Friday, March 8, 2002 | 10:51 a.m.
Devin Lerwick, 19, armed with a huge foam hand, a pompom and a cowboy hat emblazoned with "Go Pokes" in fluorescent yellow, is a fan on a mission.
"We're here to take over," Lerwick said Thursday at the Thomas & Mack Center as he cheered his Wyoming Cowboys to a first-round victory in the Mountain West Basketball Tournament. "We try to bring a little of what Wyoming is all about with us."
On Thursday more than 4,000 Cowboy fans made University of Nevada, Las Vegas' home court feel as if it was at the base of the Medicine Bow Mountains in Laramie, Wyo., as they stamped, screamed and shouted their team to a 69-67 overtime victory.
For one weekend a year, Las Vegas -- a town known for transforming the desert into places such as New York, Paris, Venice or anyplace but where you're from -- gets a touch of Laramie, Wyo. And Albuquerque, N.M. And Fort Collins, Colo., among others.
At the start of college basketball's March Madness, thousands of fans from towns across the West come to Las Vegas not with the thought of getting away from home but bringing the homecourt to the Thomas & Mack.
"It's just an unbelievable amount of electricity," UNLV Sports Information Director Andy Grossman said. "You get the fans for all eight teams in there fighting to make the arena their own.
"It's just a special atmosphere."
Though all the teams have fans in Las Vegas, Wyoming's contingent dwarfs the others, with the possible exception of UNLV.
"We only really have one university and no other teams, so everyone gets behind it," said 73-year-old Don Kalinay, who has lived his entire life in Laramie, population 25,000. "Laramie is a place where everyone knows everyone else, and there is a real feeling of community. We try to bring that community with us on the road."
Wyoming fans are known for camping out the night before a home game at Laramie's Arena Auditorium, the "Double A" for short. Fans broke an attendance record by cramming 16,089 into the 15,000-seat arena for the team's final home game this season against Utah, despite temperatures outside the Double A hitting 15 below zero.
Lerwick and Reid Stidolph, a 20-year-old Wyoming student, made the 10-hour drive from Laramie to Las Vegas on Wednesday, spending the trip honking and waving at a huge convoy from the Cowboy State.
"We took 16,000 fans with us to a road game at Utah this year," Stidolph said. "We tend to stand out, even on the road."
Wherever Lerwick and Stidolph watch a game the friends always bring a faded cowboy hat with the Wyoming logo -- a cowboy on a bucking bronco -- painted on the front, and a fluorescent "Go Pokes" on the side.
"I bought it for 50 cents at a flea market and brought it home to give it a little spirit," Stidolph said of the rumpled hat Lerwick wore Thursday. "We pass it around and let someone different wear it to every game. It's kind of lucky."
Whatever they wear, about 9,000 travelers spending money in Las Vegas is a good thing, Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority spokeswoman Erika Brandvik said.
"It's on par with the amount of people that a championship fight will bring in," Brandvik said. "Just like a fight or NASCAR, the real benefit is from the publicity Las Vegas gets by being shown on television broadcasts."
Las Vegas has played host to a postseason college basketball tournament eight of the past nine years, but after next year's tournament the Mountain West will move its playoff to Denver for three years.
The move was made so that the tournament could be played at a neutral site, and many fans say that although they like the idea of UNLV losing its home court advantage, they will miss the annual weekend in Las Vegas.
"I know our fans enjoy coming to Las Vegas," said Wyoming assistant sports information director Tim Harkins. "They like the gambling, eating and entertainment."
That's a draw for fans from across the conference. Rumaldo Garcia, 42, arrived in town from Albuquerque, N.M., on Tuesday. He plans to win a few hands of blackjack and watch the Lobos punch a ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
"It's a good chance to get away from work, watch a lot of basketball and maybe see my team go to the Big Dance," said Garcia, in town with his brother. "You want to let your team know they have fans that have made the trip and are supporting them."
For some Cowboy fans, such as Lerwick, this weekend marks their first trip to Las Vegas.
"I'm from Albin, Wyo., and that's a town of about 120," Lerwick said. "To me, Laramie was a big city, and Las Vegas is just unbelievable. We were coming down I-15 about 2 a.m., and I couldn't believe all the lights."
Others say they are adapting to life in the fast lane a bit more quickly.
"I wear my cowboy hat to every Wyoming game, but it needed a little something extra since the tournament is in Las Vegas," Laramie resident Jarrid Lafferty said. "We stopped in Mesquite on the way down, and I bought a big pair of red puffy dice; I think they look pretty good on the hat."
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