A lot on the line for AFA men's basketball team

Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said his players’ urgency was the most impressive part of the Falcons’ win against Colorado State over the weekend.

The Falcons, who are 14-13 overall and 5-9 in Mountain West play, realize that there is a lot to play for in the final week of the regular season — which wasn’t the case the past couple of years. The top priority is moving up the Mountain West standings, and Air Force can make a significant leap before the conference tournament next week. The players didn’t hide that they’re aware they can improve their seed in games this week against TCU and at New Mexico.

“Depending what seed we get, we could play BYU or San Diego State, or maybe Colorado State again,” senior guard Evan Washington said. “Seeing as how we’ve played each of those teams in the past, we kind of favor to play certain teams, so we definitely look at the seedings.”

Here’s the translation of Washington’s statement: Air Force would much rather play Colorado State than BYU, San Diego State or UNLV in the first round of the conference tournament. That’s no insult to the Rams, either. San Diego State is ranked ninth in the country, and is the likely second seed after losing to BYU on Saturday. As the second seed the Aztecs would play the seventh seed, which at the moment is Air Force. 

Nobody wants to play UNLV, the likely third seed, either. The Mountain West tournament is held at the Thomas and Mack Center, which is UNLV’s home floor. The third seed plays the sixth seed in the first round. Air Force can avoid the top three seeds in the first round, but it will have to win this week.

With a win against TCU, which is 1-14 in the conference, and a New Mexico loss at BYU on Wednesday, Saturday’s game at New Mexico would determine the fifth seed as long as Utah loses one of its final two games. A win against TCU and a loss against New Mexico would mean the sixth or seventh seed for the Falcons, depending if Utah wins one of its last two games.

Air Force has never won a quarterfinal game in the Mountain West tournament. Getting the fifth seed, which would likely mean a date against Colorado State, probably gives the Falcons their best chance for a win this year. Air Force lost by three points at Fort Collins earlier this season and beat the Rams by 17 on Saturday.

Postseason tournaments are also in play with some wins. The College Basketball Invitational and CollegeInsider.com tournament have called Air Force to make sure the Falcons would be interested in participating, which they are.

“I’ve relayed that to the team, having said that, the one thing we keep telling the team is what those folks tell us: ‘You have to take care of your business,’” Reynolds said. “For us to even think about anything like that, we have to win games.”