Author Archives: Jerry Briggs

UTSA’s Keaton Wallace takes pride in career achievement

Posted on by
Keaton Wallace. UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 in a Conference USA game on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Senior guard Keaton Wallace will lead the UTSA Roadrunners into a weekend home series against the FAU Owls. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Senior guard Keaton Wallace says he was oblivious to the news last weekend that he had passed a former UTSA great and moved into second place on the school’s all-time scoring list.

“It’s really crazy, because I never knew until I came in on Monday … ” Wallace said. “They told me that I was second. I was shocked. I didn’t even know.”

For the record, Jhivvan Jackson leads the UTSA list with 2,411 points, followed by Wallace, Jackson’s teammate of the past four years, with 1,944, and Devin Brown with 1,922.

Brown, a shooting guard, amassed his point totals from 1998-2002 and went on to play in the NBA. He held the record for 18 seasons until Jackson broke it late last year.

Wallace eclipsed Brown’s mark last Friday when he scored a season-high 33 points in an 87-80 victory at Florida International. The former prep standout at Richardson added to his career total with 16 in a 90-47 victory at FIU on Saturday.

“You know, things like that don’t happen very often,” Wallace said. “Devin Brown, he’s a great player. I seen some of his tape. He could score. Just for two guys, me and Jhivvan, to play on the same team at the same time and do things like that, that’s big time. That speaks volumes. I’m going to keep working. Try to keep getting better.”

As Wallace works on his own game, the Roadrunners are also improving as a team. They have won five of their last six leading into a two-game, Conference USA home series this week against Florida Atlantic. The games are set for Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

If Wallace has learned anything in four years at UTSA, he knows it’s nice to start playing well in February, to lay the groundwork for a trip to the C-USA tournament in March.

“We’re feeling good about finishing strong in the conference,” Wallace. “I think we have six more games. Those six games can be a great momentum change for us going into the conference tournament. We just have to handle our business and do what we need to do. Come in with a positive mindset going into the conference tournament.”

UTSA is emphasizing perimeter defense against the Owls.

“I think we need to guard the three a little bit better,” he said. “I know they have a couple of three-point shooters, things like that. If the defense is all on the same page and we execute our schemes, make sure we don’t give up any offensive rebounds or any second-chance points, we’ll have a better chance at winning the game.”

Having Wallace at peak form also will help. Last weekend, with UTSA facing games critical to its long-term aspirations, the 6-foot-3 left-hander hit 12 of 19 from the field on Friday and 6 of 13 on Saturday.

Coming up

FAU at UTSA, Friday at 6 p.m.
FAU at UTSA, Saturday at 3 p.m.

Records

FAU 8-7, 3-3
UTSA 10-9, 6-6

Steve Henson on Lew Hill: ‘We lost a good coach and a great man’

Posted on by

Steve Henson’s emotions ranged from elation to devastation — all within 24 hours. On Saturday, the UTSA coach felt a surge of energy when his team romped to a 90-47 victory to complete a two-game road sweep at Florida International.

But by Sunday evening, after the team had returned from its triumphant trip to Miami, he felt only sadness after learning that a long-time friend in the coaching fraternity had passed away.

Steve Henson. UTSA beat Southern Miss 70-64 in Conference USA action at the Convocation Center on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA head coach Steve Henson — Photo by Joe Alexander

With his surging Roadrunners preparing for a weekend home series against Florida Atlantic, Henson on Tuesday talked to reporters on a zoom call about the death of UT Rio Grande Valley coach Lew Hill.

“Probably be hard for me to talk about it very much, to be honest,” Henson said. “Just devastating news on Sunday.”

Hill, 55, died a day after coaching his last game. In his fifth season as coach of the Vaqueros, his team lost 77-75 on Saturday night at Texas Southern. School officials announced the coach’s death Sunday night. The cause of death wasn’t known.

The coach’s passing hit his friends at UTSA hard.

Henson had worked for 12 years with Hill on Lon Kruger-led coaching staffs at UNLV and Oklahoma. Assistant Mike Peck had been with Hill on the UNLV staff. Another UTSA assistant, Scott Thompson, worked under Kruger and with Henson and Hill for five seasons with the Sooners, highlighted by a 2016 trip to the Final Four in Houston.

“Twelve years together,” Henson said. “Very, very good friends. He was a good man. It’s really, really heartbreaking. Stayed in very close contact with him. Talked to him pretty regularly. He was dealing with some health issues. Breaks my heart. To watch him … continue to grow, he was such a mentor to the players.

“He had a reputation as a very good recruiter, which he was.

“But after the kids landed in our programs at UNLV and Oklahoma, he was terrific mentoring them. He was a father figure to those who needed a father figure. He grew as a coach. He grew as a man … It’s heartbreaking. We lost a good coach and a great man. Our prayers are with (his wife) Renee and all of his family.”

After the 2015-16 season, Henson, Peck and Thompson came to UTSA, while Hill got the head coaching job at UT Rio Grande Valley.

Hill made five-win improvements in each of his first three years, culminating with a 20-win season in 2018-19 that saw the Vaqueros win an NCAA Division I postseason games for the first time while hosting two rounds of the CIT.

For his efforts, Hill was a finalist for the 2019 Ben Jobe Award, presented annually to the top minority coach in Division I men’s basketball. In total, the Vaqueros made two postseason appearances under Hill, including an appearance in the 2018 CBI.

Jackson breaks field goal record as UTSA sweeps in Miami

Posted on by

Jhivvan Jackson scored a team-high 27 points as UTSA beat Our Lady of the Lake 102-70 on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020, at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jhivvan Jackson, seen here in a game from last December, increased his career field goal total to a C-USA record 813 when hit seven on Saturday in a 90-47 victory at Florida International. – photo by Joe Alexander


Senior guard Jhivvan Jackson broke the Conference USA record for field goals in a career, and the UTSA Roadrunners earned their first C-USA road sweep of the season Saturday as they blew out the slumping Florida International Panthers 90-47 in Miami.

A native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Jackson also hit another career milestone by scoring 22 points to move him past 2,400 since he joined Roadrunners in 2017-18 out of Euless Trinity High School.

Humbled by a slow start to the season, UTSA has won two straight on the road, has forged a 5-1 record in its last six in C-USA and has rekindled passions about competing in March.

“We talked about the opportunity that’s ahead of us,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “We started out 1-5 (in conference). Now we’ve won four out of five or five out of six or whatever it is.

“Trending in the right direction. Now we’re going to play four of our next six at home. We’re very healthy. Our spirits are good. I think we’re in a position to make a run here.”

Records

FIU 9-12, 2-10
UTSA 10-9, 6-6

Coming up

Florida Atlantic at UTSA, 6 p.m. Friday
Florida Atlantic at UTSA, 3 p.m. Saturday

Notable

Jackson finished with 22 points on 7 of 11 shooting, including four 3-pointers. He knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 16 of UTSA’s 18 points in a run at the end of the first half. With the performance, he pushed his career total in field goals to 813, breaking the previous record of 810 held by UTEP’s Stefon Jackson from 2006-09. Jhivvan Jackson also increased his career scoring total to 2,411, which boosts him to 101st on the all-time Division I scoring list, according to sports-reference.com.

No. 1 in Latin America?

It is possible, pending a further review of records, that Jackson ranks first in Division I career scoring among players who were born in Latin America. Former Dallas Mavericks great J.J. Barea, who, like Jackson, was born in Puerto Rico, finished his four-year career at Northeastern in 2006 with 2,290 points.

Playing as a team

Coming into Miami, the Roadrunners were 0-11 on the road since February of last season. They were 0-8 this season. Now they’ve broken through with two of their best road showings. They beat FIU 87-80 on Friday night and followed with the 90-47 rout. The 43-point margin of victory against the bedraggled Panthers was their widest of the year.

Eleven players scored, and seven produced more than one field goal. For the second straight game, they shot better than 50 percent from the field (51.6). Defensively, they held FIU to 34.7 percent and gave up their fewest points in any game. Both Keaton Wallace and Eric Parrish scored 16 points. Parrish, a transfer from Nevada in his first year at UTSA, hit six of six shots from the field. He had nine points and eight rebounds off the bench Friday.

Wallace moves into No. 2 on UTSA’s all-time scoring list

Posted on by
Keaton Wallace. UTSA beat Southern Miss 78-72 in Conference USA action at the Convocation Center on Saturday, Jan. 23, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

Keaton Wallace is now the No. 2 all-time scorer in UTSA school history. — Photo by Joe Alexander

Keaton Wallace has moved into second on the UTSA all-time scoring list. Jhivvan Jackson leads with 2,389 points, followed by Wallace with 1,928.

Former San Antonio schoolboy Devin Brown, who played for the Roadrunners from 1998-2002, scored 1,922.

Wallace moved up with a 33-point performance Friday night at Florida International. Jackson, the leading scorer among active NCAA Division I players, scored 22 as he climbed to within reach of 2,400.

Only 103 players in Division I history have scored 2,400 points.

UTSA wins on the road as Alley, Parrish key a late surge at FIU

Posted on by

The game looked a lot like some others that the UTSA Roadrunners had played on the road this year. Keaton Wallace and Jhivvan Jackson shot the ball well early, and UTSA jumped out to a 15-point lead.

Then in the second half, things changed.

The momentum, slowly, started to shift. The FIU Panthers, down by eight at halftime, kept plugging, kept chipping away. All of a sudden, Antonio Daye hit a jumper with 11:40 remaining, and the Panthers had seized a three-point edge.

Not to worry. The UTSA Roadrunners flipped the script on the season entirely down the stretch, making plays on both ends of the floor en route to their first road win of the season.

In another twist, a couple of players not named Jackson and Wallace contributed mightily in the final push for an 87-80 victory over the Panthers.

Forward Cedrick Alley Jr. anchored the paint on defense, while Eric Parrish scored seven points and crashed the boards for a few key offensive rebounds in the final 10 minutes.

As a result, the Roadrunners improved to 4-1 in their last five games to 1-8 on the road this season. Moreover, they gave themselves a chance to sweep the two-game series in Miami.

Records

UTSA 9-9, 5-6
FIU 10-11, 2-9

Coming up

UTSA at FIU, 1 p.m. Saturday

Notable

Wallace painted a masterpiece with 33 points and 7 rebounds. Jackson, playing with foul trouble most of the night, added 22 points. But this game wasn’t about eye-popping, three-point shooting, even though Wallace knocked down four of them and Jackson three. It was much more about the inspired play of Alley and Parrish down the stretch.

Quotable

“It was very exciting to see the other guys (Parrish and Alley) make big plays. There was one stretch where we were scoring two or three, four trips in a row, and it wasn’t Jhivvan and Keaton. Those two had monster nights. But we would get a bucket from Ced. We’d get a bucket from Parrish. We’d get a bucket from (Jordan Ivy-Curry). That’s really, really exciting.” — UTSA coach Steve Henson.

Furthermore

Another storyline centered on the Roadrunners winning a game on an opponent’s home court. They hadn’t done it since February of 2020. At the end of last season, they won at Old Dominion and then dropped their last three road contests of the regular season. This year, they started the season 0-8 on the road, including a humbling 69-51 loss to UTEP last Saturday night in El Paso.

Feeling good again

“I feel like it was a sense of relief, a little bit, because this is our first road win. I think we’re 1-7 or 1-8 on the road, so getting this road win today was big for our confidence. Like I said, we got to be ready to do it again tomorrow.” — said Wallace, who hit 12 of 19 from the field.

FIU by the numbers

Forward Antonio Daye, Jr., 26 points on 12 of 26 shooting. Guard Tevin Brewer, 17 points, with three 3-point baskets. Forward Dimon Carrigan, 15 points, 11 rebounds, 6 blocks. Like the Roadrunners, the Panthers shot the ball well early, hitting 59.3 percent from the field in the first half. In the second half, UTSA did a better job of limiting FIU’s good looks. The Panthers made only 43.8 percent after intermission. The loss dropped FIU to 1-8 in its last 9 games. The Panthers have lost eight straight in conference, including four of those at home.

.

Henson: ‘We think we have a good chance to win this weekend’

Posted on by

The UTSA Roadrunners have enjoyed a productive week of practice and will approach this weekend’s Conference USA games at Florida International as an opportunity to spark a run to the end of the regular season.

If they win on Friday night for their first road victory, well, that would be nice, too.

In their last outing, they collapsed down the stretch in a 69-51 loss to the UTEP Miners, falling to 0-8 on the road this season.

“To lose at UTEP is not the end of the world,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said in a Wednesday afternoon zoom call. “Put that behind us. Look forward. We think we have a good chance to win this weekend.”

The Roadrunners will play the Panthers at 6 p.m. on Friday and at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Miami, at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

Records

UTSA 8-9, 4-6
FIU 9-10, 2-8

Coming up

UTSA has eight games left in the regular season. After playing two in Florida against the Panthers, the Roadrunners return home on Feb. 12-13 to face the Florida Atlantic Owls (8-7, 3-3). After that, they’ll go back out on the road to face the Charlotte 49ers (9-7, 5-3) on Feb. 19-20. UTSA is set to complete the regular season at home on Feb. 26-27 against the UAB Blazers (14-2, 7-1). The C-USA tournament is March 10-13 in Frisco.

UTEP uses second-half surge to run away from UTSA, 69-51

Posted on by

The UTSA Roadrunners will return to soul-searching mode next week after a poor performance in El Paso Saturday night. After the UTEP Miners recorded a 69-51 victory, the Roadrunners were left to ponder what to do about an 0-8 record on the road this season.

“Again, if we play the way we played tonight, we’re not going to beat anybody anywhere,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said in a zoom call. “We would have lost at home. We would have lost in the park. We would have lost in the Alamodome. It wouldn’t have mattered, if we played the way we did tonight.”

In one way, it could be argued that the Miners may have just had an edge in attitude and motivation, especially at the end of the game.

Setting the stage for what happened, UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 on Thursday night in San Antonio on the front end of a two-game set in Conference USA. In the first meeting, Roadrunners guard Jhivvan Jackson scored 32 points and Keaton Wallace had 19, to go along with nine assists and eight rebounds. The UTSA offense hummed with precision during long stretches.

In the rematch, the Miners didn’t play all that great, but they held Jackson to a season-low seven points, and they also strung together enough plays on both ends to win in crunch time. With the game tied 44-all, the Miners outscored the Roadrunners 25-7 in the last 11 minutes to account for the final margin.

During that stretch, they held UTSA without a field goal for the final 8:17, and they also made their last seven shots from the field. The outcome underscored once again the Roadrunners’ problems on the road, where they have lost 11 straight dating back to February of last season.

“I don’t think it’s a mental block,” Henson said. “I mean, we’re not ignoring it. But, we got to play better. Shoot. We got to play better. I mean, this is a pretty good team. We can’t come in here and play as badly as we did and shoot whatever we shot (29.5 percent) and expect to win. You got to make plays.

“We continue to talk about competing offensively. We’re a pretty good offensive team when we get a few shots down early, and when it’s easy, when the momentum goes the right way. But, boy, when it gets a little tough, we have trouble understanding how to get the right kind of shots, and on the road, you have to get better shots. You have to take care of the ball.

“We’ll address some things early in the week and expect to play better next game on the road.”

Records

UTEP 8-8, 4-6
UTSA 8-9, 4-6

Coming up

UTSA at Florida International, Friday, Feb. 5, at 6 p.m.
UTSA at Florida International, Saturday, Feb. 6, at 1 p.m.

Individually

UTEP — Souley Boum, 20 points on 7 of 17 shooting. Jamal Bieniemy, 16 points and 10 rebounds. Keonte Kennedy, 10 points and 14 rebounds. Bryson Williams, 7 points and 9 rebounds.

UTSA — Keaton Wallace, 15 points on 5 of 16 shooting. Jacob Germany, 11 points on 4 of 9. Jhivvan Jackson, 7 points on 3 of 10 shooting.

By the numbers

UTSA’s last win on the road came on Feb. 6, 2020, in an 85-81 victory over Old Dominion … Against UTEP, UTSA’s offense hit only 18 of 61 from the field, including 8 of 29 in the second half. The Roadrunners missed their last nine shot attempts in the game … Jackson hit the first shot of the game, a nice runner from 12 feet in the lane, and then he started to struggle. In the next few possessions, the Roadrunners’ all-conference guard missed two long three-point attempts. UTSA was up 8-2 on the scoreboard when he fouled a jump shooter. Then he committed his second foul a little more than six minutes into the game and had to come out. Jackson played only 12 minutes in the first half and scored four points. He finished with seven points, only his second game this season with less than 10.

Jackson, Wallace key UTSA’s third straight victory

Posted on by
Keaton Wallace. UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 in a Conference USA game on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Senior Keaton Wallace enjoyed one of his best games of the season with 19 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. Meanwhile, UTSA scored an important C-USA victory over the UTEP Miners. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Very few teams in NCAA Division I basketball have backcourts as explosive as UTSA’s duo of Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace.

The two seniors were at their entertaining best Thursday night in the Convocation Center.

Jackson scored a season-high 32 points and Wallace contributed 19 points, eight rebounds and nine assists as the resurgent Roadrunners won their third straight game, taking down the UTEP Miners, 86-79.

Jackson befuddled the Miners with a mix of long-distance shooting artistry and mid-range finesse, hitting 10 of 20 from the field. The senior from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, nailed four three-point shots.

For his part, Wallace sank 7 of 12 in a tour de force that included grit and defensive hustle from the 6-foot-3 Dallas native.

Jhivvan Jackson. UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 in a Conference USA game on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jhivvan Jackson scored 32 for the Roadrunners. The senior guard is averaging 25.1 points in his last seven games. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Led by Souley Boum and Bryson Williams, the Miners surged into a two-point lead early in the second half. But the Roadrunners held the Miners as a team to three of 16 shooting in a 10-minute stretch of the second half.

Both Boum and Williams finished with 24 points. Williams, a 6-foot-8 post, was held to five of 11 shooting from the field.

Records

UTSA 8-8, 4-5
UTEP 7-8, 3-6

Coming up

UTSA at UTEP, Saturday at 8 p.m.

Starting slowly

After some erratic performances in the pre-conference phase of the schedule, including a 39-point loss at Oklahoma, the Roadrunners started C-USA play by losing two games at Rice, splitting two at home against North Texas and then dropping two on the road at Louisiana Tech. After the 1-5 start in conference, UTSA has now won three straight, all at home, against Southern Miss (twice) and now UTEP to get back into contention for postseason play.

Jordan Ivy-Curry. UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 in a Conference USA game on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Freshman Jordan Ivy-Curry scored 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting in his first collegiate start. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Making the adjustments

The Roadrunners started the homestand with a change in the starting lineup, moving junior Adrian Rodriguez into the first five. They made another move Thursday by starting freshman Jordan Ivy-Curry. With a starting five of Jackson, Wallace, Ivy-Curry, Rodriguez and Jacob Germany, the Roadrunners singed the Miners with 56.7 percent shooting en route to a 46-38 lead.

Quotable

Keaton Wallace, on the slow start to the season — “I (felt) like it was never over. Even in the past, we always start off kind of slow. Then we start figuring some things out. Then guys start meshing together on the court … Then we get rolling. That’s pretty much how it’s been ever since I got here.”

Playing good ‘D’

In the three victories, UTSA has played solid defense in extended stretches to take charge. The Roadrunners did it again Thursday night. For a stretch of more than 10 minutes in the second half, they mixed up defenses, alternating from man to zone, and held UTEP to 3 of 16 shooting. Defensive highlights down the stretch included Rodriguez taking a charge from Williams in the post and the 6-foot-11 Germany extending to block a three-point shot by Boum in the corner. After the block, Germany batted the ball off Boum’s head. It went out of bounds, with the possession awarded to UTSA.

Jacob Germany. UTSA beat UTEP 86-79 in a Conference USA game on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Sophomore center Jacob Germany produced eight points, four rebounds and a block. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Quotable

Keaton Wallace, on the key stops — “Those are the detail plays that we’re making now. You know, we weren’t making those plays early in the season. Just paying attention to little details like that. Knowing when to rotate. Playing the ball. Jumping to the ball, things like that. We’re always in the right spots on defense. Jacob getting the block in the corner. That’s just (game and practice) reps. He understands where he needs to be when the ball is in the corner. And A-Rod, the big (man) was driving … You knew that charge was going to be big for us. He got down there and took it.”

Notable

The Roadrunners will try to win their first road game of the season Saturday at UTEP. They’re 0-7 on the road overall, including 0-4 in C-USA road games. The status of injured forward Eric Parrish (Achilles) is uncertain after he sat out his first game of the season. If anything, the play of Jackson and Wallace gives them hope that they can start winning away from home. Combined, the two probably played as well in tandem as they have all season.

Quotable

Coach Steve Henson, on Jackson and Wallace — “They stepped up on the offensive end and delivered in a big, big way.”


.

Cooking up success: Germany anchors the paint for UTSA

Posted on by
UTSA center Jacob Germany throws down a dunk with 2:18 left to give UTSA a 69-65 lead in a 77-69 victory over North Texas on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021 at the Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA center Jacob Germany is averaging 10.1 points and 6.3 rebounds for the Roadrunners, who host the UTEP Miners tonight. Tipoff is at 6 p.m.. – Photo by Joe Alexander

After the UTSA Roadrunners defeated the North Texas Mean Green a few weeks ago, Jacob Germany’s father was on hand to help the team celebrate.

Justin Germany, a chef by trade, cooked up a feast for the squad.

“We had shrimp fettuccine, chicken alfredo, a bunch of barbeque,” Jacob said. “It was amazing. That’s one thing I do miss back home, is that cooking.”

Germany, a sophomore center from Kingston, Okla., related the story in a zoom call with reporters on Tuesday as the team prepared for a couple of games this week against the UTEP Miners.

Asked if he had been able to pick up any of his dad’s culinary skills, Germany grinned and admitted that he had not.

“No,” he said, “I’m more the eater. He cooks it up and I eat it. I never took the time to learn a lot of it.”

If Germany gets by in the kitchen with only the basics to get him through college, nobody on the team is complaining, because he’s started to carry the squad in a lot of other ways.

Scoring around the basket. Knocking down 12-foot jumpers. Rebounding. Blocking shots. Germany, at 6-11 and 230 pounds, has started to show off multiple skills.

“His instincts are so good (with) his poise, his agility,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said on the eve of tonight’s home game against the Miners. “He’s got tremendous upside. You can see it right before your eyes, his development. It’s pretty fun to watch.”

Last weekend, he anchored the middle as the Roadrunners beat the Southern Miss Golden Eagles on back-to-back nights. In the two games combined, he produced 24 points, 19 rebounds and seven blocks.

His two blocks in the final minute helped UTSA seal a 78-72 victory on Saturday afternoon.

Clearly, Germany has started to feel it as a college athlete. After offseason weight-room workouts, he earned a reputation as the second-strongest player on the team next to Phoenix Ford. He’s also among the fastest players on the team.

Germany said the added bulk helps him maneuver around the basket “without giving up too much position” with opposing players.

Last year, he admitted he struggled to live up to the expectations of being a highly-regarded recruit. If he played inconsistently or had a bad game, Germany said he would get down on himself.

A year later, Germany said he learned to channel his energies in a more positive way.

“I think my mentality has definitely changed,” he said. “Rather than getting angry at myself, I use it to play harder and play faster and stronger. I think I’ve really been able to use that aggression for good to help us win games.”

Coming up

UTEP at UTSA, 6 p.m.
UTSA at UTEP, 8 p.m.

Records

UTEP 7-7, 3-5
UTSA 7-8, 3-5

UTSA’s Rodriguez relishes opportunity to contribute

Posted on by
Adrian Rodriguez. UTSA beat Southern Miss 70-64 in Conference USA action at the Convocation Center on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA junior Adrian Rodriguez battles for possession as the Roadrunners defeat the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in Game 1 of a C-USA series last week. — Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA forward Adrian Rodriguez started for the first time this season last Friday night against Southern Miss. The Roadrunners enjoyed a productive opening 20 minutes and forged a five-point lead at intermission. They ended up winning the game by six.

Same thing happened on Saturday afternoon, basically. Rodriguez started. UTSA moved out to a six-point edge at the half, and the Roadrunners beat the Golden Eagles, once again, by six.

As a result, UTSA is riding a two-game winning streak while preparing for a couple of Conference USA games later this week against the UTEP Miners.

Even though Rodriguez went scoreless with three rebounds in 36 minutes combined in the two recent victories, it doesn’t bother him at all, and that may explain why he has been so effective. The 6-foot-7, 245-pound junior from Tulsa takes his role as a defender and screen-setter and, at times, as a communicator, very seriously.

“I put myself in a mental state that whatever my position (on the team) is, I’m going to come out and give it my all — give my all to my teammates, especially, and do whatever I can to help my team win,” he said. “I’ve been pretty pleased. Whenever I’m out there, I do my job. I get people open, which is my biggest strength, you know, setting great screens, and just getting everybody to talk, getting the energy up, whether that’s in the game or on the bench.”

Rodriguez missed time earlier in the season, sitting out five games, with a back injury.

“It still gives (me) a little bit of problems, but nothing I can’t handle,” he said. “Just got to keep moving forward. Get a little treatment and just push through. You know, this time is limited. You got to make the most of it.”

The Roadrunners will need him to push through whatever discomfort he may be feeling this week against the Miners. He’ll likely be matched up at times against UTEP standout Bryson Williams, who scored 55 points combined in two games against the Roadrunners last season.

“He’s a great player,” Rodriguez said. “You know, amazing touch around the rim. Great athleticism. One of the things we’ve talked about is to be physical with him. You know, try to get him to catch it outside of the spots he’s comfortable in.

“Maybe make him take one more crab dribble, to give the defense a little more time to react. Just switching guys on him. Different coverages. You know, I’m not going to guard him the same way Phoenix (Ford), Ced (Cedrick Alley, Jr.) will. Just give him different looks.”

Coming up

UTEP at UTSA, Thursday, 6 p.m.
UTSA at UTEP, Saturday, 8 p.m.

Records

UTEP 7-7, 3-5
UTSA 7-8, 3-5