There is one Cowboy who fits the Bayou Bandit image of the Southland Conference champs more than anybody else.

That, of course, would be the sharpshooter from, appropriately enough, Houston, by way of San Antonio.

D.J. Richards is the perfect draw-first-ask-questions-later gunslinger who has embraced the new Wild West image of McNeese State basketball like no other.

And he isn’t shy by any means.

Richards would just as soon shoot from the hip as from his lip, and both with a flair of excitement and humor.

“I like to talk when I’m out there, nothing bad to anybody,” Richards said. “It just gets me going, but what I really like to do is shoot the basketball.”

Like many other Cowboys, McNeese is not Richards’ first ride. He came to town after a solid first year at Texas-San Antonio where he averaged 10.5 points and 4.7 rebounds, earning him Conference USA All-Freshman Team honors.

He started 25 games while appearing in 32 and scored in double figures 19 times, including a stretch of 10 at one point.

Even with those numbers, Richards was willing to leave UTSA and follow head coach Will Wade to McNeese, a school with 45 losses over the last two years.

“Coach is a winner,” Richards said. “He sold me on what we could be and I have loved it.

“At first nobody noticed us. I would walk around town with my McNeese basketball shirt on and nobody seemed to care. Now, everybody wants to talk to you and everybody knows me.”

That’s perfect for Richards, who is never shy of the spotlight. That seems to run in the family, said his older sister, Didi, who is a star for the Washington Mystics in the WNBA.

“That was just our house, you had to talk to get the attention,” Didi said. “And D.J. always liked to talk, so this is nothing new.”

As to who is the better player, Didi says, “I can kill him now.”

Richards found his game with the Cowboys but it wasn’t easy. He began the season as a starter but was moved to the sixth-man role early to get more firepower off the bench.

“I didn’t like it at first,” Richards admitted. “It took me some time to get used to the idea. Everybody wants to start. But I saw how it helped the team. I could come in if things are slow and light a fire. It just took getting used to doing it.”

That may have been an early turning point for the Cowboys, who find themselves 30-3 as they head to Thursday’s first round of the NCAA Tournament as the No. 12 seed against No. 5 Gonzaga. They have also won 25 of their last 26 including 11 in a row.

“That was big for us to have D.J. accept his role off the bench,” Wade said. “That’s not always easy to do. He is a really good player who could start for us and a lot of other teams.

“His willingness to accept that role was a big part of us moving forward as a team.”

That wasn’t Richards’ only stumbling block. He admitted that all the attention the Cowboys got went to his head at one point.

“I lost some focus and wasn’t playing my best,” he said. “I got caught up in a lot of that hype. I had to refocus and get back to playing the right way.”

Richards responded with a solid first season with McNeese, including making the Southland Conference’s All-Tournament team. He hit 5 of 6 3-pointers in the title win over Nicholls State.

Richards is averaging 11.4 points a game and leads the Cowboys with 80 3-point field goals in 177 attempts, a .452 percentage.

He has also produced five rare four-point plays this season.

“I just have fun playing the game and I like to shoot,” Richards said.

He doesn’t mind telling you all about it either, making him the perfect hired gun.