Within the same time frame as the spring departures suffered by the Wyoming Cowboys football program, the Pokes basketball team also bid farewell to a handful of difference makers from their 2024-2025 season.
So far, 6 Cowboys have hit the portal; AJ Willis, Levi Brown, Oleg Kojenets, Nigle Cook, Scottie Ebube, and most notably, Obi Agbim.
Agbim, the Aurora, Colorado native, spent 4 seasons at the JUCO and DII level in Colorado before making the jump to Division 1 with a breakout year at Wyoming. He averaged a team high 17.6 points a game for the Pokes, and easily cemented himself as the difference maker for Wyoming. He earned the Mountain West Conference “Newcomer of the Year” award as well as being third team all-conference.
After a ruling allowed players who made their start at the JUCO level to gain another year of eligibility, Agbim was able to hit the market once again and has already landed with the Baylor Bears of the Big 12 conference. Baylor went 20-15 this season and earned a spot in the NCAA men’s tournament, where they would gain a first round victory over Mississippi State, before getting knocked out by the formidable Duke Blue Devils.
Agbim was certainly the biggest loss in production for the Pokes, but Ebube, Kojenets, and Willis all posted notable numbers this season as well. Ebube, who transferred in from Southern Illinois, racked up 5 points a game off the bench along with 2.7 rebounds, while averaging 10.4 minutes. Willis, a guard, averaged 4.8 points in 18.4 minutes and the forward Kojenets put up 2.6 points in 9.7 minutes.
Lastly, guards Levi Brown and Nigle Cook are also headed out of Laramie, and despite averaging well below a point each in only a handful of minutes a game, its two more losses for the Pokes, who are already saying goodbye to their seniors.
Kobe Newton, Dontaie Allen, Jordan Nesbitt, Cole Henry and Touko Tainamo all ended their careers in Laramie, and tallied 35.6 points a game as a group, the 2nd-6th scorers for Wyoming last season. At the time of writing, Abou Magassa and Matija Belic are the only players earning meaningful minutes who will be returning.
In a new landscape of college athletics, Wyoming fans have seen a bevy of fan favorites leave for greener pastures, but for teams already struggling to win in the Mountain West, this offseason has been especially bitter. For both football and basketball, coaching changes have impacted the programs and cast their ability to win and rebuild in doubt, but they will persevere through the noise and work with what they have to try and bring lasting change to Wyoming.
