Wyoming Cowboys

The Wyoming Cowboys carry one of college basketball's most surprising championship pedigrees into the Mountain West, playing home games at the Arena-Auditorium in Laramie. Wyoming basketball leans on its remote, high-altitude campus and tight community support to create a difficult environment for visiting teams. The program has cycled through long stretches of rebuilding since its glory days, but it retains a proud identity rooted in a genuine national title. It's a program whose history outweighs its current national profile.

Wyoming's defining moment came in 1943, when Everett Shelton's Cowboys won the NCAA national championship, defeating Georgetown 46-34 at Madison Square Garden with Ken Sailors — inventor of the modern jump shot — named the tournament's most outstanding player. It was the first NCAA title won by a team from the Rocky Mountain region. Wyoming has made sporadic NCAA Tournament appearances since but has never come close to replicating that 1943 run.