LARAMIE – Sundance Wicks did not like the way his team was practicing after returning from the holiday break.
 
Not surprisingly, Wyoming was unable to string 40 minutes of quality play together during the 68-56 win at Air Force on Dec. 30 or the 78-58 loss at New Mexico last Saturday night.
 
Nasir (Naz) Meyer changed the tone before Monday's practice when the self-assured freshman announced that he was switching to the Gold team and Damarion Dennis would be moving to the Brown team.
 
Meyer wanted to be on the opposite side of the five-on-five battle from senior point guard Leland Walker so they could compete physically and verbally.
 
"It's kind of fun for me. I kind of sit back and watch guys raise the level and you need that," Wicks said of the battle. "You need that midseason. I'm looking for some alpha dogs, some alpha leaders out there. So, Naz and Leland both decided to raise the level of practice and everyone else followed suit."
 
Wicks warned the Cowboys (10-4, 1-3) since the summer that they would need to raise their level of play significantly to compete in the Mountain West.
 
UW did that in the first half at The Pit before getting outscored 44-27 after the intermission as the crowd of 13,763 watched the Lobos win their 20^th consecutive home game.
 
The visitors were 8-for-25 (32%) from the field in the second half while allowing New Mexico to shoot 51.6% (16-for-31), including 6-for-11 on 3-pointers.
 
"What are you willing to do to get what you want? I think it requires more sacrifice, and it requires more competitive resilience," Wicks said. "It requires guys starting to put their heels in the sand and saying, 'Don't cross this line.'"
 
The Pokes, who are 8-1 at home, will try to make a stand against UNLV on Tuesday night in the Arena-Auditorium (8 p.m., CBS Sports Network).
 
The Runnin' Rebels (7-6, 2-0) have won three consecutive games, including a 67-39 smothering of Air Force on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. It was the first time UNLV has held an opponent under 40 points in 16 years.
 
First-year UNLV head coach Josh Pastner has a 283-193 record after previously leading Memphis and Georgia Tech.
 
"His teams play hard. He's got great energy; he's got great juice and his teams mimic that as well," Wicks said. "They're up in you. They're going to press you full court, try to turn you over and they are long and they are lanky. He's going to play big guys and bully ball you. …
 
"We're going to have to show that we can be tough enough to defend the physical nature in which they play."
 
UW will be without Matija Belic and Jared Harris for the second consecutive game due to injuries, which made pulling off the upset in Albuquerque a more daunting task and will require other role players to fill the void against the Rebels.
 
Wicks has been pleased with the play of Meyer and Gavin Gores and has challenged some of the veterans to match the effort and production of the talented freshman class.
 
Walker, who will have to take care of the basketball against a UNLV team that thrives of creating turnovers and scoring in transition, was among those with a strong response.
 
"The bright spot for me (Monday) is we had our most competitive practice of the year," Wicks said. "Guys were chippy and they were getting after it. We wanted some competitive resilience, competitive intensity, best on best and guys kind of just shaking the tree a little bit."
 
The Cowboys trail the all-time series 47-21 but are 16-14 against UNLV in Laramie.
                                              
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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