The last time the Wyoming Cowboys and Air Force Falcons met, both programs were stranded at the bottom of the deepest, darkest of caverns in the college basketball world.

The Cowboys and Falcons shared dismal records entering their play-in game matchup of the 2010 Mountain West Conference tournament—Wyoming was 3-13 in conference play and 10-20 overall, and Air Force entered the contest with an even worse mark, a 1-15 conference record and an 8-20 overall offering—and even the most negligible signs of hope were a Rocky Mountain winter away for both teams.

The game was just as ugly as the records would indicate, but when Air Force emerged a 59-40 victor and moved on to lose to a goliath New Mexico squad in the next round, the Falcons were temporarily unburdened with the MWC torch of futility.

Nearly a year later, the Falcons appear to have righted the ship and are headed back toward again becoming a competitive team in the conference.

Wyoming, on the other hand, continues to wake up on Groundhog Day every morning.

The Cowboys (8-10, 1-3) enter Saturday’s matchup at Air Force (1:30 p.m. MST, televised on The Mtn.) with a 17-game road losing streak.

The last time Wyoming won a regular season game away from the Arena-Auditorium was on December 12, 2009–when Wyoming defeated Northern Colorado 76-70 at the Casper Events Center.

The Cowboys were technically the home team in that contest, however, so to find Wyoming’s last true win on the road requires a trip back to February 28, 2009, and a trip down to Colorado Springs.

It was on that afternoon when Wyoming nipped Air Force 65-62 at Clune Arena – although no one at the time could have possibly guessed it would be the Cowboys’ last regular season road victory for a span of over 700 days and counting.

Hamstrung with a series of injuries–most notably the one to Afam Muojeke which has sidelined the Cowboy star for each of the past two conference seasons–a young and inexperienced Wyoming team has struggled since the time of that victory in Colorado Springs.

The Cowboys enter Saturday’s contest with a streak of determination–eager to atone for a poor performance in a 68-51 loss to Utah last Saturday in which Wyoming shot just 35 percent from the field–and on an entire week of rest.

Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer commented in his post-game press conference on Saturday that the week of rest will be crucial to the team’s performance and health–most notably in making sure that key injured contributors Adam Waddell, JayDee Luster, and Djibril Thiam are in better physical condition than they have been in recent weeks.

The Cowboys will need all three players at full strength to compete with a much-improved Falcon squad.

Although Air Force (10-7) has an identical 1-3 conference mark to that of the Cowboys, the Falcons’ three losses have come against San Diego State, BYU, and UNLV–teams with a 52-6 combined overall record. Air Force was competitive in all three games.