LARAMIE – There were some sliding doors this spring in the Wyoming men's basketball offices.
 
Jeff Linder decided to leave his position as head coach after four seasons to become the top assistant at Texas Tech under his friend Grant McCasland.
 
The move led to Sundance Wicks returning to the Cowboys as head coach where he had previously been an assistant under Linder for three years.
 
Wicks and Linder will reunite on the court when UW plays Texas Tech on Wednesday at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas (6 p.m., ESPN+).
 
"I just love him. He's the reason why I'm here," Wicks said. "I'll never take that for granted. Highly grateful, will always be. I love his family. His kids are great, wife's great."
 
Wicks played for legendary coach Don Meyer at Northern State before starting his coaching career as an assistant at his alma mater. After stops at Colorado, Northern Illinois, San Francisco and a second stint at Northern State, he became a head coach at Missouri Western.
 
But when Linder called the Gillette native home to be an assistant at UW in 2020, Wicks jumped at the opportunity.
 
"He is so good, man, so smart," Wicks said. "I'm not even one-tenth of a coach from a basketball standpoint that Jeff is but that's why I learned so much in my three years with him. I reference him a lot that he was like for me the modern-day Don Meyer. I didn't have that mentor when Coach Meyer died."
 
The Cowboys finished the 2021-22 season 25-9 and reached the NCAA Tournament. After injuries and transfer portal attrition led to a frustrating 2022-23 campaign for UW, Wicks left to be the head coach at Green Bay where he led a remarkable turnaround as the Phoenix went from three wins the season before to 18 wins in 2023-24.
 
Now Wicks and his staff are trying to get the Pokes competitive in the Mountain West race again with a mix of 10 talented newcomers, three returners and three walk-ons.
 
UW is 2-0 after beating Concordia-St. Paul (108-85) and Tennessee State (81-66) at home. This will be a significant road test against the Red Raiders (2-0) with Linder drawing up the X's and O's for Texas Tech's offense.
 
"It's going to be good to see Jeff, that was my guy," senior guard Kobe Newton said after finishing with 11 points, five assists and four rebounds against Tennessee Tech. "I'm going to mess with him a little bit. I'm sure he's going to have one hundred different things to run against us so I'm excited to guard it."
 
Point guard Obi Agmi leads the team in scoring (24.5 ppg) and assists (4.5 apg) and 6-foot-6 guard Jordan Nesbitt is averaging 13.0 points and a team-high 11.5 rebounds through two games. Newton is adding 11.0 points and 4.0 assists off the bench.
 
Five different Texas Tech players are averaging double figures in scoring, led by forward JT Toppin (22.0 ppg), who transferred from New Mexico after earning co-MW freshman of the year honors last season.
 
The Cowboys must do a better job on the glass to hang with the Red Raiders after getting out-rebounded 40-38 and allowing 15 second-chance points to Tennessee State.
 
UW let a 20-point lead get cut to six points by the Tigers before pulling away with a 10-0 spurt in crunch time. Tennessee State lost in overtime at Colorado State last Friday.
 
"Basketball is a game of runs and they made their run, and we had to deal with it and accept it and take the punch and just keep moving forward," Newton said. "I thought we did a really good job of that. We didn't start crumbling, we stayed together as a collective unit. The Mountain West is a gauntlet so having these early adversities is good for us going forward."
 
After two lopsided wins over Bethune-Cookman (94-61) and Northwestern State (86-65), Texas Tech is averaging 90.0 points, shooting 54% from the field and 45% on 3-pointers.
 
UW's defensive game plan will have to be executed to near perfection to beat Linder and the Red Raiders, who are receiving votes in the Associated Press poll.
 
"That's why Texas Tech is going to be really good and hard to play against because Grant has the secret weapon with (Linder) now," Wicks said.
 
The Cowboys will return home to play Utah Tech on Saturday at the Arena-Auditorium (7 p.m., MW Network).
 
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