LARAMIE, Wyo. (Sept. 23, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowboy basketball team will face Northern Colorado in an exhibition contest in Gillette on October 18 at 4 p.m. inside the Pronghorn Center on the campus of Gillette College. Proceeds from the contest benefit Cowboy basketball, as the matchup will be a homecoming for head coach
Sundance Wicks.
Tickets for the event can be purchased through the Wyoming Athletics Ticket Office at the
link here.
Tickets for the event are $20 for Adults and Youth – 13+ Years old. $15 for kids ages 3-12 and kids under two years old are free.
"This is a really cool deal," Wicks said. "I have a lot of love for my Gillette folks, and we have so many good people doing work for this event to make it special."
The title sponsor of the event is Cyclone Drilling, Inc. Game sponsors include White's Frontier Motors, Campbell County Health, Summit OBGYN & Rodney Biggs MD, PC, Luke and Spring Wilkins Family, M & K Oil Company, Hand & Physical Therapy and First National Bank - Gillette.
Contributing sponsors include ERA Priority, Lubnau Law, Earth Work Solutions, Dental Care Center, Inc. and Holiday Inn Express and Candlewood Suites – Gillette.
"The fact that Gillette is rallying right now, and we need that part of state and to be able to go up there and give back and show outreach throughout the state is something we want to do more going forward. We want to go to the people and if you want things, you have to give, and we are going to give back to the community as much as we can while we are up there."
The exhibition contest will mark the first of the season for both the Cowboys and Bears. It also features a matchup of former college teammates in
Sundance Wicks and Steve Smiley, head coach of UNC.
The Cowboys return a pair of players from last season's team in Forwards
Matija Belic and
Abou Magassa. Belic appeared in 22 games with 16 starts adding 5.6 points per game with 3.1 rebounds. Magassa appeared in 31 contests with 14 starts. He added 3.2 points and 3.7 rebounds. He shot 72.4 percent from the field.
Wyoming welcomes 12 newcomers with seven transfers and five high school additions. The seven transfers come from three different levels of college basketball with four division I transfers, two from Division II and one from junior college.
Wicks added a trio of new coaches for this season.
Chris McMillian returns to UW after a stellar career in the late 90's and early 2000's.
Will Martin comes to UW after serving as head coach at Missouri Western. Chris Taylor brings international head coaching experience.
Northern Colorado earned the regular season Big Sky Conference title last season and was 25-10 overall and 15-3 in conference play. Northern Colorado played in the NIT last season.
