Wyoming freshman Kristen Scheffler looks over the court earlier against BYU.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
This time of the year can often be like running against the Wyoming wind; sometimes you feel like you are fighting an uphill battle.
For the young Wyoming Cowgirls, this week has come at a good time. The Cowgirls have just one game -- on Sunday when they host San Diego State (2 p.m.) in the Arena-Auditorium.
With that, Wyoming coach Joe Legerski gave his team Monday and Tuesday off before getting back to work on Wednesday in preparation for the Aztecs.
“It is important to get some rest this time of the year, especially with seven days off between games and then we are going to have three games in seven days next week,” Legerski said. “It’s a different week, not having two games in a week. It’s been such a routine, but the rest is much needed.”
For the Wyoming freshmen, they have already played more games this year than they did during each high school regular season.
“The year gets long and when you start playing as many young kids that we have played, they are not ready for the kind of season that they have to go through, or for the intensity of a season that you have to go through,” Legerski said.
The long season doesn’t just wear on the players physically, but mentally as well. Legerski said the mental aspect is difficult.
“We’ve been going basically since September and that is longer than they have ever had to put on a pair of basketball shoes, get in a gym and play at a high level,” Legerski said. “We keep bringing them along and that is why the rest at times is more beneficial for us than stepping out on the court.”
The Cowgirls, 3-6 in Mountain West play and 11-11 overall, are coming off of two decent efforts, albeit one win and one loss. Last week, the Cowgirls rallied to edge New Mexico 52-50 in Laramie, before playing well but falling to unbeaten Utah 64-57 Sunday in Salt Lake City.
With seven games remaining in regular-season play, Legerski said the biggest thing they have to do is get a little more consistency. “We roughly have four players -- Hillary (Carlson), Kristen (Scheffler), Megan (McGuffey) and Emma (Langford) -- who are right around double figures,” he said. “The problem is, they may get 20 one night and two the next, and that is why they are in double figures at 11 points a game. We need to get consistency where we can count on at least three of the four players getting in double figures every night. If we can get that, we can gets some wins over the next three weeks.”
As a team, Legerski would like to see some more consistency as well, as the Cowboys close with three home game and four more on the road. Wyoming is just 5-6 at home this season after losing just five times in the A-A in the previous three seasons. Utah and San Diego State lead the way in the MWC this season at 9-0 and 7-2 respectively, and the two teams meet for what could be the title on Wednesday in San Diego.
“Everybody is scrambling within positioning in the conference, the top teams are looking for a postseason bid; the teams in the bottom half of the league are still trying to find where they are at, maybe pull an upset or two, so it really creates great basketball over the last three weeks,” Legerski said.
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