Your Air Force Falcons Run to the NCAA's - The 2003-2004 Basketball Season was a historic run to the NCAA's for Air Force. Know your history - Read the game by game stories on the Falcons run though the MWC league play culminating in playing UNC during March Madness. Courtesy of the writers from the Colorado Springs Gazette Newspaper, these are the actual articles following each game between January - March 2004. Enjoy....
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Air Force 65,
Rare silence of the Rams
AFA win ends
27-game MWC road losing skid
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
FORT
COLLINS - Colorado State’s fans were on their feet for the start of the
second half of Air Force’s 65-57 win over the Rams on Monday, filling
Moby Arena with a roar that had always meant doom for the Falcons.
Air Force sophomore guard Antoine Hood didn’t like what he heard.
After back-to-back baskets by
He then ran to center court, looked at the crowd and waived his right finger in front of his mouth.
He wanted quiet.
“I
got a little caught up in the moment. I kind of tried to silence the
crowd,” said Hood, who scored 10 points, but none bigger than that
3-pointer
Monday was Air Force’s moment. Time and again, Air Force silenced
Air Force’s victory ended a 27-game road conference
Air Force’s eighth straight win also tied a school record that dated to 1959.
“It’s a big win,” said Air Force coach Joe Scott, whose teams had never won a road conference
It was the same old Air Force, but with a twist.
The Falcons (10-2, 1-0 Moun
Air Force jumped
to a 30-20 halftime lead, exploiting Colorado State’s haphazard zone
defense. The Falcons answered every run by the Rams in the second half,
succeeding where past Air Force teams had failed, often turning to
seniors Kuhle (season-highs of 14 points and seven rebounds) and
Gerlach (11 points).
Kuhle converted a
threepoint play after Coloraod State cut Air Force’s lead to 40-35 in
the second half. Minutes after the Rams trimmed Air Force’s lead to
43-39 with 7:07 remaining on a pair of free-throws by Matt Williams,
Gerlach came up big.
After Hood scored on a
three-point play, Gerlach knocked down a 3-pointer and a pair of
free-throws to help extend the Falcons’ lead to 51-39 with 4:40 left.
AIR FORCE 65, COLORADO ST. 57
AIR FORCE: Kuhle 4-7 5-7 14, Gerlach 3-7 2-2 11, Welch 3-7 6-8 12, Keller 3-7 8-10 15, Hood
3-4 2-4 10, McCraw 0-1 0-0 0, Burt schi 1-3 1-2
3, Peterson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 17-37 24-33 65.
COLORADO ST.: Clark 5-10 2-3 12, Williams 6-8
5-8 17, Stevens 4-7 0-0 10, Rakie cki 0-3 4-4 4,
Johnson 3-4 0-0 8, Boatner 0-1 0-0 0, Thomasson 0-2 0-0 0, Robinson 2-3 0-0 6, Verwers 0-1
0-0 0. Totals 20-39 1 1-15 57.
Halftime
— Air Force 30, Colorado St. 20. 3-Point goals — Air Force 7-16
(Gerlach 3-5, Hood 2-3, Kuhle 1-1, Keller 1-4, Welch 0-1,
Burt schi 0-2), Colorado St. 6-14 (Stevens 2-5,
Johnson
2-3, Robinson 2-3, Rakie cki 0-3). Fouled out — Clark, Williams.
Rebounds — Air Force 19 (Kuhle 7), Colorado St. 29 (Williams 8).
Assists — Air Force 13 (Kuhle 4), Colorado
St. 10 (Clark 2, Stevens 2, Johnson 2, Robinson 2). Total fouls — Air Force 18, Colorado St. 28. A — 4,012
1/18/04 Air Force 68, New Mexico 42
Falcons end four decades of futility in Albuquerque
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. - Nick Welch seemed to pause for a moment after each of his
second-half 3-pointers, his right hand hanging in the air, his mouth
agape for an extra beat as each of his four long-range daggers found
their mark.
Air Force’s sophomore center wasn’t
posing, but the entire Air Force team deserved to take a bow after
Saturday’s 68-42 Moun
New
Mexico’s faithful packed The Pit, but only saw their Lobos get pummeled
and Air Force make history for the second time in a week.
Welch
scored 16 of his careerhigh 18 points in the second half, including
four straight 3-pointers that sparked a 15-2 run and helped seal the
Falcons’ first win in Albuquerque in 42 years.
Each 3-pointer was followed by Welch’s hand held high in the air, a subconscious signal to the rest of the conference
“It’s impressive to do what we did here,” coach Joe Scott said. “In college basketball
The Falcons (11-2) moved to 2-0 in the Mountain
The
Falcons’ ninth straight win also broke a 45-year-old school record, and
Saturday’s victory was the team’s first in the 38-year history of the
Pit.
It was Air Force’s second-largest conference
The
Falcons forced 17 turnovers, held the Lobos to 36.8 percent shooting,
and were precise and methodical on offense, mirroring similar
performances by the Falcons’ opponents.
New
Mexico came as close as 26-20 in the first half before the Falcons
closed with a 8-3 run to make the score 34-23, and never had a chance
in the second half once Welch got going.
At
times, the Lobos looked confused. Perhaps they were shocked things were
so easy for Air Force, or shocked Welch was making his wide-open
3-point attempts.
But as Welch watched each sail through the net, he wasn't shocked at all.
“It’s
just holding my followthrough and making sure it’s a good shot, to make
sure I am going into the basket,” Welch said. “(Assistant coach Chris
Mooney) tells me it’s like shooting in the park. It’s an easy shot.”
1/25/4 Air Force 74, Brigham Young 52
Craziness at Clune
Wild crowd helps power Falcons’ 11th straight win
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
The
record crowd of 6,359 that packed Clune Arena on Saturday roared,
sophomore center Nick Welch scored, and for a time, it was hard to hear
the ball hit the court in the sold-out gymnasium.
But perhaps the loudest sound was the statement Air Force made with its 74-52 beating of BYU.
“I
know everybody in the country was watching today to see what we were
going to do,” Air Force coach Joe Scott said, “and to perform like this
— I think we let everyone in America know that right now, at this
juncture in the college basket
Thanks, in part, to a careerhigh 20 points by Welch, the Falcons improved to 3-0 in the Mountain
The
Falcons left no doubt with this win — the team’s largest against BYU —
leading wire-to-wire against a team picked to win the conference
Air
Force jumped to a 12-2 lead, and the Cougars (12-5, 2-2) never came
within seven points after the 8:14 mark of the first half.
A dunk and a reverse layup by sophomore guard Antoine Hood gave the Falcons a 42-19 lead at halftime.
“The
excitement is indescribable,” Hood said. “This place got louder than
(New Mexico’s) The Pit in some aspects. This place was rocking and we
couldn’t hear anything.”
Welch kept the decibel
level up, dominating center Rafael Araujo with a series of spin moves,
reverse layups and pinpoint shooting.
Welch, who
gave up three inches and nearly 80 pounds to the 6-foot-11, 280-pound
Brazilian, made 9 of 10 field-goal attempts one week after being named
the conference
But
it wasn’t all Welch. The Falcons shot 72.5 percent from the field — the
second-best mark in school history behind a 75 percent shooting
performance in 1997 versus NAIA opponent Doane. Air Force also went 9
of 16 from 3-point range Saturday.
Senior guard A.J. Kuhle chipped in with 14 points, junior guard Tim Keller had 12 and Hood scored 11.
“It
wasn’t like it was me versus Araujo,” Welch said. “It was Air Force
versus BYU and every guy on our team played well today.”
Air Force held Araujo, who entered the game as the conference’s
“We got beat in every aspect of the game,” coach Steve Cleveland said.
“Every
offensive statistic to defensive statistic, they took it to us from the
beginning and we never really regrouped and you got to give them a
great deal of credit.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or
tjacobson@gazette.com On a role
Freshman
guard Matt Mc-Craw’s favorite NBA player may be Ray Allen, but he’s not
afraid to admit his game is a little more like Bobby Jackson.
Like
the Sacramento Kings sixth man, McCraw provided a much-needed spark off
the bench, making a career-high three 3-pointers and tying a
career-high with 11 points.
“My role is just
coming off the bench and doing all the little things and everything,
starting on defense, and whatever happens on offense happens,” he said.
AIR FORCE 74, BYU 52
BYU:
Hall 0-3 2-2 2, Bigelow 6-10 6-8 19, Araujo 4-5 4-6 12, Leme s 1-4 1-4
3, Nashif 1-2 0-0 2, Woodberry 0-2 0-0 0, Rose 2-7 3-3 9,
Shof f 0-0 0-0 0, Ainge 0-1 0-0 0, Me ads 2-3 1-1 5. Totals 16-37 17-24 52.
AIR FORCE: Kuhle 4-5 4-4 14, Gerlach 2-3 1-1 5, Welch 9-10 0-3 20, Keller 4-9 2-3 12, Hood
5-7 0-1 1 1, McCraw 0-0 0-0 0, Jenkins 2-2 0-0 5, Dillinger 1-1 0-0 2, Burt schi 1-2 0-0 2, Teet s
0-0 0-0 0, Nwaelele 0-0 0-0 0, Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, Bu chanan 1-1 0-0 3. Totals 29-40 7-12 74.
Halftime
— Air Force 42, BYU 19. 3-Point goals — BYU 3-14 (Rose 2-7, Bigelow
1-3, Leme s 0-1, Nashif 0-1, Woodberry 0-1, Ainge 0-1), Air Force 9-16
(Kuhle 2-2, Welch 2-2, Keller 2-5,
Hood 1-3, Jenkins 1-1, Bu
chanan 1-1, Gerlach 0-1, Burt schi 0-1). Rebounds — BYU 20 (Araujo 6),
Air Force 20 (Gerlach 4, Welch 4). Assists — BYU 6 (Hall 2, Leme s 2),
Air Force 17 (Welch 5). Total fouls — BYU 18, Air Force 16. A — 6,359.
1/27/04 Air Force 62, Utah 49
Taking them by storm
Falcons top another Mountain
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
Air Force’s fans hadn’t stormed the Clune Arena court in recent memory.
The Air Force men’s basket
The Falcons’ run through the Mountain
Air Force has never been 14-2 to start a season, ruled the Mountain
“You
only see that on TV, fans rushing the court like that,” sophomore guard
Antoine Hood said. “Words can’t describe how great that was.”
Air
Force didn’t blow out Utah like it blew out BYU or knock the Utes
around like the Falcons kicked around New Mexico.
This was a different kind of win, against a different kind of opponent.
Air
Force beat Utah, the team by which Joe Scott has measured his program,
despite blowing a second-half lead. Instead, the Falcons fought back
and took control down the stretch.
“I think my
guys have been watching for three years and learning, and we were able
to play just like Utah did,” Scott said. “. . . (Utah) is the measuring
stick in this league. Who knows if we have caught up with them, but I
know we are going to be in this thing until the end now and I am almost
certain Utah will be, too.”
The Falcons made
their first four shots to jump to a 9-0 lead, but by halftime, Utah had
cut Air Force’s lead to 29-24.
Ten minutes into
the second half, Utah (15-5, 3-2) took a 40-38 advantage on a 3-pointer
by Richard Chaney. But at a time where Air Force teams of the past
might have folded, this one surged behind senior A.J. Kuhle, who scored
a season-high 17 points.
“If we play well it’s
hard for me to think we are going to lose a game,” Kuhle said. “When
everyone is hitting on all cylinders and playing well it spurs all of
us on. We know every guy on the court can make a play that could
possibly win us a game.”
Air Force tied the game
40-40 on a pair of free throws by Tim Keller (16 points) one minute
after Utah had grabbed its only lead of the game. The Falcons regained
the lead for good on a layup by Keller with 8:15 remaining.
Air
Force outscored Utah 22-9 over the final nine minutes. Kuhle helped put
the Utes away, grabbing a key offensive rebound and converting it to a
three-point play. He scored nine and Air Force’s last 11 points.
“He
was just all over the place and his play down the stretch sort of
epitomized sort of what this team is all about right now,” Scott said.
2/1/4 Air Force 57, San Diego State 43
Falcons sputter early but finish with flurry
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
SAN
DIEGO - Air Force’s shots weren’t falling and its offense wasn’t
clicking. As San Diego State’s Tommy Johnson swooped through the lane
for an easy layup, the season-high crowd of 11,027 at Cox Arena began
to sense an upset.
Air Force had been here before, so why worry, thought Antoine Hood.
“We
try to dissect teams with our offense and our defense. They get a run,
we like to silence the crowd,” he said.
The
Falcons did that, recovering from a slow start to beat the Aztecs,
57-43, Saturday. But the win hardly followed the Falcons’ usual
blueprint for success.
The Falcons may have won
their 13th straight game and clinched their first winning record since
1978, but they fell behind early, looked sloppy and unsure at times. In
short, they were the very opposite of their normal selves.
But when it counted most, the Falcons (15-2, 5-0) calmly acted every bit like the Mountain
Hood scored a team-high 15 points and Nick Welch had 11 points and six rebounds.
“Each
time that team did something that said, ‘Hey, it’s our home court, we
are going to take control of the game,’ we answered it and we answered
it big down the stretch,” Air Force coach Joe Scott said.
After
losing an early 18-13 lead, San Diego State (11-9, 2-3) last tied the
game at 32-32 8:18 into the second half as junior guard Wesley Stokes
(12 points) whipped the crowd into another frenzy with a slick finger
roll.
Air Force’s answer came from seniors A.J.
Kuhle and Jacob Burtschi, who buried back-to-back 3-pointers to push
the Falcons lead to 38-32.
Air Force never looked back, the memory of the Falcons’ worst start in a conference
Air Force’s 12 turnovers were its most in conference
But as the Falcons struggled, the Aztecs looked even worse against Air Force’s top-ranked scoring defense.
San
Diego State’s 43 points were a season-low, and the second-lowest in Cox
Arena history. The Aztecs committed 19 turnovers, and their two leading
scorers, freshman Brandon Heath and senior Aerick Sanders, were held to
zero and four points, respectively.
“You go
through those things, and that’s why you have to play good defense
because it makes you weather those storms like that,” Scott said.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or
2/4/4 Falcons stinging from loss
Kuhle accepts blame for teams play at UNLV
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
LAS
VEGAS - Coach Joe Scott laid the blame for Air Force’s 63-50 loss to
UNLV late Monday squarely on his upperclassmen.
And senior A.J. Kuhle took it.
“It’s
my fault,” Kuhle said. “As a senior leader, when we came out 11-2, we
just really took it for granted that we got up that quick and when they
put some pressure on us, we didn’t respond.”
After
jumping to an 11-2 lead that almost seemed to come too easily, all of
Air Force’s players didn’t do much of anything Monday.
That’s
why the Falcons were serenaded with a chorus of “overrated” chants from
hundreds of UNLV fans as the last seconds ticked off the game clock.
There was no response as the Falcons (15-3 overall, 5-1 Mountain
In its first loss since
Dec. 7, Air Force was outworked on rebounds, 41-20. The Falcons didn’t
hustle, and didn’t have an answer for UNLV’s uptempo play. They also
eschewed their deliberate offense for a more selfish style after
jumping to an early lead.
And if they want to remain atop the Mountain
“They
were quicker to the ball than us,” Scott said. “They wanted the ball
more than we did. That’s what’s disappointing to me. That’s not skills.
That’s guts and courage and wanting the ball.”
The
loss didn’t especially hurt the Falcons in the standings. They still
have a onegame lead on Utah (16-5, 4-2), and have exceeded the most
optimistic expectations in this young season.
Air Force can rebound and win the league, and can recover to qualify for a postseason tournament.
But the loss did raise several questions as the Falcons return home for three confer
“We
are going to go back this week and work on individual type stuff and
defensive stuff and really kind of see what team we got here,” junior
Tim Keller said. “Wyoming coming in here, that will be a good judge to
see if it was just a lucky run or we are a good team.”
Scott
thinks he’s got a good team — when it plays the precise and deliberate
style that can overwhelm teams on offense and infuriate them on
defense.
But when the Falcons sleepwalk through
a game like they did Monday, giving out rebounds like they were forking
over money to a casino on the strip, the result will be typical.
“That’s
a blueprint for everybody: Be aggressive, go after the ball, hustle,”
Scott said. “When you play that way, you win more times than you lose,
and they played that way (Monday) and we didn’t.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or
Air Force 83, Wyoming 71 2/8/4
No Vegas hangover
AFA returns to
form following
first MWC loss
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
In Air Force’s season-long statement to the Mountain
The Falcons steamrolled the Cowboys in an 83-71 win before a crowd of 5,939 at Clune Arena.
Once again, the Falcons answered any questions after a loss to UNLV on Monday.
“Nobody
questions teams like St. Joseph’s and Duke and Stanford,” said
sophomore guard Antoine Hood, who had 14 points. “Everyone knows they
are going to bounce back after a loss. We knew that we could bounce
back, and that’s what we were going to come out and do today.”
The Falcons (16-3, 6-1 MWC) proved their 13-game winning streak that ended against UNLV was not a fluke.
“I
think the rest of the league is still looking to see if Air Force is
for real,” Falcons coach Joe Scott said.
The
Falcons ended an eightgame losing streak to Wyoming (9-11, 2-5), and
remained undefeated at home this season to tie a school record. At the
midway point of conference
Utah was 6-1 in 2000 and 2002.
“It’s
just a statement,” said senior forward Joel Gerlach, who made a
career-high four 3-pointers and finished with 14 points.
“That
team comes in here and they think they are better than us and we got to
prove that we are a team, a 16-3 team that can play and defend their
home court,” Gerlach said.
Air Force hadn’t
beaten the Cowboys since Feb. 5, 2000, and none of the Falcons’ current
players had ever beaten Wyoming, but that didn’t seem to matter.
Air
Force shot 66.7 percent from the field and five players scored in
double figures, led by Tim Keller’s season-high 20 points.
Air
Force took a 36-27 lead at halftime, but Wyoming got as close as 48-46
when Falconkiller Jay Straight’s 4-point play capped a 10-0 run with
12:48 remaining. But when the Falcons needed it most, they made a
statement to themselves.
Sophomore center Nick
Welch scored eight of the Falcons’ next 10 points to help stretch the
lead to 58-53, and Air Force made 22 of 25 free throws down the
stretch.
“That’s when we played our best basketball
The Falcons committed a season-high 15 turnovers, and yielded a season-high 71 points.
The Falcons were outrebounded 29-20, and allowed the Cowboys to grab 19 offensive rebounds.
None of that mattered, however. The victory wasn’t pretty, but it was another answer.
“We
have been struggling with them for a long time,” Hood said, “and it
feels good to come back and send a statement to them that we are
different.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or
Air Force 52, Colorado State 44 2/10/4
Only ugly if you lose
Falcons play at
CSU’s plodding
style but prevail
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
As Air Force finished off Colorado State Monday, putting the final touches on a 52-44 Moun
Monday’s season sweep of Colorado State in front of 5,763 fans at Clune Arena was hardly a masterpiece.
But like a fine work of art, this milestone win will likely age well.
All
that will matter in time — and all that mattered to Scott Monday was
the victory, the Falcons’ 17th this season, tying a 46-year-old school
record.
Air Force (17-3 overall, 7-1 MWC) also set school records for most conference
“If
you are going to win a title you’ve got to win games like this because
they are going to happen,” Scott said. “You just don’t win titles by
sort of blowing teams away.”
Wins like this —
where the Falcons shot a seasonlow 36.6 percent, were outrebounded
33-23 by a Colorado State team without injured center Matt Nelson, and
nearly squandered a 13-point halftime lead — might be more accurately
described by Air Force’s players.
“No question
it was ugly,” said sophomore center Nick Welch, who scored 16 points
and had five rebounds and five assists.
“It was
disgusting. It was tough. We were getting run up and down the court,”
said forward Tim Keller (17 points), whose four first-half 3-pointers
helped stake Air Force to a 30-17 halftime lead.
Scott
had been waiting for Keller to break out of a shooting slump, and the
junior made three consecutive 3-pointers during a 1:37 span in the
first half.
“The fact the ball went in it was
amazing,” Keller said. “I felt good. Shooting the ball, I have been
kind of off and on, but getting in the swing of the offense felt good.
It’s how the offense is supposed to work.”
But nothing worked in the second half for the Falcons.
After halftime, the Falcons allowed the Rams (11-10, 3-5) to claw their way back by shooting 26.3 percent.
During
an 11-minute stretch, Air Force scored six points, and the Falcons’
lead dwindled to 45-41 when Phillip Thomasson hit a jumper with 2:42
remaining.
Freddy Robinson scored 13 of his
team-high 15 points in the second half, but Air Force made 7 of 8
freethrows down the stretch, including six by Welch.
“You
play a team like Colorado State and they want to make it ugly,” Welch
said. “That’s the way it played out. Down the stretch it got a little
bit close there, and everybody stepped up and made a huge play.”
Falcon freshman steals the show with his acting
OPINION
DAVID RAMSEY
Gazette Sports columnist
Air Force freshman Jacob Burtschi ranks as an expert in the art of basketball
He
flops to the wood, draws a charge. He dives to the floor just for fun,
showing no regard for his 6-foot-6, 205-pound frame. He sets sturdy
picks. He declines to worry about scoring points.
Little basketball
It was Burtschi’s kind of game. He scored six points, but disrupted the Rams with his rude, ruthless style.
He
arrived from the flatlands of Oklahoma, a rampaging competitor, a
superb actor, a player who ignites his own team and infuriates the
opposition.
The Falcons are winning with Burtschi-style basketball
Air
Force, which has scored more than 65 points only seven times this
season, shot 36.6 percent against the Rams, including a woeful 26
percent in the second half.
Antoine Hood,
offering a superb imitation of the Invisible Man, scored two points.
A.J. Kuhle and Joel Gerlach combined for only nine.
The
Falcons won with stifling, swarming defense. They won because they drew
more charges, dived for more loose balls.
They
won because, even with their rising national reputation, they played
with snarling, elbowing desperation.
Air Force coach Joe Scott raves about the Mountain
But the truth is this: The Mountain
Air Force is not a dazzling
collection of talent. The Falcons boast a starting five that looks as
if they’ve been put on a starvation diet. The Falcons lack a
can’t-stop-me scorer who can carry the team in the final minutes.
They win anyway. They win because players like Kuhle and Burtschi know the secrets of stealing games.
Burtschi learned the secrets of basketball
Dad
believed in playing the game all out, which meant a player could expect
floor burns and bruised elbows and swollen eyes. Dad believed in
playing with fierce emotion.
He taught his son well.
“I
want to come out there with a lot of spirit,” Burtschi said. “I want to
get the crowd into it, get the other players into it. I want to bring
excitement to the game.”
Part of the excitement
comes from wondering when Burtschi will tumble to the floor. He has an
uncanny ability to persuade officials to call offensive fouls,
Sometimes, officials blow the whistle in Burtschi’s favor when nothing
resembling a foul has occurred.
That’s largely
because of Burtschi’s acting skills, which are considerable. He flings
himself to the floor with such violence, with such conviction, that an
official can’t resist the temptation to blow the whistle.
“Acting
ability helps a lot,” Burtschi said. “You’ve got to get the referee to
pay attention to what’s happening. You need to put a little bit of an
acting job into it.”
Scott enjoys watching the
Burtschi show. Scott often glares at the floor in disbelief after one
of his player’s mistakes, but he actually slips into a slight smile
after Burtschi sneaks away with a steal or draws a charge.
Scott agrees that acting is important while seeking a charging call.
“This is a game of acting, there’s no question,” Scott says.
“But I don’t think Burtschi is an actor at all.”
Scott is wrong.
Burtschi, a great actor, deserves an award for his wondrous performances.
Columnist David Ramsey can be
reached at 476-4895 or
dramsey@gazette.com
Air Force 51, New Mexico 50 2/15/4
Falcons wait
to exhale until buzzer sounds
Lobos’ last-ditch effort falls short
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
Antoine Hood had done his part, making a free throw with 9.7 seconds left in Air Force’s 51-50 Mountain
Then, like most of the 5,641 fans at Clune Arena, he held his breath.
New
Mexico’s leading scorer, Danny Granger, brought the ball up the court,
and launched a 3-pointer with center Nick Welch in his face.
The
shot rattled off the back of the rim, New Mexico forward David Chiotti
tipped the rebound to Troy Devries, and his desperation shot from the
baseline clanged off the side of the backboard.
Hood finally exhaled.
“It
seemed like a pretty long time there,” said Hood, who scored a gamehigh
16 points. “Made me hold my breath for a while there.”
What
had started so ugly for the Falcons; what had looked hopeless midway
through the second half when Air Force trailed by seven points, turned
out beautifully.
Hood, Air Force’s resident yapper, struggled for words after the game.
Granger, who had 15 points for New Mexico, was shocked at his team’s collapse.
And Air Force’s stoic coach Joe Scott got emotional, wrapping his arms around senior Joel Gerlach.
A postgame hug was certainly deserved.
Thanks
in part to several key plays by the senior forward, including a
momentumchanging block of a dunk by Mark Walters with 2:14 left and a
3-pointer 26 seconds later, the Falcons (18-3, 8-1 MWC) won a
school-record 18th game.
“I was definitely fired up, ready to play,” said Gerlach, who scored 10 points.
“This is the closest game we had and I wanted to come out on top.”
Air Force maintained its one-game lead atop the Moun
And the win came in considerably different fashion than the previous 17.
The Falcons had won in routs, and they’d won ugly, but Saturday they proved they could win from behind.
“It
wasn’t like we made all our foul shots. It wasn’t like we played great,
but . . . I thought we really came through late in the game,” Scott
said.
“That’s what a championship team has to
do. And I am not saying that’s what’s going to happen (a championship),
but I see some really good signs from our team.”
Air
Force had trailed for a total of 5:07 in its 10 previous home wins this
season but rarely had any cushion Saturday.
New
Mexico (13-9, 4-5) made its first four shots jumping to an 8-0 lead,
and with 11:23 left in the second, the Lobos led 41-34.
But
as foul-plagued New Mexico tried to stall, Air Force came alive,
looking inside more than they had all game.
Two
free throws by Nick Welch with 3:45 left gave Air Force a 45-44 lead,
and after four lead changes, Chiotti made 1 of 2 free throws to tie the
game 50-50 with 33.2 seconds remaining.
Hood was
fouled as he tried to post up Devries with 9.7 seconds left. He made 1
of 2 free throws and then waited out the win.
“This really is defining us as a team,” Hood said.
“We
have blown teams out at home, we won close when we beat Colorado State
when we weren’t shooting that well. So now we proved we are really a
well-rounded team. When we aren’t playing very well or shooting very
well, we can still come together.”
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AIR FORCE 51, NEW MEXICO 50
New
Mexico (13-9): Ne ale 3-6 0-0 9, G ranger 6-8 2-2 15, Chiotti 4-8 4-5
12, DeV rie s 0-2 0-0 0, Tindall 3-5 0-0 9, Walters 0-5 2-2 2, Hart 1-1
0-0 3, Mile s 0-1 0-0. Totals 17-36 8-9 50.
Air
Force (18-3): Kuhle 1-5 1-3 4, Gerlach 3-7 2-4 10, Welch 4-8 2-2 12,
Keller 2-5 2-5 7, Hood 5-6 4-6 16, Nwaelele 1-1 0-0 2, Bu chanan 0-1
0-0 0. Totals 16-33 1 1-20 51.
Halftime — New Mexic o 27-26. 3-point goals —
New Mexic o 8-17 (Ne ale 3-5, G ranger 1-2,
DeV rie s 0-2, Tindall 3-5, Walters 0-1, Hart 1-1,
Mile s 0-1). Air Force 8-22 (Kuhle 1-4, Gerlach
2-6, Welch 2-5, Keller 1-3, Hood 2-3, Bu chanan 0-1). Fouled out — Ne ale. Rebounds — New
Mexic
o 24 (Ne ale, G ranger 7), Air Force 18 (Welch 5). Assists — New Mexic
o 10 (G ranger 3), Air Force 10 (Kuhle 5). Total fouls — New Mexic o
21, Air Force 13. Attendance — 5,641.
Texas-Pan American 37, Air Force 35
Air Force in utter disbelief 2/18/4
Desperate loss to Texas-Pan American shocks Falcons
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
EDINBURG,
Texas - Nick Welch sat in the stands at UTPA Fieldhouse following Air
Force’s 37-35 nonconference loss to Texas-Pan American, his
disbelieving eyes drifting toward the court.
Minutes
earlier, the sophomore center’s six-foot jump shot in the lane with 24
seconds remaining had rolled tantalizingly around the rim and out.
And
as A.J. Kuhle missed a desperation shot at the buzzer and the Broncs’
fans stormed the same court Welch was now staring at, he wanted it all
back.
Not just his missed shot. The entire night.
Welch,
like the rest of the Falcons, wanted to erase the nightmare. He didn’t
want to remember Air Force’s 20 missed 3-pointers, season-low 35
points, or the tired performance against a Division I independent team
that by all accounts the Falcons should have had no problem with.
“I
want the whole game back,” said Welch, who scored a gamehigh 15 points
and had a careerhigh nine rebounds. “We just didn’t come to play, and
it showed the whole game. It was like nobody played with heart.”
Air Force’s three-game winning streak ended, and Texas-Pan American won its seventh straight game.
The
only good news came after the game when news of Utah’s loss to Wyoming
filtered out, giving the Falcons a 1½-game cushion in the Mountain
It was no consolation.
Air
Force (18-4) will still have to live with the glaring nonconference
loss through March when it bares its sins in front of the NCAA
Tournament selection committee.
The Falcons will
have to accept the season-lows in field-goal percentage (30.2 percent)
and threepoint percentage (16.7 percent, 4 of 24), and the fact that
for the second time this season, they couldn’t deal with a zone
defense.
“We stunk,” coach Joe Scott said.
“This
is a bad loss,” he added. “All losses like this are bad at this
juncture of the season for everybody that is in the position we are
in.”
To Texas-Pan American’s credit, the Broncs
executed their zone defense flawlessly, harassing Air Force’s shooters
and clogging passing lanes.
And Texas-Pan American came up with just enough offense to stay one step ahead of the Falcons.
The
Broncs (12-13) jumped to a 10-2 lead after six minutes, led 19-16 at
halftime and when Air Force made a late run, Texas-Pan American
answered, scoring five straight points after the Falcons held their
last lead at 30-29 with 7:03 left.
But the real
dagger was a 3-pointer by Texas-Pan American forward Matt Berry with
3:52 left that put the Broncs up 37-33. It was Berry’s only points of
the game.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Kuhle said.
“We had chances to win. We took it for granted that we were going to
win.”
Air Force left scrambling
Tough road ahead to make up for unforeseen loss
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
If Air Force’s men’s basketball
The
Falcons tried to regroup Tuesday after Monday’s startling 37-35
nonconference loss to Texas-Pan American, but they did so with the
knowledge that the result would likely linger into March.
Coach
Joe Scott said before Monday’s loss that the Falcons had to win the
games they were supposed to win to solidify their resume when the NCAA
Tournament selection committee makes its atlarge picks March 14.
Air
Force (18-4) was supposed to win this game — against a non-affiliated
Division I independent team with a 12-13 record, ranked 227 in the
Rating Percentage Index.
Instead, it was Air Force’s RPI that dipped — from 52 to 70 — along with its tournament hopes.
“It’s going to be an ugly loss. There’s no question,” said Mountain
Only
one team in the last 10 years has qualified for the NCAA Tournament
with an RPI higher than 70 (New Mexico).
“It’s
the textbook example of a bad loss. It definitely goes against us,”
sophomore center Nick Welch said. “We are barely winning games, and
then we come out and lose this one.
“I think we
will have to perform well the rest of the way and win a lot of games to
finish out the year for them to consider giving us a bid,” he added.
The
timing couldn’t have been worse for the Falcons. The team’s toughest
road trip of the season looms this weekend with games at Utah on
Saturday and BYU on Monday.
But that’s part of the good news.
Air Force remained atop the Moun
And the Falcons have five confer
Scott said a split this weekend, and
a 4-1 or 3-2 finish this season, could cover up the unsightly blemish
on the Falcons’ record.
Anything worse and the loss will be magnified when the selection committee shines its spotlight on Air Force.
“In
the long run, in the big scheme of things, if we could get a road win
this weekend, it would erase this one,” coach Joe Scott said Monday.
Freshman Jacob Burtschi anticipated it might take more than that.
“We really have to finish out 5-0 in the conference
First,
the Falcons will have to figure where their shots went if they want a
chance at either the NCAA Tournament or the less prestigious NIT, which
Scott believes his team has already qualified for.
After
shooting 66.7 percent in a win over Wyoming on Feb. 7, Air Force has
shot 37.6 percent over its last three games, and 31.8 percent from
3-point range.
Poor shooting was especially to
blame Monday. The Falcons set seasonlows by shooting 30.2 percent from
the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range (4 of 24).
“We
were fatigued,” Scott said. “It’s not an Xs and Os thing. We had open
shots. There were open 3-pointers. I am not saying you’ve got to shoot
12 for 24, but I know we could have shot better.”
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Fatigue factor in Falcons’ defeat
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
In a year of firsts, Air Force coach Joe Scott saw one he didn’t like Monday.
Air
Force played — and scored — like a junior varsity team, making sloppy
passes, firing errant shots and generally slogging its way through its
37-35 nonconference loss at Texas-Pan American.
“That’s
the first time I think we have played tired,” Scott said Monday. “We
just did everything to sort of make it easy for them. We told them we
were tired, in our demeanor and in our body language.”
It
was disconcerting for Scott, to say the least, especially with the
Falcons preening for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
He didn’t offer a reason for the lethargic play, except to say it has to stop.
But
Air Force’s long, twoday trip to Edinburg, Texas, for Monday’s game
might have had something to do it with it.
Or,
the Falcons could have simply overlooked Texas-Pan American, an
unheralded opponent sandwiched in a sea of important conference
Or,
the academy’s rigorous class schedule could finally be affecting the
Falcons, like it has seemed to bite other academy sports teams.
Air Force’s football team was 1-3 this November and is 9-9 during the final month of the past five seasons.
“All
those factors come into play, but guess what? When you step on the
court Saturday at 1 o’clock, nobody cares,” Scott said. “They don’t put
six extra points up on the board because you had to write four papers.”
“It’s the tough guys that don’t get tired,” he added.
Air
Force’s players will find out how tough they really are this week with
road games against Utah on Saturday and BYU on Monday.
Air Force (18-4, 8-1 Moun
After a slow start to the conference
On their home courts, there are few tougher teams in the conference
Utah and BYU, like Air Force, are undefeated at home this season.
So Scott hasn’t talked to his team about the fatigue factor since Monday. He hasn’t needed to.
“We
still have the best two teams in the league next week, so if you are
not excited about playing next weekend, then I don’t know what you play
for,” senior A.J. Kuhle said.
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Air Force 59, Utah 57 2/22/4
Scrappy Falcons again find a way to win
Utes may not shake hands, but they can’t help looking up
OPINION
DAVID RAMSEY
Gazette Sports columnist
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah center Tim Frost is looking up — way up — at the Air Force basket
The Falcons roared into the Huntsman Center, took on an army of red-clad fans and swiped a win.
They now reign as the emperors of the Mountain
Frost
dislikes his position. He stood under a scoreboard that proclaimed Air
Force had beaten Utah 59-57 Saturday.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Frost said. “This is Air Force.”
He paused.
“I’m embarrassed.”
Frost
remembers the old days, when he could count on the Falcons being lousy.
It was one of the few certain things in life.
He misses those days.
He
knows his Utes trail the Falcons by three games in the loss column. He
knows the Utes play two of their final three games on the road.
He knows his team has no chance to wear the Mountain
But is Air Force the best team in the Mountain
Frost smiled at the question.
“No, definitely not. I’d like to give them respect . . . but they’re not the best team in the conference
Frost
wasn’t alone in his rude dismissal of the Falcons. Half the Utes
declined to shake hands after the game, instead trudging off to the
locker room, where they could sulk in peace.
This public snub shows Utah’s complete lack of grace. This snub also shouts that Air Force has arrived.
Coach
Joe Scott stood a few feet off the court, shaking his head as he
thought back to Utah players walking away from handshakes.
He grimaced when he heard Frost’s words.
Scott
had, a few minutes earlier, stood in the middle of a dozen reporters.
Now, he stood alone. He had been restrained in his comments on Utah
when he stood in the media throng.
Now, he let loose.
“Used
to be, when we were losing, no one could say enough nice things about
us,” Scott said. “They were always talking about our character and all
that. Funny, they don’t talk about those things now that we’re
winning.”
When Air Force was losing, opponents
were quick to shake hands. Now that Air Force is winning, the losers
scurry away.
“Boy, oh boy, things have changed,”
Scott said, his voice gaining volume. “I believe in honesty and
integrity, and this just bothers me.
“For them
not to shake our hands? For people, at this juncture, to still doubt
us? That’s ridiculous. We have a threegame lead.”
Give the Falcons their due. They soar in the middle of an astounding transformation.
Coming into this season, the Falcons stood as the virtual opposite of Utah.
The Utes had stomped to 112 wins and 25 losses in confer
Air
Force was picked this season to finish last again. The selection made
sense. Air Force bumbling around in last place ranks as a tradition in
the Mountain
Ah,
but the last are now first. Last year’s worst team walked into the
Huntsman Center and completed a regularseason sweep of the Utes.
Last year’s worst team trailed by four points with three minutes left and found a way to triumph.
Last year’s worst team has transformed into a smart, rugged, resourceful, generous collection of players.
“That’s change,” said guard Antoine Hood. “That is a change.”
He laughed. His teammates surrounded him. The Utes had won 70 conference
“We’re 9-1,” Hood said, stating his team’s conference
They should keep silent.
Columnist David Ramsey can be
reached at 476-4895 or
Brigham Young 67, Air Force 61 2/24/4
Loss is sad footnote
Mistake proves costly as Falcons fail at end
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
PROVO, Utah - This time, this year, close just wasn’t nearly satisfying for Air Force.
And close in the Falcons’ 67-61 Mountain
Air
Force squandered a 36-28 halftime lead as well as a chance to end years
of frustration on the Cougars’ court with a lackluster second half, but
for all the Falcons’ trouble, there was Welch, with less than two
minutes left, seemingly tying the game at 58-58.
But as he drove
uncontested for a layup that would have tied the game with 1:42
remaining, Welch dragged his pivot foot, and was whistled for
traveling.
“I turned around and I was surprised
to be so alone,” said Welch, who scored a team-high 16 points for the
Falcons. “That could have been a different game. That might have tied
it up and who knows where the game goes from there.”
Where it did go was where Air Force didn’t want it.
There
were more near-misses for the Falcons — a wide open 3-pointer by
Antoine Hood that rattled out with less than a minute remaining — and
the Cougars closed the game with seven free-throws and a lay-up by Mike
Rose to win their 61st game in 62 tries at the Marriott Center in front
of 17,152 fans.
The loss put the Falcons’ coronation as Mountain
When
Air Force (19-5, 9-2 MWC) returns home to Clune Arena with a
game-and-a-half lead on BYU and Utah, the Falcons will still have three
chances to get one win to clinch a share of their first conference
“You are just that close,” Welch said. “Everybody is just that close in Provo but nobody seems to win it.”
Air
Force got close enough to win against Utah on Saturday, but this time
around, there was no improbable comeback, just an improbable collapse.
Air Force led by eight points 5:17 into the second half, but couldn’t
hold the lead against the Cougars.
And while it
was 6-foot-11 center Rafael Araujo (21 points) who was the Cougars’
main offense in the first half, guard Mark Bigelow sparked the
second-half comeback.
Bigelow (21 points) scored
seven straight points to help the Cougars (18-7, 8-4) tie the game
41-41 with 10:59 left to play, and after a lay-up by Jake Shoff less
than a minute later, BYU never trailed, shooting 82.4 percent from the
field in the second half.
That was a stark
contrast to the last meeting between the teams, a rout in which Air
Force shot 72.5 percent from the field.
“That’s
amazing. You can’t beat anybody with that,” coach Joe Scott said. “I
guess what goes around comes around.”
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UNLV player is the star, but AFA directs outcome 2/29/4
OPINION
DAVID RAMSEY
Gazette Sports columnist
Jerel Blassingame shredded Air Force’s defense. On a riveting evening of basket
Blassingame
brought a playground game straight out of Brooklyn, employing the
borough’s signature crossover dribble while making the Falcons look
helpless and hopeless Saturday. “It was getting ridiculous,” Air Force
forward Joel Gerlach said.
It sure was.
Blassingame, who might stand 5-foot-9, repeatedly took on all Falcon
defenders and the howling crowd of 6,014 and trotted away with a faint
smile and two points.
No doubt, he won all the style points.
Too bad he lost the game.
The
Falcons shook off the humiliation of Blassingame’s 28 points — 22 in
the second half — and emerged with a 72-70 victory.
Air Force is a team without a star. Coach Joe Scott preaches the beauty of team basketball
Scott’s approach stifles individual heroics.
Scott’s approach sometimes seems to deny the existence of every dazzling basketball
Scott’s approach works.
“Their record speaks for itself,” Blassingame said in a quiet UNLV locker room.
Yes, it does. Air Force rises to 10-2 in the Mountain
No more. The Falcons have clinched at least a tie for the conference
Blassingame
made Air Force struggle, seizing control during a memorable 12-minute
streak to open the second half.
He ripped past
Tim Keller, Antoine Hood and Matt Mc-Craw. He roared into the lane and
challenged Tim Welch, who stands a foot taller. He shrugged off fans
who complained his state-of-the-art dribbling was really palming.
He scored 17 points in 12 minutes. The entire Air Force team scored 23 in that span.
Funny
thing, though. Scott was unmoved as he watched the horror show. Scott
can resemble a volcano on the sideline as he shouts at his players with
raspy voice and red face.
He watched Blassingame
breeze by his defenders and shrugged his shoulders. He sat in his
folding chair, his legs crossed, and chatted with assistants Chris
Mooney and Mike McKee.
“We can’t stop the guy,” Scott said to his friends.
Scott
declined to erupt during Blassingame’s blitz because Air Force lost no
ground during the 12-minute rampage.
The Falcons trailed by two when Blassingame took control. They still trailed by two after his barrage.
Scott
followed a theme during timeouts in the second half. One guy, he
shouted to his players, can’t beat five guys.
This is basic basketball
In the best
can’t-stop-this tradition, Blassingame lowered his head and sprinted
into the lane, where he banked in a lazy layup.
The crowd gasped in amazement.
Blassingame wasn’t surprised.
“I knew their guards were a little slower than me,” Blassingame said.
Finally, the Falcons defense woke up and Blassingame’s roaring fire dimmed in the final minutes.
With 3:20 left and the game tied at 60, Blassingame again ripped into the lane looking for two points.
This
time he met Air Force’s Joel Gerlach, tired of watching Blassingame
embarrass the Falcons. Gerlach met Blassingame in the air and blocked
his shot.
Blassingame was doomed.
Following
Scott’s script, four Falcons scored in the final 2:30. With six seconds
left, A.J. Kuhle went to the line seeking to clinch the game and
Blassingame strolled by to offer kind words of advice.
“Don’t rush your shot,” he whispered to Kuhle.
Kuhle took the advice, drained the shot and proved, once again, five players beat one.
Still, give Blassingame credit.
He departed the court knowing he almost conquered the Falcons by himself.
Columnist David Ramsey can be
reached at 476-4895 or
Air Force 61, San Diego State 49 3/2/4
Champions at last
Conference
caps improbable
surge to the top
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
Air Force has never soared this high.
The Falcons completed their amazing run through the Mountain
The
Falcons (21-5, 11-2) had done the unthinkable. The former league
laughingstocks, picked to finish last again, are Mountain
Outright. Undisputed.
“I know nobody thought this day would ever come, probably in the history of college basket
Scott had
trouble believing it. His players had trouble calming down as they cut
down the nets for the first time in the history of the 36-year-old
arena, and senior A.J. Kuhle seemed at home with the remnants of a net
hanging from his neck.
“This is something
special, something that I will treasure forever,” said Kuhle, who
endured 56 losses before this season. “Really, there are so many
memories of the past now that are just flooding through and now where
we are at it’s unbelievable.”
Many of the 5,811
fans rushed the court as senior Joel Gerlach donned his league
championship T-shirt with pride.
Sophomore center Nick Welch wore his new confer
“You
can’t describe a feeling like this in words,” said Welch, who scored a
game-high 17 points and had seven rebounds. “It’s something you just
feel all throughout your body and your whole body goes numb.”
By
the time Air Force finished cutting down the nets, the game was almost
an afterthought, but it was as textbook as any Falcons’ win this
season.
Air Force led from start to finish,
smothering San Diego State (14-14, 5-8) with its defense and raining
3-pointers with ease. The Falcons shot 47.7 percent from the field, but
48.1 percent from 3-point range, making 13 of 27 attempts.
In
his last game at Clune Arena, Gerlach scored 14 points, and Kuhle had a
careerhigh 11 assists as the Falcons finished the season 13-0 at home
for the first time.
The Falcons jumped to a 10-2
lead after seven minutes, led 25-20 at halftime, and opened the second
half with 3-pointers by Tim Keller (12 points) and Welch to grab a
31-20 lead.
San Diego State never got within
less than six points in the second half, and Keller punctuated the win
with a twohanded dunk with 12 seconds left that whipped the crowd into
a frenzy.
“What we have done in the fashion we have done it — we haven’t given up this confer
“I envisioned us one day battling for the
title and fighting and clawing and getting in the picture but to do it
in the manner we have done makes it a little surreal.”
Air Force 52, Wyoming 47 3/7/04
Falcons rewrite history
Surreal season just
keeps getting better
for MWC champs
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Air Force just can’t stop making history.
The
Falcons pulled off another stunner Saturday with a thrilling 52-47
come-from-behind win over Wyoming, etching their names in the Moun
Just for kicks, the Falcons did it with a 10-point comeback in an arena that epitomizes decades of Air Force basketball
Wyoming’s
Arena-Auditorium has seen the Falcons’ fourovertime loss two years ago,
the two-point loss a year ago and 14 straight defeats since 1989.
And Saturday, 10,034 fans witnessed a victory.
“Sitting
in the locker room, half of us don’t know how to feel,” said junior
guard Tim Keller, who scored a game-high 17 points. “There has been so
much heartache. You look at it as just another win, but in a deep-down
sense you know it’s always been so hard to win here, and it’s always
been right there.”
Maybe — perhaps finally — by closing out the best regular season in the five-year history of the confer
The top-seeded Falcons (22-5, 12-2 MWC) will enter the Mountain
No
team has won 12 games in a season or run away with the title by two
games like Air Force has. Only three teams before had won five road
games.
“Now that the regular season is over
everybody can look at this team at 22-5 and 12-2 and say this is one
very, very good basketball
Saturday,
the Falcons did it in quite uncharacteristic fashion, using the largest
comeback of the season to overcome a 39-29 deficit 6:26 into the second
half.
The 10-point comeback tied Air Force’s
largest of the season. The Falcons also trailed by 10 in the second
half in a win over Utah on Feb. 21.
“The game is
never over with us,” said sophomore center Nick Welch, who had 11
points. “I don’t care where we are playing or how big the deficit is.”
It
was Welch and Keller who sparked Air Force’s comeback, but they also
got a little help from Wyoming (11-16, 4-10).
Thanks
in part to a stiffened Air Force defense, the Cowboys failed to make a
field goal for the final 8:30 and scored just four points on free
throws. The Falcons went on a 17-4 run to close the game.
In the meantime, Keller and Welch took over.
Keller’s
steal of an inbounds pass led to a layup by Welch and sparked the
Falcons’ final run. Welch finished it, driving past Wyoming’s Alex Dunn
for a layup with 23 seconds left that put Air Force up 48-47 and
secured the Falcons’ place in history with 12 league wins.
“No team has done it before so it proves we are the best team in the history of the Mountain
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NOTES
Cadets make trek up to Wyoming
An organized road trip travels to game
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Some boarded a bus early Saturday morning. Others found their own way.
But
by tip-off Saturday, more than 125 cadets had made the trek to
Arena-Auditorium for Air Force’s 52-47 win over Wyoming on Saturday.
It
is believed to be the first time in coach Joe Scott’s four years at the
academy a road trip has been organized by the cadets. “We just want to
show them we are here for them and that this is their home away from
home,” said senior cadet Kyle Bressette, who organized the event.
Bressette
also said there would be a large contingent of fans in Denver on for
Air Force’s game against Colorado State in the first round of the Mountain
Air
Force ticket manager Chris Peludat said the academy’s original
allotment of 440 tickets was sold last week. Bressette said he expected
600 cadets in Denver.
Nostradamus Nuzzo
Few people can say they predicted Air Force’s amazing run this season.
Except Falcons assistant coach Mike Nuzzo.
Nuzzo
predicted the Falcons would win 21 games this season in an informal
preseason contest among Air Force’s assistants, winning Scott’s Final
Four tickets this April in San Antonio.
For the
past two years, the coaches have held the contest among themselves.
Scott won it last season with a guess of 12 wins.
Nuzzo was by far the closest this season.
Scott wouldn’t reveal his guess, nor the guesses of the other coaches.
But let’s put it this way: Nuzzo won the tickets it in a runaway.
Technical trouble
Scott got his second technical foul of the season just by opening his mouth in the second half.
“(The
referee) told me at halftime he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore, and
I talked to him, so I got it,” Scott said. “He was right to call it.”
The
call couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Falcons. After trailing
by nine at halftime, Air Force had pulled to within four points before
Jay Straight made both free throws to extend Wyoming’s second-half lead
to 35-29 with 14:46 left.
Man in the middle makes a big difference this time 3/12/4
CSU center an obstacle for AFA
By MARK FITZHENRY THE GAZETTE
DENVER
- Air Force beat Colorado State twice in the regular season. CSU’s Matt
Nelson played in neither game because of injuries.
The 7-footer was in the Rams’ lineup in Thursday’s Mountain
At
least five Air Force players guarded Nelson at some point, often
double- and tripleteaming him. In the first half, Air Force missed 7 of
13 shots from close range.
Late in the first
half, when Air Force’s Joel Gerlach received a pass on the wing, Nelson
stood in the lane as the lone defender within 10 feet. Gerlach didn’t
drive.
Nelson’s ordinary 10-point, six-rebound
statistical output didn’t tell everything about his role in the Rams’
victory.
“He’s big. He takes up a lot of space,”
Gerlach said. “He has great hands. We’ve always got to be worried about
him a little bit. We always had a couple guys around him and that
allowed them to get their guard play going a little more.”
The
last time the teams played, in an eight-point Air Force win on Feb. 9,
CSU forwards Stephen Verwers and Matt Williams combined for two points,
five rebounds and six fouls in 29 minutes. Air Force had little concern
with CSU’s low-post game.
Thursday, Nelson commanded attention, especially when Air Force played defense.
“They’re
a pretty athletic team, so having him in there, our defense is more
centered in the paint,” Air Force guard Tim Keller said. “Having to run
out at some of those guys is pretty difficult, trying to stay in front
of them.”
Air Force has often used the other
team’s big man to its advantage this season, drawing him to the
perimeter and thus opening up the middle.
Air
Force wasn’t as successful doing that Thursday. Nelson played on the
perimeter to help make 3-point shots difficult, and CSU’s defenders
chose to switch off instead of fighting through picks.
Air Force center Nick Welch, the conference’s
“I
should have used my speed more than I did,” Welch said, “because I am a
lot quicker than most of the centers in this league
3/19/04 NCAA
Atlanta Regional: North Carolina 63, Air
Falcons stopped cold
Air
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
DENVER - Air Force’s
Air
But
the Falcons led 28-23 at halftime and gave sixth-seeded North Carolina
(19-10) a scare before running out of gas. A nearly three-minute
stretch, filled with Air
Nick Welch led Air
The
altitude was a change for North Carolina and coach Roy Williams used 10
players, with seven playing at least 10 minutes.
Joel Gerlach was the only Air
“I did consider subbing but we were playing very well in the first half, obviously,” Air
That
was when the Falcons hit the wall and the Tar Heels responded, helping
Williams win his first NCAA Tournament game as North Carolina’s coach.
Williams, who took Kansas to the title game last spring, complimented Air
“They
shouldn’t allow tonight’s game to destroy what they have done this
season,” Williams said. “They have had a great season, and I hope the Air
Tar Heel guard Raymond Felton applauded the Falcons’ toughness, and forward Jawad Williams talked about Air
None of it mattered.
Air
With 22 wins and a Mountain West regular-season title, Air
“Our
faces show it all. We are not just happy to be here,” Welch said. “We
want to win games. You look at any player on our team right now and we
are disappointed.”
Welch was disappointed
because of what might have been. While North Carolina advanced to play
Texas Saturday, the Falcons were left to wonder what went wrong.
The Falcons seemed unfazed by the four-time national champions.
“They are a good team and everything, but the game was ours to win,” Air
Air
The
Falcons committed three of their season-high 16 turnovers during that
span, twice bobbling away possessions nearly uncontested.
Meanwhile, North Carolina took advantage, turning a 44-38 deficit into a 49-44 lead.
Felton’s
3-pointer with 11:21 remaining gave North Carolina a 46-44 lead it
never relinquished, and Felton added a backbreaker a minute later.
With
the shot clock nearing zero, Felton (12 points) lofted a rainbow of a
shot from beyond the NBA 3-point line that hit nothing but net.
“We
didn’t play perfect,” Gerlach said. “Some turnovers, they were getting
some hands on some passes. We weren’t as tough with the ball as we
should have been. They got some key rebounds on us. Against a great
team like that, you have to play perfect and it’s hard to do
sometimes.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or
tjacobson@gazette
NOTES
Falcons get beaten at their own game
By TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE
DENVER - What irked Air
In the second half of their Atlanta Regional game, the Tar Heels simply seemed tougher than the Falcons.
They
dove for loose balls, grabbed big rebounds and outhustled a team that
had prided itself on that type of play all season.
“When
they made a run we got a little weak and didn’t respond with
toughness,” Kuhle said. “That had been our staple throughout the year,
and that’s why we won 22 games. When that happened, we didn’t make the
plays toward the end.”
Air
“They were tough enough to make
sure they won,” Scott said. “I don’t think we are an easy team to
defend, but they did a good job of it.”
Burtschi to have surgery
Jacob
Burtschi’s nagging shoulder injury returned in the first half Thursday
when he dislocated his right shoulder with 6:12 remaining in the first
half.
Air
Surgery had
already been planned following the season to tighten the ligaments in
Burtschi’s right shoulder, team trainer Larry Willock said this week.
Burtschi
dislocated his shoulder twice earlier in the season and has practiced
with a brace that protects his shoulder ever since.
If
Burtschi doesn’t have surgery, there is a high likelihood of him
dislocating his shoulder again, Willock said. It will take up to six
months for him to rehabilitate the injury, but he should be ready for
the start of next season, according to Willock.
Atlanta Regional: North Carolina 63, Air
There’s no reason Falcons shouldn’t be back
OPINION
DAVID RAMSEY
Gazette Sports columnist
The
Falcons have the talent and the wisdom and, now, the big-game
experience to travel back to the NCAA Tournament next season.
The
Falcons walked to the brink of victory, but couldn’t quite find the
energy and poise to deliver an upset over
Don’t worry. Air
Joel
Gerlach and A.J. Kuhle depart, but freshmen Jacob Burtschi and Dan
Nwaelele will ably replace them. Both players have the required skills
and the knowledge of Joe Scott’s complex system to excel.
This
year’s Falcons almost stunned the Tar Heels and proved their march to
the tournament was no fluke. They proved that by grabbing a 44-38 lead
with
When Joel Gerlach converted a four-point play — a 3-pointer and a free throw — the crowd at
Air
Exhaustion
halted the Falcons’ magical ride and they lost to the Tar Heels 63-52.
Scott chose to take a death march approach to the game, playing four of
his starters for the entire 40 minutes.
“I don’t think they were tired,” Scott said.
They were tired.
In
the game’s final minutes, the Falcons had nothing left. They delivered
a superlative 28 minutes to open the game, but were a stumbling, weary
team in the stretch.
Scott should have turned to
Nwaelele, a 6-foot-4 freshman. Scott should have told him to get in
there and revive the team’s dormant offense. You don’t win NCAA
Tournament games without a bench.
Next season,
the Falcons should feature a stronger set of reserves and a deeper
sense of belief. “We’re definitely coming back,” Antoine Hood said.
“There’s no question.”
Hood believes next season’s edition of Air
Remember, Brigham Young and
Air
“This isn’t a one-year deal for us,” Scott said.
Of course, the question that hovers over the offseason is Scott’s return. If he had led Air
Offers
are coming, but probably not the right one. You can expect Scott to
snarl and stomp along Clune’s sidelines next season.
And
expect the winning to continue. Nick Welch will be the best player in
the Mountain West, and he’ll be surrounded by able sidekicks.
Hood and Tim Keller have shown what they can do. The Falcons’ secret asset will be Nwaelele.
“People
don’t understand the talent that he has,” Burtschi said. “He’s smooth,
quick, and has some of the best athletic ability that I’ve ever seen.”
As the game ended, Air
No
one was crying. Players understood what they had accomplished. They
knew they had climbed out of Mountain West gutter, taking an unlikely
journey from worst to first.
They knew they had put a severe scare into
And they knew next season could be even better.
Nick
Welch said next season’s goal will not be just a trip to what he calls
“the Big Dance.” Next season, he said, the Falcons want to win at the
Dance.
It could happen.
It should happen.
Short lapse comes with a huge price
Temporary defensive letdown dooms AFA
OPINION
MILO F. BRYANT
Gazette Sports columnist
DENVER - One short lapse prevented a victory.
One lapse stopped Air
One
lapse caused the spiral that led to North Carolina’s 63-52 defeat of
the Falcons on Thursday at Pepsi Center.
The
Falcons played outstanding defense for more than 37 of the game’s 40
minutes. But 2:17 doomed them. Midway through the second quarter, in
2:17, the Falcons went from holding a 44-38 lead to trailing 49-44.
Falcons coach Joe Scott said turnovers led to his team’s undoing.
Bad
defensive position led to Nick Welch’s foul on Tar Heels center Sean
May, who made the basket and the free throw. Then, not once but twice,
the Falcons were caught seemingly meandering on defense, enabling the
Tar Heels to easily pass around the perimeter to an open player. Both
times the open man hit a 3-pointer.
“That was
the biggest play of the game,” Tar Heels coach Roy Williams said,
referring to May’s basket plus the converted free throw. “Those
possessions after, that was pretty basketball
It was the ugliest moment of the night for the Falcons.
“That
was the juncture of the game where our defense had about a four or five
minute stretch where it slowed down a little bit,” Scott said. “After
that four- to five-minute stretch, we started defending pretty well.”
It was too late by then.
Four Falcons played the entire 40 minutes Thursday.
Williams substituted liberally, playing 10 players. Seven Tar Heels played at least 10 minutes.
It’s
easy to see why the Falcons players may have been tired. But they were
not. The Falcons have frequently had multiple players play the duration
this season. Scott doesn’t give his team that excuse.
The
Falcons looked just as fresh when they were up by six as they did when
they were down. The only difference was the Tar Heels’ tenacity. As the
game began to reach its twilight, as the Tar Heels began to smell
victory, they simply got tougher.
“One of the
staples of our program is that I don’t accept guys being tired,” Scott
said. “How can you be tired when you’re 19 years old and you’re playing
college basketball
“There’s
no such thing as being tired. There are other people in the world with
a right to be tired, because they have a lot of things going on. When
you’re 19 or 20, you’ve got to get yourself in the type of shape and
toughness and mental stamina if you want to compete at this level and
win games at this level. I don’t think they were tired. I think
Carolina did some things that forced
Defensively, the Falcons did everything they wanted in the first half.
Everybody
talked about Pete Carril’s Princeton offense and the difficulty it
takes to defend it. Folks talked about the hard cuts. They talked about
precise shooting and the continuous back-door cuts. They talked about
the patience it takes to work a shot clock almost to its end, and still
get a good shot.
Everything about Carril’s
offense that made him the hall of fame coach he is was dissected by
everybody at Pepsi Center.
Folks seemed to forget about the defense.
The Falcons forgot about the defense, too, for 2:17.
And it grounded them.
Columnist Milo F. Bryant can be reached at
Tar Heels finally can breathe a sigh of relief
By MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE
DENVER - For the first half of its game against Air
But the Tar Heels pulled out of their nose dive to beat Air
North Carolina, the No. 6 seed, faces No. 3 Texas in the second round Saturday of the Atlanta Regional.
Maryland faces Syracuse in the other second-round game at Pepsi Center.
For North Carolina, the win over a pesky, unconventional Air
“I feel like I lost 30 to 35 pounds
tonight,” said North Carolina’s Rashad McCants, who had nine points and
eight rebounds. “It just feels so good to get the first win.”
North
Carolina nearly didn’t. It trailed at halftime 28-23 by making just 10
of 31 shots from the field, including 1 for 8 from beyond the 3-point
arc. At the beginning, “Everyone shot really tight. It was very
frustrating,” said McCants.
But coach Roy
Williams, in his first year at North Carolina, told his team at
halftime he wasn’t troubled by the missed shots. The squad was not
playing tough enough. Air
“Air
Against the nation’s stingiest defense — Air
They hit the floor and it paid off on the scoreboard.
Trailing
44-38 with less than 13 minutes left in the game, Carolina went on an
11-0 run. It took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Felton to make it
46-44.
“It was a prayer,” Felton said. “I was
about 3 feet behind the 3-point NBA line, and I just went up and made a
big shot. It was luck if you want to call it that, but it was a big
shot.”
The Tar Heels forced
Williams
downplayed the effects of altitude, but he included a remedy in his
game plan by shuttling players onto the floor the whole game. Did it
help?
“Yeah, definitely,” McCants said. “I appreciated it. It gave me a breather.”
So did the win.
Falcons have little to fear vs. talent-rich Tar Heels
OPINION
DAVID RAMSEY
Gazette Sports columnist
North Carolina better get ready.
Thursday
night, the Tar Heels will walk into Pepsi Center and encounter the kind
of hostility they meet at Duke or Maryland.
The
Tar Heels will listen to a howling mob that wants to see them beaten.
The Tar Heels will then have to run around for 40 minutes in light air,
all the time hassled by Air Force’s defense.
The talent level of college bas
Only a few
thousand Air Force fanatics will sit among the sold-out masses Thursday
night, but it won’t matter. This will be a Falcons crowd. Texas and
Princeton and neutral fans will root for Cadets.
Why?
Because
the tournament is fueled by a desire to see big shots like North
Carolina eliminated. I know. The Tar Heels of today are not the Tar
Heels of old.
Jordan and Kenny Smith and Doug Moe and Larry Brown
and Vince Carter and Rasheed Wallace — hey, no program is perfect — all
once wore Carolina blue.
The current Tar Heels
are a shadow of those grand days. North Carolina, despite the direction
of coach Roy Williams, is at times sloppy and lazy.
Still, the Tar Heels have the name, the aura, the tradition.
“That being said, they’re just another basket
He means no disrespect. Scott places the Tar Heels at the top of the college basketball
He
knows NCAA championship banners and an array of retired jerseys hang
from the rafters of the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Yet
he knows Thursday’s game is all about the present tense. Jordan won’t
be taking the court. He can, like all the other North Carolina greats,
only watch.
That’s too bad for the Tar Heels. They could use help.
An Air Force victory would not be a shocking upset. If Air Force had followed its domination of the Mountain
The Tar Heels boast brawn. The Falcons boast polish.
The Tar Heels can look to the advantage of surviving the gnawing pressure of the Atlantic Coast Conference
Expect
a poised, rampaging effort from Air Force on Thursday. The Falcons were
often physically outmatched this season, but employed a relentless
defense and a no-star, always-share offense to maul opponents.
BYU
bears a resemblance to North Carolina. Both teams are filled with big
men who can fly. Both teams lack discipline.
Remember,
Air Force nearly swept BYU. After the Falcons pounded the Cougars at
Clune Arena, the teams met in the frenzied, yet polite, Marriott
Center. BYU roared to a secondhalf lead and looked ready to bury the
Falcons.
But Air Force declined to surrender.
They took on the crowd and Rafael Araujo’s elbows and nearly left with
a victory.
The Falcons can topple a physically superior team. They’ve done it again and again.
Doubt
them? Don’t worry. The Falcons hear you. They know a legion of scoffers
lurk out there, certain they will get pounded.
“Now is our chance to go show everyone that we can play,” senior co-captain A.J. Kuhle said.
This
is powerful motivation. Kuhle and the Falcons remember years of
stumbling around as losers, unloved by virtually anyone.
Thursday, the Falcons will walk into Pepsi Center and feel the love from nearly everyone.
Columnist David Ramsey can be reached at 476-4895
or dramsey@gazette.com