register |  login
› MONTBELLO
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
Blog
Blog Entry 18 of 31 John's blog about EVERYTHING
This is a weekly (or more frequent) blog about what I feel like talking about. Hopefully it's local, but anything is better than nother.

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~AdamsCountySportsBlog

Wyoming, Kansas State, and a bunch of firsts

Contributed by: John Eisel/YourHub.com   on 3/29/2007

I remember going to University of Wyoming women's basketball gamesfrom 2000-2002.

Most were played in the Multi-Purpose Gym, which is basically a highly-touted high school gym, although some got into the 15,000-seat Arena Auditorium.

Not too many people showed up for the games, as those Cowgirls struggled against fellow Mountain West Conference teams, where the goals were to finish in the top half of the league, maybe pull off a win in the conference tournament and hope to get into the WNIT.

I never thought I'd see the day when the Cowgirls would pack the Arena-Auditorium. I guess there's a first time for everything.

The Cowgirls will host the championship game of the WNIT against Wisconsin after wearing out Kansas State 89-79 in triple-overtime on March 28 in Laramie. The championship is at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 31, and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Rocky Mountain.

I point out the television information because the game has already been sold out. Apparently 9,000 tickets were sold after the game was over and the official notice of a sell-out came early the next afternoon.

That's freaking amazing considering the situation Wyoming is in. See, the Pokes have a pretty decent fan base. There's about 550,000 people in the state. However, they're spread out across a huge area, which makes getting to the games a tad difficult because Laramie is down by the Colorado border.

Don't get me wrong - the fans are passionate - and when the call goes out for a big game, they'll show up - like they did last night.

12,225 to be exact - a new record for the team which will likely be broken on Saturday.

It was nice to be back in Laramie - just about all the fans were wearing the bold gold (check out all the shirts in the photos)- as opposed to wyoming prairie gold - which apparently is going to get phased out. (I'm not sure how I feel about this - brown and gold are difficult colors and can look very very bad very very easily - but all the fans in the crowd looked great in the gold.)

I'm proud that I somehow make these important games in Wyoming athletics, despite my extreme naivety to UW sports before entering school.

Here's what I saw from the game:
1. Whatever K-State was doing on defense was awesome, because just about every time the Cowgirls had the ball, the shot clock always went under 30 seconds.
2. If this game wasn't in front of 12.2K, I don't know if Wyoming would have won. I don't normally say anything about the refs, because it is the worst officials position in any sport, but it seemed like all the close calls in regulation went to the Cowgirls. It more evened out in overtime. But K-State had 32 fouls to Wyoming's 14 and UW had 52 free throws to K-State's 18.
Then again, it's also part of the style the teams played. Both teams drove to the basket. K-State's interior defense was more physical than Wyoming's.
3. K-State stayed in the game because seemed to get every loose ball. Part of this was sheer luck, some of it determination.
4. Ashley Sweat for K-State is a beast. She scored 31 points and there was a point in the second half where she could not be stopped. Every little turnaround roll-in seemed to go in.
5. Wyoming could have had this game won early in the second half. They were up 39-31 when K-State's Kari Kincaid hit two 3's from Cheyenne and then a lay-up tied things up. This happened in less than a minute.
6. Wyoming's Justyna Podziemska has ice-water in her vains, which is appropriate considering the venue.
7. I'm not sure who took it, but one of the Cowgirls has a knuckle-ball like shot from three. It starts going in one direction, then seems to correct itself in mid-air to finally go in.
8. I'm thinking this will help the program's bottom line. Let's see - let's assume considering concessions, parking and ticket prices, then minus WNIT fee and paying people to work the games - that the school makes $5 for each ticket sold - that's about an extra $60,000 for this game, plus another $75,000 for the next game. An extra $200,000 in the coffers helps things out.****NOTE: I'm pulling these numbers out of thin air.**** Let's not fool ourselves: College sports is a business.
Update: Apparently the school will make about $60-$70,000 for the entire tournament, but the big dividends will hopefully come next year when season tickets increase. Story from Wyoming Tribune Eagle.


Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend Saturday's game due to previous family engagement, but I'll definitely be watching the game. Maybe at Jackson's next to Coors Field or the Bull and Bush in Glendale. Those are the two Wyoming Cowboy bars I know of in the Denver area. If you know of something going on, send me an e-mail at eiselj@yourhub.com.
Update: Jackson's will be hosting the party. It's west across the street from Coors Field. Game starts at 1 p.m.

News Links
AP story Wyoming-Wisconsin
All Headline News story on Wyoming-K-State
Badgers set for WNIT Championship
AP story on improvement in program


SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above blog



Current Rating
Based on 1 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the blog

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

John Eisel

Denver , COLORADO

John Eisel has posted 31 blog entries and 46 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. John Eisel's average blog rating is 4.93.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS BLOG ENTRY
BLOG ENTRY RSS FEEDS
BLOG LIST
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is  register,  then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyonewhat events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos