Wyoming

3 thoughts: SDSU 72, Wyoming 69 … a resurgent BJ Davis, metrics deception and a Big Ten ref snub

Published

12 months ago

March 3, 2025

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3 thoughts: SDSU 72, Wyoming 69 … a resurgent BJ Davis, metrics deception and a Big Ten ref snub

LARAMIE, Wyo. – Three thoughts on San Diego State’s 72-69 win at Wyoming on Saturday night:

1. Perfect timing

Remember BJ Davis?

Well, he’s back.

The sophomore guard had a torrid start to the season, which was even more impressive considering these were his first meaningful minutes after being buried on the bench on a veteran team the year before. He had 28 points in a closed-door preseason exhibition at UCLA in October, then 11 in the opener against UCSD in his first career start with senior guard Reese Waters injured. He followed that with 16, 15, 18 and 18.

First five games: 15.6 points, 60% shooting overall, 10 of 20 behind the arc.

And then …

Next 19 games: 6.7 points, 35.5% shooting, 18 of 61 behind the arc (29.5%).

And then …

Last three games: 12.7 points, 61.1% shooting, 10 of 16 behind the arc (62.5%).

“I just had to get back to my roots,” Davis said after equaling his career high of 18 points in his first trip to the 7,220 feet of Wyoming. “I had to do all the things that got me here to this place, be the same person I was that got me here. That’s what I fell back to, just trying to be myself, more comfortable in my own skin.

“Getting in the gym extra, getting an early night’s rest. It’s just the little stuff that the greatest athletes do, and it shows.”

The timing couldn’t be better. Miles Byrd also had 18 on Saturday, his most in 11 games. His sprained right thumb continues to heal, and he said he received a pain-killing injection last week in his balky hip that has bothered him on and off for the last two seasons.

Nick Boyd also is playing his best basketball of the season. So is Miles Heide and Jared Coleman-Jones. So was Magoon Gwath before hyperextending his knee, but his rehab seems to be progressing. He could return as early as this week.

“Goon went down, everybody had to pick up the slack for him because he’s an incredible player,” Davis said. “We all have to be better to make up for his absence.”

Consider this mind-blowing stat: Over the past three games (an eight-point loss, an eight-point win, a three-point win), all but two minutes of which were without Gwath, the Aztecs are an aggregate plus-3 points. And plus-43 when Davis has been on the floor.

And don’t forget that he was the primary defender on the first and fourth leading scorers in the Mountain West, New Mexico’s Donovan Dent and Wyoming’s Obi Agbim.

“Just got his confidence back up,” Dutcher said. “He got back in the gym. He wasn’t shooting as much as he was earlier. I think he was tired over (the semester break) and rested more. Now he’s got his swagger back up. It’s great to see.”

2. Metrics deception

The Aztecs are 20-7 and projected as a No. 9 or 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament by most leading bracketologists, which translates to somewhere between the nation’s 33rd and 40th best team. So how come the NET and a few other metrics have them in the 50s?

The simple answer is that they play their best basketball against the best teams, which also means the opposite is true.

Bart Torvik’s T-rank includes filters for date parameters as well as quality of opposition. Remove Quad 4 games (against the bottom tier of teams), and the Aztecs go from 56 overall to 36 – the highest jump among the top 75 teams which, presumably, are vying for NCAA Tournament spots.

Compare that to Boise State, which sits at 43 overall in T-rank but drops to 63 when you remove Quad 4 games. Or Colorado State, which goes from 50 to 65.

That’s because they beat up on lesser foes, gaming the metrics with lopsided wins that overperform the computer’s projected margin.

The Aztecs aren’t built that way, a defensive-oriented team with what at times is an anemic offense incapable of achieving 30- and 40-point routs. They rank 13th in defensive efficiency this season, 111th in offensive efficiency.

Their nonconference schedule, ranked as the ninth most difficult in the nation, wasn’t built that way, either. They played four straight games in November against teams ranked in the Associated Press top 25 instead of a diet of metric-juicing cupcakes.

They’ve played 12 Quad 3 or 4 games this season and outperformed the projected margin of victory in only four – and just once in the last seven. Over the course of the season, they’re a combined 50 points worse than the projected spread.

In one two-week stretch, they lost a Quad 3 home game against UNLV despite being favored by 10.5 points and had three close calls against Air Force, San Jose State and Wyoming despite being favored by 13 or 14 points. That was accompanied by a nine-spot slide in the NET metric.

Saturday’s projected spread was seven. The Aztecs won by three.

“I’ve got one more trip here,” Dutcher said of Wyoming, which won’t be part of the reformed Pac-12 in 2026-27. “God bless, I love Laramie, I love the people of Laramie, but I won’t be coming back. As long as I’m an Aztecs coach, I won’t be bringing a team here. I know how hard it is.”

3. Consortium conundrum

When the Pac-12 disintegrated and the Western Basketball Officiating Consortium (WBOC) followed suit, the other five Division I conferences in the West needed to find a new source of striped shirts.

The WCC, Big West, Big Sky and WAC all followed WBOC coordinator John Higgins to the Big 12, where he assumed a similar role and brought many of the top Pac-12 officials with him. The Mountain West broke ranks and joined the College Officiating Consortium (COC) that supplies the Big Ten and several smaller Midwest leagues.

“The Mountain West,” Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement last spring announcing the move, “will continue to see high-level officiating, evaluations and trainings that will enhance our conference and the student-athlete experience.”

The idea was that the top Big Ten officials would make West Coast swings to work conference games with UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington, then detour to Mountain West schools along the way. But whether because of the travel logistics of shipping Midwest-based officials across the country or a deprioritization of the Mountain West, it hasn’t quite worked out like that.

The Kenpom metric ranks officials on the theory that the best refs are assigned to the best games. Eight of the current top 15 are regulars in the Big Ten, working a combined 173 conference games but only 18 in the Mountain West.

Another way to look at it is the average Kenpom ranking of a three-person crew. In eight SDSU games between Feb. 1 and March 1 last season, it was 84.

This season: 110.

Saturday’s crew at Wyoming was the latest insult for a program that reached the national championship game and Sweet 16 in the past two seasons.

There was No. 59 Michael Irving, one of the West Coast-based officials who jumped to the COC after the WBOC disbanded. There was No. 125 Chad Barlow, who hasn’t been deemed worthy of working a single Big Ten game this season and instead is primarily assigned to the MAC and Horizon League. And there was Juan Corral, a Division II official who has worked only 15 Division I games this season and none since Feb. 18 (when he also had the Aztecs). He’s ranked 361st.

Corral was the ref who whistled a technical foul on Davis after he made a 3 and looked at his own bench to, in his words, “turn my guys up, like, ‘Let’s go, guys. Let’s do it.’”

Barlow was the ref who T-ed up Miles Byrd seven seconds later.

“All of a sudden, it was about the officiating instead of the game,” Dutcher said. “I was hoping they wouldn’t interject themselves too much. I’m sitting courtside. I didn’t see a lot of crap talking between the two teams back and forth.”

SDSU and the four other Mountain West defectors have one more season of the COC before joining the new Pac-12, which has not yet decided on an officiating consortium for basketball.

Originally Published: March 2, 2025 at 5:49 PM PST

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Wyoming

Meyer’s Late Score Lifts Wyoming past Air Force – SweetwaterNOW

Published

3 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Meyer’s Late Score Lifts Wyoming past Air Force – SweetwaterNOW

Naz Meyer. Mandatory Credit: Troy Babbitt-UW Media-Athletics

LARAMIE — Nasir Meyer converted a three-point play with 35 seconds remaining to give Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball the lead for good, and Wyoming held Air Force Falcons men’s basketball scoreless over the final two minutes to secure a 66-62 victory Saturday night.

The win marked the 13th home victory of the season for Wyoming, which improved to 16-13 overall and 7-11 in conference play.

“Air Force deserves all the credit and let’s talk about a team that has every reason not to fight, but thats why they are Air Force and the cadets and I have a lot of respect for them,” Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks said. “They were not going to quit, and I didn’t drive that message home enough and hats off to Air Force because they deserved to win. We snuck away with a win. Adam Harakow showed when we need him and he was massive for us. Simm-Marten was made big plays and Naz was clutch for us late.”

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Wyoming shot 35% from the field and went 7 of 28 from 3-point range, making just two from beyond the arc in the second half. Air Force shot 49% overall and 44% from 3, hitting eight shots from long distance. The Cowboys made 13 of 16 free throws (81%) and scored 22 points off 15 Air Force turnovers while holding a 39-36 edge in rebounding.

Damarion Dennis led Wyoming with 16 points and three assists, going 7 of 8 from the free-throw line. Meyer finished with 14 points and tied a career best with eight rebounds. Adam Harakow added 14 points off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting, his first double-figure scoring game since the first meeting with Air Force. Simm-Marten Saadi had nine points in 13 minutes, and Kiani Saxon grabbed seven rebounds.

Air Force opened with back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 6-0 lead. Meyer scored Wyoming’s first basket, and Leland Walker added a 3-pointer to make it 8-5 with 16 minutes left in the first half.

Wyoming responded with a 9-0 run over nearly four minutes, with Saadi and Harakow each connecting from beyond the arc to give the Cowboys an 11-8 lead with under 14 minutes remaining. Air Force regained a 12-11 advantage as Wyoming went scoreless for more than two minutes.

Harakow’s second 3-pointer pushed the lead to 22-16 with nine minutes left in the half, and Wyoming used a 6-0 run while holding the Falcons without a field goal for more than four minutes to build a 28-18 lead with six minutes remaining. The Cowboys closed the half on a defensive stand, keeping Air Force scoreless for the final two minutes to take a 35-25 lead into the break. Wyoming scored 15 first-half points off turnovers.

The teams traded 3-pointers early in the second half, and Air Force cut the deficit to 40-31 with under 17 minutes left before trimming it to seven 90 seconds later. Walker answered with a 3-pointer to make it 43-33 with 15 minutes to go.

Air Force used a 9-0 run during a stretch in which Wyoming went more than 3 1/2 minutes without a point to pull within one with nine minutes left. The Falcons later tied the game at 51-51 with 5:30 remaining after forcing six straight missed shots.

A pair of free throws by Meyer and a basket from Saadi gave Wyoming a 57-53 lead with under four minutes to play. Air Force answered with three consecutive 3-pointers from Kam Sanders to take a 62-59 lead with two minutes left.

Meyer scored with 90 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to one. On the next trip, he converted an and-one to give Wyoming a 64-62 lead with 35 seconds left. The Cowboys added late free throws to close out the 66-62 win.

Sanders led Air Force with 16 points and nine rebounds, going 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Eli Robinson added 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

Wyoming closes its home schedule Tuesday against Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball at 8 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the Cowgirls.

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Wyoming

Wyoming High School Basketball 2A State Tournament 2026

Published

15 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming High School Basketball 2A State Tournament 2026

The 2-time defending champ Tongue River girls, along with both teams from Big Horn will represent Sheridan County in the small school version of March Madness.

Click here to see results from the regional tournaments.

2A Boys:

First Round:

Thursday, March 5th: (All games played at Casper College)

(#2E) Big Horn vs. (#3W) Shoshoni – Noon

(#1W) Thermopolis vs. (#4E) Sundance – 1:30pm

(#2W) Wyoming Indian vs. (#3E) Wright – 6:30pm

(#1E) Pine Bluffs vs. (#4W) Rocky Mountain – 8pm

Friday, March 6th: (All games played at Ford Wyoming Center)

Consolation Round:

Big Horn/Shoshoni loser vs. Thermopolis/Sundance loser – Noon LOSER OUT!

Wyoming Indian/Wright loser vs. Pine Bluffs/Rocky Mountain loser – 1:30pm LOSER OUT!

Semi-Finals:

Big Horn/Shoshoni winner vs. Thermopolis/Sundance winner – 6:30pm

Wyoming Indian/Wright winner vs. Pine Bluffs/Rocky Mountain winner – 8pm

Saturday, March 7th:

Friday Noon winner vs. Friday 1:30pm – Noon at Ford Wyoming Center Consolation Championship

Friday 6:30pm loser vs. Friday 8pm loser – 3pm at Natrona County High School 3rd Place

Friday 6:30pm winner vs. Friday 8pm winner – 7pm at Ford Wyoming Center Championship

2A Girls:

First Round:

Thursday, March 5th: (All games played at Casper College)

(#2W) Wyoming Indian vs. (#3E) Big Horn – 9am

(#1E) Sundance vs. (#4W) Shoshoni – 10:30am

(#2E) Tongue River vs. (#3W) Greybull – 3:30pm

(#1W) Thermopolis vs. (#4E) Pine Bluffs – 5pm

Friday, March 6th: (All games played at Ford Wyoming Center)

Consolation Round:

Wyoming Indian/Big Horn loser vs. Sundance/Shoshoni loser – 9am LOSER OUT!

Tongue River/Greybull loser vs. Thermopolis/Pine Bluffs loser – 10:30am LOSER OUT!

Semi-Finals:

Wyoming Indian/Big Horn winner vs. Sundance/Shoshoni winner – 3:30pm

Tongue River/Greybull loser vs. Thermopolis/Pine Bluffs loser – 5pm

Saturday, March 7th:

Friday 9am winner vs. Friday 10:30am winner – 9am at Ford Wyoming Center Consolation Championship

Friday 3:30pm loser vs. Friday 5pm loser – 10:30am at Ford Wyoming Center 3rd Place

Friday 3:30pm winner vs. Friday 5pm winner – 5:30pm at Ford Wyoming Center Championship

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Wyoming

Wyoming Crow Hunters Can Blast All They Want, But Nobody Eats The Birds

Published

1 day ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming Crow Hunters Can Blast All They Want, But Nobody Eats The Birds

Mention of bird hunting might conjure up images of hunters and their dogs huddling in freezing duck blinds or pounding the brush in hopes of kicking up pheasants. But crow hunting is a thing in Wyoming too.

“It’s about the sport of it,” Dan Kinneman of Riverton told Cowboy State Daily.

He started crow hunting when he was 14 and is about to turn 85. He’s never tried cooking and eating crows or known anybody who has.

Instead, shooting crows is essentially nuisance bird control, as they’re known to wreak havoc on agricultural crops.

“All the ranchers will let you hunt crows. I’ve never been refused access to hunt crows. They all hate them,” he said.

In Wyoming, crow hunting season runs from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28. No license is required, and there’s no bag limit. Hunters can shoot all the crows they want to.

It’s a ball for hunting dogs too, Kinneman said.

“My yellow Labrador retriever, he doesn’t care whether it’s a crow or duck. In fact, he likes crow hunting more than duck hunting, because there’s more action,” he said.

Crow hunting requires skill, patience and a good set of decoys, an experienced Wyoming hunter said. The upside is, there’s no bag limit, hunters can blast all the crows they want. No one eats them, though.

Don’t Expect It To Be Easy

Kinneman said that in the days of his youth, crow hunting was as simple as driving around and “shooting them out of trees with rifles.”

However, as the number of people and buildings potentially in the paths of bullets grew, such practices fell out of favor. Crow hunting became more regulated.

And it evolved to resemble hunting other birds, such as waterfowl.

Meaning, hunters started setting out decoys, hiding in blinds and using calls to tempt crows to within shotgun range.

Kinneman is no stranger to hunting of all types. He’s taken numerous species of big game in Wyoming and elsewhere. And in July 2005, he shot a prairie dog near Rock Springs from well over a mile away.

He hit the prairie dog from 2,157 yards away. A mile is 1,760 yards.

But bird hunting has always been his favorite.

“It’s my life,” he said.

He has a huge collection of duck, goose and dove decoys. And two tubs full of crow decoys.

The uninitiated might think that going out and blasting crows would be a slam dunk.

That isn’t so, Kinneman said. He likes crow hunting for the challenge of it.

“Hunting crows is hard. They are a lot smarter than ducks and geese,” he said.

Pick Up After Yourself

Even though he doesn’t eat crows, Kinneman said he never just left them littering the ground where he shot them.

“I never let them lay out there. I always picked them up and disposed of the carcasses,” he said.

That’s good ethics and it shows respect for the ranchers, he said.

“Leaving them (dead crows) out there would be no different than just leaving all of your empty shotgun shells out there,” he said.

“You have to pick up after yourself, or the ranchers won’t let you back onto their land,” he added.

Slow Year

At his age, Kinneman isn’t sure how much longer he’ll be able to get out crow hunting. And this year has been a total bust.

“I love doing it. But this year there are no crows,” he said.

The Riverton area is along major crow migration routes.

Picking a good hunting spot is a matter of “finding a flyway” that the crows are on and then setting up a spread of decoys and a blind along the route.

But with an unusually warm winter, the crow flyways have been practically empty, he said.