Tuck’s Take: Stingy D Leads to Complimentary O in 80-63 Win

LARAMIE -- Sundance Wicks said the turnaround last year at Wisconsin-Green Bay hinged on one main factor: defense.

Wyoming's first year head coach called that a "weapon."

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That 15-win improvement, though, the ninth-largest in NCAA History, was also aided by a complimentary offensive attack. Wicks said he planned to rip a page out of Larry Shyatt's playbook, slowing the game down to a snail's pace. Shot selection, he added, is key.

Wyoming showed glimpses of all of the above in Friday night's 80-63 exhibition victory over College of Idaho.

The Cowboys limited the visitors to just 25% shooting from the field over the first 20 minutes. Taking 12 less shots thanks to 14 first-half turnovers, Wicks' squad sank nearly 63% from the floor and added five 3-pointers while taking a 38-24 lead into the locker room.

That's what this operation is supposed to look like.

"They were 2-of-11 from three, which our goal was to hold them under five threes," Wicks said postgame. "They shoot 30 a game and make 10, 11, 12. We wanted to have that as a separator for us. I think shooting can be a separator for us. Like, tonight, we shot the ball well. I hadn't seen a lot in practice lately."

Kobe Newton was a perfect 3-for-3 from deep and Northern Iowa transfer Cole Henry drained all four of his shots and pulled down five rebounds. Former Mr. Kentucky Dontaie Allen finished the first frame with seven points and Touko Tainamo netted six.

More importantly, guards like Obi Agbim, Jordan Nesbitt and Newton limited the Yotes leading scorer last season to just four points on 1-of-9 shooting. Samaje Morgan averaged 24.6 per game while leading College of Idaho to a 32-4 overall record and a trip to the NAIA Final Four.

In fact, that starting five combined to hit just nine buckets in the first half. Every one of those guys averaged more than 19 per last season.

"Absolutely. I mean, we held a very good offensive team to just 24 points," said Newton, who finished his night with 12 points on four made threes. "They didn't score the last 3:48 of the half. That was something we really emphasized in that last time out. We just keep it on, defensively, and then everything else will take care of itself.

"... I just thought that we defended our butts off. And I thought we played really hard as a collective unit."

The second half was a different story, especially the initial four minutes. The Yotes went on a 16-8 run to make this a six-point contest.

Wicks said in the team's "secret scrimmage" against Northern Colorado started the same way. He called it too "casual" and added the response was a poor one. That's the difference tonight.

Though the College of Idaho shot nearly 45% and splashed six shots from beyond the arc, Wyoming limited its turnovers to just six and road a 12-point second-half performance from the Denver transfer, Tainamo.

"I wanted to repeat the first half in the second half," Wicks said. "That's obviously a dream, right? To be able to sit there and say it's 48 points and there's your rock fight for the night ... I think when we have the right lineups out there defensively, we're really good defensively. But we're also not very good offensively. When we have the good offensive lineup out there, we're not really good defensively.

"So, I told our guys, like, you want to play 40 minutes? Guess what you got to do? Play both ways."

Tainamo, a 6-foot-9, 220-pounder from Finland, led all scorers with 18 points and added five rebounds.

Allen finished his Cowboy debut with 13 points, six boards and a plus-31 when he was on the court. The Western Kentucky transfer also didn't turn the ball over one time in 26-plus minutes. Forward Cole Henry also finished with nine and added a team-high four assists in the win. Agbim netted nine and dished out three helpers. The former Fort Lewis guard also turned the ball over six times.

"There's things that we need to work on and fix and, you know, do better for the next game, but at the end of the day, we came out with the win," Allen said. "So, that's always positive momentum."

Wyoming opens the regular season next Monday night against Concordia-St. Paul inside the Arena-Auditorium. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.

Here's some randomness to cap this one:

* During the dying seconds of the first half, Agbim pestered -- and eventually rejected -- a 3-point attempt from Morgan. That's the kind of effort that will help this team stay in the fight during a grueling Mountain West slate.

* Henry, a Northern Iowa transfer, has some serious vision and instincts in the paint. Not only did he lead the Cowboys with four assists, he was strong and elusive in the block. Same can be said for Tainamo. "I wasn't surprised at all," Allen said of this front-court duo that combined for 27 points and 11 rebounds. "I mean, these guys do that in practice every single day. These are both high-level players."

* Can we expect 50% shooting from deep on the regular from Newton? "I just shot the ball well," he said. "I was ready to shoot." The Oregon product grinned and added that's the percentage he shot last season. That is true. However, a staph infection limited him to just 20 games.

* Jordan Nesbitt finished his night with eight points and three assists. The 6-foot-6, 210-pound guard is on his third school. He started at Memphis before transferring to his hometown of St. Louis to play for the Billikens. He then spent the last two seasons at Hampton. This kid has some serious athleticism. He can score, too. He averaged double figures his last two years in Virginia.

* It was a rough debut for big man Scottie Ebube. The 6-foot-10 Southern Illinois transfer played just four minutes. During that time, he snagged a single offensive rebound and turned the ball over four times. "Our bigs have to be better at taking care of the basketball," Wicks said. Ten of the Cowboys' 20 giveaways belonged to that group, including three from Oleg Kojenets. "We wanted to play through our guys. I think we have a size advantage, but a size advantage is not an advantage if that ball goes back to their team. So they know that we got to be better in that area."

* Wyoming outrebounded the Yotes 47-26 in this one. There was only a 34-32 advantage for the Cowboys, though, in the points-in-the-paint department.