Wicks Loved the Result, But the Process Sunday was ‘Wrong’

LARAMIE -- The start, well, that couldn't have gone much better.

One might even refer to it as a "dream."

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The final 20 minutes, though, that was another story. And Sundance Wicks wasn't shy about his assessment.

"The nightmare is when your players come out (of halftime) soft, selfish and entitled, thinking that you owe them something," an emotional Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks said Sunday just moments after his team moved to 5-1 on the season with a 75-67 victory over visiting Norfolk State. "This is a privilege, not a right, to don the brown and gold. It is a privilege to honor the brown and gold, and when you don't respect it, when you don't respect it by having bad attitudes, not looking coaches in the eyes, saying stuff under your breath when you come back (to the huddle) -- yes, that is stuff that happened tonight, and that is why guys did not play -- we respect the process.

"The nightmare for a coach is when the result is right and the process is wrong. And that was tonight's tale."

What got the second-year bench boss so fired up?

Wyoming limited the Spartans to just six buckets in the first half, including a 1-of-7 rate from deep. The visitors, who average nearly 76 points an outing, also turned the ball over eight times compared to just a single assist.

The Cowboys, on the other hand, were shooting 41.4% from the field and hit five triples, including a 2-for-2 start for Quinnipiac transfer Khaden Bennett. Leland Walker, along with Bennett, each dished out three of the team's nine helpers. Turnovers were limited to six.

Those kinds of statistics lead to a 39-23 advantage on the scoreboard at the break.

These ones lead to a postgame tirade from Wicks: 9-of-26 shooting, eight giveaways and ending on a near six-minute scoring drought. That's just the gripes on offense. Norfolk State, a program that has made the NCAA Tournament in three of the last five seasons, shot better than 45% from the field and added five 3-pointers.

Anthony McComb III scored 17 of his 19 points in the final frame. The senior added six of those at the line. Elijah Jamison was also a thorn with 19 points. He drilled two triples and snagged a couple of steals as the Spartans chipped away at what was once a 24-point deficit.

What was the major difference in halves?

"Our energy level went down," said Walker, a senior point guard who Sunday registered his 400th career assist. "We can't let that happen anymore."

Adam Harakow strolled into the press conference with the buffalo statue. Of course, that goes to the player that "walks into the storm" and perseveres. He earned it, too. The Lake Superior State transfer, coming off the bench, netted a game-high 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting. He was aggressive on both ends of the floor and capped his outing with five rebounds and a steal.

The smile that creased his face told you all you needed to know about his personal performance. That grin evaporated quickly when the subject turned to a disastrous ending that saw the Spartans cut this lead to just seven.

"It's just about being consistent," Harakow said. "Whether that team goes on runs or we go on runs, we can't get too high or too low. So, just being able to stay poised, I think, is going to be what we need to focus on."

The marching orders in the home locker room were this: Don't let the foot off the gas.

The results were allowing a .500 team that just traveled from the other side of the country after playing on Friday night to have late hope.

Wicks was blunt. He benched guys in this one.

Freshman Naz Meyer was on the floor for just over nine minutes and finished with two points. Fellow guards Jared Harris and Uriyah Rojas didn't even combine for as many minutes as Meyer. The veterans on this roster, Abou Magassa and Matija Belic, never reached the 10-minute mark, either.

Wicks said he needs Belic to start believing in himself. For Meyer, the issue is playing defense without fouling. He wants rookie big man Gavin Gores to be stronger at the rim.

He, along with Meyer, Wicks said, "are playing like freshmen."

It's a race to maturity around here, he added.

This is all one big audition for the main event: Mountain West play.

"There was no celebration in that locker room. I'm not going to celebrate that performance in the second half. You earn the right to celebrate your performance. You earn the right to have a victory that's worth feeling," an animated Wicks continued. "(We're) 5-1 and we're not going to complain about it. It's better than being 4-2, right? We understand that. Again, we don't take that for granted.

"But if the process is wrong, guys, like, eventually, the process will be wrong again, and then what you accept in victory, you must accept in defeat. We are not accepting this in victory. Period. End of story."

Wyoming Wednesday will host a Denver team that will be coming off a road meeting with No. 4 Arizona in Tucson. Tim Bergstraser's team rolled into Moby Area last Friday night and took down Colorado State, 83-81.

Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. inside the Arena-Auditorium.