Air Force's Atkins happy to be home, even if his role has diminished
Two years ago, Jon Atkins was among the nearly 16,000 fans at UNLV's Thomas and Mack Center when Air Force faced the Runnin' Rebels.
Tonight, the freshman guard will be back in his hometown of Las Vegas as one of 15 players wearing blue and silver for the Falcons when they meet UNLV at 8 p.m.
"I'm really excited about that - just to go home to the home court," said Atkins, who graduated from Las Vegas' Trinity Christian High School in 2007 and attended the academy prep school last year. "A lot of my friends are saying they're going to go. I hope I can get a chance to play there. I just want to get on the court for a second."
That hasn't happened much lately. Atkins appeared to be one of the freshmen who would spearhead a youth movement after he played 21 and 18 minutes in Air Force's second and third Mountain West Conference games, respectively. But he played just 5 minutes in the following game and since then has logged just 2 minutes in one of 10 contests.
"Part of that has been the fact that (freshman guard) Shawn Hempsey has been more steady, and (sophomore guard) Evan Washington has been more steady, and that's limited Jon's opportunities and minutes," said coach Jeff Reynolds, who described Atkins as "very athletic" and a "good defender" who "must improve his decision making."
Considering the time he's spent on the bench of late, this season hasn't gone the way Atkins anticipated. But for whom has it? With losses tonight and in their final regular-season game Saturday at BYU, the Falcons would finish winless in league play for the first time in program history and set a record for consecutive losses with 17.
But Atkins smiled Monday as he spoke of returning home this week (and next week for the MWC Tournament). And he said he's attempted to make the best of his season by supporting his teammates in practice and improving his academic performance.
"I'm not really playing right now, so I just want to help the team as much as I can," Atkins said. "That's always something I'm thinking about, but besides that, school. That comes first here at this place. And I've got that going now, so that makes things a lot better."
