FORT COLLINS — Two weeks from today, Colorado State and Wyoming will in all likelihood meet in the play-in game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament. One will humanely put the other out of its misery, the other will advance to meet the league’s regular-season champion.
For tonight’s Border War revival at 6:30 p.m. at Moby Arena, last place CSU (6-20, 0-12) will try to win its first game of 2008. Wyoming (10-16, 3-10) has a mathematical chance of surpassing TCU (5-7) for the No. 7 seed and avoiding the play-in game.
“We actually talked about that this morning,” CSU coach Tim Miles said Monday. “Our goal is to win, contrary to popular belief. We’re going to do everything we can to win this game. But at the same time, knowing we’re most likely going to face them on a neutral court, you have to be ready for that game, too.”
Wyoming counterpart Heath Schroyer, also struggling in his first season, said, “For us, any game we’re playing is very important in the sense we’re in the process of truly building a program.”
CSU is one of just four NCAA Division I schools without a conference win (joining Oregon State, Rice and Northwestern).
Despite their struggles, CSU and Wyoming have the MWC’s top two scorers in CSU guard Marcus Walker (18.1 points per game) and Wyoming’s Brandon Ewing (17.1).
Said Miles of his freshmen/walk-on dominated squad: “If we had a full team, Marcus would be a guy averaging 12 or 13 points a game and I think he’d be fine with that.”
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
