Wicks, Cowboys Relish One Final Chance to Dance

LARAMIE -- San Diego State and Boise State, reportedly, didn't want to play in the National Invitational Tournament.

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Neither did brand-name programs like Oklahoma, Indiana and Florida State after being left out of the 68-team field in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

That's just fine with Sundance Wicks.

He wouldn't make that decision, but it did help crack the door for his young, inexperienced squad.

"This is my little rant here, all right: We are college basketball coaches and we have a great profession. We have college basketball players who get paid to play basketball. Now, we need to normalize playing postseason basketball," Wyoming's head coach said on Monday morning. "When it's the NIT, it's a level of respect, in my opinion, because it is the longest standing college basketball tournament. It was the cat's meow before the NCAA created March Madness.

"It's an honor and a privilege to play in the NIT and we will always accept an invitation if we don't get an NCAA automatic-qualifier bid or an at-large bid in March Madness."

The Cowboys did just that late Sunday night after it was revealed they made the final field of 32. No. 3-seed Wichita State is now on the docket. Tipoff is slated for 5 p.m. Tuesday night inside Koch Arena. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

This is Wyoming's first postseason berth since March of 2022 when the school appeared in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament in Dayton. This is also the ninth trip to the NIT, where the Cowboys are 7-8 overall. Four of those victories came in a 1986 run to the championship game where a Fennis Dembo-led squad fell to Ohio State 73-63 inside Madison Square Garden.

"I think we all kind of believed our season was cut short and were pretty disappointed in the way it ended," senior forward Kiani Saxon said, referring to last Wednesday's 73-70 first-round ouster against UNLV in the Mountain West Tournament. "You know, this is another opportunity for us to go and show kind of what the Wyoming Cowboys have.

"... We're excited to come put our best foot forward and get out there."

Wicks started campaigning for a postseason berth the second he sat behind the podium last week in Las Vegas. He said the metrics, especially sitting at No. 99 overall in the Net Rankings out of 365 programs, justified it.

That belief also trickled into the locker room, Khaden Bennett added.

"After the game, he thought we could have a chance to play again," said the junior guard, who averaged better than 10 points a night during his first season in Laramie. "Anytime you get to play in March, I think it's always a blessing. We're just excited to compete."

Wicks called this version of the NIT "mid-major madness," referring to the number of quality teams outside the heavy hitting conferences like the Big XII, SEC, Big Ten and ACC. Sure, Auburn is there (Wicks praised that decision). So is Cal, Wake Forest and Oklahoma State. The latter could be the next opponent for the Cowboys or Shockers if it can get past Davidson in Stillwater on St. Patrick's Day.

The Mountain West, despite the reported declines of SDSU and Boise State, will be well represented in this tournament. New Mexico snagged a top seed. Nevada is at No. 2 and Colorado State is a three. UNLV also made the cut.

So did programs like Dayton, Tulsa and Utah Valley.

Wyoming's opponent, WSU, cut down the nets in this very tournament back in 2011 with wins over Nebraska, Virginia Tech, College of Charleston, Washington State and Alabama. The Shockers also made it to the semifinals in 2019.

"We were excited in there," Wicks said of the reveal the coaches created in the team room. "We were eating chicken wings last night, you know, hoping that we would see ourselves kind of in a little NIT selection show when it was announced. I wanted our guys to feel that moment. I want our guys to be excited about playing. I want our guys to always be excited about playing another game with each other.

"You know, it's just one more chance to dance."