How high can Falcons fly in ’19-20?
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in an 11-part series previewing UNM men’s basketball opponents for the coming season. The series includes articles and capsules on all Mountain West opponents published in the reverse order of the league’s preseason poll and concludes with capsules for each nonconference opponent.
When Air Force basketball coach Dave Pilipovich and senior forwards Ryan Swan and Lavelle Scottie sat down for their media scrum on Oct. 15 at the Mountain West preseason media summit in Henderson, Nev., it’s safe to say it wasn’t exactly the same sort of conversation as with their peers in the league.
The first eight minutes of the half hour session had Swan explaining that he recently decided to pursue a pilot’s license (at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the first semester of a cadet’s senior year includes turning in a list of desired jobs in the Air Force upon graduation).
“I took Powered Flight (a course at the Academy) over the summer,” Swan said. “I got into the air and I didn’t want to come down.”
The final six minutes of the media session featured Scottie, an economics major who would like to deal in acquisitions and contracting for the Air Force after graduation, speaking eloquently on the potential economic impacts that granting
NCAA players name, image and likeness rights could bring to the sport.
Such is the life of Dave Pilipovich, the Falcons’ ninth year head coach whose team was picked eighth in the preseason media poll despite returning just about everyone from last season’s sixth- place team, including Scottie, AFA’s first preseason All-MWC selection since 2006.
“It’s really neat,” Pilipovich said of his unique coaching role. “I’m not checking classes. I’m not making sure they’re just staying eligible. I’m not wondering when’s the next drug test. I’m not saying that happens (at other programs), but here they’re career oriented. They’re talking about finances. They’re talking about where they want to be three years down the road, five years down the road. … And they’re so much smarter than I am. Sometimes they’re talking and I don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”
On the court, the Falcons have the potential to be one of the program’s best in years. Eleven players are back, including five regular starters, from a team that went 8-5 from Jan. 12 through March 2 (only Nevada, Utah State and San Diego State did better in the MWC).
Scottie (15.3 ppg) and Swan (12.6 ppg, 7.1 rpg) return as the stars, but they aren’t the only reason the team kept improving as the season went on. Going with then-freshman A.J. Walker as the team’s starting point guard in January helped.
“(After the 0-3 start in MWC), we said we’re going to go with him as our starting ball handler,” Pilipovich said. “As a freshman, we’d live and die with him, and he grew as the year went on. … I think his confidence now and feeding off their leadership (Swan and Scottie), he’s definitely a changed player than he was last year.”
Pilipovich is optimistic about his team’s potential to improve on that eighth-place media prediction.
“We’ve got to fight a little harder on the defensive end,” Pilipovich said. “Offensively, I think we’ll have our opportunities. But for us to make that next push, we’ve got to be better defensively.”
HE SAID IT: “We’ve talked about that since our freshman year … about how we want to make a difference in our culture. We want to be the class that leaves the legacy behind that (makes people) be proud to watch Air Force basketball.” — Air Force senior forward Lavelle Scottie