LARAMIE – Fifty-four days.

Yes, Sundance Wicks is keeping track and pushing the Pokes to have a sense of urgency as the countdown clock to the 2024-25 season rapidly winds down.

Wyoming will officially tip-off the Wicks era against Concordia-St. Paul on Nov. 4 at the Arena-Auditorium.

The Cowboys will also have non-conference home games against Tennessee State (Nov. 10), Utah Tech (Nov. 16), Southwestern Louisiana (Nov. 22) and Bellarmine (Dec. 19).

Wicks wanted to give his team, which has 10 new players, an opportunity to gain some confidence early in the campaign.

UW's first-year head coach also knows it will be important for his team to get tested on the road before the Mountain West race begins. The Cowboys play Texas Tech on Nov. 13 in Lubbock and BYU on Dec. 14 in Salt Lake City.

Jeff Linder, Wicks' predecessor, is now an assistant with the Red Raiders.

"I think you have to get yourself prepared for the league, but you can't play the league in non-conference," Wicks said. "That means you have to have some games where you know you're going to go into an unfriendly environment. So, we're going to give our guys an experience. They're going to play down at Texas Tech. (Head coach) Grant McCasland does a great job, and obviously you've got Linder down there running their offense. That's going to be one of those games where we see where we stack up."

The game against the Cougars, the former conference rivals from Provo, was moved from the Dome of Doom to the Delta Center with the hope of getting BYU to make the trip to Laramie in 2025.

"I wanted to have another hostile road trip," Wicks said. "It's not (on campus) but even in Salt lake City with that fan base we all know they travel well for lack of better words."

UW will open the Cancun Challenge against Tulane on Nov. 26 and will play either Loyola-Marymount or Belmont on Nov. 27. The finale non-conference game is Dec. 22 at Cal State Fullerton.

Wicks said the Cowboys will break the non-conference schedule into three-game segments and set a goal of finishing at least 2-1 in each segment.

"You want to schedule for success as much as you can in non-conference," Wicks said. "But you also don't want to schedule false hope where you don't ever get tested, you don't ever go on the road and don't ever see what your team is made of."

This will be the first year of the balanced 20-game MW schedule, which means home-and-home matchups with all 10 conference rivals.

The Pokes have an early road game at reigning champion Utah State (Dec. 4) and an early home stand against Nevada (Dec. 28) and Boise State (Dec. 31).

This year's Border War games against rival Colorado State will be Jan. 18 in Laramie and Feb. 15 in Fort Collins.

The other home games are against New Mexico (Jan. 7), Fresno State (Jan. 28), Utah State (Feb. 4), UNLV (Feb. 8), Air Force (Feb. 18), San Jose State (Feb. 22) and San Diego State (March 1).

The other road games are against the Falcons (Jan. 4), Broncos (Jan. 14), Rebels (Jan. 21), Spartans (Jan. 25), Aztecs (Feb. 1), Lobos (Feb. 11), Wolf Pack (Feb. 25) and Bulldogs (March 4).

"I think parity is important and that's really important for the league to have a balanced schedule so you can play everybody twice," Wicks said. "Then there's nobody sitting there saying, 'Oh, we drew this team twice and this team drew this team once.'

"It evens it out and I like it. It's good for our league because our league is good with over four (NCAA Tournament) bids the last three years. It's not going to hurt you to play other Mountain West teams, it's only going to help you."

Fans can get an early peek at the Pokes in 44 days when they play the College of Idaho in an exhibition on Oct. 25 at the Arena-Auditorium.

"We're nowhere near a finished product," Wicks said after a recent practice. "I wake up with a fever pitch every morning. We just try to impart that fever pitch of we can't lose days, and we need to stack as many good days as we can going forward."

 Season tickets are currently available for Cowboy Basketball. Fans may order tickets online, via email or by phone at:
      •Go to GoWyo.com/tickets
      •Email tickets@uwyo.edu
      •Call (307) 766-7220
      •Stop by the UW Athletics Ticket Office on the West Side of the Arena-Auditorium on the corner of Willett Drive and 19th Street.

If you are interested in learning more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) or would like to support our student-athletes, please visit 1wyo.org. 1WYO was created out of Wyoming's culture of neighbor helping neighbor. The mission is to promote and strengthen local charitable organizations and develop Wyoming student athletes.

Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.