Tonight at 6 p.m. MST, No. 23 Colorado faces off against the Wyoming Cowboys from Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of the MGM Resorts Main Event. The winner of the Buffs/Cowboys game will face either Texas Christian or Clemson on Tuesday night.
As the Buffaloes (3-0) prepare to get underway, one thing has been made abundantly clear — no one, coach or player, plans on overlooking Wyoming, a team that has caused Tad Boyle's squads much trouble in the recent past.
To say that Wyoming has given Boyle's teams trouble in the past might be an understatement. The last time these two teams met, just over five years to the day, on Nov. 22, 2014 in Laramie, the Cowboys trounced CU, winning 56-33.
Colorado failed to score a basket until around three minutes were left in the first half and wound up scoring the least amount of points in a game since Harry Truman was president.
Under Boyle, the Buffs are 1-3 vs. Wyoming — Colorado beat the Cowboys in a close affair in Boulder during the 2013-14 season, winning 63-58 — but in his first two tries, Dec. games played in 2011 and 2012, the Buffaloes were dealt back-to-back deflating non-conference losses.
Thus, the Cowboys have always played Colorado hard, something Boyle and the Buffs doubtless expect tonight. With the Pac-12 Conference having been dealt a bit of a gut punch on Thursday (Utah, Wazzu and UCLA all suffered non-conference losses), Boyle was adamant about preventing CU from suffering a similar early-season misstep.
“We’re not going to overlook Wyoming — no question," Boyle said. "And with what happened in our league (Thursday), it’s a great example: you start sleeping on people, it’s going to bite you. We’re not sleeping on Wyoming. We’ve got great respect for them and we’re going to approach this just like every other game. I don’t worry about (overlooking opponents) with this team.”
Ramping up the intensity for this matchup is the fact that a good handful of Wyoming players are Colorado natives.
Freshman guards Kenny Foster and Kwane Marble II, sophomore guard Hunter Maldonado and freshman forward Austin Mueller all hail from the Centennial State.
Boyle recalled that 6-foot-10 sophomore forward Hunter Thompson was briefly recruited by he and the Buffs, but otherwise and ultimately, a lot of the aforementioned guys relish the chance to square up with a home-state institution that may not have considered them viable prospects.
"I think there’s nothing that Wyoming would like better to stick it in Colorado’s ear," Boyle said. "We know that and we’ve just got to be able to handle whatever comes our way. Whatever they end up doing, we’ve got to be prepared for it.”
Thompson has been a player of particular interest for Boyle, who shared his thoughts on how to stop Wyoming's big man. The sophomore from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming is averaging 8.2 points and a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game.
In the Cowboys' (3-3) last game, he dropped 22 points in an OT victory vs. Louisiana-Lafayette.
"He can really shoot the three — I’m not saying he can’t score on the block, but his danger is the pick and pop, more so than the back-to-the-basket game," Boyle said. "Hunter is one of those guys that wherever he is on the floor, we have to know where. We have to make him feel uncomfortable."
"If he’s on the three-point line, we better be up on him, making him feel uncomfortable. If he’s on the block, we better be playing great post defense and making him feel uncomfortable, much like we tried to do against the Irvine kids.”
By all indications, Colorado is primed for tonight's showdown and will look to move to 4-0 on the year.
“We don’t overlook anybody," assistant coach Anthony Coleman said. "That’s the beautiful part of this game — anybody can beat you on any given night and our guys are well aware of that. Coach (Boyle) sends that message home each and every day. We need to be locked into the moment. These guys are wired and ready to go against Wyoming.”
