LARAMIE – Sundance Wicks is looking forward to preparing Wyoming to be a factor in the upcoming Mountain West race.
 
First the Cowboys' second-year head coach will be feeling some nostalgia when UW plays South Dakota State on Monday night at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
Wicks finished the 2017-18 season in the same venue as an assistant coach at Northern State, his alma mater, as the Wolves lost a 71-69 heart-breaker to Ferris State in the NCAA Division II national championship.
 
"It's an environment now when it's packed," Wicks said of the Sanford Pentagon. "(The fans) are right on you and it's a fun environment and it kind of gives you the old Hinkle Fieldhouse vibes. I'm really excited for our guys to see it."
 
Technically, this is a neutral site game, but the Cowboys (8-2) will be hearing from about 3,500 supporters of the Jackrabbits (7-5) as they try to close out non-conference play with their first win outside of Laramie.
 
UW, which improved to 8-0 at home with a 106-79 win over South Dakota six days ago, missed 13 free throws in a narrow loss at Sam Houston State (78-70) and nearly knocked off No. 20 Texas Tech (76-72) in the first pair of true road games this season.
 
"It's a big deal. We don't have to frame this game any other way: We have to win away from home," Wicks said. "Obviously, you want to win your home games and that's a big thing for us that we talk about. There's no need to sit there and try to find a way to manipulate the mind. We have to win away from home. We didn't do it last year and we have to start doing it. As a program to take the next step we have to win away from home."
 
The Pokes were 3-10 on the road and 1-3 in neutral sites while finishing 12-20 overall last season. This year's much improved squad, which features 12 new players, plans to make noise in the MW inside the Arena-Auditorium and to silence some hostile crowds away from the friendly confines.
 
Senior point guard Leland Walker leads UW in scoring (14.1 ppg) and assists (4.0 apg). True freshman Nasir (Naz) Meyer, coming off a career-high 26 points against South Dakota, is averaging 12.3 points and 4.6 rebounds as part of an outstanding backcourt rotation that includes Khaden Bennett (10.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg), Damarion Dennis (9.4 ppg) and Uriyah Rojas (8.7 ppg).
 
South Dakota State will counter with 6-foot-7 forward Matthew Mors (7.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg), 6-10 Alec Squires (4.8 ppg, 4.7 rpg) and 6-10 Damon Wilkinson (11.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg).
 
"I'm looking forward to a little bit of a chess match here," Wicks said. "It's going to give us a Mountain West type look, in my opinion, which is why we scheduled this before league play. No matter what happens I wanted our guys to go in there with the feeling of playing at hard places against good opponents with big, physical players and that's what South Dakota State brings."
 
During his playing career at Northern State, Wicks played against the Jackrabbits four times and averaged nearly 13 rebounds and nine rebounds. UW's head coach, who was born in Rapid City, S.D., will have the support of a section of family and friends wearing brown and gold amidst the blue and yellow.
 
"The Jackrabbit contingency travels really well in South Dakota and I don't expect it to be any different when they're coming in for this game," Wicks said. "This is a cool matchup for us in a neutral site against a really good opponent that is always going to be in the hunt to win the Summit League every single year."
 
The Cowboys will begin MW play against Grand Canyon at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
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.
 
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