Growing up just outside of Washington, DC, as a huge Redskins fan, I had the pleasure of reading The Washington Post sports section each morning at my breakfast table.

I started my days with the words of Tom Boswell, Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser.

For those who know Kornheiser only from Pardon The Interruption, he once was the most popular columnist at The Post (and before that an incredibly talented feature writer for several publications).

Anyway, I loved reading Kornheiser. And watching today’s game made me think about a column he wrote back in October of 1998 after the Skins fell to 0-7. Kornheiser got a lot of mileage out of receiver Leslie Shepherd saying several different times that the Skins had hit “rock bottom.”

Here’s part of Kornheiser’s column:

Let’s check with our resident geologist, Dr. Leslie Shepherd, and find out where we stand today. You’ll remember that at 0-4 and 0-6 Shepherd declared, “This is rock bottom.”

Leslie, how ‘bout 0-7?

“It’s rock bottom,” Shepherd said Sunday. There, he said it again.

Old reliable Leslie. It’s like dragging Punxsutawney Phil out of his hole on Groundhog Day and asking if he saw his shadow.

Shepherd added, “I know I say that every week, but it gets worse and worse.” (So wouldn’t we be below rock bottom by now? Wouldn’t we be in … Australia?)

Why do I bring this up? Well, the Air Force men’s basketball program might be in the Land Down Under after today’s game at BYU.

Worst conference loss ever. Ever. Mountain West Conference. Western Athletic Conference.

Ever.

Wow, wow, wow.

Try these stats on for size:

-The most points an opponent had scored on Air Force heading into today’s game was 77. BYU had 80 with more than seven minutes to play.

-BYU led by 33 at halftime.

-Air Force committed 13 turnovers. In the first half. For the game? 22 turnovers. Twenty-two!

-BYU made 10-of-14 3-pointers. In the first half.

-Three BYU players (Jackson Emery, Tyler Haws and Jonathan Tavernari) combined to score 53 points (five more than Air Force scored).

And consider this: BYU called off the dogs pretty early. They very easily could have hung a radio station on the Falcons (like a Kool 107 or Hot 103).

Wow, wow, wow.

Chat it up
Thanks to everyone who participated in today’s chat – including our own David Ramsey!

For a transcript of the chat, click here.

Reynolds’ comments
Here are some excerpts of Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds’ post-game interview with Jim Arthur on KVOR:

“We picked a bad night to be here.”

“Our kids looked physically and mentally exhausted, and I don’t understand that because we certainly have backed off in practice.”

“We had some open shots.”

“We’ll go back and look at the tape and go from there.”

Unfortunately, they have to go from here to The Pit. Air Force at New Mexico next Saturday.

What’s below Australia?