LARAMIE, Wyo. — Dec. 16, 1929. On that date almost exactly 95 years ago, Wyoming played BYU in basketball for the first time.
The two programs were in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, Skyline Conference, Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference together until the Cougars went independent in football and moved to the West Coast Conference in basketball 13 years ago.
The old rivalry will be renewed when the Cowboys and Cougars play on Saturday in Salt Lake City.
The current players weren’t alive for the Fennis Dembo glory days at UW and don’t remember the Jimmer Fredette phenomenon at BYU. However, first-year Cowboys head coach Sundance Wicks will get the message across to his team about what this historic series means to those longtime fans who bleed brown and gold.
“I understand what this is for Wyoming fans, I understand what this is for the state of Wyoming,” said Wicks, a Gillette native. “Trust me, I get it.”
The Cowboys must play their best game of the season to date to pull off an upset of the balanced Cougars, who now reside in the Big 12.
UW has lost three consecutive games by a combined seven points. As general manager Pat Stacy noted to Wicks, “We’re three possessions away from being 8–1.”
With 10 new players on the team, the coaching staff is more concerned about getting the team to embrace the process of executing game plans and improving each week than about results.
“You’ve got to approach it with an appreciation of the fact that we’re getting better, we’re getting closer,” Wicks said. “If you’re placating to the outcome all the time you’re going to be up and down and all around. That’s where we’ve got to do a good job of educating our players that you can’t be emotionally attached to what the scoreboard says.
“I didn’t like the loss at South Dakota because it was really bad; I thought we didn’t execute our plan. I didn’t mind the loss at Utah State because I thought we did a good job of executing that.”
UW dictated the pace and had a game-tying 3-pointer rim out during the 70–67 loss at undefeated Utah State on Dec. 4. However, the Pokes had 19 turnovers, including a costly miscue with a chance to take the lead in the final seconds, during Tuesday’s 82–81 loss at South Dakota.
Five different players are scoring in double figures for the Cougars, who are averaging 11.1 made 3s and averaging 86 points per game.
The gritty, not pretty Pokes hang their hats on defending the arc and rebounding.
“It’s Oakland A’s versus the Yankees. This is the type of stuff I love,” Wicks said. “You know what you’re competing against. They have a really good, talented roster. It’s extremely talented.”
First-year BYU head coach Kevin Young, who was with the Phoenix Suns last season, has signed the three highest rated recruits in program history with some help from a name, image and likeness war chest.
The nation’s top-ranked 2025 recruit, Al Dybantsa, signed with the Cougars on the final day of the early period this week.
This year’s meeting was originally scheduled to be played in Laramie, but UW agreed to move the game to Salt Lake City. BYU, which extended its winning streak over the Cowboys to 14 last season in Provo, will play at the Arena-Auditorium in 2025.
“That’s going to be cool,” Wicks said. “It’s something that you don’t get a chance often to have that in your program, where you play the No. 1 ranked kid in the United States of America.”
A large blue- and white-clad crowd is expected for Saturday’s meeting at the Delta Center, home of the NBA’s Utah Jazz. After facing BYU for the 176th time, UW will finally return home to host Bellarmine next Thursday.
“I do like the fact that we’re going to go play at the Delta Center and we’re going to play in an environment that is unique,” Wicks said. “It’s an experience that not a lot of college athletes get. I think it will be something for our guys to remember, to get to go there.”
