Dave Pilipovich was like a windup toy that was just cranked up and let out of the Air Force locker room.
The interim coach almost speed-walked right by a group of reporters waiting for him, even though he was coming out to talk to the media stationed right outside the door. Then he stopped, but decided he needed some water. He asked someone for a bottle, waited for about a third of a second, then happily announced he was going to get it himself. Sure enough, he went to get himself a bottle of water.
“This is all new to me,” Pilipovich said when he finally stood in place long enough to talk.
Pilipovich started his coaching career in 1986. Air Force’s 58-53 win over Wyoming was his first official victory as a head coach. He was allowed to enjoy the moment.
“I feel real good for coach,” guard Michael Lyons said. “It’s good to get him a win under his belt.”
Pilipovich talked about his wife, son and daughter and knew they were excited about Air Force’s win. But he usually deflects attention, and did so after the Falcons’ first win since Jan. 14.
“It’s a great time to retire, isn’t it?” Pilipovich said. “Our staff is an unbelievable staff. Those guys, I looked over and they had the next defensive adjustment, the next offensive adjustment, the next substitution. Our staff is really good.”
Indeed, the Falcons’ staff made a great halftime adjustment, switching up its defensive plan to limit outside shots by Luke Martinez and Francisco Cruz, and to limit penetration from point guard JayDee Luster. That strategy worked to perfection.
The reality of the Falcons’ final few weeks is every remaining game will be part of a job interview for Pilipovich and his staff. Athletic director Hans Mueh is going to give this staff the rest of the season to make a positive impression. He said Pilipovich would be given a fair shot to win the job permanently, and that was genuine. An unlikely comeback win against Wyoming, and the players’ exuberance (perhaps “elated” is the better term) after the win will definitely be a mark in Pilipovich’s favor.
He just won’t make the final games of the season about himself.
“What great character. Great kids. Just so happy for them,” Pilipovich said, as he excitedly spoke about as fast as an auctioneer. “We’ve been through a lot. We needed something good. We needed something to smile about.”
It was great to see this for the team! nice job guys!!
Great win….and the scoring was done ‘often’ with ‘snailball’ as some here call it with the shot clock less than 10 seconds. Great win by the Falcons and fortitude to come back after being down by 14-2 early on.
A very good win on the road (AF now has two road wins this season) as AF travels to Wyoming and wins 58-53. This is a game that AF really could have said “we are done” and not got the win. Wyoming starts off ahead 14-2, AF misses several layups and has several TO’s and get out rebounded on the Wyoming offensive end…BUT the Falcons, behind a very good night for Mike Lyons 24 Pts, 6-8 3pts, 3 Reb, 2 Ast, 1 Stl, keep their heads in the game and play defense down the stretch with good ‘team’ offense and win!
Very proud of these guys. Now a big game Saturday as #15 SDSU (who lost at home tonight to NM) comes to Clune. Other interesting MWC was TCU over #12UNLV last night in OT and BoiseSt beating CSU (at Boise) with 2 seconds on the clock in regulation.
GO FALCONS
This was fun to watch. The Air Force players never quit, and the adjustments, as explained in this article, were outstanding. This was a gutty performance by the players and an equally impressive job of coaching. I’m looking forward to watching this weekend’s game!
I thought the second half really showed what these guys could do when focused. I also appreciate that Coach P got into the guys at halftime and they responded. The UW coach must have been trading recipes with his team at halftime because they came out for the second half thinking they were in for a cake walk!
Good job AF!
Jake…isn’t it funny that when we win many of your responders…ahhh…quit responding? So, if we do bad let’s talk about it, if we do good, let’s not talk about it. Yeah…I get it : { (
Did I say Jake? Must be a Freudian slip Frank….the win had me thinking of the old days! GO FALCONS
Great come back. As a former baller I wished we would hit the offensive boards and follow your shots more. Inbound plays need more practice. I like watching Lyons BUT he needs to take the leadership role and stop making soft crappy passes and more hussle without the ball. Also the boys need to make those easy lay ups and JAM the ball when close. I’m still on the fence with this staff. Lyons said in the post game interview that he wanted to do well so coach P could stay around longer. Please please get a coach that has the experience that we need. Please
I almost turned off the TV after the first 10 minutes . . . they looked completely overmatched and on their way to another 30 point drubbing. Getting out-hustled for rebounds and loose balls, making sloppy passes, failing to finish in the paint, etc…
But once they hit a few shots you could suddenly see the intensity increase. Once that happened, they actually started believing they could win. Michael Lyons had perhaps his best performance as a Falcon, and they finally closed out a close game against a good team.
All in all, this game was a small first step in the right direction. The trick will be to match that level of intensity for a full game. The only way an AF team will ever be successful against this type of competition is if they play with Jake Burschi-type intensity for a full 40 minutes. If this staff cannot get that out of them, they need to find a staff that can.
Rjp, wht woyld anyone respond as you seem to have all the answers…you have a penchant for assigning wins to a method that does not warrant your reasoning. Explain the last five years of losses with your defense of snailball and perhaps statistically you will be taken seriously. One might recall Pilipovich mentioning they were speeding up the pace in these remaining games…but dont let the facts get in the way of your absurdity to assign the win on “snailball’…dream on. Maybe gas prices are high because if the demand in Ice Cream too? Go Falcons!
FPC…you talk all the time like you know everything. Did you watch this game and the win vs Wyoming. You put down the offense (as you call it snailball) time and time again before the coaching change. Did you see the majority of the baskets in this game….baskets that were made with less than 10seconds left on the shot clock? Not all, but most as the Falcons ran their offense and scored using the offense you distain? Frank Shwab commented on the fact that this type of offense (whether Princeton or motion offense) may be the best with the athletes we have. But you put you blinders on and say :” RJP…you don’t know what you are talking about”. Read what Coach P said (not what you said above): “we are speeding up the pace of play to try to get more points in transition, if that doesn’t work we are going to run our offense”. That is what he has said, that is what we have tried to do and that is how we have scored: push the ball up the court and look for the transition then go into the offense if it’s not there. If you watched the game at all you will see most of our points were not in the transition game, rather in the running of the offense. Look at the offcial box score…we had 2 pts off fast break points in transition, the remaining 56pts off the offense. Come on dude, relax a bit, converse, but look at the fact that maybe the offense you thought couldn’t work, can work if done correctly. You are 100% correct FPC…your quote is right on “but don’t let the facts get in the way of your absurdity ” to look at the facts of at least this one win.
Wow…..all you want to do is agrue your point without looking at facts from at least the one game I was talking about. You reference the last five years…..that same ‘snailball’ you so despise got us to two NCAA tourney’s and the NIT semi-finals before that five years. It takes a combination of coaching and players to make it work….obviously the last five years we didn’t get the right combination working together for whatever reasons. But in this one game, and with a good game by Mike Lyons and Taylor Broekhuis, it worked again as it did so long ago. GO FALCONS, BEAT SDSU