LARAMIE — Sundance Wicks planned to run teams out of the gym last winter.
He didn’t have the horses to pull that off.
That will happen when you put together basically an entire roster in 27 days. It was a form of “speed dating,” he calls it.
Wyoming’s second-year head coach this time around had a full offseason to shop for the groceries, so to speak. He added a dozen new faces, seven via the NCAA Transfer Portal.
As always, he was looking for character on the free-agent market. Wicks hasn’t — and won’t — abandoned his core principles. He also wanted to add speed, loading up at the guard spot with newcomers like freshman Naz Meyer and veterans Uriyah Rojas and Leland Walker.
This roster won’t intimidate you getting off the bus, averaging just 6-foot-7 across the board. They might just be one of the fastest teams in the country, though.
“We recruited depth,” Wicks added. “We recruited good positional size … If you have size without speed, it doesn’t really matter, right? You got to have speed. So size, switch, ability, physicality, scrappiness and toughness — that’s a lot of what we recruited.”
The days of draining shot clock and running multiple set plays is a thing of the past.
Wyoming averaged only 67.2 points per game in 2024-25, running that offense. Shooting just 43.8% from the field certainly didn’t help. Only Air Force scored less at 61.9.
“RP40.”
That’s the name of this new scheme. It stands for relentless pressure for 40 minutes. The game plan is simple: persistently seek the shot profile. That means low-paint twos, restricted-arc twos and paint-touch rotation twos.
Sound familiar? It should.
This is similar to the attack the Cowboys’ ran in the early 2000’s under Steve McClain. That’s also the last time a Wyoming team won a game in the NCAA Tournament, knocking off Gonzaga in the opening round in ’02.
Chris McMillian was on that squad. He was a shifty senior guard.
Now, the alum is part of Wicks’ staff.
In those days, McMillian said, they tried “boat racing” the opposition and playing as fast as they could.
This version of the Cowboys will attempt that, too.
“(Sunny) wants to play fast,” he said. “Yesterday, we played with a really, really quick shot clock to try to push pace. We’re trying to really utilize our speed because we’re not physically demanding, right? We’re not huge. You got to be fast, right? You can’t be thin on the front court and slow. Now you’re playing right into the opponent’s hand.”
That doesn’t mean there’s no size.
Rookie Gavin Gores (6-foot-10), Neil Summers (6-foot-9) and Simm-Marten Saadi (6-foot-9) will roam the paint. So will returning forwards Abou Magassa and Matija Belic. The Cowboys also added New Zealander Kiani Saxon, who will bring the blue-collar work ethic to the frontcourt.
The latter is all on board with tempo.
“I love it,” said Saxon, a 6-foot-8 graduate transfer from Missouri Western. “Coach Wicks has kind of brewed up a really special mixture of, like, athleticism, speed, talent and then discipline. So, I think if we can play with pace and with discipline, we’re going to get a really good mix of good basketball.”
Gores watched as many Wyoming games on television last season that he could. He was frustrated with the mounting losses. He also couldn’t help but picture himself helping out the cause. He welcomes the fast pace, something Mountain West frontrunners like New Mexico, Utah State and Boise State thrived at.
“I love playing in transition and showcasing our athleticism,” the Wisconsin product added. “That’s why this is a good advantage for me and for the rest of our team. We’re a really, really quick, athletic team.”
Speaking of advantages, Wicks pointed toward the floor. There, four numbers sit just below the free-throw line: 7220. That’s the elevation of the Arena-Auditorium, the highest basketball court in all of college basketball.
“We have to use the altitude to our advantage,” he said. “So, it’s all kind of, for me, schemed and strategized towards what is our innate competitive advantage, which is physiological. There is an actual element that you are working harder than most teams because of the natural constraints put on your body.”
Gores said when he arrived in Laramie last June, just walking down the court was a tall task.
Yes, walking.
“I’m excited to see how other teams react to it,” he added.
Walker’s lungs were admittedly burning, too. The 6-foot-1, 181-pound point guard, now fully acclimated, is also looking forward to quarterbacking this run-and-gun attack. He has the wheels to do it, too. That’s why he was courted by the likes of St. John’s, West Virginia and Duquesne after leaving Florida Atlantic and entering the portal.
“He’s guard-heavy,” Walker said, referring to Wicks. “You just gotta love it when it’s guard-heavy. You know, getting your teammates involved and making sure you’re on point every day.”
Jared Harris was a four-star prospect out of Silsbee High School in southeast Texas. The 6-foot-2 guard chose Memphis over programs like Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Texas Tech and Auburn, along with a whole host of other traditional brands.
He only appeared in 16 games during his freshman campaign. He averaged three minutes a night on that transfer-heavy Tigers’ roster.
Harris said he’s watched plenty of film from last season’s 12-win Wyoming team. Let’s just say he’s excited to not play that style of basketball.
“I love a fast-paced offense,” he said. “I feel like that’s harder. You’re trying to remember so many plays and this and that, when you could play run and gun and it’s fast paced.”
What’s the plan defensively?
Wyoming allowed more than 71 points a night last season. Opponents shot nearly 45% from the floor.
While there could be a track meet or two on the horizon, Wicks said the plan is to switch up schemes, tactics and strategies to attempt to force pace. His team, admittedly, won’t soon be bullying anyone in the half court or grinding out long possessions. There will be a mix of presses and traps.
McMillian said that’s where the comparisons to McClain’s teams differ the most. Back in the day, defense was optional. Not anymore.
“We have to defend,” he said. “We talk about that all the time. You know, somedays the offense won’t travel. On those days the defense definitely has to travel.”
Thanks to lingering injuries, Wyoming has yet to practice this fall with a full 15-man roster. Wicks says that will be an advantage when the feathers fly. There have been very few substitutions. Embracing the grind is the only option.
“The metrics of practice are making it pretty tough on me right now to decide who should go where,” Wicks said. “Just got to find the right chemistry lineup out there, the line that plays best together. It’s a good problem to have.”
Wyoming will travel to Gillette next Saturday to take on Northern Colorado in the team’s first exhibition matchup. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m. The regular season gets underway Nov. 3 when Wicks’ alma mater, Northern State, pays a visit to Laramie.
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