UTSA coach Karen Aston took over a team in 2021 that had just won two games. Last spring, in her fourth season on campus, the Roadrunners won a school-record 26 and the American Conference regular-season title. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Coming off a season that illuminated meteoric growth in UTSA women’s basketball, university officials over the summer awarded Coach Karen Aston with a five-year contract extension that will run through 2029-30.

It was an easy decision to make.

In 2020-21, the year before the coach arrived at UTSA, the Roadrunners were way down with a 2-18 record. Under Aston’s guidance, they won seven games in her first season and 13 more the next year.

The Roadrunners won 18 in 2023-24 and a school-record 26 last year, to go along with an American Conference regular-season title. Obviously, the next big hurdle to clear will be an NCAA tournament berth.

But after what the Roadrunners have accomplished lately, that doesn’t seem like a bridge too far.

Talking with the media on Monday, a few days before her teams opens Thursday night in Lubbock against Texas Tech, Aston outlined areas in which she’d like to see UTSA women’s basketball continue to grow.

The first thing she mentioned was a new competition arena.

“One area, and this is a giant, big-picture item, but obviously I would love to see a new arena one day, or some type of renovation to the Convocation Center, just because I think it would make a considerable difference down the road,” she said.

“However,” the coach added, “short term, we’re going to open up a new practice facility (next year) and I think that’s going to be a huge stride for both basketball programs, not just women. I mean, volleyball included.”

While there aren’t any concrete plans for a new competition arena, the practice facility is scheduled to open next November.

“It’s a game changer for us to have places to practice at any point (in the day) and not have accommodation problems like we do have right now, so I’m thankful that that’s going to open up,” she said. “I think it’s going to enhance our program.”

After setting records for attendance last season, Aston wants her team to remain one that fans continue to embrace.

“Big picture, I think there’s a lot to that,” she said. “You want to stay consistent with how your product looks. Our team is going to look a lot different (this season) as far as the people that are in the spots — the starting spots, the people that come off the bench.

“Our team’s going to look dramatically different because the players are different. But you hope that the style and product … stays the same. (That) people enjoy watching the team play and watching our young ladies compete.”

Over the offseason, Aston lost some key players to the transfer portal, including Sidney Love and Aysia Proctor.

She said she’d like to see renewed emphasis on fundraising to grow the team’s capacity to compensate athletes.

“We talk about culture, and that’s an easy word to talk about, but but it’s hard to sustain sometimes. You know, especially with the portal and having new teams just about every year.

“I didn’t even anticipate our team being as new as it is this year. We had some injuries. We had unexpected transfers that I didn’t anticipate. So our team looks a little different.

“You have to maintain a culture that goes along with that. A playing style. A way of doing things. So I hope we can stay consistent with that and stay competitive.”

Aston’s comments on fundraising echoed those offered last weekend by football coach Jeff Traylor.

“I think the last piece of being able to (remain competitive) is continual fundraising. You know, Jeff talks about it. And I think every coach that sits down in the chair that I’m in right now is going to talk about that.

“It’s the landscape that we live in. So I think that for us to stay competitive in the league that we’re in, we have to be competitive with rev share (revenue sharing), and that’s fundraising on everybody’s part, including mine.

“I mean, we have to do whatever the job pertains to, to bring the players in here, or retain players that make big leaps (in performance). You know, I anticipate a couple of (our) players this year making really big leaps.

“For us to stay competitive, we need to retain ’em. So I think that stays in the forefront until something changes in the landscape.”