Air Force's challenge: get dirty, clean glass

Air Force wants to rebound by committee, with all five players crashing the boards.

"It's absolutely a team thing," senior forward Matt Holland said.

The Falcons' big men often are charged with clearing bigger players out of the lane so their teammates can grab missed shots.

But junior forward/center Grant Parker doesn't believe that gives him a pass for his recent rebounding numbers. Air Force has lost 3 of 4 games, and Parker has grabbed three, zero and two rebounds in those defeats.

"I take huge responsibility for those losses because I know rebounding played such a big role," said Parker, who is averaging 19.2 minutes - most among Falcons' big men - and 3.8 boards. "If I'm not getting any rebounds, how can I expect my teammates to get rebounds?

"And how can we expect to win?"

Heading into tonight's game against New Mexico at The Pit in Albuquerque, the Falcons rank second-to-last in the Mountain West Conference in rebounding margin at plus-1.1 per game. In their five losses, their rebounding margin drops to minus-7.

In its past three losses, Air Force has been outrebounded 108-79, including 38-21 on the offensive glass.

"We work on it every day," coach Jeff Reynolds said. "It's just a matter of trying to get (the players) to understand the importance of it. It's a sense of urgency. Fifty percent of rebounding is effort, and they've got to go after the ball more. ... We're doing a good job of boxing out, we're just not doing a good job of pursuing the ball."

Parker had a similar assessment of his rebounding efforts.

"I find myself just tipping the ball out a lot and not just going up and grabbing it," he said. "I attribute some of that to positioning, but bigger than that, I think it's just the desire to go get the ball - a toughness thing that, ‘This is going to be my board, no matter what.'"

Air Force faces a difficult challenge on the boards against the Lobos. New Mexico ranks third in the league in rebounding margin (plus-3.3) and grabs 11.4 offensive rebounds per game.

New Mexico's 6-foot-9, 235-pound senior forward Daniel Faris leads the Lobos with a 6.4-rebound average, and three others average 4.1 or more.

"We've got to do a really good job of team rebounding and limiting them to one shot per possession," Reynolds said.

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CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0365 or jake.schaller@gazette.com  

TODAY
Air Force at New Mexico, 7:30 p.m., The mtn., 740 AM