LARAMIE – Border War, version No. 245 is here.
 
Wyoming leads the all-time series 139-105 over Colorado State entering the latest chapter of the rivalry set to begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Arena-Auditorium.
 
The Cowboys (12-9 overall, 3-7 Mountain West) and Rams (12-9, 3-7) will be meeting in Laramie for the final time as conference foes.
 
"These are two teams that need a win," UW head coach Sundance Wicks said. "Identical records in conference, identical records overall. Both have had their ups and downs in season so far. These are two desperate teams, so I expect a good old-fashioned Border War."
 
During his Thursday press conference with the local media, Wicks was asked when he learned to loathe CSU growing up in Gillette. He invited his 6-year-old daughter, Grace, to join him in front of the cameras.
 
What was her reaction when dad said the Pokes were playing the Rams? Grace: "Boo?"
 
And what else? Grace (singing): "I said it sucks to be a CSU Ram … "
 
Wicks admitted that he has a lot of respect for first-year CSU head coach Ali Farokhmanesh and called his counterpart after the Rams lost at Utah State to give him a pep talk.
 
"All in fun because you can be friendly and still have a rivalry," Wicks said of teaching Grace about the Border War from a brown and gold perspective. "But I want my kids to grow up in the state of Wyoming understanding when you hear Rams you don't think of like a nice animal in the mountains somewhere … you think of a rivalry."
 
Historically, great UW teams take care of business in the Border War.
 
The 1933-34 UW squad, which was retroactively awarded the national championship by the Helms Athletic Foundation, defeated CSU twice in Fort Collins on the way to a 26-3 finish.
 
The 1943-43 Cowboys, led by jump shot inventor and All-American Kenny Sailors, beat the Rams four times during the program's NCAA championship campaign.
 
UW had a 31-game winning streak against CSU from 1940-51 under legendary head coach Ev Shelton.
 
Jim Brandenburg, who played at CSU, swept the Rams in 1980-81 and 1981-82 while coaching UW to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
The Pokes also won a triple-overtime game in Fort Collins, arguably the greatest game in the history of the series, during the 1986-87 season, which ended with UW knocking off Virginia and UCLA in the NCAA Tournament to reach the Sweet 16.
 
The Border War magic continued in 1987-88 under Benny Dees as Eric Leckner took a three-quarter court pass and buried a 19-foot shot at the buzzer to beat the Rams 62-59 in the semifinals of the WAC Tournament. UW defeated UTEP in the championship game to earn another NCAA Tournament berth.
 
Steve McClain's Cowboys won two dramatic Border War games – 70-69 in overtime at Moby Arena and 72-70 at the Arena-Auditorium – on the way to sharing the Mountain West championship in 2000-01.
 
The next season, UW swept the CSU series and won the outright MW title before upsetting Gonzaga in the NCAA Tournament.
 
Before Larry Shyatt's 2014-15 team cut down the nets after winning the MW Tournament to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament, the Larry Nance Jr.- and Josh Adams-led Pokes defeated the Rams 60-54 in Fort Collins and 59-48 in Laramie.
 
One of the key wins during UW's last NCAA Tournament season (2021-22) was the thrilling 84-78 overtime win over CSU. Hunter Maldonado finished with 35 points to lead the Cowboys. The raucous crowd of 7,539, and perhaps an arm rub from Xavier DuSell, threw off David Roddy's concentration enough to miss what could have been a game-winning free throw remaining in regulation.
 
Two years ago, the Cowboys overcame an 11-point deficit over the final 51 seconds of regulation and stunned the 23^rd-ranked Rams 79-76 in overtime. UW became the fifth team to ever win when trailing by 11 or more points in the final minute.
 
Wicks, who went 0-2 against CSU during his first season as UW's head coach, is hoping his players can make a lifetime memory on Saturday and gain some momentum heading into the second half of the MW season.

Grace will be a young face in the "White Out" crowd cheering on the Cowboys playing in their "State Pride" jerseys.

"I'm doing it the right way," Wicks said. "I'm a proud dad right now, that's a proud dad moment when that happens. ... I know this, the deeper you get into these roots, the more you get entrenched in this state, you better raise your kids right and it better be brown and gold." 
 
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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