Wyoming’s first round game against the Rebels in the Mountain West tournament was an all too familiar scene. Wyoming played a very poor first half trailing 28-11 when the whistle blew for halftime. The Cowboys then stormed back and “won” the second half 37-28 but the hole they dug for themselves was too big to overcome eventually falling by the score of 56-48. Leonard Washington was the lone semi bright spot for Wyoming scoring 11 points and collecting 10 rebounds. The difference maker for UNLV was forward Mike Moser who scored a game high 22 points on 9 of 16 shooting.

The hallmark of any Larry Shyatt team is going to be defense but all too often this year it was the lack of offense that hurt the Cowboys against the better teams on the schedule. Once Shyatt sorts out the programs offensive woes as he brings in players that fit his system the Cowboys have a chance to really take off. The good news is this is just year one of the rebuilding process under Shyatt and the program is ahead of schedule. The product on the court (offensive worries aside) and the future outlook of the program is much better than it was a year ago.

The season likely isn’t over yet either. Come Sunday the Cowboys should be selected to some kind of post-season play in the form of the NIT or the CBI with the NIT being the best bet. This will allow the team to get another week of practice in and have at least one more game to ply their craft. The NIT is all about motivation and I am sure Shyatt will have the team focused and they could win a game or two against teams who are disappointed to only be in the NIT.