First game
The Coyotes hung in there against Southern University on Wednesday in their opening game after falling behind by double-digits. Southern lost by 10 to Nebraska earlier in the week. The Cornhuskers were picked to finish 10th in the Big 10, but the fact that Southern had a few games in prior to playing USD probably worked in their favor against the Coyotes.
USD got a big game for Trevor Gruis with 23 points and nine rebounds but not a lot from the rest other than Karim Rowson, who looked like he did a lot of driving and drawing fouls on the way to 19 points in 27 minutes.
Minutes in that first game: Flack (20), Gruis (34), Myles (30), Kasperbauer (18), Rowson (27), Boots (23), Tecker (23), Bos (10), Bartling (1), Robertson (14).
Juevol Myles had a rough shooting night in his first real college game in a long time, hitting 2 of 11 from the field. The Coyotes were 5-19 on 3’s. Six different players took shots from beyond the arc.
Dave Boots’ post-game comments indicated he was a little underwhelmed by his team’s scrappiness based on his thoughts on Rowson’s performance: “Some of our returning players are going to have to match his toughness if we are going to be successful.”
The Coyotes are expecting to announce a recruit for 2013 but that wasn’t forthcoming on Wednesday. Austin Sparks, a 6-8 forward from Colorado, committed after last season but his signing was not announced on Wednesday. The women were expected to announce two signees but those names have not been forthcoming.
The Coyote men will face a Wyoming club that was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West. The Cowboys have defeated four foes this year with the first two exhibitions, another over D2 Western State and 73-60 over North Carolina Central on Wednesday. The Cowboys got a big game from 6-9 senior Leonard Washington, who looks like a tough dude based on the picture on the Wyoming website.
Luke Martinez scored 20 points for Wyoming. He’s a senior guard from Bismarck, N.D., who started all but one game last year, averaging more than 11 points a game.
