Dunk Town Laramie: America’s Most Likable Team?
Posted by Andrew Murawa on March 13th, 2015About four minutes into their quarterfinal win over Utah State on Thursday afternoon, Wyoming’s Larry Nance unsuccessfully attempted to throw down a dunk over his back in traffic. The next time down the court, it was a tomahawk attempt (again unsuccessful) over a couple of Utah State defenders. They were spectacularly entertaining misses. The Cowboys did, however, have more success in their attacks on the rim in the second half, throwing down four increasingly spectacular dunks as they fought back from a seven-point second half deficit to come away with the season-sustaining win. There is a reason this team has earned the moniker of Dunk Town.
Larry Nance And The Cowboys Have Earned The Moniker Of “Dunk Town” (Ryan Dorgan, Star-Tribune)
“We love it,” said junior guard Josh Adams, author of the Cowboys’ most emphatic dunk on Thursday, when asked about the nickname after the game. “We fully embrace that nickname. And our fans have too.” And so has head coach Larry Shyatt. “It’s a pretty good percentage shot,” he said, a master of understatement. “I sort of like seeing [Derek Cooke’s] elbows above the rim when they drop it off to him.”
But amid the flurry of dunks that come in Cowboys games, don’t lose sight of the fact that this is a team, first and foremost, a collection of brothers with one goal. For instance, when senior guard Charles Hankerson, a guy who has struggled offensively this season — and incidentally is also a guy who is paying his own way this year — knocked in a three midway through the first half, he got fist pumps and ‘attaboys’ out of all of his teammates. Those gestures, combined with his teammates’ insistence in looking for him on the offensive end, inspired more confidence in Hankerson, on his way to a career-high 16-point outing. After the game, however, instead of patting himself on the back, Hankerson gave credit to his teammates for setting him up. “It was just my teammates continuing to believe in me and putting me in great positions,” he said. When Adams had a chance to accept similar praise, he too deflected. “It’s a team camaraderie thing,” he said. “Larry [Nance] down there drawing attention. [Hankerson] slashing too. Having to respect a lot of players on the court opens up a lot of court space for me.”
At 6’2″, Point Guard Josh Adams Doesn’t Back Down In The Dunk Competition
Its no wonder then that Shyatt finds this team so gratifying to coach. “I’ve never had a team I’ve enjoyed being around more on and off the court,” he glowed in the postgame press conference. “Resilience comes to mind.” And they’ve had to be resilient, not just this year, but in recent history. Two seasons ago, they were off to a 12-0 start when senior sharpshooter Luke Martinez broke his hand in a bar fight over the holiday break. After peaking at #27 in KenPom’s rankings on January 16, it was all downhill from there as they lost 14 of their final 21 games. Last year in mid-February, a week after knocking off San Diego State and riding high at 17-9, Nance tore his ACL in a game against Fresno State. After his teammates responded and pulled out that game, however, the Cowboys lost four of their final five regular season games, their Mountain West Tournament opener and an opening round CBI game.
Flash forward to early February this season. With the Cowboys at 19-4 and 8-2 in the Mountain West, news came that Nance and freshman Alan Herndon, the team’s backup power forward, were out indefinitely with mononucleosis. One could hardly blame Cowboys fans for feeling cursed. Nance tried to ease those fears, but four missed games and ensuing recovery time led to a 3-5 record down the stretch of conference play. “They kept going,” said Shyatt. “They never made excuses. They just kept playing as hard as they could. Not pretty, but as hard as they could. I think there’s a reservoir there that some teams I have been around just don’t have.” At this point, for one of the most entertaining and likable teams in the country, they still need to win two more games in order to achieve their goal of an NCAA Tournament bid. “We’re fighting for our careers now,” Hankerson admits. “Every game is crucial. Nance concurs: “For five guys on this team, this is our last go ‘round. We’re two games away from reaching the NCAA Tournament. If that’s not enough to keep guys focused, I don’t know what is.”
Nance’s feats are well-known. He was in the conversation for Mountain West Player of the Year this year before the illness robbed him of momentum. Last year he still earned All-Mountain West First Team honors despite missing those last five conference games. Look through those highlight-reel dunks and you’ll find plenty to rival the best of his NBA Slam Dunk Contest-winning father. But he’s equally adept fundamentally as a willing and visionary passer, an aggressive driver, a stellar defender and a superb leader.
Dunk Town Laramie (Blaine McCartney, WyoSports)
But it is Adams who has taken his game to the next level since Nance’s absence flared up. Shyatt credits a necessary shift in philosophy. “When the virus hit us and we lost our only two four-men, Herndon and Nance, we were a different team from a physical and a numbers standpoint. I think at that point we talked about racing it up the floor a little more often, shooting it quicker. That’s more to Josh’s liking anyways.” And that change seems to have carried over, with the Cowboys taking advantage of more transition opportunities. Which leads to things like that insane follow dunk yesterday, or his several drive, draw and dish plays leading to dunks and layups for Cowboy bigs. As Shyatt is fond of pointing out, one of the reasons that he’s enjoying the Dunk Town reputation is that it has been teamwork that has brought about those dunks. “A lot of our dunks this year have come on extremely unselfish plays,” he notes.
All of which leads us back to the dunks for one last time. Adams, Nance and Hankerson were asked after the game which of them liked to dunk the most, and before the question was even completed, Adams chimed in with a quick “Me!” But Nance was having none of it. “I don’t know. I say D.C. [Cooke]. It’s like the rim did something to him. He’s angry every time he dunks.” After a little deliberation, even Adams had to agree. Still, on a team with several candidates for best dunker, the 6’2” Adams has little to be ashamed of.
Andrew Murawa Likes Basketball.
