With a 7pm MST tip off, Air Force will face the Privateers of the University of New Orleans (5-12 Independent). UNO come to Colorado after a tight turn playing on Monday night at home in New Orleans. Not only a quick two days between games, but they played a grueling triple overtime game which they won over New Jersey Institute of Technology of the Great West 96-94. The short turn after the long game combined with the 7000' altitude may prove to be a challenge for UNO. The team does play 5-6 deep into their bench so that will benefit them in the game Wednesday night. While many teams look forward to their bye weeks (all MWC teams will have two, one in each half of their schedule), AF head coach Pilipovich felt the playing of a game this early in the schedule would hopefully keep off the rust in the bye week while holding to get younger players some game time off the bench. Air Force will take advantage of their second bye week later in the schedule to help freshen legs during the long season and further into the academic semester at the Academy.
A look at key statistics between The two teams:
AF FG 47.5% FT 70.6% 3Pt 39.3% Reb 31 Ast 16 TO 12 Stl 8 (note:FT 87% in MWC)
UNO FG 44.0% FT 64.2% 3Pt 28.2% Reb 34 Ast 14 TO 17 Stl 9
New Orleans plays an up and down the court style of play. Very aggressive on both ends of the court and they combine that with man to man pressure and full court press at times. As mentioned above, it will be interesting to see if and how the altitude will affect their play and if it will factor in the planning by their coach and staff. Air Force matches up well with them size wise. They have no height to contend with as their tallest player is only 6'8". However, their aggressive play into the basket is made with aggressive guard play and wide body at the forward/center position with fifth leading scorer junior Eddie Denard (6'5"/240#/6ppg/3.6rpg in 18mpg). Their biggest threat and leading scorer is senior forward Lovell Cook (6'6"/215#/15ppg/3rpg). He played 47 minutes in the triple OT win and scored 32 points on 12-22 FG and 7-11 FT (he's not a 3pt shooting at only 6 taken all year). Their top scoring is rounded out by guards Nelson (5'8"/180#/Sr/9ppg/3rpg/7apg), Corey Blake (6'5"/200#/Jr/8ppg/4rpg) and forwards Corey Dixon (6'7"/205#/Jr/7ppg/5rpg) and McPhearson (6'1"/195# G/Jr/6ppg and best 3pt shooter at 32%).
Stats that stand out for me: This is not a three point shooting team. Clune Arena seems to be a comfortable arena for many teams at the arc, but traditionally this team will not even look to use the three point shot so I do not expect them to change for this game (an example is the three OT game on Monday night they were 5-18 27.8% from the arc in 50 minutes of play). They are aggressive inside but their quick pace tend towards turnovers at 17 per game and may be something AF can exploit.
Key's to an Air Force win versus New Orleans:
1) Make this team work and tire them out. Although UNO plays a good 5 men deep off the bench, Air Force needs to make them work on both ends of the court, especially defending the Falcons on offense. Good early shots should be taken by the Falcons but if not 'THE Good' shot opportunity keep the ball moving and the Privateers defending.
2) Go to the basket, get these guys in foul trouble which translates into bench time which translates to tired players on the court limiting substitution options. This relates back directly back to point number one and is like the movie 'Fight Club'. The first rule of 'Fight Club is 'Do not talk about fight club', the second rule of 'Fight Club' is Do not talk about fight club"...for this game the first rule for the Falcons is to "Tire them out" and the second rule for the Falcons is to "Tire them out".
3) Pressure defense for 40 minutes of play. Refer back to the first rule for the Falcons.
4) Play hard early and bring that 'Nasty' to the court to get the lead and then to sit the starters on the bench. This does several things. Brings fresh legs to the court (rule number one). Rests starters for the 'next' game if possible. Give young guys more than just 4-7 minutes of playing time here or there. Then, in subsequent games, Coach P has even more confidence in the bench and he can use 'rule number one' in more games due to our depth. (note: Mike Lyons has been battling a very bad cold that really hit him the day of his 37point effort. The ability to sit him and rest him for most of the game would be tremendous for follow-on games for the Falcons (as well as Fitz, Todd and Taylor).
5) Time for the bigs to have a BIG day. Time for Taylor Broekhuis to excel but hopefully play minimum minutes. Would be good to see maximum points from all the bigs to include Taylor, Marek, Chase and get a good 5-10 minutes of playing time for young 6'10"/220# freshman Zach Moer.
This is the perfect setup for Air Force. Last Saturday to this Wednesday's tip off: A four day gap for Air Force versus a two day gap with travel for UNO. The setup continues as AF plays WEDNESDAY night but then has 2 days (Thursday and Friday) to prepare and practice then travel to Wyoming for the Saturday evening game. This is the perfect setup because next up Wyoming (15-2/2-2) goes on the road for a THURSDAY evening tip off in Las Vegas versus a hungry UNLV (15-4/2-2 and just fell out of top 25 after loss at CSU), then Friday travel home (by plane to Denver then bus to Laramie)/practice one day only for the Saturday evening tip off with the Falcons.
Time to pack the house at Clune Arena. Last game was an increase in attendance at Clune with 3000 plus fans and a good showing from Section 8 (and the football team). Need to do it again Wednesday night.
