Larry Nance Jr. remembers the moment he realized he wasn’t in Ohio anymore. It was soon after he arrived on campus at Wyoming back in 2011, a school more than 1,300 miles away from where he was raised in suburban Cleveland, and even further removed from what he had known culturally.
Larry Nance Jr. and Wyoming are a mile-high nightmare for opponents
With a tenacious defense and an ability to control the tempo, Wyoming is turning into a team no one wants to play.
Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
“I would have never believed it when I was at home, but there are tumbleweeds everywhere here,” Nance Jr. said. “Absolutely everywhere. It’s exactly what you imagine in the movies.”
Laramie, Wyo., has a unique way of a greeting visitors like that, whether you’re hearing rumors about the moose on the soccer field, like Nance’s mother, or experiencing the highest elevation in college basketball for the very first time. Wyoming is charming, but it’s never subtle. It’s an ethos at the heart of what Nance Jr. and coach Larry Shyatt hope to accomplish on the basketball court with the Cowboys.
UNLV experienced two Wyoming welcomes last week when the Runnin’ Rebels visited Laramie for the start of conference play in the Mountain West. Neither of them were appreciated. The first came when the team bus literally froze overnight in minus-27 degree temperatures. The second came in the game itself, as Nance Jr. scored 29 points to power the Cowboys to the program’s first win in a Mountain West opener since 2006-07.
These are the type of benchmarks Shyatt is hoping to hit this year with a program that feels like it has been on the cusp of a breakthrough the last two seasons. Instead, reality has always found a way to intervene. In 2012-13, a 13-0 start was interrupted when leading scorer Luke Martinez was dismissed following a bar brawl. A season ago, Nance Jr. tore his ACL in February right as the team was starting to jell.
Shyatt doesn’t want to say Wyoming is due for some good fortune this season, but he certainly wouldn’t mind it. At 13-2, the Cowboys have put themselves in position for an exciting conference run in the MWC. With Colorado State, Boise State and San Diego State forming what Shyatt believes is the top of the league, the Cowboys aren’t taking their strong start for granted.
“Like all leagues, nothing will be easy,” Shyatt said. “There will be some swarming and competing for the next two months, so it’s very hard to predict. I’m just going day by day. I love our team. Many and most of my friends, they don’t love their kids. I like our team; I love our kids.”
Credit: Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
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Wyoming knows just how lucky it is to have Nance Jr., and not just because he recovered from a torn ACL in eight months to make his way back on the court by the time Wyoming opened the season. Just getting a talent like the versatile senior forward to Wyoming was a coup for Shyatt.
Nance’s father, Larry Nance, was a three-time NBA All-Star for the Cleveland Cavaliers after a standout career at Clemson. If it wasn’t for a late growth spurt that took Nance Jr. from a 6’1 high school sophomore to a dynamic 6’8 forward, there’s a good chance Wyoming never would have had a shot at him.
Nance was rolling last year as a junior before disaster struck. He had officially broken out with a 38-point, 12-rebound effort against a strong Denver team earlier in the season, and was emerging as the Cowboys’ unquestioned leader at both ends. Then on Feb. 18 at home against Fresno State, he suffered the injury that would change the Cowboys’ season. Without Nance, Wyoming lost six of its last seven games and failed to make the NCAA Tournament, adding onto a drought that has lasted since 2002.
For Nance, the first big injury of his career was something like a family rite of passage. His father had three knee surgeries during his career. Incredibly, his sister Casey, who played at Dayton, had three knee surgeries as well.
“Here I was crying on the phone calling them, and they were telling me ‘Don’t worry, Larry’s going to be better for it,’” Shyatt said. “The family handled it like total pros.”
Nance’s goal was always to be back on the floor by the time the season started. In an era when several NBA stars have chosen more conservative approaches to recovery from similar injuries, Nance Jr. was playing in a meaningful game nearly nine months to the day of the injury. While he was on the court that night against Northern Colorado, it wasn’t until the Cowboys’ third game of the season when Nance Jr. knew he was back for real.
Colorado visited Laramie on the brink of the top 25 in late November. After a close first half, Wyoming started to pull away in the second half when Nance Jr. rose for an alley-oop slam in transition.
While the play made SportsCenter, it wasn’t the reason Wyoming walked away with a huge victory. The Cowboys only allowed nine second half points and held Colorado to 33 points on the night. It was an incredible defensive performance that has set the tone for this entire season.
“Jeff Van Gundy, a dear friend, has said for years, ‘Please don’t tell me you have a great player at any level unless he’s your best defensive player and nearly your best offensive player,’” said Shyatt. “Larry Nance in particular sort of captains the defense. He covers up a lot of sins and a lot of mistakes for us.”
At the moment, it’s all paying off. By allowing only 51.9 points per game, Wyoming has the third-stingiest defense in the country.
“If you don’t play D, you’re not going to play here,” Nance Jr. said. “We all bought into that and stressed it on each other.”
Credit: Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports
What’s the secret behind the defense? For one, the Cowboys are experienced. Their top six scorers consist of five seniors and a junior. Shyatt is also great at controlling the pace. The Cowboys play as slow as possible, ranking No. 350 out of 351 Division I teams in tempo.
There’s something more than that, too. Wyoming heads into every game knowing it holds a trump card in its back pocket. Whether they’re playing home or away, the elevation on campus gives the Cowboys an extra kick. Olympians are known to train at a mile high, but Wyoming is playing its home games a mile and a half high above sea level.
“I’d say 7,220 has a pretty large effect,” Shyatt said, citing the number of feet the Cowboys play at above sea level. “We’re the highest court in America. You better have your shoes tied tight when you come here. The average athlete cannot accommodate the change in less than 10 days.”
Because Wyoming has so many seniors, a certain amount of pressure is natural this season. Shyatt knows a team like this doesn’t come around every year. As long as Wyoming plays its game -- ball control and tough defense -- a meeting with the Cowboys won’t be one any team will look forward to.
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