Texas basketball coach Shaka Smart speculated Monday that guard Andrew Jones would be out “at least the next few games” before Christmas with a hairline fracture in his right wrist.
Jones is Texas’ leading scorer at 15.3 points per game.
The Longhorns (6-2) host the Michigan Wolverines (8-3) tonight at the Erwin Center.
The game will be carried on ESPN2 starting at 8 p.m.
In meeting with reporters Monday in Austin, Smart didn’t understate the impact the injury could have on his team.
“Obviously it’s a tough injury for us because he’s our leading scorer and has just done a phenomenal job for us this year,” the coach said. “But we’re really excited and hopeful about getting him back as quick as we can.
“In the short term, it’s one of the reasons you have a team with depth and (it’s) why you bring guys in to step up and be part of something that’s larger than themselves.
“We’re going to need everyone on our team, not just guards, but everyone on our team to step up and take (on) a little more responsibility.”
Forward Dylan Ostetkowski (14.0), guard Kerwin Roach II (11.1) and center Mohamed Bamba (10.7) are Texas’ next three top scorers.
Jones, a sophomore from Irving, suffered the injury in Texas’ 71-67 victory at Virginia Commonwealth last Tuesday.
Junior forward Moritz Wagner (16.1 ppg, 8.0 rpg) leads the Wolverines, who have lost to LSU on a neutral site and to North Carolina and Ohio State on the road.
In its last outing, Michigan won at home on Saturday, beating UCLA 78-69 in overtime.
The Wolverines trailed the Bruins by 15 in the second half and then rallied for a win that will supply substantial momentum leading into Austin.
〽️? hits the road again … this time they visit Texas.
Knocked out in the second round of the the NCAA tournament last spring, the Villanova Wildcats are back on top as the No. 1 team in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Four teams from the state of Texas are also in the rankings. Texas A&M is 9th, undefeated TCU is 14th, Baylor is 21st and Texas Tech 24th.
Villanova has been one of the nation’s most consistently dominant teams over the past few years.
In 2016, the Wildcats entered the NCAA tournament seeded second in their region and seventh overall and soared to the championship.
Last year, Villanova was seeded first in its region and first overall. But in a round-of-32 game at Buffalo, the defending champs lost to Wisconsin, 65-62.
So far this season, the Wildcats have forged a 10-0 record. Led by dynamic guard Mikal Bridges, they play at Temple on Wednesday.
#14 Minnesota picks up an 89-84 win over #25 Alabama, who had to play the final 10:41 with three players. Jordan Murphy had 19 points and 14 rebounds for the Gophers. pic.twitter.com/OIPbvaqcbN
Minnesota’s Jordan Murphy isn’t the only big man from the San Antonio area making an impact in NCAA Division I basketball this season. Here is a breakdown on four of the best from Final Four city:
Who: Jordan Murphy, Minnesota junior from Brennan
Size, position: 6-6, 250, forward
Notable: Averaging 19.9 points and 12.5 rebounds. His 11 double doubles lead the nation. He’s also fourth nationally in rebounds and leads the Big Ten.
Who: Ben Lammers, Georgia Tech senior from Alamo Heights
Size, position: 6-10, 234, center
Notable: Averaging 14.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.8 blocks. He’s eighth in the nation in blocks.
Who: Tanner Leissner, New Hampshire senior from Judson
Size, position: 6-7, 230, center
Notable: Averaging 19.2 points, 8.8 rebounds. His scoring leads the team and ranks second in the America East Conference.
Who: Tristan Clark, Baylor freshman from Wagner
Size, position: 6-9, 240, forward
Notable: Averaging 8.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.2 blocks. One of four players to start all nine games for the Bears.
Building on a burgeoning winning tradition in men’s college basketball, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders appear poised to make another run at the Conference USA title.
Coach Kermit Davis’ Blue Raiders, based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, opened eyes two years ago by knocking off Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans in the round of 64 of the NCAA tournament.
Last year, they did it again, taking down Minnesota in the NCAA’s R64.
This season, the Blue Raiders continue to step up their game.
They swept two games against Southeastern Conference foes in the last week, improving to 5-0 against the SEC since 2015.
With a 77-58 win over Ole Miss Saturday at the Murphy Center, the Blue Raiders (7-1) continued to burnish their reputation as the top program in the C-USA.
It was the second SEC victory of the season for Middle Tennessee, with the first coming Wednesday at Vanderbilt.
“The score really wasn’t indicative of what the game was, it just kind of broke open in the last three or four minutes,” Middle Tennessee coach Kermit Davis told reporters later. “What a great fan turnout for our team, over 8,000 fans.
“It was a big game for us, for our town and our campus. When our team has that kind of home court, it means a lot to those guys in that locker room.”
Newcomer Nick King, who has played at both Memphis and Alabama in his college career, has been well worth the price of admission so far.
The 6-foot-7 forward from Memphis East High School is averaging 24.3 points and 6.6 rebounds. King is shooting 55.5 percent from the field.
“Coach always preaches to us about being a national team, and that we have to have the opportunity to show it and take advantage,” he said. “We have the opportunity now, and we’re taking advantage.
“We’re practicing absolutely as hard as we can each and every practice. Not a lot of teams do that during the season … but we have to have that edge every single day.”
Freshman guard Keaton Wallace sparked a late offensive surge Saturday night, turning a close game into an 87-71 victory for the UTSA Roadrunners over the Houston Baptist Huskies.
The Huskies had rallied to within five points with 6:26 remaining when Wallace went to work, scoring 13 during a 19-7 streak by the Roadrunners.
When it was over, UTSA held an 83-66 lead with a little more than a minute remaining.
Wallace finished with a season-high 24 for the Roadrunners (6-5) as they snapped out of a two-game losing streak.
Byron Frohnen added 18, and Nick Allen and Deon Lyle produced 13 apiece.
Houston Baptist (3-7) played tough all night, even without starting center Josh Ibarra, who went to the bench two minutes into the game with an apparent ankle injury.
He did not return.
In his absence, freshman forward David Caraher filled the void nicely, producing career-highs of 30 points and 16 rebounds.
Coming off a road trip to New Jersey, where they played St. Peter’s on Wednesday night and then traveled most of the day Thursday, the Huskies forged a lead for 9:03 of the first half.
UTSA trailed by one when it constructed a 13-4 run in the final 3:42 leading into intermission. Frohnen scored six points in that stretch.
“It was kind of a choppy start,” UTSA coach Steve Henson said. “Kind of a choppy game, really. No flow. Couldn’t get anything going. Didn’t shoot it well early and turned it over a lot early.
“But, yeah, we never got our normal flow going. Other than the first half down in the Bahamas, that was the most dis-jointed we’ve looked all year.”
Henson applauded the play of Caraher, who hit 10 of 16 from the field.
“Obviously their freshman player, he killed us,” Henson said. “He’s a good player. He gave us fits.”
Fortunately for Henson, he had an answer in Wallace, a talented freshman lefty who connected on 7 field goals, including 5 of 12 from long distance.
“It’s like he does most nights,” Henson said. “Good player. He’s consistent. Every time he shoots, I think it’s going in. Sometimes I play him when he’s not making shots thinking the next one’s going in.”
Wallace said the Roadrunners knew they were in a “dog fight” late in the game with the Huskies, who play in the Southland Conference.
As a result, the Roadrunners clamped down on the defensive end and then started executing their inside-out game on offense.
“We practice that a lot,” Wallace said. “It’s like, drive and kick. Get to the paint, kick, because, we got a lot of people that can shoot.”
UTSA sophomore Byron Frohnen drives to the bucket for an easy basket. Video: theJBreplay
Gates family reunion
Houston Baptist senior Will Gates, Jr., got off to a fast start with eight points in the first half.
But he was held to 12 for the game on 4 of 9 shooting.
Jalon Gates, his younger brother, came off the bench for the Huskies and was limited to just two points on 1 of 5 shooting.
Afterward, the two brothers and former standouts at Clemens High School met with family and friends in the foyer of the UTSA Convocation Center.
Will Gates, Sr., the players’ father, is a former Chicago playground basketball legend who was featured in the critically-acclaimed documentary, ‘Hoop Dreams.’
Will Gates, Sr., with sons Will, Jr., (left) and Jalon (right) after Saturday night’s game at UTSA. Photo: theJBreplay.com
Sophomore guard Ky Bowman scored 30 points Saturday as Boston College upset previously undefeated and No. 1-ranked Duke 89-84.
In a tour de force performance, the former high school football and basketball standout from Havelock, North Carolina added 10 rebounds and nine assists in an emotional victory at BC, where fans stormed the court in celebration.
Junior Jerome Robinson (24 points) and Jordan Chapman (22) supported Bowman with stunningly-accurate shooting from long distance.
Robinson and Chapman both hit five 3-point shots for the Eagles, who nailed 15 from long distance. Bowman added three.
Guard Gary Trent, Jr., scored 25 points for the Blue Devils, who fell to 11-1 and to 0-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Boston College (7-3, 1-0) had lost previously to Texas Tech, Providence and Nebraska.
How good was Bowman as a high school football player? Well, according to the Havelock News, he passed on an offer to play for the home-state North Carolina Tar Heels.
Brothers Will Gates, Jr. (left) and Jalon Gates play for the Houston Baptist Huskies. Courtesy: Houston Baptist athletics
The sons of former Chicago basketball playground legend William Gates, a subject of the critically-acclaimed documentary “Hoop Dreams,” will play in San Antonio tonight.
Senior William Gates, Jr. and his brother, sophomore Jalon Gates, are members of the Houston Baptist University Huskies.
The Huskies (3-6) and the UTSA Roadrunners (5-5) will play tonight at 7 on the UTSA campus, at the Convocation Center.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for the Gates brothers, who both played in high school locally at Clemens.
Gates, Jr., a transfer from Furman, starts for the Huskies and averages 8.7 points on 56.5 percent shooting from the field.
Jalon Gates comes off the bench and averages 9.7 points. Gates leads HBU with 40 percent shooting from three-point distance.
The Gates brothers, both of them guards, will have their hands full with the Roadrunners.
UTSA freshman guard Jhivvan Jackson leads the team in scoring (17.6) and is coming off a 31-point game at Oklahoma.
Jackson and fellow freshman guard Keaton Wallace (14.4) have combined to hit 52 of UTSA’s 104 three-pointers.
The 20th-ranked TCU Horned Frogs remained undefeated with an 84-80 victory over No. 22 Nevada on Friday night in Los Angeles.
The Frogs (10-0) have won 15 games in a row dating to last season’s run to the NIT championship.
The 15-game streak is the longest in the nation.
The nation's longest win streak continues! That's 15 straight! No. 20 TCU never trails in a win over No. 22 Nevada in LA. #GoFrogspic.twitter.com/O7eMv0lBFJ
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.
