Finally, national sports writers are starting to notice Air Force basketball. 9-1, Air Force has beaten two Big 12 teams, a Pac-10 team, and an ACC team. ESPN.com's Andy Glockner has a great article about the secret behind Air Force's success (hint--it has something to do with teamwork--gasp!) and the history that Air Force is creating with it's great start. Not just in its 9-1 record, but in how it has won those games.
According to stats guru Ken Pomeroy, since the 1999-2000 season, there is only one other team from outside the "Big Six" conferences with at least two wins by that margin over Big Six schools. New Mexico also beat Colorado this season, by 41, and thrashed Mississippi last season by 53, but both of those wins were home games in the Lobos' intimidating Pit. Overall, there have been only two seasons since 1999-2000 (before this current one) in which there were at least three total wins of that margin involving a non-major school over a Big Six team.
Furthermore, if you look across all teams – Big Six or not – in that same time frame, there have been only 15 cases of a team having at least three wins by 30 points or more over BCS-league competition in one season. All 15 teams were at least at-large worthy and 13 of those teams got a top-four seed in that season's NCAA Tournament. Nine of them were No. 1 seeds. Only one of the 15 (Kansas last season) didn't win at least one NCAA Tournament game.
This year's non-conference schedule and results should silence the critics who complained last March when Air Force made the NCAA tournament despite a weak non-conference schedule.
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