1942–43 record 31–2 ( Big Seven) | Head coach Everett Shelton | |
Conference Mountain States Conference | ||
The 1942–43 Wyoming Cowboys basketball team represented the University of Wyoming in NCAA men's competition in the 1942–43 season. The Cowboys won the Mountain States Conference championship and were the first basketball team from the Rocky Mountains to win an NCAA Basketball Championship. Kenny Sailors of Hillsdale, Wyoming averaged 15.5 points per game and Milo Komenich averaged 16.7 points per game in leading the team to the championship. Despite playing just nine home games during the year, the Cowboys won 32 games.
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Regular season
In the fourth game of the season, the Cowboys lost to Duquesne. It would be the last game the Cowboys lost to a college team during the season. Their only other loss was to the Denver Legion team. The Cowboys outscored their opponents by an average of over 20 points per game and that 1942–43 squad became the first Wyoming team to score over 100 points in a game, by beating Regis 101–45.
NCAA basketball tournament
Red Cross game
St. John's won the National Invitation Tournament that same year and claimed it was better than Wyoming and that the NIT was a better tournament than the NCAA. Ev Shelton talked Ned Irish, the promoter at Madison Square Garden, into hosting a showdown game, with proceeds going to the Red Cross. Two days after winning the NCAA Championship, Wyoming played NIT Champion St. John's in a Red Cross benefit game for the war effort. Wyoming beat St. John's in overtime by a score of 52–47, in Madison Square Garden.