Zags Know This: Cowboys At Home On Range Big Crowd, Stern Defense Will Be Tough Opponents For Gonzaga In Nit Opener

Gonzaga men’s basketball coach Dan Monson watched video of his Bulldogs’ first-round National Invitation Tournament opponent for the first time Monday afternoon.

What he saw was a Wyoming team at its best in a 62-56 regular-season win over fifth-ranked Utah, and at its worst in a 60-57 overtime loss to lowly San Diego State in last week’s opening round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

The vast difference in Wyoming’s performances, Monson said, can be attributed to the Cowboys’ 15,028-seat arena, which will be the site of tonight’s 6:30 (PST) opening-round matchup.

“One of the games (Utah) was in Laramie, and one of them (San Diego) was on a neutral court,” he explained. “Like us, and most other teams, they play better at home. We’ve got a tough task ahead of us.”

The Cowboys (19-8), in their first year under coach Larry Shyatt, finished third in the Mountain Division of the WAC, but lost only 1 of 14 games at home. They drew more than 11,000 to each of their last five home games, and Shyatt is looking for another big turnout tonight.

“We’ve drawn outstanding the last five games,” he said. “People, I think, tested the waters early after reading in the (preseason) magazines and media that we’re simply weak. It took a while to build an appreciation for hard-nosed defensive play, but finally, when we knocked on the door and beat a couple of Top 10 teams (Utah and New Mexico), they started coming back.”

The Cowboys were picked to finish near the bottom half of their division by most preseason publications, but surprised the experts. And they did it with defense, a fact that did not go unnoticed to Monson.

“They’re very physical and aggressive defensively, a really good defensive team,” he said. “They’re going to stand you up, hold you and try to frustrate your offense. The keys will be whether we can get the tempo up and run our half-court offense against their defense.”

Shyatt is quick to agree with Monson’s assessment.

“We’ve hung our hats on defense and positioning all year,” he admitted, “because we’ve really struggled to score - in a few defeats and even a couple of victories.”

In their WAC tournament loss to San Diego, the Cowboys shot a miserable 29 percent. In five other games, they shot 38 percent or lower.

“We’re just not a great offensive team,” Shyatt said. “Shooting comes and goes with some teams, but not us. It left us quite some time ago and hasn’t come back.”

Wyoming shot just over 40 percent during the regular season, getting most of its offense from shooting guard Jeron Roberts, an all-WAC performer who is averaging 19.1 points per game.

Roberts, a 6-foot-3 senior, ranks ninth on Wyoming’s all-time scoring list with 1,584 points. Like most of the Cowboys, he makes his offensive living at the foul line, where he has made an average of 7.1 free throws per game.

Roberts made 42 consecutive foul shots earlier in the year and was 20 for 20 in a win over Texas-El Paso.

“Offensively, they’re really patterned - almost slowdown,” Monson said of the Cowboys. “They’d like the game to be in the 50s or low 60s. They spread you out and bounce the ball at you, which has been a big Achilles’ heel for our defense all year - when people bounce it at us.

“And Roberts is very aggressive with his bounce, obviously, because he’s been to the free-throw line almost 300 times.”

In contrast, GU boasts an up-tempo, fire-away offense that Shyatt said is the most prolific he’s been forced to deal with. Of special concern, he said, is the Bulldogs’ Bakari Hendrix, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound senior forward who was named the West Coast Conference player of the year.

“He’s been a problem for every opponent,” Shyatt said. “A lot of guys built like him become one-dimensional, kind of inside-oriented, but he’s got both a face-up and back-to-the-basket game. And he helps himself a great deal by running the floor in transition.

“We’re not a denial defense and I don’t think we’ve got anybody who can push him out (from the low blocks). We’re a team that relies on each other defensively, so I would hope we don’t even think about playing Bakari Hendrix one-on-one - that it would be five-on-one, instead.”

NIT pickings

The winner of tonight’s GU-Wyoming game will play the winner of tonight’s Arizona State-Hawaii game on either Monday or Tuesday at a site to be determined. … The Bulldogs will be making their third NIT appearance. Their best showing came in 1994 when they upset Stanford 80-76 on the road before suffering a 66-64 second-round loss at Kansas State. The 1996 team lost to Washington State 92-73 in the first round… . Wyoming assistant Scott Duncan was a former assistant under Kevin Eastman at Washington State. He said he left the Cougars program to join Shyatt, a longtime acquaintance and “best friend,” at Wyoming.

Where’s the motivation?

Georgia at Iowa is the kind of game fans want to see - high-scoring offenses, teams from major conferences with NCAA Tournament experience.

But tonight’s game is a first-round NIT contest, not NCAA, making motivation difficult for coaches Tom Davis of Iowa and Ron Jirsa of Georgia.

“I’m worried about it,” said Davis, whose Hawkeyes (20-10) were denied an NCAA bid because of their nonconference lineup.

Jirsa, in his first year at Georgia (16-14), gave his team a simple message.

“It is important to understand that the NIT is an opportunity to play more basketball,” said Jirsa, who had a disappointing season after inheriting all five starters from a team that was 24-9 and went to the NCAA Tournament.

, DataTimes MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. ON THE AIR Today: Gonzaga at Wyoming, 6:30 p.m., KXLY 920-AM. No live TV.

2. NIT LINEUP Today’s games St. Bonaventure (17-14) at Vanderbilt (18-12) Georgia (16-14) at Iowa (20-10) Kansas State (17-11) at North Carolina State (16-14) Rider (18-9) at Penn State (15-12) Long Island U. (21-10) at Dayton (20-11) Georgetown (15-14) at Florida (14-14) Seton Hall (15-14) at Georgia Tech (17-13) Arizona State (18-13) at Hawaii (19-8) Gonzaga (23-9) at Wyoming (19-8) Fresno State (18-11) at Pacific (24-9) Ball State (21-7) at Memphis (16-11) Creighton (18-9) at Marquette (18-10) So. Miss. (22-10) at Auburn (15-12) Colorado State (20-8) at Minnesota (15-15) Alabama-Birmingham (20-11) at Missouri (17-14)

Thursday’s game North Carolina-Wilmington (20-10) at Wake Forest (15-13)