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MW Basketball: Wyoming Fires Allen Edwards, Air Force Parts Ways With Dave Pilipovich

The Mountain West coaching changes strike quickly.

NCAA Basketball: Nevada at Wyoming Troy Babbitt-USA TODAY Sports

Just a few days after losing to future Mountain West Tournament champions Utah State in post-season play, Wyoming has decided to fire head basketball coach Allen Edwards after four seasons in Laramie.

Edwards guided the Cowboys to a 9-24 record this season and won just two conference match-ups in the regular season. Despite a solid showing in the Mountain West Tournament, the direction of the program under Edwards was trending too far downward in general. The 44-year old posted 43 victories in his first two years on campus, but since then, has gone 17-48 over the past two seasons, with a 6-30 mark in conference play.

Prior to becoming the head coach at Wyoming, Edwards was an assistant for the Cowboys from 2011-2016. The school has yet to issue an official release, despite multiple media outlets reporting the news.


In a similar breath, Air Force has made a change at the top of it’s program, as the Falcons have parted ways with their head coach Dave Pilipovich.

Pilipovich, who has led Air Force since 2012 when the program dismissed then-head coach Jeff Reynolds, has amassed a 110-151 record during his time with the program, including a 50-100 mark in conference play. The Falcons have never finished higher than 6th in the conference regular season standings and have made just one post-season appearance under Pilipovich, when they played in the 2013 CIT.

Nathan Pine, the school’s director of athletics, issued this statement about the coach who has been on the Air Force bench since 2007.

“Dave has been a tremendous ambassador for our Academy and basketball program. He is a gentlemen and a professional and we appreciate all that he has done for Air Force. The bottom line is we have to be more competitive on the court. We entered this season with a senior-laden and talented team with high expectations, unfortunately we did not meet our goals as a program this year. It’s clear to me that a change in leadership is necessary at this time for us to move the program forward. Air Force will begin a national search for a new head coach immediately.”