Air Force Academy – Air Force coach Jeff Bzdelik insists he coaches with the fear that his team is never prepared enough.
Thus, there can never be too detailed a scouting report, too many stoppages of play during practice to drive home a point – or too much time dedicated to the little things that he believes win games.
That preparedness has the Falcons bubbling under the top 25. They might be the nation’s most underrated, underappreciated team. They will be a scary first-round NCAA Tournament draw, and already have wins over Georgia Tech and Miami to validate their worth.
“We can’t focus on the critics,” senior guard Antoine Hood said. “They are going to write their own thing, do what they do. If we were 15-0, would it be any different? We don’t really know.”
Despite a road loss at Wyoming on Wednesday, Air Force’s 14-2 start – equaling the best in school history – has been fueled by solid 3-point shooting, limiting turnovers, a renewed emphasis on defense and a new willingness to push the pace.
“Coach Bzdelik is definitely a mastermind,” Hood said. “When he talks, it’s like we’re all a bunch of kids listening to your dad.”
Bzdelik has kept the foundation of the Princeton offense run by former coaches Joe Scott and Chris Mooney, but has picked up the tempo. These Falcons will take the fast break and sprint into their halfcourt offense, rather than walking it into the frontcourt.
“I would call it the Bzdelik touch,” Hood said. “We’re not just a programmed, robotic-type team. We have five threats out there. They have to respect every single one of us on the court.”
Said junior forward Jacob Burtschi: “Coach wants us to get out and run a little bit. Why not take the easy basket? Everyone else does. On defense, we’ve always had one of the top scoring defenses because we slowed the ball game down. But now not only do we rush it up the court, we learn to get back, we learn to close out better, box out better, we’re keeping teams from getting more offensive rebounds like they did last year. Just our overall concept of defense has improved greatly.”
Opponents are shooting just 41.8 percent against Air Force, down from 47 percent last season. Rebounding, for the undersized Falcons, is slightly up from 23.1 last season to 25. The Falcons’ 10.8 turnovers per game rank among the nation’s top five.
“What I’ve tried to do is enhance the offense, enhance the defense by improving their individual skills,” Bzdelik said. “And then consequently, collectively everything is elevated.”
AFA’s biggest pitfall? Its reliance on the starting five. Four of the five starters play 31 minutes or more per game. An injury among the starters would be hard for the Falcons to overcome. And seven of their last 11 games will be played on the road.
MVC a major middie
Creighton coach Dana Altman agrees with the theory of heightened awareness. The Missouri Valley Conference, in which he has coached for 12 seasons, has been solid more often than not, but with increased positive publicity of late the masses are just now catching on.
“When we get an opportunity to play the larger schools, (fans) see the difference is just not there,” Altman said. “Maybe one player here and there. But the gap is not what the public perceives it to be. When the smaller schools, in our conference in particular, have had the opportunity to play those schools, that’s been proven.”
Among the mid-major conferences, this is the one to keep an eye on for teams capable of pulling upsets in the NCAA Tournament. It may get as many teams into the NCAA Tournament as the Big 12 or Pac-10.
The primary schools to watch are Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois, Wichita State and Missouri State, with Creighton lurking. Those five schools already have victories over big-school competition such as Nebraska, DePaul, Iowa, LSU, Xavier and Providence. And that doesn’t count Indiana State’s win over Indiana.
Coming into this week, the RPI Report rates the Missouri Valley fifth, ahead of the Big 12, Pac-10 and Mountain West, among others. A high conference RPI means a team’s RPI won’t take a huge dip once conference play starts, if the team keeps winning.
“It’s really a good league,” Wichita State coach Mark Turgeon said. “I think you can take our top teams and put us in a tournament on neutral courts with other top teams and I think we could hold our own, I really do. I wouldn’t have said that three years ago. But I believe it now.”
Popular change
Coaches love the NCAA Management Council’s decision this week to recommend scrapping a rule that prohibits teams from participating in more than two preseason exempt tournaments in a four-year span.
“I really feel like that we got a little off-base in trying to limit exempt things, trying to be more fair to everybody trying to give them an opportunity to go,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “There will be more exempt tournaments, so more people can participate. I think that’s a very, very good rule change that will benefit all of major-college basketball.”
The recommendation will be reviewed by the NCAA board of directors in April and could go into effect on Aug. 1.
Footnotes
Keep track of how three teams respond after losing a top player: Indiana (D.J. White, out with foot injury/chance to return in six weeks), UCLA (Marcel Shipp, out for season/injured hip) and Cincinnati (Armein Kirkland, out for season/torn ACL). Each sits at or near the top of its conference standings, and Indiana is in the top 10 of both polls. … Ohio State is off to a mildly surprising hot start and has a favorable Big Ten schedule. The Buckeyes are the only Big Ten team that twice plays the weakest teams in its conference- Northwestern, Penn State and Purdue – and doesn’t travel to Illinois.
The List
Kentucky’s loss to Vanderbilt not only snapped a 29-game home winning streak over the Commodores, it continued a season of struggles for the Wildcats. A look at the five most surprising slow starts in conference play:
Oklahoma (0-2, Big 12): Losses to Nebraska and Missouri won’t sit well with OU faithful.
Michigan State (1-2, Big Ten): Stopped two-game losing streak Wednesday against Indiana.
Boston College (0-3, ACC): BC’s trademark physical play being tested in the up-tempo ACC
Washington (1-2, Pac-10): Loss to Arizona is one thing, but Washington State?
Kentucky (0-1, SEC): Wildcats hope return of Randolph Morris produces wins – quickly.
Staff writer Chris Dempsey can be reached at 303-820-5455 or cdempsey@denverpost.com.
