Air Force Academy – Things looked rosy for the Air Force men’s basketball team as it prepared for tonight’s non- conference home game against Texas-Pan American.
The Falcons began the week at 8-1 and ranked No. 23 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll.
But Tuesday afternoon coach Jeff Bzdelik was faced with the possibility the Falcons will be missing two players, including starting senior guard Matt McCraw, for tonight’s game.
McCraw sprained his right ankle during practice Monday when he landed on a teammate’s foot. McCraw didn’t practice Tuesday and is listed as day to day. Backup senior center John Frye missed practice because of a cold. Bzdelik said it’s “likely” the 6-foot-2 McCraw and the 6-10 Frye would miss the game.
“I can’t really speculate on time, but right now it’s day to day,” McCraw said. “I could get up (today) and I could feel fine and be ready to go.”
McCraw has started all nine games and ranks fifth among the Falcons in scoring (11.2 points per game). He leads the team in assists with 27. Frye has played in every game and averages 2.1 points and 2.1 rebounds.
“Someone showed me the (poll) rankings yesterday and I said it was nice, and then I put it in the paper shredder,” Bzdelik said. “The most important thing to me now is that we didn’t play particularly well Saturday night and to correct the things we didn’t do well and to get better.”
The Falcons defeated IPFW 78-66 in only their third game of the season at Clune Arena.
