COACH AND PROGRAM
Heath Schroyer wasn’t brought in as Wyoming coach in 2007 to simply win more games.
The program had become stagnant the last five years of Steve McClain’s nine-year run in Laramie. The Cowboys didn’t reach the postseason in five straight seasons, fan interest dwindled and the team’s Academic Progress Rate (APR) was in such bad shape it lost two scholarships over the last three years, one of which will be felt in Schroyer’s second season in 2008-09.
Wyoming athletics director Tom Burman hired Schroyer at Portland State and watched him turn a perennial doormat in the Big Sky Conference into a 19-game winner in his third and final season. When Burman took over at Wyoming he fired McClain at the end of the 2006-07 season, even though McClain had around $530,000 still owed to him by the school, and brought in the best guy he knew to rebuild a program.
Fan interest is still lukewarm after Schroyer’s first Wyoming team went 12-18 last season and 5-11 in conference play, eighth out of nine teams.
The season ended on a downer with a 68-63 loss to Colorado State in the MWC Tournament play-in game.
But there were regular-season sweeps of Colorado State and fellow conference rival Utah. And, Schroyer is excited about some of the new players he brought in during his first recruiting class that will be eligible this season.
Wyoming Cowboys
| Last Season | 12-18 (.400) |
| Conference Record | 5-11 (8th) |
| Starters Lost/Returning | 1/4 |
| Coach | Heath Schroyer (Armstrong Atlantic State ‘95) |
| Record At School | 12-18 (1 year) |
| Career Record | 47-65 (4 years) |
| RPI Last 5 years | 123-122-170-122-219 |
The program’s APR is getting better, even though it will take years to get it up to NCAA standards.
“I think we accomplished a lot of things we wanted to accomplish in year one,” Schroyer said. “We brought in two Division I transfers [who will play this season] and red-shirted two other guys. We upgraded our talent level. We upgraded our character and we’re still a young team.
“Year two I’m looking forward to because there are only two guys left that were coached by anybody else. The face of the program has changed. The culture of the program has changed, which was what we needed to do.”
PLAYERS
One player that was coached by somebody else is 6-2 senior guard Brandon Ewing
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