Western Nebraska Community College’s Francisco “Paco” Cruz spent Saturday watching the University of Wyoming play No. 13 BYU University and dreaming of someday maybe scoring points in the “Arena.” Saturday’s visit to Laramie, Wyo., for the 6-foot-4 WNCC sophomore was the deciding factor on his college choice as he verbally committed to become a Wyoming Cowboy and help rebuild a Wyoming basketball program. Sunday’s decision brought to an end the season-long bombardment of coaches trying to get his basketball talents for the next two seasons.
“I really liked the campus and I really liked the people, players and coaches. I just felt good about it,” Cruz said. “It is a good place where I am going to play and a good conference. I think we can be successful in a couple years.”
Wyoming definitely wanted Cruz to become a Cowboy as the head and assistant coach spent many days and nights in Cougar Palace watching him put up numbers. Cruz also was entertaining interest from the University of Montana, California-Riverside and Coastal Carolina.
“The head and assistant coach was watching me all the time. They really wanted me,” Cruz said. “Going to Wyoming is closer to home and it is the highest level to play in. I just feel good about it and hope everything will work out.”
WNCC head coach Russ Beck said Wyoming is a perfect fit for Cruz.
“Paco can play at a lot of different levels and I do like the way Wyoming went about recruiting him. They identified a need they have in finding someone for the wing position that can shoot and understands how to play. Wyoming has a relative young team and they have a lot of potential, and adding another shooter like Paco helps their team step to a new level. I think it is a good opportunity for him.
“The Mountain West is a very competitive conference with the likes of UNLV, BYU and New Mexico, all teams that have been ranked at some part of the year, and they will get three teams into the NCAA tournament. Wyoming is building towards that end to get to the NCAA tournament. I am excited for him and I am excited for Wyoming and their staff.”
Wyoming plays in the Mountain West Conference, which features two top 15 teams – BYU at No. 11 and New Mexico at No. 12.
“It will be hard next year because it is one of the best conferences in the country,” Cruz said. “I hope I can play as good as I am playing here. I hope everything works out good.”
Beck said attending Wyoming, which is less than three hours from Scottsbluff, will give a lot of people an opportunity to watch and follow him.
“I think the closeness was a big part of his decision. He is close to his high school coach and close to Denver where he played high school basketball,” Beck said. “He is also close to Scottsbluff and the people he knows here. All of us can enjoy his two year career at Wyoming.”
Cruz is having one of those MVP campaigns this season. As a freshman, Cruz had 41 3-pointers and 460 points, while being named the college’s male most valuable athlete.
This season, the sophomore is averaging 20.3 points a game with 63 3-pointers made this season. Earlier this year, Cruz became only the 10th player in school history to score over points in a game when he scored 41 in a win against Eastern Wyoming.
For his 2-year career at WNCC, Cruz has made 104 3-pointers and scored 967 points. Cruz needs just 31 points to become only the 12th player in school history to finish with over 1,000 points for his career. Last player to achieve that goal was Tommie King back in 1998-2000, when he scored 1,086 points. King went on to play at Iowa State University.
Cruz is also pulling down 5.7 rebounds a game and shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 77.6 from the charity stripe. Cruz is hitting on 44.4 percent of his 3-point shots (63 of 142).
Cruz said that he will be playing a shooting guard when he attends the Wyoming. He added that his game improved a lot under Beck.
“My game has improved a lot,” he said. “I am making a lot of shots this year and I am able to penetrate a little more this year. I am also trying to play defense a little bit more.”
The verbal commitment means that Cruz don’t have to worry about entertaining phone calls from coaches; now he can concentrate on leading the team through the rest of the season.
“I am glad to get the decision out of the way because I don’t have to worry any more about it,” he said. “I just have to worry about the season and finish strong.”
The Cougar men will entertain North Platte Community College on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in a contest that will decide the East Sub-region champion. If the Cougars defeat North Platte by 15 points, they will win the sub-region and the No. 1 seed in the regional tournament. Otherwise, they will be No. 2 out of the sub-region.
WNCC, 17-10, has been playing well since falling to the Knights back on Feb. 5 and a big key to that streak of four straight wins is because of their defense.
“We are playing more aggressive defense and that is helping us win,” he said. “We put on a lot of ball pressure and that is helping us play really hard on defense.”
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