Wyoming at Colorado State: 2021-22 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Wyoming and Colorado State face off in a key Mountain West contest on Wednesday night with the home team Rams looking for a season split. Here is a preview of the tilt.

TV Schedule: Wednesday, February 23, 9:00 PM ET, Check local listings

Arena: Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colorado

Wyoming was picked to finish 8th in the Mountain West, but less than a week from March they find themselves in the thick of a title race. In Jeff Linder’s 2nd season, the Cowboys (22-4, 11-2) have been the surprise of a resurgent conference.

Entering Wednesday night’s game with Colorado State in Fort Collins the two teams are separated by just one game in a conference where the top four teams are just 1.5 games apart and less than a handful of games remaining before the conference tournament.

Linder has a history of finding gems on the recruiting trail. He found Damian Lillard for Weber State, brought Chandler Hutchinson to Boise State, and now he has delivered Graham Ike to Laramie for Wyoming. The 6-9 sophomore forward leads a team that ranks 7th in the country in two-point percentage and 28th in effective field goal percentage in scoring at 21 points per game and rebounding with 9.4.

Senior guard Hunter Maldonado is conference Player of the Year material, putting up a stat line of 19.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 6.3 assists and is shooting 50.8% from the field for a Wyoming team that has gone 13-2 since Dec. 23.

Nico Medved’s Colorado State Rams are 21-4 and are winners of 10 their last 13 entering this return matchup with Wyoming. The Rams have only lost three times since Jan. 28, to UNLV, a season sweep by the Runnin’ Rebels and this Wyoming team that came away with an 84-78 overtime victory in their first matchup.

The Rams have a dynamic duo of their own in guards David Roddy and Isaiah Stevens. Roddy doesn’t have the prototypical guard body at 6’5 250lbs, but he can certainly play like one. He leads the team in both points and rebounds with his 19.4 and 7.5. His classmate Stevens is second in scoring (15.2) and leads the team in assists with 4.9. The two shoot 52% from the field and 41% from deep for a Rams team that ranks in the top-51 in two-point percentage (56.5%), three-point percentage (36.4%), and free-throw percentage (78.8%).

I expect this return matchup to be as close as the first. Both teams are good at getting what they want inside the arc, Wyoming has a two-point percentage of 57.4 which is 7th best in the country and rank 23rd in mid-range percentage according to Haslametrics. The Rams are just as strong, ranking 13th in two-point percentage according to KenPom and 19th in the mid-range.

I expect the Roddy/Stevens and Graham/Maldonado duos to get their points, but how they get those points, Colorado State more specifically will be important. On the year the Rams shoot 36% from beyond the arc but in their first meeting made just six of 20 attempts.

Wyoming is one of the best teams in the country when it comes to defending the three-point shot, allowing opponents to shoot just 29.6%. In the first meeting, the home team won a close one, and think the same thing happens in the return engagement with Colorado State earning a season split.

Prediction: Colorado State 72, Wyoming 68