wyo, we had season tics and really followed the team. i would like to see them back, but i don’t know. not sure about the players being brought in. don’t see them on a daily basis, so maybe my judgement in off. good luck, go pokes