The Wyoming Cowboy basketball team has a new head coach. Seven weeks after Heath Schroyer was fired from UW, the Cowboys landed on their top choice, Larry Shyatt, who comes back to Wyoming from the University of Florida where he was an assistant head coach under Billy Donovan. With the Gators Shyatt won two NCAA championships and made several NCAA tournament appearances, including this past season where the Gators were a Elite 8 team. Shyatt was previously with the Cowboys during the 1997-1998 season when he led the Cowboys to a 19-9 record, then left after one season to pursue his “dream job” at Clemson. Shyatt now feels he has unfinished business at UW. He will return to Wyoming with his son, Jeremy, who was an assistant coach at North Florida. Joining the Shyatt’s is UCLA assistant coach Scott Duncan who worked with Shyatt at Clemson and is known to be a great recruiter. The University of Wyoming will hold a press conference and introduction of the new coach April 6 in the Wildcatter Suites at 5:30pm.
In other UW sports news, the Wyoming Cowboy wrestlers brought home two All-American wrestlers in Joe LeBlanc and Shane Onufer. Onufer won 5th place at the NCAA Championships. LeBlanc, now a three time all-American, brought home 6th place as he was forced to forfeit after missing weight Saturday morning, forfeiting his matches as well as all team points he had accumulated. Before the forfeit the Cowboys were poised to finish in the top 15 in the tournament, but with the loss of the points the Cowboys finished in the top 30.
Wyoming Cowboy swimming has an all-American on their plate as Cowboy diver Mark Murdock was named honorable mention all-American for his 12th place finish at the NCAA championships.
The Cowgirl basketball team concluded their season as well with a flurry of activity in the WNIT. The Cowgirls started the tournament with a convincing win over Portland State. They then faced a bit tougher competition with the Oklahoma State Cowgirls came to town and the game came down to the wire as the Cowgirls pulled of a four point win against the other Cowgirls. The WNIT tournament wrapped up for the Cowgirls with a loss at home to Colorado’s Lady Buffs. The Cowgirls will lose four seniors, Jade Kennedy, Aubrey Vandiver, Randi Richardson, and Cheyenne’s Hilary Carlson. Head coach Joe Legerski concluded the game by getting on the mic and thanking the thousands of fans in attendance for making the season great.
The Cowboy football team held their second scrimmage of the spring camp this past weekend. The defense prevailed over the offense in this last one by a wide margin. Linebacker Brian Hendricks said the defense was good, but they have a long ways to go before they will be great. The battle to watch this spring is between quarterback Emory Miller Jr and Brett Smith. The quarterbacks split reps with the #1 offense. Smith is a true freshman who enrolled early to get extra reps with the team. They will be joined this summer by Adam Pittser and all three will battle to replace Austyn Carta-Samuels as the starter.
Go Pokes!
