On paper, the Wyoming Cowboy basketball team’s home opener should have been a walk in the park. Concordia, St. Paul, a D-II program that posted a 10-18 overall record a year ago, came into the Arena-Auditorium on college basketball’s opening night as heavy underdogs.
Yet, after one half of play, the Golden Bears were well in the contest, only trailing by a score of 45-51. Just how were the Golden Bears, the definite under dogs in this one, sticking it to this Cowboys’ squad in the first half?
The Golden Bears’ 45.2% mark from the field is certainly a number that sticks out on the first half box score. The Golden Bears also shot 15 free throws in the first frame, making 13 of them. The Cowboys were sloppy defensively, fouling a grueling 13 times in the first half of play, which certainly aided in keeping the Golden Bears within a slim margin in the first half.
“The only part I’m just really disappointed in is the physical guarding. Well, I guess it wasn’t even physical, we were defending and fouling too much,” head coach Sundance Wicks said postgame.
“That’s an area we’re going to have to have a better team defense to help our guards not be isolated in those situations,” he added.
Even through a majority of the second half, the Golden Bears remained within 10 points, teasing the Cowboys with the possible devastation of an upset comeback that would be a crushing blow to the Cowboys in their season opener.
Luckily, that comeback never came to fruition.
That was mostly due to the Cowboys’ efficiency and balance on the offensive side of the ball. The Cowboys saw 10 players score on the offensive end of the floor, as Wicks has raved about the depth and ability to score up and down on his roster.
“My best teams I’ve ever had, I’ve had four or five guys in double figures,” Wicks said. “We want to be a hard scout, want to be someone that takes up your scouting time. [We] want to be like, well, who are you going to stop? Who are you going to key on? Every night, it could be a different guy.”
When it comes to keying on a specific performance to highlight from tonight’s contest, there are plenty to choose from, just the way Wicks and company want it to be.
Jordan Nesbitt, who spoke to the media with the famed post-game hardhat, awarded to the hardest working player of the game, posted a double-double in his first career game with the Cowboys. The senior guard had 11 points and 16 rebounds, the latter mark being what awarded him the hardhat.
“Jordan can do a lot of things. Jordan can be a score guy, he could be a rebound guy, could be a defend guy. He’s a swiss army knife,” Wicks said of Nesbitt.
The Cowboys’ point guard, Obi Agbim, quietly put together a solid first game as well, as the senior transfer from Fort Lewis College led the Cowboys in scoring with a 25 point outing, and also impressed on a number of flashy passes with six assists.
“That’s what he’s gonna continue to do all season, he’s our PG, our leader, so we just gonna follow behind him,” Nesbitt said of his point guard.
Other notable performances include Cole Henry, Scottie Ebube, Touko Tainamo and Kobe Newton, who all scored in double figures within the contest. Wicks also praised the play and role of Abou Magassa, who he considers the glue of this team. Magassa finished with seven points and five rebounds.
“Abou Magassa is glue. Nobody wants to be the glue guy, right? He gets to defend, rebound, not take any shots,” Wicks said of the redshirt freshman.
“I love guys like that,” Wicks added.
While the depth of this roster is certainly something Wicks appreciates, finding the right lineups that work well together is a challenging task to undertake. Wicks slotted in three new players within his starting lineup when compared to the Pokes’ starting lineup in their exhibition game against the College of Idaho. That may become the normal for this Cowboy squad until Wicks can find the perfect combination to start out on the floor.
“I’ll start a different lineup at halftime, start a different lineup every game, and keep you guys on your frickin’ toes, right? Because, we got to find this. We got to find what’s working,” Wicks said.
While every player who touched the floor had a positive impact on the Cowboys’ win over the Golden Bears, no one had as much of an emphatic effect as Ebube, who recorded six thunderous dunks that rocked the Arena-Auditorium in the second half. Wicks, and his entire team knows that Ebube, when he’s in the right headspace, can quickly become one of those most dangerous players on the floor. In just the 10 minutes he was on the court, his presence was felt in bunches as the junior big man posted 19 points to go along with his six dunks.
“Scottie is one of a kind, you see him going in the game for a small amount of time, and it changes the game, easily. I don’t think there’s a single guy that I know who can stop him when he’s locked in,” Agbim said of his teammate.
By that point, with Ebube rocking the Arena-Auditorium and this Cowboy team firing on all cylinders, you could see just how much fun not only the crowd was having with this team, but just how much the team was having fun playing with each other. That, in itself, may be the most important factor in this team’s success this year and Wicks’ mission to bring the juice back to Cowboy basketball.
“I think people want to see joy, right? They want to see joy when players play,” Wicks said.
While a final score of 108-85 is not something that Wicks and his team expects every night, they only hope that it’s a small part of the process in restoring the former glory of Cowboy basketball and bringing it to a place that Wicks got to experience during his time as an assistant coach with the program just three years ago.
“I hold onto those memories, and I manifest that stuff at a high level,” Wicks said about the memorable 2021-2022 season.
“I just think about it and want to speak it into existence again, because that was one of the greatest years of my life as a coach.”
