Tough for freshmen to pick up Air Force’s offense

February 14th, 2011, 4:13 pm · 11 Comments · posted by Frank Schwab

Being a freshman learning the Princeton offense can make for a trying season.

“I had a horrible time trying to learn this offense as a freshman,” Air Force senior forward Tom Fow said. “It takes time, it takes reps.”

This year, the Air Force offense is better, but that is a result of a lot of growing pains last season, when the Falcons played freshman far more minutes than they hoped.

Young players are sometimes overwhelmed by trying to figure out what their role is in the system.

“Sometimes you get so caught up in running the offense,” Fow said. “Because it’s so complicated and one thing goes to the next to the next, you think about what happens next in the offense rather than ‘OK, this part of this offense is going to get me a shot.’ You’re worried about going from piece to piece rather than ‘I know what’s going to happen if this happens.’”

The coaches could only install so much of the offense last year. As a result, the Falcons were poor on offense most of the season.

“When we develop this stuff, we put the basics in and then we say ‘We need three things for a 3-pointer, we need three things for a drive, we need three things for a post up,’” coach Jeff Reynolds said. “We didn’t have any of that last year.

“We are a system team. It’s very important we can run our offense under duress, be able to make open shots, have the guy have an understanding of where those shots are coming from. So they’re prepping and know, if they do this piece of it they’re going to get a shot or a drive. As a freshman, you don’t know that. You’re just consumed with where to go when the ball is passed to you and that type of thing. You’re not doing anything instinctively. Now you’re seeing is guys have another year of experience and they’re doing it more instinctively. They’re not worried about where to go, they’re worried about where are they going to shoot it, where are they going to score.”

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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

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Franco says:

February 14, 2011 at 7:02 pm

When creating synergy of the offense and not seeing a ROI until the 3rd of a 4 season athlete…one must wonder who is in charge of simplifying for the sake of the program to realize a more usable
offensive system.
This is not the NBA with seasoned players with long term contracts/commitments.. NCAA level requires a simple approach for immediate comtributions as players injuries, academics and other roadblocks could and do interfere with the program. Otherwise, this team will have the same restrictions, demands and why would we expect different results? Too complex…simplify and do the best with
the best. Face it, the recruiting is a factor and there needs to be consequences on poor production on recruiting as well as simply not winning.
But don’t keep using the same offense and whine when it returns little to no investments. Just saying.

Jeanelle says:

February 14, 2011 at 7:27 pm

Frank: In the future, I think it best to say “Princeton Style” basketball. The two previous coaches at Air Force Scott and Mooney were players/coaches of this offense. Bzdelik inherited a team of players skilled in this offense. Bzdelik learned it from them because that’s what we were running and winning with at the time. Bzdelik made his own tweaks to the Princeton Offense – driving in the paint/rebounding mostly. Now, we have Reynold’s, who learned it from Bzdelik who in turn learned it from the players who were coached under Mooney/Scott. Get the point? We are running the second cousin twice removed Princeton Offense.

Dave says:

February 14, 2011 at 8:48 pm

“No excuse, sir!”

rjp says:

February 15, 2011 at 1:02 pm

You guys are amazing…read the article. It is no different from any other team running any other offense and learning it from being a freshman to being a senior. We started 3 freshmen at times last year. I don’t hear any ‘excuses’ above, just comments and facts. The fact is we are more experienced this year AND WE ARE RUNNING THE OFFENSE BETTER (read the link to the full article, it’s sums it up well). Sometimes some ‘fans’ have their preconceived notions and cannot or will not look at / see the ‘full’ picture. GO FALCONS

February 15, 2011 at 2:39 pm

RJP isn’t it YOU that coined the phrase “AIR FORCE OFFENSE”????

February 15, 2011 at 5:31 pm

Yes…and if you watch the cuts and screens we are running and then watch DU with Coach Scott’s team, you will see very similar play and cuts….and actually I believe we are running them harder. Just my opinion.

February 15, 2011 at 5:35 pm

An addition to the ‘yes’….I didn’t ‘coin’ it, the media did…but we have affectionaltely used it talking Air Force Basketball as we felt, especially in the days leading up to the first NCAA run vs UNC, that we ran it as well or better than ‘Princeton’ who hasn’t been to the NCAA’s for quite a while (four times between 1989-1992 with the most recent in ’92), while AF has gone twice running this type of offense (2004, 2006, NIT semi-finals 2007).

rick71 says:

February 16, 2011 at 8:28 am

Whatever you want to call the offense, it is generating a plethora of good looks at the basket. The shots just didn’t fall last night despite the fact that many were layups or uncontested shots from the field. The purpose of an offense is to put the player in position to hit a shot, and this year that is definitely happening.

The football team doesn’t run the pure triple option any more, and they are enjoying great success. Smart coaches tweak their team’s schemes as needed. Call the Air Force offense whatever you want, but the design is giving the players the shots. They just have to start hitting them, and as they mature, I have no doubt that they will. And if they keep playing tough defense, the wins will ensue.

February 20, 2011 at 9:18 pm

It would be interesting to hear what a true Princeton disciple would think of our offense. There’s an idea for an article or at the very least a blog entry!

continental free sports says:

October 28, 2011 at 12:52 am

continental free sports…

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