Lyons’ dunk highlights season-opening win

November 14th, 2010, 6:20 pm · 9 Comments · posted by Frank Schwab

Michael Lyons drove the baseline late in Air Force’s 66-53 win against University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and nobody was expecting him to sky above the defense and throw down a monster dunk.

After the highlight dunk, which came over UCCS guard Jordan McClung, the Falcons players seemed frozen for a second before they went over to help up Lyons, who was fouled on the play.

“They don’t expect it,” Lyons said. “In practice I usually grab the net and then dunk it.”

Lyons is an intriguing player for the Falcons, a versatile 6-6 guard who scored 6.9 points per game as a freshman last year. In the season opener this year, Lyons started and scored a team-high 17-points on 5-of-11 shooting. But the most memorable moment of his day was the baseline jam.

“I used to dunk a lot until last year,” Lyons said. “I got traumatized by the first dunk of last season, because I didn’t make it. This year I was reluctant to try it, but it went down.”

Posted in: Uncategorized

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About this blog …

I'm Frank Schwab, Air Force beat reporter for The Gazette. I've been at the paper since 2003, and covered the Broncos for seven seasons. I covered the University of Wisconsin in the late 1990s, so I'm well versed in running football teams (Ron Dayne) and defensive basketball teams (Dick Bennett). I love to chat on www.twitter.com/GazetteAirForce, and will respond to comments and emails at frank.schwab@gazette.com.

For more coverage, visit The Gazette's Air Force Academy Sports page

afafan says:

November 14, 2010 at 9:18 pm

Sorry – but Lyons isn’t going to throw down monster dunks against Kawhi Leonard. I would have been much more exited to hear about a perfectly executed backdoor trap, or lights out 3pt shooting.

Frank Schwab says:

November 14, 2010 at 9:28 pm

So, what you’re telling me is, anything I write off an Air Force basketball game has to be “This will be the reason they beat San Diego State”? Well, guess I’ll just stop writing about basketball then. Really will be a load off my back, thanks.

Quickside says:

November 14, 2010 at 10:17 pm

Exciting to hear about the altheticism of the young guys… and we’ll take a win, lets get rolling for the regular season

November 15, 2010 at 12:59 am

Nothing against your reporting. My dismay is with the direction of the program. I think Reynolds tries to recruit the very best, most athletic players he can. Players who can throw down MONSTER dunks! Thats how you win Basketball games – right? Yes – at schools like UCONN, Syracuse, UCLA, and North Carolina….but not at Air Force. I could careless if an Air Force player ever dunks again. I want to see kids who can shoot the 3, and spread the D. Thats how AFA wins. Not by out athlete-ing opponents and attacking the rim.

section 8(one of few left) says:

November 15, 2010 at 10:11 am

well with reynolds system if you can call it that some of this is necessary. if you have an open baseline its great to have a player that isnt afraid to hit it. he said most noticeable which its going to be because it is out of character for afa bball. no worries we had plenty of three balls and hitting the open man. had a few cold streaks that made it closer, but with 9 minutes left we were up 25. it was encouraging and hopefully they keep rolling. decent defense, some offensive boards, and even a few backdoor cuts. a nice way to start off the year with a very undersized crew.

falcon says:

November 15, 2010 at 10:15 am

Lets work on making free throws…and the dunk energizes the crowd and more importantly the team, something that is usually lacking with Reynolds at the helm

November 15, 2010 at 10:34 am

I’m not saying the dunk says anything other than what it is – it was a great play in a win by a player who has the ability to make a nice step forward this year. They’re not poisonous, and the ability to be athletic and dunk is not mutually exclusive from being able to backdoor cut and hit threes.

rjp says:

November 15, 2010 at 12:18 pm

Frank….take the comment from who it is and move on. AF was 43% from the 3pt, I saw some backdoor cuts…and that was mostly versus a zone the entire game, 13 assists on 22 shots…not bad. Could have been better? Of course. Up at one point 50-23 but came off the gas and mental mistakes… But overall an ok win ‘and’ thanks for highlighting one play and a young AF player in Mike Lyons. Tough crowd to get critisized for saying ‘Good Dunk’.

leak says:

November 29, 2011 at 1:21 am

leak…

[...]Lyons’ dunk highlights season-opening win – Air Force : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…