In a 5-12 season, there are myriad problems for a basketball team. But if you had to pinpoint one problem for the Utah basketball team this season it would be the inability to defend the 3-point shot.

So guess who's coming to the Huntsman Center tonight?

Just the second-best 3-point shooting team in the country, the Air Force Falcons.

The Falcons are shooting threes at a 44.7 clip this year, which may not seem that great, considering the Utes have been allowing opponents to shoot 47.7 percent on the season. Heck, if the Utes can hold the Falcons to shoot 44.7 percent tonight, they might be doing cartwheels.

The trouble for the Utes is the 11th-ranked Falcons, who have won 13 straight, do a lot more things well than shoot 3-pointers.

Not only are they second in the nation in 3-point shooting, they are also ranked in the top 10 — incredibly — in eight other categories.

The Falcons are tied for first in fewest turnovers per game (10.2), second in field goal percentage (53.9), second in win-loss percentage (94.1), fifth in scoring defense (54.6), fifth in fewest fouls per game (13.6), seventh in 3-pointers per game (10.0), eighth in scoring margin (19.4), and 10th in free throw percentage (76.3).

Utah coach Ray Giacoletti knows his team has its hands full tonight.

"It concerns me that they are 17-1 and are very efficient in everything they do," he said. "They don't beat themselves. You've got two obstacles with guarding them and what you need to be able to do to score."

Surprisingly, he's more concerned about his team's ability to score against the Falcons than to stop them.

"The difficult part might be scoring," he said. "It always used to be, 'How are you going to defend Air Force?' And, still, that's a challenge, but that's a little bit. But I think people in our league at least understand a little bit what they are trying to do offensively. It's what you can run and how can you be effective scoring the basketball."

The Utes have been able to score for the most part this year. In fact, the Utes rank right behind the Falcons in 3-point shooting at 44.4 percent with Shaun Green leading the nation at 56.8 percent. But unless they slow down the Falcons' offense, they have little chance of an upset.

The one thing the Utes can find solace in is the fact the the Falcons have struggled to win their last three games.

Last Tuesday, New Mexico, the same team the Utes took to overtime in The Pit, led the Falcons by 21 points in Colorado Springs before blowing a second-half lead. Then on Saturday, Wyoming stayed with the Falcons right down to the final buzzer when Jacob Burtschi made a layup to win by two. Before those two games, Air Force held on to beat UNLV by six at home.

The Falcons are basically a five-man team with the starters often playing all 40 minutes. Only Andrew Henke (4.5 ppg), averages more than 10 minutes a game among the reserves.

Next up for the Utes is Wyoming Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Huntsman Center.

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E-mail: sor@desnews.com