Surgical Strike

Air Force was an under-the-radar tourney long shot last march. A year later, the Falcons are the ones hoping to avoid an ambush

Game has been over for 30 minutes, and the gym is so empty that Matt McCraw's voice echoes off the gray steel rafters. The senior point guard, though, is still in uniform and showing no sign of leaving the court anytime soon. McCraw can't bring himself to walk away 'til he's given attention to every fan who wants to chat. And tonight there's plenty to discuss: The Falcons of Air Force are ranked 16th and have just won their 27th straight home game, a 33-point blowout in which McCraw and his teammates held Texas Christian to 39.

But while these days there are only positive vibes, the barren stands of tiny Clune Arena are also a not-so-subtle reminder of a less successful time, a moment so raw it still hurts like a fresh knife wound. The day after losing to Illinois 78-69 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March, and just hours after flying back from San Diego, McCraw and six of his teammates were already back on this court, in front of these same vacant bleachers, propelled toward their next season only by their disappointment. No one had told them to work out. In fact, coach Jeff Bzdelik dropped by the gym only after word of the spontaneous practice trickled out. He watched proudly for a little while before telling his crew to get some rest.

"That's how hungry we were," McCraw says. "How hungry we are." No one has to tell him how close they came. "We competed with one of the top teams in the nation," he continues. "But a couple of guys missed boxouts, myself included. You think, What if I'd boxed out that guy? Maybe we could have gone to the next round. That's the kind of stuff I've been thinking about all year."

THIS IS what a taste of Tournament does to you. It nags at your brain, gnaws on your guts. Players and teams who aren't members of college basketball's royalty, the ones who don't reside among the Duke-Carolina-UCLA-UConn-Kansas perennials, struggle for years to even crack the bracket. A lucky few go on a run and become office-pool darlings or destroyers for a weekend or two. But the vast majority get bounced in the first round and crash hard back to earth, where they're left wondering how long it will be before they get another shot.

The best and bitterest take the hit and use it as motivation, maybe even returning 12 months later as the type of team a single-digit seed fears most: a giant killer. But for this particular Air Force crew, last season's quick exit is the least of what moves them. Let's not forget that each of the Falcons was willing to trade a five-year military hitch for the opportunity to play D1 basketball; lord knows they're out to make the most of it. More to the point, when these guys change out of their dress blues, they don big chips on their shoulders.

Last March, the 24—5 Falcons flopped in their first game of the Mountain West tournament, but the NCAA selection honchos picked them anyway. As an at-large No. 13 seed, they were assumed to be the last team to make the cut, and as such were widely mocked as a sympathy choice: The committee is just being nice to the poor cadets in wartime. Even now, as AF has taken up residence in the Top 20, skeptics whisper that the gaudy record is inflated by a soft schedule. "It's funny," says 6'8" center Nick Welch, although his tone has no laughter in it. "When it comes time to make the schedules, the same people who say we don't belong in the Tournament never want to play us."

The Falcons' recent regular-season success does have them in a weird space: somewhere south of favorite but well north of long shot. Earning the highest poll slot for a military academy in two decades has been a mixed blessing. "We have that number in front of our name, so teams target us in a way they didn't in the past," says Dan Nwaelele, the 6'5" forward who leads the team in scoring. "We've got to remember to play like underdogs every game."

For the most part, they have. (There was that midwinter slump, during which the Falcons went 3—3, alternating a wipeout of Wyoming with a clobbering at the hands of San Diego State.) And if anyone is prepared for the turbulence of the spotlight, it's Air Force, with its four senior starters: McCraw, Welch, Nwaelele and forward Jacob Burtschi. Besides, these four in particular have a unique incentive for wanting to extend their playing careers. Something looms over Air Force basketball, as real as the mountain range towering behind the Colorado Springs campus—and a whole lot more ominous.

It's visible on a cold January morning, a formation of black dots that drifts slowly through the air above the south end of the base, descending gracefully toward a snowy open field in the sunlight. At about 1,000 feet, the dots come into focus. Parachutes, each dangling a cadet. It's a reminder—one of many, like the stickers on phones warning that the lines are tapped by the Department of Defense—that this is no ordinary college campus.

Its students do what they can to deflect postgraduate life, especially the basketball players.

"Me, I never saw the point of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane," Welch says. "Especially after you go through all that effort to get up into the air." Welch has a wry sense of humor, but it's his tenacity that carries him on the floor. He was a Mountain West co-Player of the Year in 2004 before losing all of last season to a shredded ankle tendon; he underwent two surgeries to be able to play again. So low-post muscle isn't the only benefit of his return. The memory of watching from the stands powerless as Air Force failed last March still stings for the ferocious center. "We were definitely deserving of being in the Tournament last year," Welch says, eyes narrowing into a cold stare. "And we've gone out there to leave no doubt in anybody's mind this year."

The Falcons run a modified Princeton offense that features rapid cuts and even faster ball movement. Balanced scoring (four starters average double figures) and four three-point threats (McCraw, Nwaelele, Burtschi and junior guard Tim Anderson) make them a dizzying team to match. On defense, Bzdelik deploys a 2-3 matchup zone that seals holes with speed and smarts. "It's not a defense you play against very often, but they play it very well," says Bob Knight, whose Texas Tech team lost by 14 to AF in November. "Nobody should be surprised if they win a couple rounds in March."

The General is one of the rare nonconference coaches who has been willing to confront the Falcons before then. Bzdelik, determined to toughen up the schedule, heard only excuses from 150 major and mid-major schools this past off-season. "We had to rent a neutral court—for $20,000—to get Wake Forest to play us," he says. "And we've had to go to exempt tournaments. That's okay. We'll play anywhere. We're showing the NCAA committee that by golly, we're doing everything we can."

Air Force trounced Stanford on the road, demolished Wake by 36 and dispatched George Washington by 14. Even losses have brought gains: Intimidated by Duke in the first half of a CBE Classic game in November, Air Force clawed to within seven before falling. "That kind of experience is going to be key for us," Nwaelele says. "When we play our game, we can play with anyone in the nation."

ON SELECTION Sunday, Bzdelik's players, like hundreds of others around the country, will be glued to TV and computer screens, waiting to find out where they are headed. But AF's seniors have already been through a similar if far more serious lottery: On Feb. 16, they learned their base assignments for their active duty that begins this summer. "I might lose a game to Utah or Duke," the coach says. "That's a game. It's real over there. My guys might someday lay down their lives. So even when we're on the road and there are 15,000 people screaming, there's a fearlessness in us. Shooting a free throw isn't such a big deal."

McCraw says most fans at other schools know what the players on Air Force have to look forward to and show them respect. But there is no missing the subtly patronizing tone of some of the comments. "We've lost games and the opposing coach says, 'Hey, if our country is in your hands, with your character and integrity, we're definitely in a great country,'" McCraw explains. "That's nice to hear. But we'll be leaders off the court.

"On the court, we go out and try to win games."

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