LAS VEGAS — Joe Crispin gets something most first-year coaches spend the summer trying to assemble: a team that already knows one another. Air Force returns all five starters, 14 players and 98% of its scoring. The difficult part is separating that familiarity from the basketball that produced a 3-29 season. The Falcons lost all 20 Mountain West games.
His first season will bring a substantial change in pace. Air Force averaged 61.5 points last year. Crispin built Rowan teams that topped 90 a game in his final two seasons there, then spent three years on Penn State’s staff before the academy hired him in March. He calls his approach “fast, fearless, and free.” For the Falcons, that means learning a new offense with an unusually experienced group of young players, rather than replacing those players and starting over.
At the Oct. 2 open practice at Clune Arena, players stayed after the scrimmage to sign autographs for young fans. Senior center Wesley Celichowski told The Gazette, “We’ve been enjoying basketball more.” He also described Crispin’s emphasis on having fun and becoming closer as a team. Crispin had promised the crowd a fast team even when opponents try to slow the game. His expectations remain demanding. “I want to win, I don’t make any bones about it,” he told Air Force Athletics.
Kam Sanders gives the project a credible beginning. He started all 32 games as a freshman, scored an academy freshman-record 400 points and set another freshman record with 121 assists. Those accomplishments came while he carried the largest scoring load on the team. His 12.5 points per game led Air Force. His ability to create a shot for somebody else may become even more valuable as Crispin asks the Falcons to play before defenses get organized.
His return was a choice. Sanders told The Gazette at Mountain West media day that the relationships in the program had made staying easy. “I mean, you can’t really put a price on peace of mind.” He had already earned the team’s Bob Beckel MVP award, becoming the second freshman to receive it and the first since Raymond Dudley in 1987.
Sanders had 74 turnovers against those 121 assists, a workable starting point for a freshman asked to initiate so much. Air Force as a whole finished with 472 turnovers and 389 assists. Too many possessions ended without a shot, and the damage carried into the other end: opponents scored 17.9 points per game off Falcon turnovers. Air Force managed only 10.6 from its own takeaways.
Crispin has argued that playing fast depends on judgment as much as athleticism. In a March interview with The Gazette, he explained why he believed that approach could work with academy players: “The key to playing fast is asking guys to make good, consistent decisions.” His task is to teach the group to recognize an advantage and act before it disappears. A faster offense can spare Sanders some of the work of creating against five set defenders, provided the other Falcons can handle the first pass and keep the possession moving.
Sanders shot 36% from three, making 41 of 114 attempts, but just 40.5% on twos. That split gives a defense choices. Opponents cannot freely abandon him outside, yet they have reason to make him finish through help instead of letting him dictate the possession. For Air Force, getting another scorer involved early would make Sanders’ drives more productive without asking him to turn every trip into a difficult finish.
Lucas Hobin should benefit from that work. The 6-foot-8 forward made an academy freshman-record 70 threes and averaged 11.4 points, giving Air Force another young player capable of carrying a significant offensive assignment. He attempted 220 threes, almost a third of the team’s total. Even on nights when the shots did not fall, the Falcons kept relying on his willingness to take them.
Hobin finished at 31.8% from outside and made 83.3% of his free throws. Improving the three-point percentage would make it harder for opposing forwards to leave him and help on Sanders, particularly if Air Force can get him the ball before the defense recovers.
Air Force’s February loss to UNLV showed how much those two could contribute without controlling the result. Hobin scored 19, and Sanders finished with 18 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. The Falcons led 38-36 early in the second half. UNLV answered with a 14-3 run, then later used a 20-5 stretch to take the game away. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored 19 of his 21 points after halftime, and the Rebels made 23 of 29 second-half shots in a 91-66 win. Air Force’s young scorers had kept the game competitive; its defense could not keep UNLV from accelerating past them.
Ethan Greenberg already gives Sanders another perimeter target. He started 29 games as a freshman and made 52 threes at 34.2%. Together, Greenberg, Hobin and Sanders accounted for 163 of Air Force’s 209 made threes. The Falcons shot 30.6% from three as a team, so there is considerable distance between possessing several shooters and consistently stretching a defense.
Sanders and Hobin can also make the offense less dependent on a hot shooting night. Sanders attempted 152 free throws and Hobin 96, converting 191 between them. Air Force made 368 as a team. Both players have shown they can draw fouls and turn those opportunities into points, an especially useful quality when the perimeter shots stop falling. A defense that has to respect the drive cannot simply run at every shooter.
Caleb Walker offers a much different route to points. He averaged 10.4 and made an academy-record 66.9% of his field-goal attempts. Almost all of that work came inside the arc. A team trying to score earlier can use a finisher who does not need an extended sequence of dribbles to produce an efficient attempt, and Walker supplies a reason to get the ball toward the basket rather than settling for the first available jumper.
His free-throw shooting complicates the assignment. Walker made 52 of 112, or 46.4%, allowing opponents to contest him physically without the usual fear of conceding two points at the line. He also committed 47 turnovers against 19 assists in 24 games.
Crispin inherits a frontcourt with several experienced options. Wesley Celichowski, a 7-footer, started 29 games and averaged 4.8 points and 2.4 rebounds. Walker started six. Eli Robinson started 31 and led the team with 5.2 rebounds per game. Crispin told The Gazette that fans should expect more substitutions with the faster approach. That creates opportunities beyond the previous starters, with minutes available to players who can keep possessions moving and defend the assignments that come with them.
Robinson averaged 7.8 points, shot 48.8% overall and added 49 assists. His 14 made threes came on only 39 attempts, so his offensive value extends beyond standing outside. He can give Air Force another player involved in moving the ball while doing the rebounding work a guard-heavy attack still requires. Crispin will need his passing alongside Sanders when opponents keep the first option covered.
The Falcons were outrebounded by 6.7 per game last season. Opponents collected 321 offensive rebounds to Air Force’s 225, generating additional chances against a defense that already had trouble forcing misses. A successful defensive possession cannot routinely require two stops. Robinson, Walker and Celichowski have to secure the ball, and the guards have to contribute rather than treating the rebound as permission to leave. Sanders’ 133 rebounds as a freshman show he can participate in that work.
Air Force allowed opponents to shoot 49.1% overall and 37.6% from three. Crispin has described his preferred defense as a series of changing problems for opponents in both the full court and half court. In that March interview, he connected the approach to his desire for a game that keeps moving. The Falcons need that pressure to interrupt an opponent’s offense without leaving easy finishes behind it.
His earlier head coaching work gives the academy a record of sustained success to draw upon. Crispin went 114-54 at Division III Rowan, reached three NCAA tournaments and took the Profs to the Sweet 16 in 2023. His final six teams there averaged more than 80 points. Moving that approach into the Mountain West will require adjustments for personnel and opposition, but the emphasis on offense predates his arrival at Air Force.
He also has alternatives beyond last season’s most prominent players. AJ Patterson appeared in 29 games and handed out 51 assists, nearly matching his 50 turnovers. That experience gives Crispin another guard to evaluate as he sorts out who can organize possessions around Sanders. Riley Dering made 31 of 51 shots in 14 appearances. His role was small, but the finishing adds another consideration to a frontcourt competition that should not be decided solely by last year’s starts.
Six freshmen join the returners. Crispin identified Grant Best and Caleb Fay as players who could contribute while acknowledging the difficulty of the jump to college basketball. Their immediate opportunity will come within a roster containing seven sophomores, three juniors and four seniors.
Air Force opens at Wright State before hosting Calumet, and it will play Army and Navy in the same season for the first time since 1985. Crispin’s offense will have more opportunities to run if Robinson and the other rebounders can secure the first miss instead of defending a second possession.