UTSA men’s basketball on Tuesday continued to collect Conference USA postseason awards.

Guard Jhivvan Jackson has been named as Freshman of the Year and junior forward Deon Lyle won the Sixth Player of the Year, the league office announced Tuesday.

Jhivvan Jackson finds an open space and hits a mid-range jumper against Marshall.

The announcement followed Monday’s news that Jackson was named second-team all conference and, also, that both Jackson and Keaton Wallace had made the All Freshman team.

UTSA is having its best season in six years.

The Roadrunners have posted an 18-13 record, including an 11-7 finish for fifth place in the C-USA standings.

The Roadrunners open C-USA tournament Wednesday night in Frisco against the UTEP Miners.

Here are some season highlights for each of the three players:

Jhivvan Jackson

Jackson strips UTEP’s Omega Harris and races for a layup, giving the Roadrunners a three-point lead with 12 seconds left on Jan. 21 at the Convocation Center.

Fifth-leading freshman scorer in the NCAA is out for the season with a knee injury … He broke a 19-year-old school record for freshman with 534 points, the most for a first-year player at UTSA since Devin Brown in 1998-99 … Averaged 18.4 ppg to lead the team … Registered three games with 30 or more points …

Deon Lyle

Jhivvan Jackson takes off on the dribble and passes to Deon Lyle for a layup in the first half on Feb. 3 against Western Kentucky.

Tied Wallace for second in scoring (11.3 points) in 18.6 minutes per game … Played all but the last two games of he season off the bench … Started the last two after Jackson was knocked out with a knee injury … Averaged 12.5 in conference … Shot 44.4 percent on 3-pointers to lead C-USA and rank 19th nationally …

Keaton Wallace

UTSA freshman Keaton Wallace gets open and sinks a foul-line jumper in the first half against UTEP.

Averaged 11.3 points, 2.7 assists and 0.9 steals … Ranks as the No. 5 freshman scorer in school history with 351 points … When his shooting cooled off at mid-season, he picked up his game in other areas, registering 11 assists in one game and eight in another …

1H, 3:45 | UTSA leads Rice 32-14. Lyle has knocked down his third and fourth ? of the half. He has at least three 3-pointers in 15 games this season. pic.twitter.com/GBFd2eb8ln

— UTSA Basketball (@UTSAMBB) March 4, 2018

Junior Deon Lyle said the basket just looked big.

Whatever the case, Lyle hit it with regularity in scoring a season-high 33 points Saturday, lifting the UTSA Roadruners to a 79-60 road victory at Rice.

In the regular-season finale for both teams, UTSA surged into a 24-5 lead in the first 11 minutes en route to the team’s 18th victory.

As a result, UTSA (18-13, 11-7) will be the fifth seed in the Conference USA tournament next week in Frisco.

The Roadrunners will open against the No. 12 UTEP Miners at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Rice (7-24, 4-14) was edged out by UTEP for the last spot in the tournament.

Interviewed on the team’s radio broadcast, Lyle said his teammates “did a great job” driving into the paint and kicking the ball out to him on the wing.

“The whole (Rice) team would collapse, Lyle said. “They’d lose me and I’d get open and knock one in.”

Lyle finished 11 of 24 from the field and 8 of 19 from three-point range.

His final point tally broke the team season-high of 31 points held by Jhivvan Jackson, who is out for the year with a knee injury.

“Last game we played, we played real selfish,” Lyle said, talking about an 80-62 loss Thursday night at North Texas. “We didn’t play team ball. I just wanted to make sure we got the win (tonight).

“Me and Jhivvan are real close. He’s like my brother. Then he gets hurt. I just wanted to go out and do it for him and do it for my team tonight.”

UTSA tied a season-high with 15 three-point shots and seemed to be much more locked in defensively, especially in the first half.

“We got off to a real good start,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said. “Defensively, we were very, very sharp. I thought we made a lot of the right plays, offensively.

“When the ball goes through the net, that keeps your energy going.”

The 18 wins are the most for UTSA since an 18-14 finish in the 2011-12 season, the team’s last year in the Southland Conference.

In addition, the 11 conference wins are also the most for the program in the post-SLC era.

Check out photos from @MT_MBB's victory over WKU here: https://t.co/alLtvoH1lJ #BlueRaiders #CUSAMBK Back-to-Back Regular Season Champions! pic.twitter.com/sY5MxMi4aP

— MT Athletics (@MTAthletics) March 2, 2018

The 24th-ranked Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders will play host to Marshall on Saturday, having already clinched the Conference USA regular-season championship.

Heading into the regular-season finale for both teams, the Blue Raiders have locked up the No. 1 seed in next week’s C-USA tournament.

Middle Tennessee doesn’t have any motivation in that regard.

But it does have an opportunity to show once again that it belongs in the NCAA tournament field no matter what happens next week in Frisco.

The Blue Raiders certainly lived up to their billing Thursday night.

They trounced a good Western Kentucky team 82-64 in front of 11,307 boisterous fans in Murfreesboro.

“It was electric,” Blue Raiders coach Kermit Davis said, via the Associated Press.
“I’ve said it ever since we’ve been ranked — and I don’t say it boastfully, I just say it honestly — that we look and play and prepare like a Top 25 team.

“And everybody asks me the question, ‘How are your guys going to handle it?’ The more success, the more motivation.”

Middle Tennessee (24-5, 16-1) toyed with Western Kentucky (22-8, 14-3).

The front line combination of Brandon Walters and Nick King produced 36 points and 20 rebounds.

There isn’t a team in the conference that can handle the Blue Raiders when those two are playing at that level.

“Brandon Walters is playing like an elite center in college basketball,” Davis said. “When Brandon plays like that, we can play with a lot of people in college basketball.”

One team in the conference cheering for Middle Tennessee on Saturday is UTSA.

Seeking a bye in the first round of the tournament, the Roadrunners need to win on the road against Rice and also have Middle Tennessee register a victory against Marshall.

Such a scenario would produce a tie for fourth in the standings between UTSA and Marshall.

UTSA subsequently would get the No. 4 seed and the bye based on an 81-77 victory over Marshall in San Antonio on Feb. 1.

Rice also enters the final weekend with something on the line — a shot at making the 12-team tournament in spite of a 23-loss regular season.

The Owls need a win over the Roadrunners and a UTEP loss at North Texas to claim the No. 12 seed.

C-USA Standings

Middle Tennessee 16-1, 24-5
Old Dominion 14-3, 23-6
Western Kentucky 14-3, 22-8
Marshall 11-6, 20-10
UTSA 10-7, 17-13
UAB 9-8, 18-12
North Texas 8-9, 15-15
FIU 8-9, 14-16
Louisiana Tech 7-10 16-14
Southern Miss 6-11, 13-17
Florida Atlantic 6-11, 12-17
UTEP 5-12, 10-19
Rice 4-13, 7-23
Charlotte 1-16, 5-23

Saturday’s games
Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss, 4 p.m.
UTEP at North Texas, 5 p.m.
FIU at Old Dominion, 6 p.m.
Marshall at Middle Tennessee, 6 p.m.
FAU at Charlotte, 6:30 p.m.
WKU at UAB, 7 p.m.
UTSA at Rice, 7 p.m.

Time to for work.@APlayersProgram#BearDown pic.twitter.com/T3gjXAJkyP

— Arizona Athletics (@AZATHLETICS) March 2, 2018

Embattled coach Sean Miller returned to the bench Thursday night, and his Arizona Wildcats responded with a 75-67 victory over Stanford to clinch at least a share of the Pac-12 basketball title.

After sitting out one game, Miller received the backing of his university administration, which paved the way for him to work the Stanford game at the McKale Center in Tucson.

At issue was an ESPN report quoting anonymous sources saying that Miller had discussed with an agent a payment to center Deandre Ayton.

The report’s validity has since come into question following publication of a story by another news organization.

A story at si.com says that details of a wiretapped phone conversation involving Miller were inaccurately reported by ESPN.

Earlier Thursday, the drama unfolded when Miller issued a statement denying he approved a payment to Ayton, the Pac-12’s scoring and rebounding leader.

Also, Arizona’s president said there is no evidence of wrongdoing by the coach.

ESPN said it stands by its reporting.

In the aftermath, Arizona took the court and surged to a 37-28 halftime lead over Stanford.

The Cardinal rallied to pull within 67-62 when Dorian Pickens hit two free throws with 4:33 remaining.

Afterward, Arizona steadied itself with guard Alonzo Trier hitting six straight free throws down the stretch.

Trier sat out last week’s road games at Oregon State and Oregon after failing a drug test.

Read the complete report of the game at azcentral.com.

Oh, and he can play a little bit of defense too ?@therealjnari_ gets another one: #B1G Defensive Player of the Year!#SpartanDawg pic.twitter.com/5531lvawB1

— Spartan Basketball (@MSU_Basketball) February 26, 2018

Michigan State freshman Jaren Jackson Jr., the son of former Spurs guard Jaren Jackson, has been named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year.

Conference tournaments in NCAA Division I college basketball opened this week.

The A Sun tipped off on Monday, the Big South on Tuesday and then the Big Ten and a handful of others were set to start tonight.

The winners of 32 conference tournaments receive automatic bids to the NCAA tournament.

Another 36 teams will be picked at large by a selection committee. The field of 68 will be announced on March 11.

A link to the conference tournament schedules is here.