Cowboys glad to still be playing

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing will get another chance to play at home Tuesday night as the Cowboys host Northeastern.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Going into the Mountain West Conference Tournament, the three Wyoming seniors had visions of winning it all and earning the automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

After being eliminated in the tournament semifinals by Utah on Friday, the Cowboys talked about a possible National Invitation Tournament berth.

Wyoming will get neither. What the Cowboys, 19-13, will get, is a chance to continue their season in the 16-team College Basketball Invitational, now in its second season. UW opens the tournament on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Northeastern.

While the CBI isn’t the NIT and certainly is nothing comparable to the NCAA, it is an opportunity to keep playing. For the three Cowboy seniors -- Sean Ogirri, Tyson Johnson and Brandon Ewing -- that’s the best part.

“It’s basketball and everyone loves basketball,” Ogirri said. “Everyone wants to play the sport that they love. We’ll keep playing this season as much as we can.”

Added Ewing: “I just love the game of basketball and my teammates love the game of basketball. Obviously, the coaches love coaching. I don’t care where we play at, I just want to keep the season rolling.”

More importantly, it’s a chance to play more basketball in a Cowboy uniform.

“It’s very exciting that we get to compete in the postseason,” Johnson said. “We have another chance to get another win. It will be fun to play in front of our fans again in our white uniforms.”

In his second year at the helm, Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said just getting to the postseason is a big plus for not only the seniors, but for the underclassmen.

“This is only the seventh time in 20 years that this program has been to a postseason tournament,” Schroyer said. “We’ve made a lot of progress; I’m really proud of our guys. I’m really happy for our seniors that they get to extend their career and also really lay a foundation to where this program is and where we hope to go.”

Schroyer said he is also excited to be playing in the CBI, considering the alternatives … not playing.

“You just look at the teams in this tournament and you look at Kentucky and Florida in the NIT. It’s very, very hard in today’s world to go to postseason, and we’re very fortunate to be in it. We’re proud to be in and we look forward to playing,” Schroyer said.

In last year’s inaugural tournament, Utah competed and won its first game before falling to eventual champion Tulsa. Now, the Utes are the league champions.

“When you look at two teams that stand out from last year’s tournament, Washington and Utah, they were in the CBI last year and one is a third seed (Washington) and one is a fifth seed (Utah) in the NCAA Tournament this year,” Schroyer said. “When you look around the country, there are a lot of teams that are very good and have very good records that aren’t going to play.”

The Cowboys last qualified for postseason play in 2003 when they faced and fell to North Carolina in the NIT. The year before, Wyoming had its magical run in the NCAAs when it knocked off Gonzaga before falling to Arizona.

“These three seniors -- there hasn’t been a guy in this uniform in the last six seasons that went to a postseason tournament. This is a big deal for them,” Schroyer said. “They’re excited to play. Obviously, everyone wants to go to the NCAA Tournament, but we came up short on that. We’ve had a good year and want to extend it as much as possible.”

Johnson said they are motivated to play as long as they can.

“We’re approaching it like we do any other game … come into practice and work hard, do what we do, watch film on them and just go out and get a win,” Johnson said.

Ewing said they are approaching Tuesday night like any game, like it is a business.

“This team never gets too high, never gets too low,” he said. “We’re excited to continue our season in postseason play. We just want to take it one game at a time.”

The only Cowboy with any postseason experience is Ogirri, who helped lead Wichita State to the NCAA Sweet 16 in his sophomore season. He said he really doesn’t have any special advice for his younger teammates other than just be who they are.

“We just have to act like a regular game and not be nervous,” Ogirri. “I think they’ll know what to do.”

Ironically, Wichita State is in the CBI this season as well and could face Wyoming in the semifinals.

“I’d love to play my old school,” Ogirri said. “If they get there, it would be a good game. It would be fun. I’m just ready for the first game. We play Northeastern, so I am just going to take it game-by-game.”

Ewing said that he has talked to one of his conference friends -- Utah’s Johnnie Bryant, who played in the tournament last year as a senior.

“He was a senior last year and he wanted to have fun,” Ewing said. “He wanted to continue his season and didn’t want it to end. I’m sure he had a lot of fun with it.”

The second leading scorer in Wyoming and Mountain West Conference history, Ewing said that one thing he had not ever achieved in his career was playing in a postseason game.

Until now.

“One thing I always wanted to do when coming into college, was play in the postseason,” Ewing said. “I’m just glad I have the team that I do, because without them, I wouldn’t be playing right now.”