Mountain West Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season
team. 501. . . . Falcons . 9
Projected Starters:
Guards – AJ Walker-JR, Chris Joyce- SR, Mason Taylor-SO
Forwards – Keaton Van Soelen-SR and Ameka Amaya-SR
Bench – Carter Murphy-SO, Abe Kinrade-JR, Simon Banks-SO, Camden Vander Zwaag-SO, Isaac Monson-JR, Nick Jackson-SO
After seven straight losing seasons, Dave Pilipovich was let go in March leading the way for Joe Scott to return to the Academy where he began his college coaching career and was the last person to lead Air Force to the NCAA Tournament in 2004.
While the Scott hire provides hope, he won’t be turning back the clock to 2004 in 2020-21 as the Falcons graduated 80% of its starting lineup and weren’t able to secure any notable recruits out of the transfer portal. Scott does, however, bring back a veteran roster which will be led by all- MWC candidate AJ Walker (11.1 Pts, 3.5 Reb, 3.1 Ast). Walker was in the transfer portal and receiving lots of high major interest, but in June made the decision to return to Colorado Springs.
Who is going to help Walker is a little bit of a mystery, but just about everybody has an opportunity to show the new coach that they can be an asset.
Senior Chris Joyce is the logical solution to be Walker’s running mate in the backcourt (6.6 Pts, 2.9 Reb, 1.4 Ast), but he saw his scoring average dip from his sophomore to junior seasons and will need to improve his career 34% 3-point shooting percentage to be a difference-maker.
Two players from Pilipovich’s promising 2019 freshman class, Carter Murphy (2.4 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 0.4 Ast) and Simon Banks also have a golden opportunity to get heavy minutes in Scott’s guard rotation.
The good news for Scott is that expectations are low heading into his second stint at the wheel at Air Force. Anything above a 9th place finish should be seen as a success.