LARAMIE - Amath M'Baye won't play for the Wyoming Cowboys until 2009, but he's already got his first buzzer-beater.

The Stoneridge Prep player signed his national letter of intent to play basketball at UW, and he did it just in the nick of time.

The early signing period ended on Wednesday night and the Cowboys coaching staff finally received M'Baye's signed letter about 20 minutes before the deadline.

"(The late signing) is a first," UW coach Heath Schroyer said. "He came on campus last weekend for the Cal State Bakersfield game. He told us he wanted to come and we talked to his mom and those things.

"It was kind of the midnight hour, but we were real excited last night at about 11:40 when that fax came through."

M'Baye is the third recruit to sign with UW during the early period, joining Michael Dietz (Natrona County) and Thomas Manzano (Garden City (Kan.) Community College).

The 6-foot-9 forward is in his first season at Stoneridge, where he is averaging 16 points and eight rebounds over the first three games of the season.

"I'm real excited," Schroyer said. "He not only has the potential to be a good player, he has the potential to be a great player. He's everything that, looking into the future, this program needs."

And M'Baye will have plenty of company from Stoneridge.

Four current Cowboys - Mahamoud Diakite, Djibril Thiam, Boubacar Sylla and Arthur Bouedo - all attended the prep school in Simi Valley, Calif., in the last few years, though none played with M'Baye.

"Having kids from his culture that are here was obviously a big plus," Schroyer said.

Like Diakite, Sylla and Bouedo, M'Baye comes from France. And like Thiam, he was born in Senegal.

Schroyer quickly dispelled any negative aspects of having a handful of players from one place - especially prep schools, some of which have earned the reputation as diploma mills.

"They've had tons of Division I players, it's a quality school … and they're great students," Schroyer said. "Especially here, recruiting at Wyoming is very unique and I knew that coming in. I think that, when you get a few guys that come here and have a good experience, it really opens the floodgates.

"Recruiting here is obviously a challenge in some avenues and to be able to get a quality player like Amath is a big deal."

Contact sports reporter Eric Schmoldt at (307) 266-0578 or eric.schmoldt@trib.com.