CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) – The Plainsmen basketball team showed some tremendous improvement across last season. They had somewhat of a rocky start to conference play. but found their groove at the perfect time and rode that momentum all the way to a 4A state championship appearance.
While they fell short in the title game, that season served as a shift of sorts from within the program, and they’re looking to take off this time around.
”Last year, you know our whole goal– talking before the season last year– was we gotta just get there. We gotta get to [the state tournament in] Casper,” head coach Drew Evans said. “Try and change the culture a little bit of ‘it’s ok to just keep losing games’ and whatnot. With who we had and the youth we had, the goal was just to get there and then anything can happen from there. And that’s kind of what happened for us. So that was basically step one. We achieved step one, and then now we’re working to take that next step this year.”
The Plainsmen were a potent offense in the 2022-23 season; their 61.1 points per game was good for second in 4A, and 13 assists per game was third. However Laramie did lose a couple key players from last year’s squad; most notably point guard Levi Brown– who led the team in passing and was second in scoring– moved on to play collegiately for the Wyoming Cowboys.
Although some of that production is gone, there is a plethora of returning talent. Three key pieces are back in junior Neil Summers, junior Max Alexander, and senior Karson Busch; Summers led all of 4A in rebounding and was Laramie’s leading scorer last year to earn an All-State nod, and both Alexander and Busch displayed some deadly shooting abilities from everywhere on the floor.
While those three are expected to help lead this year’s squad, the players feel that the beauty of this team in particular is their depth and unselfishness.
”I just expect a lot of sharing the ball, just taking good shots, and then looking for everyone. All my teammates can score, so anybody that can get a shot is a good one,” Alexander said.
“We’re just gonna play as a team. You know we’re gonna get the ball down low, kick it out, hit a three, and play fast. Just not turn the ball over, and just play together,” Summers added,.
Their season opens up on Dec. 7 in Casper.
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