For the second straight offseason, the Fort Lewis men’s basketball team has lost its top player to Wyoming.

Skyhawks junior guard Obi Agbim entered the transfer portal on March 26 and announced on Thursday his commitment to Division I school the University of Wyoming for next season.

Agbim led the Skyhawks in scoring with 15.5 points per game and in assists with 2.9 assists per game in the 2023-2024 season. Fort Lewis went 29-4 this past season and won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament championship before losing in the second round of the Division II NCAA Tournament.

“I chose Wyoming because I really felt the love,” Agbim said. “I actually got the chance to go out there, see the campus, see the school and play with some of the guys over there. I really liked the vibe and it really felt like a great situation. I like to plan the coaching staff has for me. They welcomed me with open arms, and they were really serious about what they were talking about. With one year left, I feel like they're going to give me the best chance to grow in these last nine months.”

Agbim said the plan for him is to go to Wyoming and make a major impact with his play like at Fort Lewis and his leadership too.

The Cowboys finished 15-17 overall last season and eighth in the Mountain West Conference with an 8-10 conference record under head coach Jeff Linder.

Agbim should have the opportunity for ample playing time with six players from last year’s Wyoming team in the transfer portal. Plus the Cowboys are losing two players who have run out of eligibility.

One of those players is former Fort Lewis guard Akuel Kot. He transferred to Wyoming after leading Fort Lewis in scoring with 24.3 ppg and led the Skyhawks to a 29-4 record in the 2022-2023 season.

Kot was second in scoring for the Cowboys in 2023-2024 with 14 ppg and tied for second in assists with two per game.

Agbim and Kot played together in 2022-2023 at Fort Lewis and have a great relationship. So when Wyoming showed interest, Agbim and Kot talked about Wyoming and then sat down in person when Agbim went to visit Wyoming’s campus. Kot told Agbim what it’s like to live in Laramie, Wyoming and answered some of Agbim’s questions about some unknowns.

“It helped me make my decision, it just gave me more trust and more faith in what I was doing,” Agbim said about his conversations with Kot. “He described to me the day-to-day and how it is just going to Wyoming and being in the city. He told me a lot of details about it. So his words helped me influence my decision a lot.”

Agbim liked how the Wyoming coaching staff helped transform Kot’s body in the short time Kot was there. Kot also told Agbim that he learned a lot from Wyoming’s coaching staff too. Agbim knows he’ll have to transform his body also to be ready to compete at the Division I level.

After Agbim posted his intentions to enter the transfer portal on March 26 on X (formerly known as Twitter), the Wyoming coaching staff reached out immediately.

Numerous other Division I schools reached out such as Tarleton State, Marshall, South Alabama, Niagra, Longwood, New Mexico State, UC San Diego and others but Agbim appreciated the love the Wyoming coaching staff has for his game.

Agbim also recognized the opportunity to play in the Mountain West Conference, which had one of the best seasons in its history with six teams from the conference reaching the NCAA tournament this past season. The Mountain West was rated as the seventh-best conference in the country last season on kenpom.com behind the six power conferences.

“It’s a blessing just to have the opportunity to play in a conference like this with a lot of great schools and great competitors,” Agbim said. “It's an opportunity for me to showcase what I can do and what I've been doing … A lot of other schools, their conference was pretty good, but they're not six bids good. That gives us a real big chance to do something special.”

Agbim is planning on getting out to Laramie a few days before summer workouts begin to get used to the elevation and his surroundings before beginning to enjoy the moment, the grind and the process of his final collegiate season.

bkelly@durangoherald.com