Tuck’s Take: Second Half ‘Mind Farts’ Sink Cowboys

LARAMIE -- It wasn't the scheme. It wasn't necessarily a question of effort. It wasn't just the matchups, either.

Sundance Wicks summed up this deflating 82-73 loss to visiting San Jose State in just one word -- "manalytics."

"They were the men tonight," Wyoming's first-year head coach said postgame. "We were the boys."

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Most of the numbers would suggest this was a tailor-made victory for the Cowpokes. They limited the visitors to just 58 possessions. They shot 47% from the field. Wicks says this team's magic number on offense is 65. They eclipsed that by eight points.

The issue?

The Spartans, who claimed their first victory in Laramie in a dozen tries, couldn't miss over the final 20 minutes, including putting together a late 11-0 run and scoring on a back-breaking eight straight possessions.

Who gets the credit for that? The eight-man rotation Tim Miles brought with him or a lackluster showing on the defensive end of the floor?

Cole Henry pointed the finger directly at himself. Though he scored 11 points, the senior forward capped his afternoon with a forgettable minus-14 on the stat sheet. He said the Spartans went with a small lineup. The necessary adjustments against those twitchy, physical guards, he added, wasn't made.

"My job was to be able to guard No. 6," he said, referring to Sadaidriene Hall, who poured in 16 points and hauled in seven rebounds. "He was the five-man out there, and I did not do a good enough job. He was able to do whatever he wanted to us."

He wasn't alone.

Utah State transfer Josh Uduje led all scorers with 29. He was two missed free throws away from 31, which would've been a career high.

Latrell Davis, who lit the Cowboys up for 22 in the first meeting between these two, finished with 17. Donavan Yap pitched in with 16, the same number he put up against Wyoming in the opening round of the Mountain West Tournament last fall in a Fresno State uniform.

"They were more physical than us, just putting us in the basket," Henry continued. "They didn't miss."

Senior guard Obi Agbim said the most effective strategy of the night was the Spartans' ability to drive and force contact. They shot 32 free throws. Wyoming, 19. That's the same number of freebies the road team swished.

Abou Magassa fouled out. Dontaie Allen and Agbim were pinned with four. Henry, three.

"They did a really good job of pitting fouls on us," said Agbim, who finished with a team-high 20 points in the loss. "They kind of made it tough for us to make a decision whether we're physical or less physical, to try to wall up."

It certainly didn't help that the Cowboys turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 17 points. Some of those came via the pressure. Others, like a backcourt travel and over-and-back from guard AJ Wills, were the maddening unforced kinds that led to stern discussions with the bench boss.

"We needed to get a stop," Agbim added. "The key stop is really important for us. We turned the ball over in the moments that we needed to make a great play. We just had a lot of mind farts and we didn't execute as well as we could have."

Wicks, again, called this a missed opportunity.

With a win, Wyoming would've leapfrogged the Spartans in the conference standings with just three games remaining in the regular season. A loss almost certainly means a rematch with this same team is coming March 12 in Sin City.

It's hard to beat a team three times in a season, right?

If so, Wicks said he needs way more from the seniors on this makeshift roster.

"We've got to be better," he said. "I mean, you can't have a minus-19 box (score) from Jordan Nesbitt and a minus-14 from Cole Henry. We can't have that. We need more. I need more from Dontaie Allen. I need more from Oleg (Kojenets). Kobe Newton, I need more.

"That more, for us, starts in practice."

- University of Wyoming’s Top 50 Football Players