The Incarnate Word men’s basketball program learned Thursday that 7-foot center Konstantin Kulikov has been cleared to play this season, starting with a Dec. 22 road game at Florida.
Konstantin Kulikov (Soobum Im / The University of the Incarnate Word)
Kulikov’s status had been in question since October pending a review by the NCAA.
He hasn’t been able to practice or play during UIW’s 4-3 start, and he must sit out upcoming games against Missouri-Kansas City and UTEP, coach Ken Burmeister said.
But the coach said Kulikov will return to practice with the team on Friday, in preparation for his anticipated UIW debut at fifth-ranked Florida.
“We get him back for conference, you know, and that’s important,” Burmeister said.
UIW opens Southland Conference competition on Dec. 28 at McNeese State.
Kulikov is from Oryol, Russia. He comes to UIW with experience playing at a prep academy in Spain, in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments and at San Jacinto Junior College.
At San Jac, he started and averaged 6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks for a squad that went 33-2.
UIW guard Keaton Hervey blocks a shot during the first half Tuesday night. The Cardinals, who rank fifth in the nation with 7.1 blocks per game, are expected to get boost in that department with the return of 7-foot center Konstantin Kulikov. Video: theJBreplay.com
Texas Lutheran coach Mike Wacker (left) and UIW’s Ken Burmeister. (Soobum Im / The University of the Incarnate Word)
Quietly, and with very little fanfare, the 30th anniversary of an iconic moment in San Antonio’s college basketball history is approaching.
Not much has been written or said about it, outside of a few whispers among friends who experienced it first-hand.
But it’s hard to forget the 1987-88 season and the memories of UTSA’s first wild ride in March to an NCAA tournament.
Incarnate Word’s Ken Burmeister coached UTSA to the 1988 NCAA tournament. (Joe Alexander / theJBreplay.com)
Show the UTSA team picture from that year to Ken Burmeister and Mike Wacker, for instance, and the nostalgia starts to flow freely.
Burmeister, now in his 12th season at Incarnate Word, served as UTSA’s head coach at the time.
Wacker, now leading the program at Texas Lutheran, worked under Burmeister that year on a staff that included Gary Marriott, Glynn Cyprien and David Oliver.
Burmeister and Wacker talked at length about the good times Tuesday night, before UIW hosted and defeated Wacker and Division III TLU, 91-63.
“It was just a dream come true for me, being part of coach Burmeister’s (UTSA) staff, and working with (assistant) coach (Gary) Marriott,” Wacker said. “I mean, those players were just so much fun to be around.
“They worked so hard, and for them to achieve that, under coach B’s leadership, I was just happy to be along for the ride.”
Tournament time
In only the seventh season in program history, UTSA finished third in the Trans America Athletic Conference regular season standings, behind both Georgia Southern and Arkansas-Little Rock, who tied for first.
But when the Roadrunners arrived at Daytona Beach, Florida, for the TAAC tournament, something clicked.
High-scoring forward Frank Hampton got hot, and UTSA won three games in three days at the Ocean Center, knocking off No. 2-seed Little Rock in the semifinals and No. 1 Georgia Southern in the finals.
The sweetest moment may have arrived on the day UTSA played Little Rock.
The Trojans, under Mike Newell, had been a nemesis of the Roadrunners for two seasons, winning all five games they had played.
That’s before Hampton, a UTSA senior from Chicago, erupted for 42 points in a 101-75 victory to eliminate Little Rock.
Another moment in time came a few days later, when No. 14 seed UTSA traveled to Cincinnati to play in the NCAA first round against third-seeded Illinois.
Battling against future NBA first-round draft picks Kendall Gill and Nick Anderson, the Roadrunners played the Big Ten school on mostly even terms before falling 81-72.
Even with those highlights, Burmeister said his most vivid memories of the season centered on the coaching staff’s chemistry and on a senior class that never gave up on itself.
“The staff got along really well together, and we had a really good, experienced team,” the coach said. “We had some older guys. We had four seniors that, when we got to the (TAAC) tournament, they all stepped up for us.
“Every one of them (including Clarence McGee, Lennell Moore and Todd Barnes) contributed to a victory.”
Players bought into a disciplined approach from the start.
Burmeister inherited the approach from his days as an assistant under Lute Olsen at both Iowa and Arizona.
Leaving Arizona, he arrived at UTSA in 1986 stressing attention to detail in practices and in the classroom.
Stressing discipline
Wacker, a former all-conference power forward at Texas, lived in the Chase Hill student apartments so that he keep close tabs on the players.
“When I was there, that was my job, to get ‘em up (in the morning),” Wacker said. “You know, they couldn’t be in their apartments after 8 o’clock.
“I know (coach Burmeister) has got similar stuff in place now (at UIW), and that means he cares about these guys after basketball stops.”
Flanked by his trusted assistants, Burmeister posted a 72-44 record in four years at UTSA. His .621 winning percentage remains as the highest in the school’s 37-year history.
Almost inexplicably, he was fired following the 1989-1990 season after finishing 22-7.
The end of his tenure has been traced to a falling out with Bobby Thompson, the school’s athletic director at the time.
“If our staff had stayed intact, we’d have gotten into the top 20,” said Burmeister, who is 180-138 at Incarnate Word. “We’d have gotten to the (round of) 16 (in the NCAA tournament).
“Unfortunately, there were administrators over there that didn’t want success, and they made a change.”
Hurt feelings aside, nothing will take away from the pride in what the coaches and players accomplished three decades ago.
“We were literally doing it on a shoe-string (budget), as you well know,” said Wacker, who coached 26 years at Judson High School, before taking over at TLU in 2016. “I just think we all had the right attitude for it. Coach B was driven, driven to push us to be the best we could be.
“Really, that’s what he’s always done. It’s what he’s doing here (at UIW).”
Thirty years ago, in the 1987-88 season, the UTSA Roadrunners reached the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time. (Courtesy, UTSA)
Burmeister (bottom row, fourth from left, kneeling) and Mike Wacker (bottom row, far left) pose with the team that made history as UTSA’s first NCAA tournament squad.
Texas Lutheran coach Mike Wacker fist-bumps his players before Tuesday night’s game at Incarnate Word. Video: theJBreplay.
Division III Texas Lutheran kept it close for most of the first half Tuesday night before the University of the Incarnate Word pulled away for a 91-63 victory.
Freshman guard Keaton Hervey threw down two highlight-reel dunks and scored 17 points to lead the Cardinals (4-3).
TLU forward Matthew Gillette hit 6 of 6 from the field and scored 12 for the Bulldogs (2-3), who counted the game as an exhibition.
The game featured a match-up between coaching allies Ken Burmeister of UIW and Mike Wacker of Texas Lutheran.
Thirty years ago, the two of them helped lead the UTSA Roadrunners to their first NCAA tournament.
Burmeister was UTSA’s head coach and Wacker was an assistant for the 1987-88 squad that won the Trans America Athletic Conference championship.
Oklahoma broke from a five-point lead at halftime Monday night to knock off UTSA 97-85 in Steve Henson’s return to the OU campus.
Henson, UTSA’s second-year head coach, worked for five seasons on OU’s staff before taking the job in San Antonio in 2016.
Freshman Jhivvan Jackson scored 31 points for UTSA. Trae Young, the nation’s leading scorer, produced 28 for Oklahoma.
“We had some good stretches,” Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “Kind of the same theme. We know we can score in bunches and score in transition.
“We showed that tonight. Just had stretches where we didn’t get enough stops, enough rebounds. The three-pointers (for OU) were killer in the second half on some of the possessions that we guarded pretty well.”
OU (6-1) produced a couple of offensive streaks in the second half that put away the visitors.
Trailing by two, UTSA (5-5) allowed an 8-0 run in a two minute stretch to fall behind 58-48.
The Roadrunners retaliated with back-to-back, three-pointers from Jackson to cut the OU lead to four.
Later, UTSA was within five when Oklahoma produced a 11-0 streak that was fueled by five points from 6-foot-10 sophomore Jamuni McNeace.
Leading scorers
UTSA: Jhivvan Jackson 31, Keaton Wallace 17, Deon Lyle 16, Nick Allen 10.
Oklahoma: Trae Young 28, Jamuni McNeace 15, Christian James 14.
Tonight we welcome back to the LNC former OU assistant coach Steve Henson, now the head coach of UTSA.
UTSA is playing well. Staying with Oklahoma on the boards early, UTSA is within five points with five minutes left in the half. OU star Trae Young has already scored 15. George Willborn III has six points and five rebounds for UTSA.
After a slow shooting start, Trae is beginning to heat up, scoring the #Sooners last 8 points.
As the first half comes to a close, OU takes a 42-37 lead into the dressing room. UTSA will take it. The Roadrunners outscored the Sooners 6-0 in the final 1:38.
Young has scored 18, which is no surprise. He’s averaging a nation-leading 28.8. Freshmen Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace have scored 9 each.
UTSA leads OU 27-25 on the boards at the break. But the Roadrunners haven’t found a rhythm yet offensively, hitting only 13 of 39 from the field.
Fortunately for UTSA, the Sooners aren’t shooting it much better, connecting on 15 of 37.
Second-ranked Kansas will play on national television twice this week, which is a good thing for fans aching to see more of Jayhawks senior point guard Devonte’ Graham.
The undefeated Jayhawks will take on Washington on Wednesday night in Kansas City, followed by a home game in Lawrence on Sunday against Arizona State.
Graham has been nothing short of sensational lately, scoring 35 in back-to-back victories last week.
In the wake of a 76-60 victory over Syracuse in Miami on Saturday night, Graham took over at the end of the first half in a tight game, scoring 14 in a row.
Afterward, a question was raised about the concept of a point guard on such a talented team taking 17 shots.
“The thing with Devonte’ is, he is a point guard, but he is also a scoring point guard,” Kansas coach Bill Self said, in notes posted on Kansas’ web site. “He’s a guy that can score or make a pass to finish a play.”
Self said it’s not a negative for his team when it goes to Graham for a spark.
“17 (shots) isn’t a lot of shots to get 35 (points),” Self said. “I don’t think that will be a negative at all but I don’t think it will be a nightly thing.
“I think we’re better when we have balance. On a night when we didn’t have anything going on, he needed to do that (score).”
In offensive outbursts against Toledo and Syracuse, Graham became the first Kansas player since Andrew Wiggins in 2014 to score 30 or more points in back-to-back games.
Wiggins scored 41 against West Virginia and 30 against Oklahoma State in March 2014.
Graham, from Raleigh, North Carolina, said he lets the flow of the game dictate when he elects to shoot or pass.
“We’re just trying to be aggressive, and if I can get in the paint and make plays for others, than I’m going to try to do that and make the right plays,” he said. “My shot was just falling tonight (and last game).
“The previous game before that, my shot wasn’t falling as well. It’s just good to see the ball go in.”
Part of the reason for Deon Lyle’s hot streak on offense can be traced to a move from small forward to power forward.
In UTSA’s offense, it’s fairly easy to get pure shooter like Lyle open on pick-and-pop plays when he is playing at “the four” position.
UTSA coach Steve Henson says he also believes some of reason for the high-percentage shooting can be attributed to the former junior college standout becoming more comfortable in his NCAA Division I surroundings.
Lyle, in turn, says he always has had confidence in his shot.
It’s just that, most recently, when one goes in for the 6-foot-5 native of Nebraska, several others seem to follow in rapid succession.
“I’m just glad the ball’s going in,” Lyle said. “The first few games, I think I had goose eggs. Oh for five. Oh for four. Oh for three.
“So, it just feels good to have the ball go in. I’m in the gym constantly. I’m constantly working on my shot. It’s just a sign of relief that the ball goes in.”
To be precise, Lyle wasn’t putting up goose eggs early in the season.
He was 1 for 5 in UTSA’s season opener. He was 1 for 4 in the second game. But when the Roadrunners traveled to the Bahamas Showcase, something clicked.
Lyle relaxed and started stroking it.
Now, in the past three games, he has averaged 13.3 points per game off the bench, while shooting 57.6 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point distance.
Lyle hopes to continue the streak when UTSA plays tonight at Orem, Utah, against Utah Valley, and Monday night at the University of Oklahoma.
Henson said he is happy that Lyle, from Cloud County (Kansas) Community College, has adjusted fairly quickly to the speed of the game Division I.
“He’s playing with confidence,” the coach said. “He’s playing mostly the four now, which allows him to get open a little easier. You got a facing four man, a pick-and-pop four man, you can get shots for those guys. That’s what he does best.”
At Tulsa earlier this week, Lyle broke out with an eye-opening performance.
While most eyes were watching Jackson score a career-high 29, Lyle made his presence felt with 14 points in 17 minutes.
He nailed 4 of 9 from long distance, including a few seemingly hoisted from the suburbs of Oklahoma City.
“I’m trying to get my confidence back,” Lyle said. “I’m starting to get my feel back. It’s just been going in. I try to stay confident. Stay aggressive. My teammates do a great job of finding me. And that’s the big thing.
“If my teammates didn’t find me like they did, I wouldn’t shoot a high percentage. I promise you that. So, they do a great job of finding me. They pass the ball really well, and the numbers show.”
UTSA guard Giovanni De Nicolao takes it inside to score in the first half Thursday night. Video: theJBreplay.com
UTSA sophomore guard George Willborn III says he considers basketball a team game.
With that, he credited teammates for his career-high, 22-point explosion Thursday night in a 125-64 rout over the Ottawa Spirit at the Convocation Center.
“It’s a team game,” Willborn said. “We worked hard on defense and got a lot of easy buckets. That was our main focus.”
The Roadrunners (5-3) placed six men in double figures and hit 50 percent from the field en route to the fourth-highest scoring game in the school’s 37-year history.
Out-rebounded by 20 in a 100-96 loss at Tulsa Tuesday night, UTSA dominated the boards 67-33. The 67 rebounds were a school record.
Willborn punctuated his best individual effort in two years by nailing 8 of 16 from the field and making all three attempts from 3-point range.
Guard Tanner Riley scored 14 to lead the Spirit (2-7), who are in their first season as a program.
With solid execution on both ends, the Roadrunners built a 37-point lead at halftime (62-25) and stretched it to as many as 63 points (123-60) with less than two minutes remaining.
Playing against a less-established program, with smaller and less-athletic players at virtually every position, it would have been easy for UTSA to let the game get sloppy.
But coach Steve Henson said he liked his players’ approach.
“We kept talking to our guys about playing the right way, defending the right way, making the right play,” Henson said. “We had a lot of success in driving it and scoring in the paint. We just told our guys to continue to focus and keep it simple.”
UTSA’s highest-scoring games
136-68, vs. East Central Oklahoma, 11-22-2008 (Coach Brooks Thompson)
132-97, vs. Texas State, 11-24-1990 (Coach Stu Starner)
128-70, vs. Georgia State, 2-10-1990 (Coach Ken Burmeister)
125-64, vs. Ottawa, Ariz., 11-30-2017 (Coach Steve Henson)
118-97, vs. Centenary, 1-12-1991 (Coach Stu Starner)
Former Texas coach Abe Lemons holds court with the media. (Courtesy of UT Athletics)
By Jerry Briggs For thejbreplay.com
More than 40 years ago, a wise-cracking coach who presided over one of the minor sports at the University of Texas started teaching us all that life didn’t necessarily end after the bowl games.
I remember meeting Abe Lemons, all right.
As a University of Texas senior studying journalism, I learned that perhaps the best post-game quotes in college basketball history could be yours if you could just find the coach’s tiny office in the bowels of Gregory Gym.
Lemons was always in a pretty good mood with us, even though his team was decidedly mediocre in his first season in Austin. I think the Horns finished 13-13 that season, or some such.
Nevertheless, Abe seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the attention he’d get from the media in general and from student reporters, in particular.
Could he deliver the one-liners? Oh, my gracious. He was an aspiring scribe’s dream.
Reflecting on his days as coach at Pan American University in Edinburg – now, UT Rio Grande Valley – Lemons would say he’d warn his players about straying too far from campus lest they be carried off by the coyotes.
As he looked over the stat sheet after UT games, the coach would chew an ever-present cigar down to a nub. Then he’d let fly with zingers, sparing no one.
A UT power forward coming off a modest performance would be hailed by Lemons for producing “one more rebound than a dead man.”
So, with a nod to Lemons’ humor, irreverence and genuine enthusiasm for the game, I want to welcome you to another college basketball season.
Also, welcome to my new website, which we will call, The JB Replay. You can find it by typing in www.thejbreplay.com.
I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with this project.
But with a unique year in basketball dawning in the Alamo City, I think it’s the obvious choice as website’s primary focus for the next several months.
I’m not talking about Spurs/NBA coverage. You can get your Spurs coverage anywhere, most notably from my erstwhile former employers at the San Antonio Express-News.
Dial up The JB Replay, and you can expect to get an expanded look at the game from the grassroots level, to the colleges.
Why prep and college basketball?
Well, for the first time, San Antonio will host both the UIL state tournaments and the NCAA Men’s Final Four in the same year.
The state girls and boys tournaments will be held in the first few weeks of March, followed by the Final Four from March 31-April 2, both at the refurbished Alamodome.
In addition, San Antonio for the first time will have two universities eligible to qualify for the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournaments.
UTSA, as the Final Four’s official host school, features a men’s team led by second-year coach Steve Henson and a first-year women’s coach in Kristen Holt.
The University of the Incarnate Word, meanwhile, will come charging into full-fledged Division I membership under 12th-year men’s coach Ken Burmeister and second-year women’s coach Christy Smith.
So (and excuse me for carrying on a conversation with myself) maybe that’s the initial goal for this news site … devote a day or two per week in the spring to reporting on the high schools and then split the rest of it between the local and major colleges.
Before long, it will be football season again.
Then, maybe we can do the basketball thing all over again in 2019, just in case fans need a reminder on the worldview of Lemons, an Oklahoma native who won 599 games in his college basketball career.
At Texas, Lemons led the Longhorns to the 1978 NIT championship and raised the possibility that basketball could indeed spark interest in a football state.
Without knowing it, he also opened a young journalist’s eyes to the potential for a pretty cool life-long pursuit.
Suffering from Parkinson’s, the coach died in 2002 at age 79. Even basketball referees, a frequent target of his verbal barbs, smiled at the memories.
“You can say something to popes, kings and presidents, but you can’t talk to officials,” Lemons once complained. “In the next war, they ought to just give everyone a whistle.”
