Wyoming men’s basketball is making its long-awaited return to the NCAA Tournament.
The Cowboys earned a No. 12 seed in the East Region and will play fellow No. 12 seed Indiana on Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio. The game is a First Four matchup with the winner facing No. 5 seed St. Mary’s of the West Coast Conference.
Wyoming (25-8) is in the Big Dance for the first time since 2015 when it won the Mountain West Tournament. This marks the program’s first at-large selection since 2002. The team gathered for a watch party in Laramie when the matchup with Indiana (20-13) was made official.
“We knew we were going to be right there on that bubble,” UW head coach Jeff Linder said. “Thankfully, the committee saw our body of work throughout the course of the season.”
Linder, the former Northern Colorado head coach, is in his second season leading the Cowboys. UW features three players with double-digit scoring averages — sophomore forward Graham Ike (19.6), senior guard Hunter Maldonado (18.4) and senior guard Drake Jeffries (10.5).
The Cowboys also have a strong contingent of former Colorado prep stars in freshman guard Ben Bowen (Mountain Vista), junior guard Kenny Foster (Smoky Hill), sophomore forward John Grigsby (Park Center), Ike (Overland) and Maldonado (Vista Ridge).
“I got the job right at the start of the pandemic. We’re still wearing masks two years later,” Linder said. “But as I told our staff and players: There are no excuses in the program. We’ve got to go out and find ways to get players that are good enough to put us in this position. Thatap what my staff did. We identified guys that other people maybe missed out on. Those guys over the course of the last two years … they’ve scratched and clawed every day.”
Meanwhile, Indiana is a traditional blue-blood college basketball program that has recently fallen on hard times. The five-time NCAA champion Hoosiers had missed the Big Dance for six consecutive seasons. IU is led statistically by junior Trayce Jackson-Davis. The 6-foot-9 forward averages 18.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Indiana’s first-year head coach Mike Woodson is a former longtime NBA head coach with the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks.
“We’re going to start on that (scouting) here right away. I’ve watched them some with their big kid and how the Big Ten plays through the post,” Linder said. “Itap such a quick turnaround. Itap more about what you do. You have to figure out a few things in terms of what they do.”
The Cowboys are ready to dance.
“Itap a great opportunity for our team and the University of Wyoming,” Linder said. “The beauty of the First Four is that you’re the only games on that night. You get a lot of exposure for your program, the school and the state.”
