Winning at home a good start for Cowboys

It's a step-by-step process to challenge for a conference championship. The Wyoming Cowboys are doing their part with their first step -- winning at home.

It's "to be announced" for the rest of the journey.

After Tuesday‘s 72-59 win over Air Force, the Cowboys are now 3-0 in Mountain West Conference home games. For the season, Wyoming is 10-0 in the A-A and has won 11 straight home games going back to the last game of the 2007-2008 season. Those 11 wins are tied for the 19th best home win streak in the country.

While that statistic isn’t overwhelming, it's a start and compared to where the program was in the last few years, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

“That’s what we have to do to win a championship in our league, win the home court," Wyoming senior guard Sean Ogirri said. “We have to pick up some games on the road, but we have to defend our home court and not lose at home.”

Heath Schroyer took over a program that was floundering in the Mountain West Conference and in the classroom. While its not a quick fix, Schroyer said they are doing the things that will bring them back as contenders on the court and in the classroom.

“If anyone looks back and sees where this program was a year ago, both on and off the floor, and compare it to where it is now, we have made a lot of strides,” Schroyer said. “With the hard work by my staff and by the hard work by these players, you get a little reward by winning and beating good teams. Hopefully, it will continue.”

The next step is to win on the road. That continues to be a big step for the Cowboys. Wyoming is 0-3 on the road this season, but have made improvements, as they were thumped at Utah, played better at times at UNLV and almost pulled off a road win at TCU, before losing on a late shot in overtime.

Reality, though, still has Wyoming 0-3. with two very difficult games on the horizon -- Saturday at BYU and Wednesday at New Mexico.

Past history and current thinking says it will be very difficult to win in Provo … that’s a given for any team in the MWC. Wyoming has had some success throughout the years in Albuquerque, but not in the last couple of years.

A split would be monumental for Wyoming, 3-3 and 14-6. Two losses would not be devastating, but they have to be followed up by more home wins and eventually a road breakthrough.

Regardless, it’s been a better year for Wyoming and its fans. That will only be the case if the Cowboys continue to improve by tournament time.

“I know we’re going to continue to work our tails off," Schroyer said. “It’s a long season and we’ll have some ups and downs. I learned a long time ago that the key is to not get too up and not get too down. But it is nice to see some the hard work pay off to beat quality teams like Air Force and San Diego State.”

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