Police Say That Wyoming Senior Luke Martinez Broke Finger During a Bar Fight

By now many college basketball fans are aware of Wyoming‘s early season success.

At 13-0, the Cowboys are one of just four remaining undefeated teams and with Mountain West play ready to kick in, the true tests are approaching fast for Wyoming.

Earlier this week however, news emerged that the Cowboys would begin conference play without their second leading scorer. Luke Martinez, who has been scoring at a 14.5 points per game pace to begin the year, is out indefinitely after breaking his finger.

The injury is no doubt a tough loss for head coach Larry Shyatt and the Cowboys, but now news is emerging on just how the injury may have occurred. Originally, the cause of the injury was listed as part of an off-campus incident, but now, police are saying that Martinez broke his finger during a fight at a local bar.

Details at this time continue to remain scarce and the exact role that Martinez may have had in the fight in undetermined.

Martinez has scored in double-figures in all but two of the Cowboys’ 13 wins this season and the loss of the 6-foot-4 senior certainly puts Wyoming at a disadvantage. Since taking over the program prior to last season, Shyatt has had some increasing success, from emerging and looking like an NCAA Tournament threat a season ago, to a squad now that ranks among four of the final unbeaten squads in the nation.

Their terrific start aside however, it all does hinge on the Cowboys’ ability to produce in the conference schedule. There are currently six teams in the Mountain West that have at least 12 wins to begin the season and now we will begin to see just which ones are for real.

That starts on Wednesday night for Wyoming as they play host to a 12-2 Boise State squad. With no Martinez in the lineup it will be interesting to see how the Cowboys kick off league play.

 

Paul Seaver is the College Basketball Network Manager at Rant Sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS