LARAMIE – Sundance Wicks warned his team in the summer that a storm was coming.
 
The 20-game tempest that is the Mountain West schedule arrives Saturday when Wyoming hosts Grand Canyon in the conference opener at 2 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium.
 
The Cowboys (9-2), who have 12 new players and only two returning players with MW experience, have embraced the culture their head coach wants to instill in the program.
 
UW leads the conference in scoring (87.9 ppg) and rebounding (40.7 rpg) with nine players averaging between 5.8 and 14.0 points and 10 players averaging between 2.2 and 5.1 rebounds.
 
In Friday's NET rankings, a metric used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee, the Pokes were No. 52, which is fourth in the MW behind Utah State (30), Boise State (40) and Colorado State (51).
 
The chemistry and unselfishness on this team has allowed Wicks and his staff to focus more on preparation.
 
"We're not fighting each other. What we're fighting right now is the process," Wicks said. "We're trying to get the process to continue to sharpen up and be better. If the process is right going into this game, there's a good chance for us. That's fun for a coach to just dive into the process and make sure the process is right.
 
"Results don't matter to me as long as the process is right because you can't control the results all the time, you can't control if the ball goes in, but you can control the process."
 
The Lopes (6-4) will be making their MW debut at 7,220 feet. The teams split two non-conference meetings, the first games in the series, with UW winning in Phoenix in 2021 and losing in Laramie in 2022.
 
GCU emerged on the national scene as a dominant program in the WAC with four NCAA Tournament appearances over the past five seasons.
 
"We are playing a perennial NCAA Tournament team," Wicks noted. "We need the Dome of Doom rocking; we need everybody out here. There are no easy nights. This is just the first test in a long line of many of them every night in the Mountain West, which we're no strangers to now so let's get it rocking."
 
The Cowboys are 8-0 at home and coming off a business-like 87-72 victory over South Dakota State in Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
Nasir (Nas) Meyer finished with 25 points and seven rebounds to lead UW to its first win outside of Laramie this season. Khaden Bennett (11 points, nine rebounds), Leland Walker (13 points, five assists) and Matija Belic (10 points, six rebounds) added to the balanced effort.
 
"They've been really good offensively," GCU head coach Bryce Drew told Lopes Insider writer/editor Paul Coro. "They played Texas Tech down to the wire in Lubbock (lost 76-72 on Nov. 30). They're a really good team that is playing well right now. Their players have executed at a really high level this season."
 
GCU faced a strong non-conference schedule with a true road game at Baylor (lost 79-74), neutral-court games against Utah (won 68-58), Iowa (lost 59-46) and Oklahoma State (lost 84-78) and a home game against USC (lost 67-61).
 
Jaden Henley, a 6-foot-7 senior guard, is averaging 16.6 points to lead the Lopes. Makaih Williams, a junior guard who originally committed to UW when Wicks was on Jeff Linder's staff, is averaging 10.7 points off the bench.
 
Freshman Efe Demirel, a 7-1 center averaging 7.5 points and 5.0 rebounds, and Nana Owusu-Anane, a 6-8 senior averaging 9.5 points and 9.6 rebounds, give GCU a size advantage in the paint.
 
"It is no small feat. Welcome to the Mountain West," Wicks said of the challenge. "Everybody is talking about Grand Canyon's welcome to the Mountain West, welcome to the Cowboys our first time with this team playing in the Mountain West. …
 
"It was a good start to our first season. Now we've got to flush (non-conference play), move on and get into the second season and the second season is starting off with a bang."
 
When the Cowboys travel to Phoenix on Feb. 21 they will play in one of the loudest venues in the country. Wicks believes his Pokes deserve to draw a big crowd to help them face the MW storm that arrives Saturday.
 
"I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure it's a value-based experience for (our fans), that they're going to come watch good basketball, win or lose, competitive, good basketball," Wicks said. "Guys that care about each other and are connected, that represent the state of Wyoming. I think we've found that with this group. That's what I want our fans to come see."
 
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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