LARAMIE – Sundance Wicks made Madden Smiley an offer he couldn't refuse.
 
Wyoming's third-year head coach, who is the freshman's godfather, was the first to extend an offer to Smiley during his decorated prep career.
 
Wicks and Smiley's father, current Northern Colorado head coach Steve Smiley, were college roommates while playing together at Northern State, where Smiley's mother, Nikki, was on the volleyball team.
 
Smiley, the two-time Class 5A Player of the Year in Colorado, decided playing for his dad would be a little too close to home, but heading up the road to join Wicks' ascending program was the perfect alternative.
 
"I've known Sunny my whole life. Since I was born, he has been in my life," Smiley said. "He has always had the same energy to him from the time I can remember being around him until now. He's one of the truest people and he never switches up."
 
As a junior at Windsor (Colo.) High School, Smiley led the Wizards to their first state championship in 101 years. He scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half to close out the historic 60-49 win over Green Mountain.
 
Smiley committed to UW before his senior season, and then averaged 24 points and eight rebounds. His run with Windsor ended in March with a loss to Lutheran, coached by Cowboy legend Josh Adams, in the state semifinals.
 
Over the last month, Smiley has been adjusting to the Division I level during summer workouts.
 
"I always thought he would be ahead because of his dad, being able to be around a DI program and seeing it operate, but being around it and being in it are different," Wicks said. "Madden is ahead because he knows some of the terminology and the language and the lingo."
 
The 6-foot-4 Smiley struggled with his shot for the first two weeks and is still learning how to make reads at this level as a point guard. But he is already demonstrating an ability to impact winning for Wicks.
 
"He does all the little things," Wicks said. "He's our best offensive rebounder right now. He's also finishing, grabbing things with two hands. He's playing the one and two (guard positions), guarding multiple guys. He's a very willing and eager defender. If the shot goes in, that makes him look really good, and his shot has been falling a little bit.
 
"But the understanding of being willing to do whatever it takes, those roles are not very coveted, and they should be. It's (NBA) guys like Alex Caruso, Dyson Daniels and Josh Hart. That's who he is. He's the guy who can connect to everybody and then does the winning things that are hard because it takes discipline and intentionality to do it every single day."
 
During the recruiting process, Steve Smiley made sure Wicks truly coveted his son as a prospect and not because of their close friendship.
 
"And he understood and said, 'No, we're all in on him,'" Steve Smiley told the Greeley Tribune.
 
Smiley describes his dad and Wicks as "gurus about basketball" when it comes to analytics, but also as throwback culture builders influenced by legendary coach Don Meyer at Northern State.
 
"They both spend an insane amount of time cutting film up and trying to figure out the best way to make their teams better," Smiley said. "They have the same values they try to instill with their team. Everybody picks up trash, everyone says yes ma'am, yes sir, no ma'am, no sir. Don Meyer really instilled the same values that they've brought to these teams."
 
Wicks joked that Smiley is "my kid now" that he has a Laramie address, but he doesn't give the godson any special treatment on the court. That's the last thing his counterpart at UNC would want.
 
"I'm not calling home telling dad what he's doing or what he's not doing. I don't do that with any of my guys, so I'll treat him the same," Wicks said. "If there's a highlight or a spotlight that I really like to showcase, obviously I'll text Steve. I talk to Steve a lot, but I just like seeing Madden grow up away from home."
 
As UW's newcomers are learning, Wicks' relentless energy does not take a possession off – even in July.
 
Every minute matters for the Cowboys serious about earning minutes in the Mountain West.
 
"When you get on the court, he's not afraid to call you out when you're not on your A game, when you're not bringing it. He holds everyone to a standard so high, and you feel like if you go lower than that you're hurting the team. You don't want to do that," Smiley said. "It has been challenging. The first two weeks I thought my offensive game was horrible. I was playing too fast, couldn't hit a shot and finally I started putting a couple in. Seeing a couple go through the net is huge and it gave me some more confidence.
 
"I think for me on the defensive side there's obviously so much more room to grow but I still have the basic installments of what I need to do, where I need to force people because I've been learning that my whole life."
 
When it comes to having a focus and passion for the game: Like godfather, like godson.
 
"He's a no BS kid off the floor," Wicks said. "We knew we were getting high character, but we also got a quality basketball player who knows how to win, who's been winning, and is doing it here in practice, too."
 
(Editor's note: This is the first in a 10-part series introducing Cowboy fans to Wyoming's new men's basketball players)
 
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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