Before leaving Fort Worth, here are some links.
My game story can be found here, and my game notebook is posted below. You can find The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s game story here.
Also, Gazette columnist David Ramsey caught up with former Air Force assistant Larry Mangino, who now serves as an assistant for the Denver Nuggets. Mangino had wanted the top job at Air Force when Jeff Bzdelik left for Colorado. Ramsey’s column is a great read. Find it here.
Finally, I’m interested if readers think Air Force will get a victory before the end of the regular season. Let me know in the comments section.
AF Notes
Finally a 3
Sophomore guard Evan Washington made his first 3-pointer since the start of Mountain West Conference play in the first half. Washington, who released the ball just before the shot clock expired, had missed his previous nine shots and hadn’t hit a shot from beyond the arc since Air Force’s Dec. 31 game against Stony Brook.
“It did feel good,” Washington said. “The shot clock was going down, I was the last option. I just shot it with confidence.”
Washington made all four of his shots from the floor and finished with 10 points and a pair of assists in 28 minutes.
Frogs get hot
TCU, which during its six-game losing streak had made just 38.6 percent of its shots from the floor, including 26.9 percent from 3-point range, made 52.4 percent of its shots, including 66.7 percent from 3, in the second half Wednesday.
“They got too many open looks,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said.
Johnson out of sync
Senior guard Anwar Johnson scored 12 points but made a team-high four turnovers. “I think that’s not practicing,” Reynolds said of Johnson, who hasn’t practiced since mid-January because of an injured foot. “He’ll have a good game and then he’ll have an out-of-sync game.”
Etc.
Freshman guard Brandon Provost scored his first career points on a pair of free throws. … Air Force made more turnovers (14) than assists (12) for the sixth straight game.
I don’t know if they’ll get a win. My fan side says they will, but that’s biased. My betting/analyzing side says no, they won’t even come close.
And do you think AF should fire Reynolds this year? You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.
Lastly are you going to be covering AF baseball at all this year? They have 8 returning starters, 2 SPs, and closers from an 18-33 year. This year might be a breakout year.
If they do win one, it’ll be only one, and it’ll be against CSU. I put the odds at 50/50.
Air Force will beat CSU this weekend, and then get them again in the pigtail game in the MWC tourney for their first-ever win.
That was an excellent article on Mangino by David Ramsey. When Dr. Mueh hired Coach Reynolds, I’ll never forget he said he was “blown away” by Reynolds’ passion for Air Force basketball. Clearly, the same statement applied to Larry Mangino. He was an excellent coach here and a great recruiter. I’m not ready to throw Coach Reynolds under the bus, but I’m sure many folks still wonder what could have been.
No wins. The bigger question is why won’t the GT or the DP do some serious journalism and get to the bottom of Mueh’s apathy regarding winning at Air Force? Winning breeds winners in sports and in life and in war. Why teach a generation to be losers?
Joe –
First, on AF baseball. We ran a preview story in today’s edition of The Gazette (http://www.gazette.com/sports/hutcheon_48450___article.html/baseball_season.html). We’ll be covering them during the year at home, but not traveling with them. Our coverage won’t be as intese as what we do with hoops or football.
As for Reynolds. You could make the case that he needs to go or that he wasn’t the right choice to begin with. You also could make the argument that the one thing this program needs more than anything else is some stability. They’ve had four coaches in six seasons, and that hasn’t helped much. I guess I agree with Ramsey that Reynolds deserves another year. But I think one major factor in whether he should be retained is whether he can keep these freshmen and sophomores around.
Plus, it’s kind of a moot point because Air Force doesn’t have the $$$ to dump him right now.
The interesting question will be whether Air Force “rolls over” his contract again, as it has done the last two seasons with Troy Calhoun (and did last year with Reynolds).
Scott -
You’re right that a lot of people wonder what could have been with Mangino. But for some reason Air Force was not going to hire him. Once things went south with the Georgetown assistant, they had to scramble a bit.
Falconbuddy suit –
Thanks for the comment. I’m pretty sure Hans Mueh is not going out of his way to produce losing teams at the academy. Whether he should make some coaching changes is another question entirely.
AFA will probably beat CSU once – either this weekend or the Play-in game. Tough to beat a team 3 times in one season.
AFA doesn’t have the money to Fire Reynolds? Who’s fault is that?! Putting in too large of a buyout is almost as stupid as putting in one that is too small – or in the case of Mooney – Non existent. Chalk up another Mueh Bungle.
Well, I guess it’s conceivable that AF could buy him out, but it wouldn’t be financially responsible.
I think the buyouts are pretty standard — 30 percent of what’s remaining, though I need to study his contract to make sure that’s correct. The issue, then, becomes the length of the contract. Which is why it will be so interesting to see if his contract is rolled over again.