Manila meets Laramie

[Drewdaddy]

Filipino Basketball superstar, Roi De La Cruz has decided to come out of retirement, but this time he will be on the sidelines. De La Cruz spent the last 9 seasons with the Quezon City Thunder, retiring as the team's leader in points, assists, and steals. His illustrious career came to a halt after proposing to his fiancé, Erin Cathey, an American native of Wyoming. The shock of his retirement left the Filipino Basketball Association in confusion at what he was going to do now.

Fast forward two months later and after winning a CBI title, the University of Wyoming was looking for a new coach and heard through the grapevine that De La Cruz was planning on moving into town. De La Cruz was quoted, "I have accomplished all I need in the Philippines. I am going to miss my family and friends back home but they support my decision to grow my career. I never thought I would ever live in a place like Laramie, but love makes you do crazy things. Hopefully, I can pass on a few things to the boys and see if we can bring some championships to Wyoming."

While he did lead his team in points, De La Cruz was a hard nosed defender who prides himself on playing a slow methodical game. As a head coach, he will lead the Cowboys in a slow paced game featuring mainly the triangle offense and a bit of a FLEX, focusing on dominating the offensive and defensive boards and maintaining a zone defense, mainly in the 3-2, but in the future looking to feature more 2-3.

After the first summer with the team, his starting lineup will look as such:

Freddy Armstrong 2.5 Sr
Clifton English 3.5 Jr
Chris Jackson 3.5 Fr-Could be a real stud 5.0 pot
Lafayette Harmon 2.5 So
Jason Rhodes 2.0 Fr-lot of potential 4.0

Having only 1 scholarship to offer, the coach found a local stud: Marcus Harris out of Therompolis, Wy- Ranked 1023 by WSSN. "He has a lot of potential...I am excited to see him make an impact the minute he arrives next year." De La Cruz.

We have no idea how this international superstar will fare in his first season. With a three year, $126,000 contract, hopefully De La Cruz doesn't freeze is butt off in the Wyoming snow.

Non-conference Schedule:
Portland State
UC Riverside
Costal Carolina
San Francisco
South Dakota
UTSA
Loyola Marymount
#4 Gonzaga
Appalachian State

Volume 1

[PointGuard]

Good start! Gonzaga will be a tough opponent for Wyoming to play.

[Drewdaddy]

Thank you!

So after the non conference schedule, we sit at 4-5.

Positives so far at this point:
Surprise 6th man off the bench...SO Center JB Fisher averaging 14pts/7re off the bench.
Going to make a switch to start him over Senior Freddy Armstrong who has a 10pts/5.5re average.

Our team leads the conference in offensive efficiency and fg % and 3pt %. Top of the league in assists and moving the ball around well. However we are using a slow pace that is not getting enough points to catch up with the problems below.

The negatives:
Worst defense in the conference! Most points allowed, allowing 49% FG percent. In addition, we are dead last in steals and middle of the road in terms of rebounding.
The future of Wyoming basketball, Chris Jackson only averaging 6 pts, 4 rebs, and 4 a per game... definitely needs to step up!

Wish us luck moving forwarding. Hoping the boys will manage to step up on defense and pick up the zone defense better... Fortunately only one senior in the entire rotation means chemistry and future progressions to come! Will report back!

[Drewdaddy]

Well the season has come to a conclusion and De La Cruz’s Cowboys have ended at 9-19. When asked about the season, the coach responded, “it wasn’t what we had hoped for, but our goal is to build upon this and continue to improve for the coming years. Success isn’t built in a day.”

The team had a decent start to the year with a promising offense. However they ended the season as the worst in offensive efficiency and fg%. They also ended near the bottom of the conference in most major stats except rebounds and points allowed. AD Mike Mueller said he has confidence in the coach and not making any hasty moves after one season.

[Rizzo]

Can't be easy winning right away in Wyoming. Hopefully you can coach them up, see a few players reach their potential and take this program to the next level.

[Drewdaddy]

Winning will not be easy right away.

After losing my starting center for most of last year, we are going with:
JB Fisher-split last years spot at starter a Junior who avg 12/6. A decent option 3/3

Clifton English-only senior in this rotation. Great ft shooter who is a great blocker and rebounder. 3.5/3.5 averaged 9/6 last season as starting PF

Marquis Jones- redshirt freshman getting a shot.great blocker and rebounder looking to make a mark early on 2.5/4

Lafayette Harmon- returning starter Junior and leading scorer 13 ppt, great passer and ball handler who has a knack for stealing 2.5/3.5

Marcus Harris- True Freshman 1.5/4, great passer and comes in as the best defender and steals leader.

Let’s see how things go!!

[Drewdaddy]

After what started off as a potentially long season for De La Cruz, things began to look up. “We were playing like little bitches...we needed to get more aggressive.” The coach began pressing with a 2-2-1 half court on a regular basis, forcing many more turnovers and allowing them to cruise through the end of the season, winning 7 of their last 8 conference games including a first round victory over San Jose State, however unable to hold onto a 10 pt lead over Fresno State, losing 78-77.

The season ended at 14-16 and Center JB Fisher a player of the year award for the MWC. “We came together when we needed to and after the coach made some tweaks, things fell into place.”-Fisher

After climbing from the cellar of the conference in 2018-2019, a mid table result will be acceptable for De La Cruz, hoping that with 4 returning starters will help launch them to a conference title.

The lineup will be as follows:
Marcus Harris: 2/4. Sophmore Solid overall player, 3rd in the conference in assists last campaign

Lafayette Harmon: 3/3.5 Senior. A true leader in the backcourt who had a dip in production last season but will be looking to return to solid form

Chris Jackson: 2/3.5 Sophmore. After a disappointing freshman year two seasons ago, he was redshirted last season, in hopes to show the fire that coach was excited about when they recruited him

Lamar Richards: 2.5/3.5 Senior, last years 6th man will be stepping up after proving a real spot on the starting 5. His improvement over the summer, shows that he is going for a memorable senior campaign.

JB Fisher 3/3 Senior, last years Conference player of the year will have to repeat his stud 16ppg/7 boards if the Cowboys want to make a run for the post season. But he is a true leader and will do his best to lead them!

[Drewdaddy]

“Cowboys find success in De La Cruz’s first winning season” read the highlight on the schools paper this April. After a 18-13 season, which had them in the conference semi final with a heart breaking loss to #2 Colorado state and a CIT opening round loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. The team was lead by repeat conference player of the year JB Fisher, who lead the league with 20ppg, 4th with 8 rebounds, and 1st in steals with 2 per game. This is there first post season tournament appearance in the coach’s tenure and only looking to move up from here!

After losing 3 Senior this year, the team managed to have a #122 best recruiting class for the upcoming 2021 season, including 3 top 800 prospects. Cameron Drayton out of Rock Springs, WY who looks to be a stud SG replacement for Harmon. Joe Fox will be in the rotation as well at PG. Jason Duckey will be redshirting in order to get a little more seasoning but could be a bonafide starter in 2022.

The lineup will be as follows for Coach De La Cruz:

PG: Jr Marcus Harris- starter for the last 2 years, saw his production rise averaging 8pppg, and 3.5 assists 2/3.5

SG: Fr Cameron Drayton- Great possibility for rookie of the year and a real offensive threat in the backcourt that has been missing in the previous years. 3.5/4

SF: Sr Jason Rhodes- started his freshman year but has found himself coming off the bench the last two seasons. Ready fill come in and start! 2/3.5

PF Jr Chris Jackson- normally a SF, he is going to move up for a smaller team this year. Dealt with injury issues but hopefully he can stay healthy and attack the basket 2.5/3.5

C So Jehiel Henson- last years 6th man will be filling in for the great Fisher. Not as great of a rebounder but what he is an improvement on is his offense ability and defending. He could very well lead the team in points and blocks. 1.5/2.5

Staff wise- the team has added John Pebbles as a 2nd coach who will help with recruiting and a 3rd coach in Brian Felts who will help in scouting