Falcons must find an aggressive, confident shooter for the final, tense moments of games

January 26th, 2012, 11:36 am · 11 Comments · posted by david ramsey

Air Force lost Wednesday night at TCU, a team that had found ways to lose 23 of its last 26 Mountain West games.

The Falcons lost primarily because of offensive timidity. With the game on the line, no one from the Falcons stepped forward. No one wanted to take a chance. No one wanted to get aggressive.

The Falcons’ season is slipping away.

Someone must step forward in the late minutes of games and be bold. That someone has not been Michael Lyons, who is still hobbled by an ankle injury. (He’s nowhere close to 100 percent, regardless of what Jeff Reynolds says.)

That someone might be Kamryn Williams. That someone might be Mike Fitzgerald. I might have a better candidate if Reynolds allowed us to watch complete practices. (Most coaches allow reps from the media to watch entire practices. Never been able to figure out why Reynolds wants to be so secretive.)

Air Force rallied to a respectable 6-10 record in the Mountain West last season.

This season could be a disaster – a return to the dark days of not so long ago – if the Falcons continue their timid ways on offense.

Your thoughts?

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FalconFan5 says:

January 26, 2012 at 12:27 pm

David,

My opinion. I think our guys are afraid of being yanked and “in your face” when they come off the court. How often do you see Reynolds with a “pat on the butt, good job” when a player comes off. Not very often! Usually, something that they did wrong in Reynolds’ opinion. Also too much coaching during the game from the sidelines while the ball is in play! We have some talented players this year. Let em play Jeff!

FPC says:

January 27, 2012 at 9:34 am

You are forgeting who is Head Coach, at Snailball Central, JEFF “slow-it-down-to -a-certain-loss” REYNOLDS. Listen, this year the talent on our squad is thebest its veen since 2007. What does JR do with that talent? He runs the studs till they are dead! He slows the pace so to lose the game with delay. He reverts right back to losing games this team should be winning bevause he cannot help himself from following his Mentor Bzdelik’s lead…hows that working in Wake Foredt Jeff? Better yet, why don’t you take your Snailball to Wake, we have seen all we care to see from you! You’re a loser JR, you can’t coach, you can’t lead, you can’t explain yourself, you can’t identify with the pace this squad can function at to take this team to greatness. Thete, I said it! If they renew your contract at the AFA, that settles one thing…Dr. Mueh has got puss for a brain, and Gen. Gould has been walking around with blinders on. JR will never, ever, ever have what it takes to tranfer good talent into wins! I have seen enough to know, these Cadets deserve better than a habitual idiot screaming offenses from the bench. Any monkey can platoon players…any monkey except, JR that is!

rjp says:

January 27, 2012 at 2:50 pm

FPC…wow…you must really have some angst in your heart going way back. The ‘snailball’ you talk about was what got us to two NCAA’s and the NIT semi-finals. The ‘snailball’ you talk about had us within 5pts of top 25 SDSU at their house before we (the players, not the coach) didn’t score for 5 minutes near the end of the game and with the players (not the coach) making 1 of 18 3pt shots. The ‘snailball’ had us ahead of TCU before (again) the players don’t score a FG for 3plus minutes at the end of the game. I don’t know what/why you carry such anger but this is a team problem. Yes, the coach and staff must motivate, but they are getting the right offense and guys on the court at ther right times in my opinion and that is shown during the games. Our guys must make the shots when they get the opportunities and are not doing it….chalk it up to maturity, experience or whatever, but it’s now on the players. Get a grip and let go of the past. GO FALCONS

January 27, 2012 at 9:52 pm

Rjp…you can produce all your personal anechdotal events. I noticed you never once mentioned our past three seasons. You were there for NCAA, so was I…we did not exhibit snailball when we went to the NIT pal…you must have been engaging in spirits to present your teary eyed tales of the past runs. You have your opinion and I gave mine! Don’t ever think for a minute you will impress ne with your eagerness to
Carry water for JR. Your recall is failing you, if you think we went to the NIT using snailball shotclock violations. Lay off the cocktails and put down your JR posters…this guy sucks as a head coach! If you can’t see it…you need more help than I can give you!

January 27, 2012 at 11:43 pm

FPC….whatever you think. Look back at that year if you can look objectively. Coach Bzz (glad he’s gone) played only about 7 deep (none of the guys were recruited by him) starting 4 seniors (McCraw, Burtschi, Nwaelele and ’5th year senior’ Nick Welch along with a junior in Tim Anderson. All of these guys could shoot from the outside as well as the inside and they ran the offense as a well oiled machine. And your ‘memory’ is not as good as you think. Although they ran and shot the ball well, the were only a little quicker than this years team, for comparison, with 59.8 possessions per 40mins/gm vs this year at 62.7 possessons per 40mins/gm. They were a little quicker not because they ran the offense faster, rather that were more experienced, shot better outside the arc consistently and due to both of these they constantly had bigger leads to allow them to shoot earlier in the clock as the game went on (doing this we won 14 games by 20 or more points and 11 of those games by 30 or more).

THAT is the difference….sorry you don’t remember. Are things perfect now….no, far from it. But there are way more factors involved than your limited view…in my humble opinon. GO FALCONS

January 28, 2012 at 12:31 pm

The hysterical things…you tell me to let go of the past, yet your so called data is derived in the past. You never once mentioned out shot click violations and strings of losses since JR took over. You are all over the place with your JR glag waving. Thats fine…you have your dreams to live too!

Uou state to me I don’t understand the “other factors”…you must be kidding. REALLY?

Here is the botom line, we come out of this conf play with less wins than last year
….you can surface pictures of you and JR as kids growing up and the fact shall remain, this Coach has produced nothing to warrant any contract extention, unless you are just focusing on leadership of Officers…but, we are disscussing Bball not AF leadership. You and I will not agree. Period. One more loding season with the current talent cannot be excused. Take my seats, Ill read about thesefine men and watch at home. Donating to the team in my own way. Your data of possessions is like a bikini is shows a bit, but not the real meat of the product. Nice try! Now lets ralk 2008, 09, 10, and 11…support that while you try to improve JR stock.

January 28, 2012 at 11:53 pm

FPC…you have your thoughts and opinion, but if you watched tonights game you have the picture of this team and staff. Well coached, great game plan, players played hard and had the #12 team in the nation tied, even playing possession ball. TO’s in OT are what lost this game as we fall 63-65. Great effort by the guys…still a loss…but lots to take from this game. GO FALCONS

January 29, 2012 at 1:07 am

Yes, I was there as I always am. I witnessed outstanding defense, who forced UNLV deep shots, and forced many turnovers. I saw our shooters hitting key perimeter shots and aggressive inside play. In addition, I also saw several shot clock expirations, because we delayed too deep and got off poor last second shots! The inbound play from Williams to Broekhuis should have been a deep inbound pass..not a forced low post pass. Poor call, williams had no deep outlet…was not his fault. We didn’t want to give UNLV an overtime chance, but they played as well as they have all year. Again, I raise attention to running down our shot clock and forcing poor shots takes the ball right out of the hands of your own offense. We pushed the ball well tonight and when we slowed it down.
.we turned it over with a bad pass or a last second shot. Get the film…every last second shot is causing awkward play on this squad. You are wrong again, I have the film…tonight we pushed the ball most od the night…when we slowed ot down, we fumbled misersbly. Sure, it takes the possessions awsy from the opponent…ever analysis tells yoh slow ball last second shots only make you lose SLOWER PACED! THATS MY ASSESSMENT.

Harry ander says:

January 31, 2012 at 7:17 am

Lets get back to the original question. Why cant practice be attended by reps from media? whats he afraid of? afraid people will see how he treats the players? we know he is not a positive or encouraging type. why cant practice be attended? would it be obvious others should be getting minutes. Great question.

The Bird says:

January 31, 2012 at 4:46 pm

Paranoia…….it’ll destroy ya!!!!

rgbird50 says:

February 14, 2012 at 10:53 pm

Yes, if certain players are not performing, put it someone else. Then when you discover good chemistry, let it happen!! There have been too many weird substitutions; when a guy starts getting hot, he gets pulled out of the game. When a sub goes in, he doesn’t even get warmed up to find out if he can make a difference before he’s pulled out of the game. It doesn’t make for good flow.