University of Wyoming Basketball and Football News/Colorado Rockies Continue Pre-Season

UW Basketball – After coaching the team to a 25-9 record and an NCAA tournament appearance, Coach Jeff Linder is staying with the University of Wyoming men’s basketball program for a few more years.

The UW Athletic Department has announced that Coach Linder has signed a 5-year contract extension through April of 2027.

Terms of the five-year deal include annual guaranteed compensation of $700,000 a season and additional compensation is likely to be earned annually via incentives for academic and athletic performance goals.

Linder just completed his 2nd season at UW and this past season the Cowboys did 2 things that haven’t been done since the 2014-15 season…make the NCAA tournament and be ranked in the top 25 at one point during the season.

Twenty-four of the 25 wins for the Pokes came in the regular season and that is the first time that has happened since the 1951-52 season.

In other Cowboy basketball news, senior Hunter Thompson from Pine Bluffs has announced that he will return for one more season.

As a result of the COVID pandemic, the N-C-A-A granted all athletes an extra year of eligibility, and Thompson is taking the N-C-A-A up on that offer.

The 6-10 power forward played in all 34 games this past season, starting in 3 games, and averaged 2.7 points and 1.5 rebounds per game.

UW’s other 5th year senior, Hunter Maldonado, has not yet decided if he will return or declare for the NBA draft.

Drake Jeffries has announced he will turn pro.

The senior shooting guard averaged 10.3 points per game and shot nearly 41% from 3-point distance this past season.

He set a new UW single-game record with 11 3’s made in one game, and made 94 shots behind the arc, which is the 3rd most in UW single-season history.

As a Cowboy, Jeffries was a little better than 39% from 3-point land, which is 4th in Poke History.

He will compete tonight in the men’s 3-point shootout in New Orleans.

That event will be televised LIVE beginning at 7pm on ESPN.

Jeffries is the first Cowboy to compete in this event.

UW Football – The UW Football team started spring practice this past Tuesday and will practice again today.

The team is allowed 15 practices and will hold them on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays this week as well the next 4 weeks.

The Pokes return 12 starters from last year’s team that went 7-and-6 and won the Potato Bowl.

Of those 12, 5 are on offense, 5 on defense as well as the place kicker and punter.

The annual Spring game is scheduled for Saturday, April 30th in Laramie beginning at 2pm at War Memorial Stadium in Laramie.

It will be open to the public.

Rockies Spring Baseball – The Rockies lost yesterday’s pre-season game at home against Arizona 9-to-2.

The game was tied at 2 going into the 9th inning, and then the Diamondbacks scored 7 runs to break the game wide open.

C-J Cron and Garrett Hampson each had RBI’s for Colorado.

The Rockies are back in action at 2:05pm Mountain Time on the road against San Francisco.