Monthly Archives: September 2024

Austin Claunch’s lesson for the day: ‘Separate yourself with effort’

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

One play during a halfcourt defensive drill Friday afternoon pretty much underscored the Austin Claunch way of playing basketball.

Guard Tai’Reon Joseph came out to contest the dribble on the wing. Forward David Hermes also switched out to stop the ball, forcing a pass to the top of the key. A driver put his head down and tried to maneuver into the lane, only to run into heavy traffic.

Bodies collided. Guard Marcus Millender, who cut off the driver, tumbled to the court. Falling on top of another body, he somehow managed to find the ball on the floor, and Millender gained possession. Overseeing the action, Claunch obviously liked what he saw.

“Separate yourself with effort,” the coach said to the group.

And so it went on Day 2 of UTSA’s official fall camp practices under Claunch, a first-year head coach.

“I’m pleased,’ the coach said. “I love how hard we practice. That’s obviously going to be a staple of what we want to be and the identity that we want to play with. We’re really deep. Everybody. I think the level of competition is great the way we’re pushing each other.

“To me it’s not pushing guys down. It’s raising everybody up. That’s an exciting thing for a coach. Two days in, I’m really excited. We got a lot of work to do like everybody, but I like where we are so far.”

Only a week ago, Claunch told The JB Replay that the team had made good progress and that it actually was — in some ways —
close to being ready to play a game.

“We’re in decent shape,” he said Friday afternoon. “I think we’re still getting to where we need to be. I think we’re in good shape. Now there’s just some things we need to tidy up on both sides of the ball.”

A couple of scrimmages against Division I competition loom in coming weeks, so the coach will know more as he sees how players respond to outside forces.

“That’ll be a good bench mark for us,” he said. “I think we’re building a good foundation for what we want this program to be, and I’m really excited for these guys.”

UTSA’s season opener is Nov. 4 at home against Trinity University.

One thing is clear after my first view of the team in a full practice. The backcourt will be a strong suit. Joseph, Millender and Primo Spears all have potential to match up with most of the guards in the American Athletic Conference.

Joseph, shown in the video above setting up a corner three with a look-away pass, seemed to have an excellent practice on Friday.

Not only did he guard the ball well, he showed creativity in distributing, along with a lightning stop-and-start move that allowed him to get past defenders.

“He’s as fast a player as I’ve ever coached,” Claunch said. “End to end, it’s impressive to see. I tell you what, he has grown so much over these last few months. Physically tough. Mentally tough.”

Claunch encourages Joseph to take the catch-and-shoot three pointer, but his move to the basket seems major league, at least from first glance.

“You start to see some of that downhill thrust that he has attacking the rim,” the coach said. “And defensively, he’s just a menace, man. He can really disrupt flow. Gets his hands on a ton of balls. Deflections, things like that. Excited for him. He’s really just scratching the surface. He doesn’t really know how good he can be.

“We’ve had him for three months. I’m excited to see where he’ll be in another three months.”

Joseph, from Baton Rouge, La., has played in NCAA Division I at Austin Peay, Radford and Southern University. Last season at Southern, a Baton Rouge-based team in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, he led the league in scoring. Joseph averaged 20.5 points on 43.8 percent shooting.

Sparking the defense

Primo Spears, a Florida State transfer, continued to showcase a two-way game. Speedy on the dribble. Dangerous with an array of pull-up jumpers and floaters. But just as important to UTSA coaches, tenacious on the defensive end.

“Some guys have natural ability,” Claunch said. “But on top of that, they have a mentality that they’re going to get stops. For our point guard to pick up and take that upon himself … And you know, Smurf (Millender) is that same way … all of them, really (including Tai’Reon) Joseph, Raekwon Horton and Jaquan (Scott), along with Jonnivius Smith and Mo (Njie), being rim protectors, we can be a really good defensive team.

“Sky (Wicks) is athletic. Naz (Mahmoud) has good hands. We’ve got good personnel to be a good defensive team. But certainly I think it starts with Primo on the ball.”

Following a UTSA legend

UTSA has recently added three walk-ons, bringing the roster total to 16.

The three include guards LJ Brown and Baboucarr Njie and forward Jackson Fazenda. Baboucarr Njie is the younger brother of UTSA center Mo Njie. Brown is the son of former Spurs guard Devin Brown, who also happens to be the Roadrunners’ No. 3 all-time leading scorer.

Claunch said it takes some courage for LJ Brown to play for the same program that his father helped lead to the 1999 NCAA tournament.

“He’s about everything that we’re about as a program,” the coach said. “Toughness. Hard work. Fight … Obviously he’s got the pedigree, right? LJ is competing. He’s competing for minutes just like everybody else. Doesn’t matter if you’re a walk-on or not.

“He’s got to continue to handle (the ball) and make better decisions offensively. But he is about everything that we’re about, and I value that. Taking care of the ball. Being a good teammate. Rebounding and being tough. He’ll have a chance to play.”

American Athletic Conference announces retention of Memphis, South Florida, UTSA and Tulane

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Four schools with athletics programs in the American Athletic Conference, including UTSA, have elected to remain in the league after a few weeks of speculation that they had fielded inquiries on their interest in joining a revamped Pac 12.

The American on Monday afternoon sent out a release on social media topped with the logos of AAC members Memphis, South Florida, UTSA and Tulane. Under the logos in the post on X, formerly Twitter, a headline stated, “We are The American Athletic Conference.”

According to the post, the AAC is “a conference that prioritizes student-athlete welfare, has proud academic institutions, produces fierce competition at the highest level, and has outstanding linear and direct-to-consumer national media partners.

“Together,” the statement continued, “we are committed to continuing to build the American brand, exploring new opportunities for exposure and value, and developing innovative economic resources—all in service of our student-athletes.

“While we acknowledge receiving interest in our institutions from other conferences, we firmly believe that it is in our individual and collective best interests to uphold our commitment to each other. Together, we will continue to modernize the conference, elevate the student-athlete experience, achieve championship-winning successes, and build the future.”

UTSA athletics also posted on X, saying, “Together, we are committed to the American Conference.” The post included a graphic display of a map identifying the locales of all 15 AAC members.

The Pac 12 has been decimated by conference realignment in recent years, with former longstanding members starting play this season in the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference. The shuffle has left the Pac 12 with only two schools, Oregon State and Washington State universities.

Recently, the Pac 12 announced the addition of four schools from the Mountain West, including Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Fresno State, for the 2026-27 season.

Reportedly the Pac 12 had targeted the four schools from the AAC, among others, as possible entries.

UTSA has emerged as something of a hot commodity since it started playing football in 2011. By 2012, the school played as a member of the Western Athletic Conference. In 2013, UTSA started a 10-year run in Conference USA during which it won football titles in 2021 and 2022.

Last season, in 2023-24, UTSA played its first season in the American.

Slam dunks, shrieks and pizza — UTSA wins the day at the Eastside Boys and Girls Club

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Outside, a September sun filtered out of a hazy sky. The muggy, mid-90s heat hung low on a lazy Thursday afternoon, clinging to anyone who walked the streets adjacent to the Eastside Boys and Girls Club.

Inside, at 3503 Martin Luther King Drive, something cool was going on.

About 80 grade school-aged kids sat in the bleachers in a comfortably air-conditioned gymnasium, sizing up likely the tallest basketball players they had ever seen in person.

Pretty soon after the kids had all taken their seats, a layup line formed on the court, and the UTSA Roadrunners started to play to the crowd.

The first few athletes glided toward the hoop, tossing in layups. What followed next was a series of more explosive, acrobatic dunks, each one followed by shrieks from the children, some of whom clasped their hands to their wide-eyed faces.

A dunk. A collective scream. Another dunk. Another scream.

Event organizer Bob Benavides, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Retail Merchants Association, stepped outside the gymnasium for a few minutes to discuss his charitable foundation’s nascent collaboration with new UTSA coach Austin Claunch.

So, what exactly is happening inside that gym, Mr. Benavides?

“To use the words of a 10-year-old, it’s nuts,” Benavides said, smiling. “They’re having a blast. I don’t think they’ve ever seen players as tall as the ones they were interacting with. I saw them jumping around trying to tap (the players’) heads … Just to hear the laughter in that gym, you can’t replace that with anything else. That is so joyful.”

The joy continued in the aftermath of the two and a half-hour clinic when the boxes of hot pizza arrived. Claunch met the children face to face, handing out prizes and thanking everyone for coming.

Then he sat down to talk about what he said was his first — but not his last — attempt to take his program to the people of San Antonio.

“I thought it went really well,” Claunch said. “We had some fun. Handed out some prizes. Got some pizza. Then our guys got to get up and down and show off a little bit. Great event. I look forward to the next one. Again, it’s just the beginning. I want our guys to understand what it means to play for UTSA and be a part of this community.”

Motivation: UTSA women plan to play for a gritty former teammate

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Elyssa Coleman had 32 points, 19 rebounds and 3 blocks as UTSA earned its first American Conference women's basketball win, beating Wichita State 74-60 at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Center Elyssa Coleman, who announced her medical retirement in May, finished a three-year run at UTSA ranked first in school history in blocked shots and ninth in rebounds. She’s on the job now as director of operations for Roadrunners women’s basketball, all while working on her master’s degree in public administration. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Players on the UTSA Roadrunners may very well carry a little extra motivation into the coming women’s college basketball season just to make sure that Elyssa Coleman knows they all respect what she did for the program.

At least, that was the heartfelt message delivered on Thursday from sophomore center Idara Udo, who said following an afternoon practice that the Roadrunners hope to play as hard as they can this year for their former center and team leader.

After UTSA’s season ended in the second round of the WNIT last spring, Coleman announced her medical retirement because of chronic knee problems.

Idara Udo (No. 25) had a key blocked shot with 7 seconds left. UTSA beat New Mexico State 58-55 in women's basketball on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA sophomore Idara Udo says she thinks the Roadrunners will play this year to honor Elyssa Coleman’s commitment to team success. – File photo by Joe Alexander

The news that she wouldn’t play a fourth season for the Roadrunners hit Udo hard when it was revealed in a May 24 news post on the UTSA athletics website.

Even though it wasn’t a total surprise to Udo, it was an emotional moment for her, nonetheless.

“It was bittersweet, because I knew that was what was best for her and best for her body, and just best for her in general,” Udo said. “But it was also sad, because, as the season went on, me and Elyssa created a really strong relationship.

“She was kind of like, my mentor, my big sister. So I think it was really hard to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to get to share the court with her another year.”

Udo made her sentiments known a week after Coleman, who now works on the UTSA staff as an operations director, sat down with the The JB Replay and outlined how her ordeal began when she hurt her right knee in February.

At the time, the injury wasn’t deemed as too serious, and she sat out a game on Feb. 12 at home against the UAB Blazers. After that, she returned to the lineup a few days later and played in the team’s last 11 contests, including two in the American Athletic Conference tournament and two more in the WNIT.

It’s no secret that Coleman, a 6-foot-3 post player from Atascocita, wasn’t nearly as productive as the team reached the postseason and played into late March. Still, she battled through it as best she could.

“She is tough,” said Udo, a sophomore from Plano. “I think it just speaks to her character, not only as a teammate, but as a player. It’s just really unselfish, to make that kind of sacrifice for your team.”

Udo said her friend deserves credit for sticking it out through the playoffs even though she wasn’t 100 percent. The Roadrunners hope to reciprocate with a strong effort of their own this season, she added.

“I think that’s a big part of my motivation today,” Udo said. “Just (to) try my best to come out and give it my all … just for her. I think everybody on this team is kind of playing for Elyssa a little bit.”

Last season was the Roadrunners’ best in 15 years. They went 18-15 and advanced to the WNIT’s second round. Coleman bowed out after three years in the program by averaging 10.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.

A year of transition

For Coleman, the 2024 calendar year has been eventful, physically painful and, yes, heartbreaking. Also, fulfilling and exciting, because after earning her bachelor’s degree in sociology last December, she started graduate school at UTSA in January.

If all goes to plan, the 22-year-old who ranks first in school history in blocked shots and ninth in rebounding could have her master’s in public administration as early as next summer.

Karen Aston. UTSA beat North Texas 75-67 in overtime in American Conference women's basketball on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Karen Aston says Elyssa Coleman was ‘looking for a home and some stability’ in 2021 when she transferred from Texas to UTSA. – File photo by Joe Alexander

As a member of Coach Karen Aston’s original UTSA recruiting class in 2021, it was also a thrill for her to experience postseason play in March and a trip to the WNIT with the Roadrunners.

The tough part centered on making a decision when she was confronted with a recommendation from doctors a few weeks after season’s end that she was facing a major surgery and a rigorous rehabilitation if she wanted to continue to play for the Roadrunners.

Ultimately, she elected to have the surgery. But instead of a ramped-up rehabilitation schedule with an eye on a return to the court, she called it a career, a decision that came with a more moderate rehab schedule. Coleman later was announced in July as the team’s operations director.

Reaching the decision to walk away from the game after playing competitively since grade school, she said, wasn’t easy.

“I think that first month was really tough,” Coleman said in an interview last week. “But I think the way everything happened, like, I had a scope (an arthroscopic surgery) at first and then a lot of tests (and) I started to realize gradually what was really going on, internally.

“So it wasn’t all crashing down on me at once. I talked a lot with my dad. Had a lot of prayer. Just talking to God … So, yeah, the first month was hard. But I was paying attention, and my body, it was telling me to stop.”

Coleman’s life now consists of days starting with a 5 a.m. wake-up, a trip to rehab, a trek to work in the office around 8 a.m., a visit to a mid-day practice, a return to the office and then grad school class from 5 to 8 p.m.

Her duties as operations director?

“I basically do all our travel stuff, budgeting,” Coleman said. “I’m being like a team mom … I just keep the girls in the know. If there are any changes, schedule wise, I’m on that.”

Coleman said she is actually busier now than she was at this time in previous years as a player, which is good, because she likes to stay busy. She’s also starting to see college basketball from a different vantage point.

“Being on the opposite side, you start to appreciate things more, just because you see all the work that the coaches are doing behind the scenes, and have been doing since year one, like staying late after practices,” she said. “Like, you think they just wrap up and just go home, too. But it’s constant work.

“I don’t know, the transition hasn’t really been that hard (for me) just because I’ve been having such a close relationship with our staff. So I feel like it’s flowing pretty well, actually.”

Getting into the game

Urged by an aunt to play, Coleman started in basketball competitively at age seven in the Twin Cities Little League in Sour Lake, just outside Beaumont.

She was taller than most of her friends at the time and remembered having fun on what she recalled as a competitive team, which included Ashlon Jackson, who now plays at Duke.

“I’ve always been taller than everybody,” Coleman said. “I remember a story my mom told me. Like, one time I was posting somebody up and I pushed her down (accidentally). I felt so bad. I picked her up and was like, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ ”

At the time, others at the gymnasium were chiming in: “Oh, it’s just a part of basketball.” Added Coleman, smiling and shaking her head, “That’s how sheltered I was. I just wasn’t into sports at all.”

Pretty soon, she figured it out. Once she reached Atascocita, Coleman started to blossom. Overcoming a knee injury that derailed her sophomore season, she gradually improved, and the college coaches came calling.

One of those coaches, Karen Aston from the University of Texas, she really liked. As a result, Coleman committed to Aston and the Longhorns.

“I could just tell she was a people person,” Coleman said. “There’s not a lot of coaches like that, especially in the Power Five. I could tell on my (campus) visit that she was a coach that was always there for (her players). That they could always go to her and talk about whatever was going on.”

Overcoming adversity

Officials at UT elected not to renew Aston’s contract after the 2020 season and hired a new coach, Vic Schaefer.

Coleman reported to the UT program under the new coach but didn’t stay for long. After a blown out knee sidelined her for her one and only year in Austin, she sought a transfer. By that time, Aston had just been hired at UTSA. A few contacts were made, and Coleman, just like that, became a Roadrunner.

Together again at UTSA, Aston and Coleman arrived to rebuild a program that had recorded single-digit victory totals for four straight seasons.

They didn’t turn it around immediately, winning only seven games in 2021-22. By the next season, Aston started to get it going. With Coleman playing at a higher level, Jordyn Jenkins and Kyra White entered the picture, transferring in from Southern Cal, and the Roadrunners won 13. Last season, UTSA won 18 despite a knee injury that kept Jenkins off the floor until well into the spring.

But by the time Jenkins returned, Coleman’s performances had started to plateau with her own knee issue. Regardless, the Roadrunners had their best season since 2009, when they won 24 games and reached the NCAA tournament.

Earning the coach’s praise

In her three years at UTSA, Coleman has added so much to the UTSA program, Aston said.

“I think her willingness to buy into our vision was something that stuck out to me the whole time,” the coach said. “In taking the operations position, I think she’s still on that same path of helping us move the needle for UTSA. I think she’s grown to really care about the program and about the people in it. I think she’s taken a lot of pride in where we started and where we’re at.”

Aston said she will be counting on Coleman to supply some intangibles outside of her office duties.

“It’s a voice,” the coach said. “It’s a voice that understands what I expect. She was a mentor to our young players last year, anyway. I think she can flip the script a little bit and become even more of a mentor because she’s not absorbed with how she’s performing. That’s the biggest piece.

“I love hiring former players. I love moving people up in the system, because they understand your expectations. It’s development. It’s giving back to the game. I think that’s what she’s doing right now. She’s giving back to the game.”

Coleman is also leading the Roadrunners by example. After all, how many Division I athletes help lead a historic program turnaround and then graduate with a bachelor’s degree in three and a half years? How many have a chance to secure a master’s by age 23?

“It’s exceptional,” Udo said. “It’s really inspiring, honestly. It just makes me inspired to keep pushing even on the days when … I’m just overwhelmed with school … and I’m like, ‘This is hard.’ It just gives me motivation to just do it. Because I know somebody who did it, and is still doing it right now.”

Austin Claunch wants UTSA’s identity defined by ‘how hard we compete’

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

First-year UTSA basketball coach Austin Claunch is a man with a clear vision for his program.

Despite three straight seasons of 20-plus losses under the previous staff, the 34-year-old former Houston schoolboy announced at his introductory news conference back in April that, one day, he hopes to help his players cut down the nets to celebrate a Roadrunners championship.

Austin Claunch was introduced at the new UTSA head men's basketball coach at a public news conference on Thursday, April 11, 2024. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Austin Claunch has vowed that his first team at UTSA will play with physicality and toughness. — Photo by Joe Alexander

It’s a compelling notion, all right. But that doesn’t mean that such an outcome can happen in instantaneous fashion. In an interview Tuesday afternoon, only a few weeks into fall semester workouts, Claunch fielded a question about what type of identity his team might have and how good he thought UTSA could be in his first season.

“Listen,” he said, “I’ve got practice in the next five minutes. It’s hard for me to say. It’s hard for me to say, ‘How good can we be?’ Our goal is to come out and win every single game. Obviously we’re a long way from that. You know, we’ve got to build.”

Claunch sounded much more certain about what type of style the Roadrunners would play.

“Our identity is going to be (as) a team that comes out and really, really (competes),” he said. “I think you’re going to be impressed with how hard we compete and how hard we play and how together we are from a toughness standpoint. I mean, it’s got to start with that.”

Despite his age, Claunch comes to UTSA with a championship pedigree. He made a name for himself as a head coach at Nicholls State University, where he won a pair of Southland Conference regular-season titles, and then spent last season as an assistant on the staff at Alabama, a team that advanced to the NCAA Final Four.

Soon after arriving in San Antonio in April, the coach assembled a staff and went to work re-stocking the UTSA talent-base. By July, he announced a 13-man roster, including 12 transfers. At the time, seven of those transfers were from power conference programs. In addition, two players came from programs that played in the NCAA tournament.

Now, a little more than two weeks away from the start of official fall practices, the Roadrunners find themselves grinding away. Claunch acknowledged that they might be a work in progress. In regard to both offensive and defensive execution, much needs to be fine-tuned.

But one thing is a certainty as far as the coach is concerned — UTSA will play with physical style. “We’re going to embrace protecting the rim,” Claunch said. “I can tell you that. We’re going to certainly embrace protecting the rim. Sometimes with shot blocking. Sometimes with just our ability to stay in front of the ball.”

On offense, the coach vowed that the Roadrunners would play with pace and play efficiently.

“You know, we’re going to share it,” he said. “We want to score a lot of points, and you don’t do that with just one guy scoring 30 every night. Now we have a lot of talent. We have a lot of guys that can shoot.

“So we’ve got to get that ball moving and share it on the other end,” Claunch added. “We want a lot of assisted shots. But more than anything, what’s important to me, is having a team that represents what UTSA and what San Antonio is all about, which is that toughness and that ability to show … consistency every day, and fight through adversity.”

Njie joins UTSA

The Roadrunners have added 6-foot-11 center Mo Njie to join the program while also acknowledging that 6-7 forward Jesus Carralero Martin is no longer on the team.

Njie joins the Roadrunners following two seasons with the SMU Mustangs, for whom he played in 38 games. At 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, the Centerville, Ohio big man started his career at Eastern Michigan.

Carralero Martin was announced as part of Claunch’s 12-man signing class in July. He played last season at Missouri and before that, four years at Campbell.

Texas Tough

Claunch said that the coaches are keeping track of what he calls “Texas Tough” points. “We calculate that every single day,” the coach said, “for deflections, steals, rebounds, taking charges, whatever the case may be.”

So far, Raekwon Horton and Primo Spears have set the pace in that regard.

“One thing I don’t ever worry about with this team is playing hard,” Claunch said. “We are as competitive as any group I’ve ever been around. And so, the first two days of the preseason workouts, Raekwon Horton won the first day and Primo Spears won the second day, and I would say those two have been, pretty consistent with that.”

Spears has been one of the team’s top performers through the summer and into fall practices. Known as an explosive offensive player in past seasons at Duquesne, Georgetown and Florida State, the Connecticut native has also excelled on the defensive end in early practices at UTSA.

“I tell you what,” Claunch said. “He really guards the ball, too. He can really, really guard.”

Horton, a 6-foot-6 wing from Santee, S.C., has played in the NCAA tournament in each of the past two seasons at the College of Charleston and, most recently, at James Madison.

“Raekwon … has a knack for the ball,” Claunch said. “It’s no surprise he’s been at places that have won and gone to NCAA tournaments. You can see that he sort of has that way about him. And then Primo, too. I think those two guys certainly bring an edge every single day.

“But other guys have (done that) as well. I think our toughness and competitiveness is really good, top to bottom.”