To the Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball team a trip to Seattle for the NCAA tournament is just another day at the office.
“It’s really been the same kind of preparation. The first couple of days it’s all about us and then now as we start to get closer to the game we start game planning, preparing what we are going to do against (Northern Iowa),” senior forward Larry Nance, Jr. said.
For the first time in 13 years the Cowboys will be playing in an NCAA tournament game. It has Cowboys fans from across the nation buzzing about what this team might do in the tournament. Pokes fans are so excited that they bought out Wyoming’s allotted tickets in just 44 minutes.
“A big thing for us, not only bringing these five seniors here, but bring Wyoming with us to the tournament. It’s been a long time coming. These guys, myself included, this entire team, staff and program has worked their tails off to get us back here, and here we are,” junior guard Josh Adams said.
This team has come a long way. For much of the year Wyoming looked like they were going to win the Mountain West; with wins over UNLV, CSU, Boise State and Fresno State. But then came the mononucleosis. The dreaded sickness knocked out Nance and redshirt freshman Alan Herndon.
At the end of the season, the Cowboys ended their last eight games with a 3-5 record and had fallen to fourth place in the Mountain West. Things did not look good for the Pokes.
The Cowboys would not give up. They rattled off three straight wins in the Mountain West tournament and punched their ticket to the big dance. They were riding high.
The Pokes had their fun celebrating the Mountain West win and making the dance, but now it is time for business.
“I mean it is going to be fun, we just got to go out there have some fun and play the game,” senior guard Riley Grabau said.
The Cowboys will face off against the No. 5 seed Northern Iowa Panthers. UNI is getting a lot of national recognition with the likes of CBS’s Seth Davis putting them in his Final Four. Head coach Larry Shyatt is treating this game like any other game.
“Coach is kind of an old fashioned type of guy and he doesn’t want to make this game any bigger than any of the rest,” Nance said.
Business as usual.
“There’s time to enjoy it and there’s a time to focus. They’ve kind of just been harping that on us and just been getting us prepared,” Grabau said.
Just another day at the office.
“When you step on to the practice court or into the locker room for pregame. This group is very mature and has a lot of experience. We know when the right time to focus is and the right time to enjoy it,” Adams said.
The Cowboys clearly know how big of deal this is, but also know not to let this game get to their heads.
“Our approach in this tournament is that we have a game. Just like in the Mountain West tournament. It would be nonsense to talk about a two day tournament because there is no such animal if we do not play well tomorrow morning,” Shyatt said.
A key matchup for this game is Wyoming’s Nance versus UNI’s senior Seth Tuttle. They are both very similar players. Nance is 6-8 and Tuttle is 6-8. Nance is averaging 17.6 points per game this season and Tuttle is averaging 15.4 points per season. Nance is averaging 8.6 rebounds a game and Tuttle is averaging 8 rebounds per game. These players could be clones of each other.
““He is a very crafty player, a lot of up and unders, a lot of hooking in the post and he has got a good right hand hook shot. That’s really what I’m focused on; taking away his right hand and try not to foul too much. With those crafty guys comes knowing how to get fouled,” Nance said.
Nance and the team know the similarities between the two forwards, but they also know that there is a lot more to this game than just the matchup between the two. There are eight other players on the court.
“This isn’t Larry Nance versus Seth Tuttle. This is Wyoming versus Northern Iowa,” Nance said.
The opening game for the Pokes will be a game that has been a long time coming. The team and their fans will look to enjoy it, but it is also time for the Cowboys to get their business done.
