Shyatt encouraged, but still looking for answers
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Jeremy Martin/WyoSports
Senior guard Josh Adams enters the week third in the nation in scoring (26.1 points per game), leading a young Wyoming Cowboys squad that's the fourth youngest in the country.
LARAMIE -The results have been frustrating, but for University of Wyoming men's basketball coach Larry Shyatt there's only one thing he and his team can do.
UW (7-8 overall, 0-2 Mountain West) has lost four consecutive games - all away from home.
Three were by a combined 16 points, including a double-overtime loss. The other was by 12 points in its Mountain West opener at San Diego State last Wednesday where UW cut a 25-7 first-half deficit to four points midway through the second half. The Cowboys' next chance to snap the losing streak is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at home against Air Force (10-4, 1-0) in their first home game since Dec. 19.
"We must keep grinding. We must keep perspective of who we are, who (the opponents) are and where we want to go," Shyatt said Monday during his weekly media teleconference.
Shyatt isn't big on moral victories, but he's been pleased with the fourth-youngest roster in Division I basketball that his team has been competitive, and that the outcome of 13 of UW's first 15 games was determined in the final minutes.
"That's been the most impressive thing with this group comparing them with any new team in any sport," Shyatt said.
UW lost at Nevada (9-5, 1-1) 71-68 last Saturday as the Wolf Pack improved to 6-0 at home season at home.
The Cowboys handed Denver and New Mexico State home losses earlier this season after those squads had long-standing records of playing well on their home courts.
"The bad side is we have to figure it out, because this is not an excuse year. We have to win those games," Shyatt said.
Another thing UW must figure out: how to beat Air Force at home.
The Cowboys have lost three straight to the Falcons at the Arena-Auditorium. The two teams didn't play in Laramie last season due to the unbalanced league schedule.
"As players we don't really care about that, all we're focused on is how we can get over this hump and starting winning some basketball games."
The only time a Shyatt-coached UW team won at home against Air Force was his first season in 1997-98.
