Falcons hoping for some Vegas magic

The clichéd Las Vegas movie plot line is as follows:

Down-in-the-dumps character heads for the desert, hoping to leave troubled past in rearview mirror and reverse fortunes with long-shot gambling streak.

It’s a role tailor-made for the Air Force’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. Both arrive at this week’s Mountain West Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas hoping for a new start after emerging from conference regular season play beaten, battered and embarrassed.

In MWC games, the women went 0-16, and the men went 1-15. No Division I school with men’s and women’s basketball programs did worse this season. If this was a movie, their characters would be staggering down the strip, looking to plunk their last chips on a roulette table for one more spin.

But Vegas instills hope.

“Right now, everyone going into the tournament has a 0-0 record,” Air Force women’s basketball coach Ardie McInelly said. “There have been a lot of upsets in the first round – not just in the Mountain West Conference Tournament, but other tournaments. And you never know what can happen.”

Unfortunately for Air Force, this is no movie. And even if it was, it’d be a sequel. The men’s and women’s teams went a combined 0-32 in the 2008-09 MWC regular season, and neither made a miracle run at the league tournament. The men won only the play-in game (between the eighth and ninth seeds). The women – who play in a differently structured bracket – lost to fourth-seeded New Mexico in their first game.

And the odds are stacked against them this week.

The women have lost 36 consecutive games against MWC opponents – a streak that dates back to the 2007-08 season. Of those 36 games, all but four were decided by double digits. The Falcons lost 22 of them by 20 or more points, including 14 by 30 or more points.

And their opening round opponent Tuesday is Utah, which has won all 29 of the teams’ meetings.
 
The men’s task is slightly less imposing – like K2 is less imposing than Mount Everest. Their losing streak against MWC foes is nine games, and in Wednesday’s play-in game they face Wyoming – the only conference team they beat this season. If Air Force wins, it would face top-seeded New Mexico on Thursday. And the Falcons played arguably their best game of the season against the Lobos on Feb. 20, falling 59-56.

Of course, there is the Falcons’ gruesome MWC Tournament history – they are 1-10 there all-time.

But Air Force has nothing left but to push in its chips and let it ride.

“Hopefully we can be competitive with Wyoming on Wednesday and put our best foot forward and come away with a win,” coach Jeff Reynolds said.

THE WORST OF THE WORST

During the past two college basketball seasons, no Division I school has won fewer men’s and women’s conference games than Air Force. The Falcons’ men’s and women’s teams combined to go 1-63 in Mountain West Conference regular-season play during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 campaigns. The only school whose men’s and women’s programs came close to performing so poorly in league play was Fordham, whose squads combined to go 4-56.

The men

Team; 2008-09; 2009-10; total

DePaul; 0-18, 1-17; 1-35

Air Force; 0-16; 1-15; 1-31

Fordham; 1-15; 0-16; 1-31

SE Missouri St.; 0-18; 3-15; 3-33

The women

Team; 2008-09; 2009-10; total

Air Force; 0-16; 0-16; 0-32

Youngstown St.; 1-17; 0-18; 1-35

Norfolk St.; 1-15; 0-16; 1-31

Santa Clara; 1-13; 1-13; 2-26