Wyoming
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:
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyoming (KUTV) — A man was hospitalized with critical injuries after he was reportedly shot by a deputy responding to reports of a disturbance.
Deputies with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Rock Springs Police Department responded to the Sweetwater Heights apartment complex in the 2100 block of Century Boulevard just after 4 a.m. on Monday to investigate reports of a disturbance involving an armed individual.
Information that dispatch received indicated that the individual had shot himself. When officials arrived, they found the individual on the balcony of an upstairs apartment “who appeared to have a gunshot wound consistent with the initial report,” a press release states.
MORE | Officer-Involved Shooting
During the encounter, a deputy discharged their weapon and struck the individual.
Emergency medical personnel rendered aid, and the individual was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
No law enforcement officers or members of the public were injured during the incident.
The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct an independent investigation.
The deputy who fired their weapon was placed on administrative leave per standard protocol.
_____
by Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
Albert Sommers, former Wyoming Speaker of the House, announced Thursday he will attempt to reclaim a seat he formerly held for more than a decade in the statehouse.
“Leadership matters,” Sommers, a lifelong cattle rancher, wrote in a press release. “Right now, the Wyoming House is too often focused on division instead of solutions. We need steady, effective leadership that solves problems—not rhetoric and political theater.”
Voters in 2013 first elected Sommers to House District 20, which encompasses Sublette County and an eastern section of Lincoln County. As a lawmaker, Sommers largely focused on health care, education and water issues. Over six terms, he rose through the ranks, serving in leadership positions and chairing committees focused on education funding and broadband.
In his announcement, Sommers highlighted his legislative work to establish funding for rural hospitals, prioritize “responsible property tax relief,” as well as the creation of the Wyoming Colorado River Advisory Committee within the State Engineer’s Office, “to ensure our water users have a voice in critical decisions affecting the Green River Valley,” he wrote.
As speaker, Sommers was a frequent target of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus as well as the DC-based State Freedom Caucus Network, even getting the attention of Fox News and other national, conservative news outlets. They often accused Sommers of not being conservative enough, and criticized him for keeping bills in “the drawer,” which has long been code for the unilateral power a speaker has to kill legislation by holding it back. (The practice of holding bills has been used to a much higher degree under Freedom Caucus leadership.)
In 2023, Sommers used the speaker’s powers to kill bills related to a school voucher program, banning instruction on gender and sexual orientation from some classrooms and criminalizing gender-affirming care for minors. At the time, Sommers defended his decision to hold back “bills that are unconstitutional, not well vetted, duplicate bills or debates, and bills that negate local control, restrict the rights of people or risk costly litigation financed by the people of Wyoming.”
He reiterated that philosophy and defended his record in his Thursday campaign announcement.
“I am a common-sense conservative who believes in getting things done. I support our core industries—oil and gas, ranching, and tourism—and I will continue to fight for the people and natural resources of Sublette County and LaBarge. I am pro-gun, pro-life, pro-family, and pro-education,” Sommers wrote. “I also take seriously my oath to uphold the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions, which means I didn’t support bills that violated those constitutions. I read bills carefully and I voted accordingly.”
Following his term as speaker, Sommers stepped away from the House to run for Senate District 14 in 2024. He lost in the primary election to political newcomer Laura Pearson, a Freedom Caucus-endorsed Republican from Kemmerer, who also won in the general election. Her Senate win coincided with the Freedom Caucus winning control of the House.
“That race didn’t go my way, and I respected the outcome,” Sommers said in a Thursday press release. But “the direction of the Wyoming House,” since then, he said, has “raised serious concerns.”
Sommers pointed to the Freedom Caucus and its budget proposal, which, despite a funding surplus, included major cuts and funding denials. Ahead of the session, the caucus said its sights were set on shrinking spending and limiting the growth of government.
In his Thursday press release, Sommers criticized “decisions that cut food assistance for vulnerable children, reduced business opportunities, slashed funding to the University of Wyoming, eliminated resources for cheatgrass control, denied raises for state employees, and removed positions critical to protecting Wyoming’s water rights.”
Most of those proposals did not make it into the final budget bill.
Sommers also pointed to a controversy that dominated the 2026 session after a Teton County conservative activist handed out campaign checks to lawmakers on the House floor. Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously voted to ban such behavior before a House Special Investigative Committee found that the exchange did not violate the Wyoming Constitution nor did it amount to legislative misconduct. A Laramie County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation is still underway.
But “controversies like ‘Checkgate’ undermined public trust, and decorum in the House deteriorated,” Sommers said.
“Transparency and accessibility will remain central to how I serve,” Sommers said. “As I’ve done before, I will provide regular updates on legislation, seek your input, and clearly explain my votes.”
Incumbent bows out
Rep. Mike Schmid, R-La Barge, currently represents House District 20, but announced Thursday morning that he would not seek reelection.
“It has truly been an honor to serve as your State Representative for House District 20. When I first ran, I had hoped to serve up to three terms and continue building on what I learned during my first term,” Schmid wrote in a Facebook post. “But life can change your priorities. Over the past year, my family has gone through some difficult times. My wife is dealing with serious health issues, and the death of my brother, Jim, just a few short weeks ago have made it clear to me where I need to spend my time.”
In March, Bill Winney, a perennial candidate and former nuclear submarine commander, announced he would run for House District 20.
The official candidate filing period opens May 14.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
Related
The following is a news release from the Wyoming’s Rock Springs Police Department:
ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — The Rock Springs Police Department is investigating a fatal incident that occurred early this morning in the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center.
At approximately 5:00 a.m., a Flying J employee was working to direct commercial vehicle traffic within the lot. Initial findings suggest that as one semitruck began to move, the employee was positioned between that vehicle and a second stationary vehicle. The employee was subsequently pinned between the two units.
Rock Springs Fire Department and Castle Rock Ambulance arrived on the scene and coordinated life-saving measures. Despite the rapid response and medical intervention, the employee was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The identity of the deceased is being withheld at this time pending the notification of family members.
The driver involved in the incident, a resident of Idaho, remained on-site and has been fully cooperative with investigators. Following an initial statement and questioning, the driver was released. While the investigation remains open, the incident currently appears to be a tragic accident.
We extend our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased and the staff at Flying J. We also want to commend the rapid response and professional life-saving efforts coordinated by Rock Springs Fire and Castle Rock Ambulance during this difficult call.
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