Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Djibril Thiam drives on New Mexico's Roman Martinez on Saturday.
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
The Wyoming Cowboys won’t have to look deep into their vaults to prepare for next week’s Mountain West Conference Tournament. They just have to look at their last game, Saturday’s 74-73 loss to New Mexico in the Arena-Auditorium.
Wyoming and New Mexico will meet on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said that preparation-wise, it may be a little easier because they have been through the films and there is only one more film to break down.
Besides, he said he already knows the Lobos, who clinched at least a three-way tie for the MWC regular-season title with the win on Saturday, are a good team.
“They are a NCAA tournament team, so we obviously are going to have to play very well,” Schroyer said. “This league is the best that it has ever been in its 10-year history. Our program is developing and our program is getting better, but they are a championship team. (Tony) Danridge, (Billy) Faris, (Roman) Martinez, ( Chad) Toppert, you look at those guys and they have been there for four or five years. They played together as freshman and they got their butts kicked. As juniors and seniors, they are pretty good.”
Whether the Cowboys first-round opponents are New Mexico, BYU, Utah or San Diego State, Schroyer said he doesn’t know if it makes much of a difference.
“They are all good,” he said. “I think that this league will get four bids. On any given night, we can beat anybody. We’re going to have to be ready to go, but I believe that. In the last two games, we came up short, but we’re pretty close. If we shore up a few things, we’ll go down to Vegas and let it go.”’
With Saturday’s scenario, one team is going to go into the tournament with some momentum and the other is not.
The Cowboys, losers of two straight after a four-game win streak, are losing their momentum once again, especially on Senior Night as Brandon Ewing, Sean Ogirri and Tyson Johnson played for the final time in the regular-season on their home court.
“I wanted to go out a winner. I had never lost on Senior Night,” Ewing said. “I wanted to send my seniors out with a win, but it just happened on my senior night, we lost by one.”
Ewing, who missed a runner at the buzzer that could have given the Cowboys the win, said they should be the ones talking about momentum heading into the tournament.
“We definitely should have come up with the W,” he said. “There were a lot of small things that added up to something big. A lot of loose balls that we should have got, a lot of 50-50 balls that we didn’t win. And it came down to one possession.”
While the Lobos were celebrating their first league title since 1994, Ewing said that going into the tournament, everyone is 0-0 again.
“Everybody is shooting for the same goal, to get an outright bid by winning the conference tournament,” Ewing said.
The last two losses, meanwhile, are going to fire the Cowboys up a little more, Ewing said.
“We’ll be more hungry to play,” he said. “It’s down to three games now if we want to go to the NCAA Tournament. If you don’t want to go to the tournament, you shouldn’t come on this trip.’
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