Columnist Ron Kantowski: Wyoming not impressive in debut

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

On Monday morning I received a call from a woman who was inquiring about the dates of the Mountain West Conference postseason men's basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

I immediately pegged her as being from Wyoming. Cowboys fans are so rabid that on the rare occasions they have something to shout about -- and this year's Wyoming basketball team could be the best thing to hit Laramie since "Rawhide" reruns -- they are wont to make postseason plans even before the regular one begins.

Turns out I was wrong. She was from Southern California. But she has five brothers from Wyoming who are planning a family reunion in Las Vegas to cheer on their beloved 'Pokes.

She was so fired up about Wyoming that I felt compelled to bypass Tuesday night's UNLV-Global Sports showdown at the T&M (although the second episode of "NYPD Blue" would have been reason enough to skip the Rebels' glorified scrimmage) to watch Wyoming square off against No. 23 Southern Cal in the first round of the preseason NIT.

With ESPN on hand at a decent hour, it was the perfect opportunity for Wyoming to legitimize its claim as one of the nation's "sleeper" teams come NCAA Tourney time. But for that to happen, the Cowboys' half-court offense and perimeter defense had better wake up.

After freewheeling to a 32-25 first-half lead, Wyoming's big men got into foul trouble, and the Trojans' perimeter players were much more athletic than the Cowboys'. While a 68-55 loss to a team that just missed last year's Final Four is hardly a disgrace, Wyoming's frigid 28 percent field-goal accuracy certainly will give the rest of the Mountain West a reason to show up anyway when the Cowboys come to town.

"If we'd just gotten some offense, it would have been much closer," said Wyoming coach Steve "Mr. Obvious" McClain.

That's like saying that if my aunt liked to work on cars and leave her socks laying around the house, she'd be my uncle.

It was ticky-tack fouls and Wyoming's inability to throw the ball into the post that made McClain's bunch cry uncle. Uche Nsonwu-Amadi, 6-foot-10 and 260 pounds, scored just two points. Ugo Udezue, 6-8, 245 pounds, scored just two points.

At least ESPN had the foresight to send its Mountain West broadcasting crew of Bob Carpenter and Jimmy Dykes to cover the game, so nobody got hurt trying to pronounce the names of the Wyoming big men.

Josh Davis, Wyoming's "small" forward at 6-8, 235 pounds, led the Cowboys with 16 points. But last year's MWC player of the year never did find the range with his jump shot, which probably will determine whether or not he will go on to become an NBA star.

Wyoming is big and deep, two ingredients that usually don't come bunched together in the Mountain West, and there isn't a team in the nation it can't match up with, at least in an airport. But it's McClain's tenure as a Billy Tubbs disciple that could preclude TCU West from being all it can be. It's defense and coaching that wins championships these days.

That's not to say that Wyoming won't win its share of games by firing up jump shots and crashing the boards. But it remains to be seen how many it can win in March by playing that way.