I sat in a rather small bar in Laramie many years ago with Tark the Shark Tarkanian. Then coach of the University of Nevada Running Rebels. That year UNLV won a national championship. His team had just fallen to the likes of one Charles "Tubs" Bradley in a game where Tubs had a triple double. Coach Tarkanian was saying that "if I had a player like Bradley? I would win back to back championships. To win in this league you have to to do two things: go un-defeated at home and have break through games on the road." That didn't happen tonight for the University of Wyoming men's basketball team as the Pokes fall to Utah State on the road 56-44. Wyoming (17-4, 6-2 Mountain West) didn't score a point for the first 5 minutes and 5 seconds of the second half Tuesday, repeatedly failing to solve the riddle that was Utah State's 2-3 zone defense. The crowd got to the cowboys championing every turn over every miscue. Utah State (12-8, 5-3 MW), meanwhile, twice held nine-point leads in a sloppy first half, converting seven Wyoming turnovers into six points. Wyoming finished with 14 turnovers in the defeat. If there was a ray of light on the offensive end early on, it came from a familiar source -- Larry Nance Jr. Wyoming's senior forward scored his team's first eight points, repeatedly darting through and around white jerseys toward the rim. He finished with 14 points and six rebounds. Grabau added 16 points and five 3-pointers, giving him eight 3's in his last two games. The Pokes played terribly losing for the first time in conference play on the road. The Cowboys will need their silver slippers (There's no place like home) come Saturday as the Pokes take on Nevada (6-12) (2-4) Saturday in the Double A.

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