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Joe Scott's Turning Falcons Into One Of Hottest Teams In Country
Feb. 12, 2004 By Robert Wallace There's a proverb that says: If a Tiger had wings, he'd be a fool not to fly. Princeton alum Joe Scott has earned his wings this season as men's basketball coach at the Air Force Academy. Now in his fourth season, Pelican Island-native Scott, 38, has turned a foundering program into one of the hottest men's college basketball teams in the country. The transformation has come thanks to the deliberate Princeton-style of basketball Scott learned as a four-year letterman, and a Tigers' assistant coach for eight years between 1992-2000. Air Force is off to an improbable 14-2 start this season, riding a school record 12-game win-streak, and 4-0 alone atop the Mountain West Conference standings for the first time ever. Air Force needs just one more win to ensure its first winning season since 1977-78. The Falcons are 5-1 against NCAA tournament teams from last season. And what's more, Air Force won those games by an average of 14 points, with the lone loss coming at Auburn. The Falcons have the top scoring defense in the nation (47.0 points per game) and thrive on a turnover-to-assist ratio of plus-1.4. But it wasn't always that way. "The expectation was to lose," Scott said. "That was the culture here. It's gone now, but it wasn't gone for the first couple of years." When Scott arrived in April 2000, he took over an Air Force program infected with the belief it couldn't be competitive because it couldn't recruit blue-chip talent due to the Academy's high academic standards. "I heard them all," Scott said. "Worst job in the country. Graveyard of basketball. You can never do it there. Obviously, I didn't listen to anybody because I thought it was a great opportunity. I knew that at an institution like Air Force, you could get kids similar to Princeton, and we could do some of the things we did at Princeton." Air Force, for Scott, couldn't have been a better match. The Falcons, it was true, don't get the tallest or most athletically gifted players. But the players are traditionally exceptional in their intelligence, physical conditioning, and discipline -- a perfect recipe for Princeton-style ball. "I thought I had some good experience behind me that these guys could latch onto and say, 'Yeah, we're going to listen to what coach says because he's been there and he's done it.' And that's what my guys have done," Scott said. The turnaround, however, didn't come overnight. Scott started by indoctrinating the cadets in a stifling defense that relies on perfect positioning, cutting off passing lanes, diving for loose balls, and forcing turnovers. In his first season (2000-01), the Falcons, adapting to Scott's system, won only eight games. The next season, the system started clicking, and the Falcons were competitive, but continually came up short in the last five minutes. Air Force won nine games, but lost eight games by six points or less. Last season, the Falcons appeared to be on the threshold, winning 12 games, but still lost five games by five points or less. The next progression was clear. "The first thing we did was eliminate those kinds of close games," Scott said. This season Air Force has only trailed once (at Auburn) and been tied once (in a win at California) at halftime. And when opponents have mounted second-half rallies, the Falcons have answered. In Air Force's game last Monday, after losing the lead to Utah midway through the second half, it outscored the Utes 24-9 down the stretch for a 62-49 win. "In order to win that game we had to exorcise those demons," Scott said. "And we had to do it against a team who's hallmark has been finishing games strong." Improved scoring depth and confidence on the offensive end, combined with almost unconscious recognition on defense, has made the difference this season. Eight or nine players regularly contribute for the Falcons. The starters provide a heady mix of veteran experience in senior forwards Joel Gerlach, A.J. Kuhle and junior guard Tim Keller, and youthful exuberance in the form of guard Antoine Hood, and center Nick Welch -- none of whom were highly recruited out of high school. The players' passion and unconditional trust for Scott's system has been equally important to the Falcons success. With the shot clock running down on offense, Air Force's calmness belies an innate confidence that a shot or backdoor cut is going to open wide just before the buzzer. And more often than not it has. The Falcons are eighth nationally in field-goal percentage (50-percent) and ninth in 3-pointers made per game with 9. "This is by far the best offensive basketball team I've had," Scott said. "If we can maintain the same level we've developed defensively and in dictating tempo, that means we're going to win more games." This recent success has many Coloradoans jumping on the Air Force band wagon. Boisterous crowds of over 5,000 attended Air Force's last two home games at Clune arena, where in previous years visiting conference teams often outdrew home supporters. Now, hopeful murmurs about making the postseason for the first time since the 1961-62 float around campus. But the mission is far from over for Scott's Falcons. Air Force continues conference play Saturday at San Diego State before a "Big Monday" clash on ESPN at UNLV. Win those games and at 6-0 the school's first Mountain West Conference title would be Air Force's to lose. But don't count on a collapse any time soon.
"I think we're exactly where I thought we would be in year-four," Scott said. "We have all our players now. They've had the most success that an Air Force team has had. Now we've got to build on that and get better."
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