BYU-Air Force: Cougars Victorious in Trap Game 71-50

There’s nothing worse than playing a bad team on the road. They want to beat you so bad to turn their season around. You have to play to win and not play not to lose. There is a definite difference in your aggressiveness and overall mindset if you play this way.

Tonight we were a little tentative, and Air Force played like a team that is 0-7—loose and free. With seven minutes left it was 45-43 Air Force. Unfortunately for them they just weren’t talented enough to pull it out; they are a very poor basketball team right now. I believe we will double them up at the Marriott Center.

I was happy we didn’t panic tonight and pulled away at the end. We beat them 28-5 in the final seven minutes. So at the turn we are 5-3. We will need to have a good final eight games. 7-1 would be great.

I am disappointed in our zone defense once again; we just don’t get out to shooters. It’s like shooting practice out there. We need to extend that thing out and at least contest those shots better. You can’t just let someone shoot a wide-open jumper. It’s amazing Air Force only managed 50 points.

Against Air Force when you’re playing man, you have to get to shooters and just sit on the back-cut when your man is being dribbled at. If you do that they can’t score, but we still got back-cut tonight; we have to execute the game plan a little better.