Around the Mountain: College basketball's new era has left Air Force behind

Joe Scott wasn’t surprised.

When he looked at the preseason media poll and player awards released at the Mountain West Media day event last week in Las Vegas, Nevada, the veteran Air Force coach saw the Falcons at the bottom of the poll and no AFA players being awarded — a reminder that at service academies, players can transfer out, but transfers in aren’t allowed.

Throw in the latest NCAA rule change allowing European professional players to join college programs (like UNM starting center Tomislav Buljan), and it’s a fair question for Scott: In the transfer portal era, why coach at a school that only has an exit door?

“Because I’m a coach,” he said. “At the end of the day, I might have the hardest job in the country. (Actually), there’s no ‘might.’ There is no ‘might.’ If somebody else says some other school (perhaps another service academy), we’re in the Mountain West. There’s no comparison. I have the hardest job in the country. But I still have the best job in the country because I still actually coach college basketball.”

Air Force is seemingly the last school in the Mountain West built exclusively on recruiting at the high school level.

“There’s not a coach here who’s ever gong to recruit a high school kid again,” Scott said.

That 10-player all-conference team is comprised of four players who are with the same school they joined out of high school (but not a one of them is a senior so they could still transfer).

The other six all-league players are transfers, including three who played at other Mountain West programs last season (UNM’s Deyton Albury at Utah State, Nevada’s Elijah Price at Fresno State and Grand Canyon’s Jaden Henley at UNLV).

The Mountain West invites 12 coaches and 24 players — two of the top players from each program chosen to represent their team — to its media day event. Of those 24 players, 15 transferred in from elsewhere, including Jake Heidbreder, who starred for Scott two years ago, transferred to Clemson and is now at Fresno State, with a shot to be the league’s leading scorer.

The Mountain West isn’t unique in any of this. But Air Force is quite unique in all of it, leaving Scott in a position where he doesn’t mince words anymore.

“These two guys over here,” Scott said as he pointed to a computer monitor on a table 15 feet away that showed the faces of Air Force Academy cadets Wesley Celichowski and Caleb Walker, who were not allowed to travel to media day due to the government shutdown. “They stayed. That’s where I find my joy. And I’m going to find a way to play the guys that I feel are going to stay. Now, I’m not clairvoyant, but I’m going to use my best judgment and play the guys I believe are going to stay because that’s what I’ve got to do see if we can still be competitive.”

G-League landing spot

The 31-team NBA G-League opens training camps this week after completing its draft on Saturday.

Here is a list of former Mountain West stars who were drafted into the G-League, ordered by overall draft pick and including each college they attended:

8. Jamal Mashburn Jr., Minnesota/New Mexico/Temple (Westchester Knicks, then traded to Grand Rapids Gold)

9. Ethan Taylor, Air Force (Greensboro Swarm, then traded to Santa Cruz Warriors)

12. Kenan Blackshear, Florida Atlantic/Nevada (Grand Rapids Gold)

26. O’Mar Stanley, St. John’s/Boise State (Motor City Cruise)

41. Vance Jackson, UConn/New Mexico/Arkansas/East Carolina (Maine Celtics)

Also, here are the former Mountain West players on G-League training camp rosters, not including those listed above (only their MW school reflected here):

• Cleveland Charge: Darius Brown II, Utah State
• Greensboro Swarm: Josiah Allick, New Mexico
• Maine Celtics: Max Shulga, Utah State
• Noblesville Boom: Steven Ashworth, Utah State; RayJ Dennis, Boise State
• Osceola Magic: Orlando Robinson, Fresno State
• Raptors 905: Tyson Degenhart, Boise State; Patrick McCaw, UNLV; David Roddy, Colorado State
• Salt Lake City Stars: Elijah Harkless, UNLV; John Tonje, Colorado State
• San Diego Clippers: Jaelen House, UNM; Desmond Cambridge Jr., Nevada; Kobe Sanders, Nevada; Taylor Funk, Utah State
• Sioux Falls Skyforce: Micah Parris, San Diego State; Dischon Thomas, Colorado State
• South Bay Lakers: Cheikh Mbacke Diong, UNLV
• Texas Legends: Max Agbonkpolo, Wyoming/Utah State
• Windy City Bulls: Caleb Grill, UNLV

Other notables, though not with Mountain West ties:

• Maine Celtics: Hayden Gray, UC San Diego
• Memphis Hustle: Evan Gilyard, NMSU
• Noblesville Boom: DaJuan Gordon, NMSU
• Rio Grande Valley Vipers: Teddy Allen, NMSU
• OKC Blue: John Harge, Division II Adams State, the grandson of Lobo legend Ira Harge