Air Force looms as tough Y. foe

COLORADO SPRINGS — BYU dribbles into the teeth of a baby monster today at the Air Force Academy.

The Cougars (12-4 overall, 2-1 MWC) and the Falcons (12-2, 2-0) meet today at 4 p.m. in Clune Arena. The game will be televised live on KSL-TV, Ch. 5.

So, what's up with the streaking Falcons? They're experiencing historic success. They're leading the nation in defense and their gimmick Princeton offense is killing teams that do not stay awake and alert for 40 minutes. The Falcons are now attracting national attention, including a nice Friday feature in USA Today.

BYU coach Steve Cleveland has spent much of the week drilling his squad on the nuances of the Falcon offense. He had freshman Austin Ainge and walk-on Mike Dresser lead a prep team session attacking the starters. That Ainge and Dresser scored on a couple of backcuts showed the Cougars had work to do before arriving here on Friday.

As impressed as Cleveland is with the Falcon offense, which his team handled miserably at North Carolina State, he's just as impressed with AFA on the other end of the court.

"The other thing nobody's noticed in winning 10 games in a row, is that nobody's scoring against them," Cleveland said. "Some of that has to do with ball control, but they're shooting the ball quicker this year than they ever have."

Cleveland said AFA's switching combination defense is "very effective," and the only way he knows how to attack it is "with post feeds and penetration." At times this season, however, BYU's offense has struggled at delivering those post touches and penetration to Araujo, the league's most dominating player.

"If we go out there and shoot jump shots, it's going to be a long night," Cleveland said. The Falcons whipped Cal-Berkeley on the road, something the Cougars could not get done.

"Cal scored on their first three possessions and then had trouble scoring. Cal hasn't defended it before. And when they couldn't get it in the post, they couldn't make a jump shot."

Cleveland said if one is mentally weak, "you will struggle against a team like this."

The Falcons will come at the Cougars with a veteran team, which Cleveland said is experienced and which gets a boost from a prep school experience that orients AFA players with five years exposure to head coach Joe Scott's schemes.