For the second year in a row, the Wyoming Cowboys have recruited an underlooked guard who can score in high volumes from the D-II ranks at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.
And, for the second year in a row, the Cowboys may have just stumbled across a diamond in the rough with the Skyhawks’ electric point guard, Obi Agbim. Or, as he is better known amongst his team and head coach, Obi “PG One,” a nickname bestowed upon him by his head coach.
Fans may remember the likes of Akuel Kot, who transferred to Wyoming after four very successful years at Fort Lewis College. In his lone year with the Cowboys, Kot impressed averaging 14 points a game and can be remembered by hitting a pair of game winners in two key conference matchups a season ago.
In terms of similarities, both guards came to the Pokes with only a year of eligibility remaining and had certainly proved they could score in bunches when playing at Fort Lewis College. That may be where the similarities end, though, as Agbim looks to take a much bigger role distributing the ball and running the show offensively in head coach Sundance Wicks’ system.
Agbim has already shown his adept ability to not only distribute the ball at a high level, but score at a high level too. Not only has he seamlessly became the leading scorer on this talented-ridden Cowboys’ roster, but the senior has also slowly asserted himself as one of the top point guards in the Mountain West. In the Cowboys’ Mountain West opener at the undefeated Utah State Aggies, Agbim led a valiant effort that saw the Cowboys lose by three points in Logan, Utah where he led the Cowboys with a double-double including 17 points and 10 assists.
Find that rhythm @obihoops pic.twitter.com/LklPMe3R7h
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) December 5, 2024
“You have to be able to direct traffic and make the right plays,” Wicks said of Agbim after their 70-67 loss to the Aggies. “He just flowed…he wasn’t forcing shots, he shot the right ones when he needed to and he made big shots.”
However, coming to compete in the Brown and Gold was really up in the air for Agbim during the transfer portal season last spring. Agbim had originally committed to the Cowboys under Jeff Linder, but when the ex-Wyoming headman left the program to become an assistant at Texas Tech, Agbim re-entered the transfer portal with an air of uncertainty about his future.
“The moment I went back in the portal, that was probably the hardest two weeks of my life as a basketball player,” Agbim said. “My phone was blowing up so many times throughout the day…it was a lot.”
Oddly enough, it wasn’t necessarily Wicks’ who recruited Agbim back onto the Cowboys’ roster initially, but one of his assistants, Nic Reynolds. Reynolds already had a connection with Agbim when he had recruited him at one of his previous assistant coaching jobs. Seeing Reynolds on the staff at Wyoming gave Agbim some clarity in his decision to recommit to the Cowboys, and after a conversation with Wicks, it was all but set in stone for Agbim to ride out his final season of eligibility with the Cowboys.
“After having a good conversation with Reynolds and then having my first conversation with Coach Sundance, it was like, wow, I really like this dude, he’s a great coach and he’s a great players’ coach as well,” Agbim said.
Agbim also mentioned that his old teammate, Kot, was a great mentor and factor in his decision to commit to the Cowboys. Kot was able to give him valuable insight into the program and what it meant to suit up for the University of Wyoming from someone who was still around the program when he initially had committed.
“When I came out here, I actually was [fortunate] enough for him to still be out here and not have left for his pro career yet. We had a really good amount of conversations in person, over the phone, just really talking about the program [and] things that a lot of players don’t see on the inside of it,” Agbim said.
While it has taken some time for a Cowboys’ roster with nine transfer additions to gel and get used to playing around one another, this team has an undeniable swagger about them and have slowly built chemistry with one another, with all of that headlined by Agbim running the show. His teammates, for one, certainly recognize Agbim as the true leader he has to be at the point guard position.
“That’s what he’s gonna continue to do all season, he’s our PG, our leader, so we just gonna follow behind him,” Jordan Nesbitt, a fellow senior transfer, said of Agbim.
With the gauntlet that is the Mountain West conference, the Cowboys will need the likes of Agbim, and the rest of this Cowboys’ squad, to be playing at a high level if they want to rise to the top. While a narrow road loss to the undefeated Aggies, who won the regular season title in the Mountain West last season, is a promising indicator of the potential of this team, it won’t count for much if the Cowboys can’t string together wins once the full swing of conference play starts in late December.
Agbim, at the least, is not only confident that he can compete at the top of the Mountain West, but this team can as well. Agbim has certainly proved that through the Cowboys’ first eight games on their schedule.
“I love to compete,” Agbim said. “Coming in this conference is a big leap, it challenges me. I feel like the coaches being able to see who I am as a player and see my game, they understand that I’m built for that challenge.”
