Poke Basketball Preview & Prediction: San Jose State Spartans

What: Wyoming Cowboys vs. San Jose State Spartans

When: Wednesday, January 19th, 2022, 7:00 p.m. MT

Where: Arena-Auditorium, Laramie, WY

Line: Wyoming -17

Series: In the fifteen meetings between Wyoming and San Jose State, the Cowboys hold a dominating record of 14-1 over the Spartans. Their last contest came on March 10th of last year with the Cowboys dismantling the Spartans in a runaway victory, 111-80.

The Cowboys have started their conference slate exactly the way they envisioned, defeating Utah State by a slim margin in their first game, and then Nevada on Monday in another competitive contest. The Pokes will look to extend that win streak in their return to Arena-Auditorium when they welcome in the San Jose State Spartans, a team that hasn’t beaten the Cowboys since January of 2016.

What to expect from San Jose State:

The Spartans have had a rough go to begin conference play so far this season and seem to be headed in a similar direction to last year. Tim Miles’s squad didn’t fare well in their last outing, losing at home by 25 to the UNLV Rebels. It was the Spartans’ third straight conference loss and their third by twenty points or more. In their contest against the Rebels, the Spartans shot just 36.7% from the field despite an impressive 23 point performance on 8-11 shooting from Freshman Guard Myron Amey Jr. The team produces 68.8 points per game while giving up 70.7 per contest. They are led in points, rebounds, and assists by Junior Guard Omari Moore (13.2pts/5.4reb/4.6asts). He is the only player to average double figures for the Spartans, and leads the team in practically every category. His downfall is that he is a poor performer at the free-throw line, averaging 64.9% from the stripe.

What to expect from Wyoming:

The Cowboys are on a roll. Coming off of an impressive road victory over the always competitive Wolf Pack, the Cowboys have improved to 2-0 to begin their Mountain West conference endeavors. The team will finally return to play in front of a home crowd on Wednesday night as they take on the Spartans from San Jose State. In their game against Nevada, it was another impressive performance from Graham Ike. Ike recorded 24 points and 11 rebounds while Drake Jeffries was able to add 20 points of his own by hitting six (in a row) of his eleven three-point attempts. I expect Wyoming to carry over this momentum into their first home game in over one month. The team has looked more and more like a confident, cohesive bunch over the past few contests. They are now averaging 77.1 points per game while allowing just 63.7.

Prediction:

This is a contest of two teams trending in very opposite directions. Wyoming is hitting their stride, while San Jose is hitting a skid. Wyoming will need to do a whole lot of things wrong in order to give up this upset and record their first conference loss. It’s also worth noting that Wyoming has scored at least 70 points in each of their last four games, while San Jose hasn’t been able to eclipse 60 in their past three. They’ll have no answer for Ike and this balanced, high-powered Wyoming team. I’ll take Wyoming by a landslide.

Score:

Wyoming 87

San Jose State 62