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Burmeister, Wacker reflect on an NCAA dream season

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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.

Ken Burmeister. The Incarnate Word men's basketball team opened the season with an 87-71 victory over Southwestern on Friday night. (Joe Alexander / theJBreplay.com)

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.

Incarnate Word turns up the heat on Texas Lutheran

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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 beats UTSA, 97-85, as Jackson scores 31

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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.

Henson toiled from 2012 through 2016 on Lon Kruger’s staff at OU. Together, Kruger and Henson led the Sooners to at least 20 wins four times.

OU broke through with a trip to the Final Four in 2016.

Tonight, Henson’s Roadrunners (5-4) will play against Kruger’s high-scoring Sooners (5-1) at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

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.

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.

The pace of the game has picked up quite a bit early in the second half.

Both teams have started to hit shots. Pace could favor the Sooners, who average an NCAA third-best 94 points per game.

But UTSA is hanging tough with the Big 12 opponent. OU leads 67-59 with 11:55 remaining.

Guard Devonte’ Graham lighting it up for No. 2 Kansas

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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.”

Nationally-ranked Baylor looks ahead to Sam Houston State

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Forward Tristan Clark (No. 25), a Baylor freshman from Wagner, competes in the first half Saturday against eighth-ranked Wichita State.

Short-handed Baylor is destined to take a bit of a tumble in the national polls after losing twice last week to ranked opponents.

Ranked 16th in the Associated Press Top 25 at the beginning of last week, the Bears are expected to fall when the new rankings come out Monday morning.

They’ll try to get back in the win column Monday night at home against Sam Houston State.

Buoyed by early-season victories against Wisconsin and Creighton, Coach Scott Drew’s team lost 76-63 on the road against 21st-ranked Xavier last Tuesday.

Forward Terry Maston broke his wrist against Xavier, and the Bears subsequently learned that they will be without him until January.

As a result, Baylor went into Saturday’s home game against eighth-ranked Wichita State with only eight scholarship players.

The Bears put up a good fight but fell 69-62.

Bears guard Manu Lecomte said it’s been tough trying to adjust.

“Huge, it’s been tough lately,” Lecomte said on notes posted to Baylor’s athletics website. “We tried to bring guys in. Ish [Wainright] was here yesterday, and we brought in O[bim Okeke] this week trying to help us.

“Tyson (Jolly) did a great job for us. First game of the year against a top ten team and he did a great job just coming in and did everything he could.”

Despite the manpower shortage, the Bears had the game tied with a little more than three minutes remaining. They couldn’t hang on.

Forward Tristan Clark, a Baylor freshman from Wagner, produced six points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes against the Shockers.

For the season, Clark is averaging 6.6 points and 4.6 rebounds in 20.7 minutes.

Utah Valley rallies to knock off UTSA, 88-80

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Power forward Isaac Neilson and guard Conner Toolson scored 19 points apiece Saturday night as the Utah Valley Wolverines rallied down the stretch for an 88-80 victory over UTSA.

In a game played at Orem, Utah, the size of the home team proved to be the difference as the Wolverines won the rebounding battle with ease, 55-29.

Akolda Manwang, a 7-foot, 240-pound center, pulled down 14 rebounds for the Wolverines. Neilson, at 6-11, added 12. The Roadrunners’ two big men are only 6-8.

Despite being over-matched in the paint, the Roadrunners rallied from a 16-point, first-half deficit and surged into a 57-47 lead with 12:47 remaining.

From there, the Wolverines answered with a 16-2 run to re-gain control.

“Second half was a bunch of runs, both ways,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “We came out and played the right way for the first couple of possessions, got the ball to go in the hole pretty easily.

“They responded. Not surprised. You know, good team. Veteran team, and they just made the tougher plays all night long, and that was the key to it.”

Guard Keaton Wallace led UTSA with 21 points. Deon Lyle and Nick Allen scored 13 apiece for the Roadrunners (5-4).

The Wolverines (5-3) continued to show improvement after two early losses to powerhouses Kentucky and Duke.

Coming up

The Roadrunners play Monday night in Norman, Oklahoma, against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Henson worked as an assistant at Oklahoma for five seasons before taking the UTSA job in 2016.

UTSA erupts for a 125-64 victory over first-year Ottawa

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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)

Nationally-ranked Gonzaga rolls past UIW, 103-68

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Gonzaga made it look easy.

The 15th-ranked Bulldogs opened a large lead early and then cruised to a 103-68 victory Wednesday night over the University of the Incarnate Word.

Gonzaga, a Final Four team a year ago, jumped on UIW 19-2 and then kept pouring it on en route to a 49-26 lead at the half.

In the game played at the McCarthey Center in Spokane, Washington, forward Rui Hachimura scored 18 points to lead four Gonzaga players in double figures.

The Bulldogs (6-1) shot 54.4 percent from the field to hand UIW its third straight loss.

On the defensive end, Gonzaga held the Cardinals (3-3) to 43.9 percent and 15 points under their scoring average.

Point guard Jalin Hart led UIW with 17 points.

Cardinals forward Charles Brown III sat out his second straight game with a lower leg injury.

Josh Perkins sparked Gonzaga in the first half by hitting all five of his shots from the field for 13 points.

In the early going, Simi Socks knocked down a jumper for UIW to tie the score at 2-2.

From there, Gonzaga rattled off 17 straight points. A three-pointer by Perkins with 14:30 left in the half made it 19-2.

Upcoming

Sacramento State has canceled Saturday’s men’s basketball game at the University of the Incarnate Word, according to a news release from UIW.

UIW released the information on Wednesday afternoon.

A Sacramento State spokesman said Thursday “we bought out of the game in early October” after reaching a deal to play in the Wooden Legacy tournament.

The spokesman said Sacramento State has agreed to pay UIW $100,000 in compensation.

UIW will play its next game Dec. 5 when it hosts Texas Lutheran.

Injury report

Brown’s injury is a blow to the Cardinals, who rely on him for scoring and rebounding.

He sustained the injury late in a Nov. 22 home game against Loyola Marymount.

Brown, who averages 14 points and 5.5 rebounds, has now missed the past two games.

In the three-game skid, UIW has lost at home to Loyola Marymount (91-87) and on the road at Houston (97-58) and at Gonzaga.

Tulsa dominates on the glass, beats UTSA, 100-96

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UTSA freshman guard Jhivvan Jackson scored a career-high 29 points, but Tulsa dominated on the glass at home in a 100-96 victory Tuesday night.

The Golden Hurricane won the rebounding battle, 47-27, which served to off-set 15 3-point shots by the visiting Roadrunners.

“(On) the offensive side, we’ve got the ability to do that,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the team’s radio broadcast. “I told the guys, we’re going to have nights when we make 12 or 15 threes, and we did. But the whole deal was the boards.”

Tulsa outscored UTSA 21-6 on second-chance points, many of them coming as a result of 15 offensive rebounds by a swarm of athletic, long-armed players.

Trailing by 13 points with 4:53 remaining, the Roadrunners didn’t give up. Instead, their offense started to roll with a 12-3 run.

Three-pointers by Giovanni DeNicolao, Deon Lyle and Jackson trimmed the Tulsa lead to 87-83 with 2:21 left.

With Tulsa making just enough free throws down the stretch, UTSA couldn’t get any closer until the final shot, when George Willborn III nailed the team’s 15th trey with 4 seconds left.

“We never back down,” Jackson said. “We just come out and play as hard as we can and try to get the dub (the win).”

Jackson hit 6 of 12 from the field, 3 of 7 on three pointers from long distance and 14 of 15 at the free-throw line.

“All my teammates (were) just putting me in the right spot, giving me right looks and coach was just trusting me in my game,” Jackson said.

Addressing the media in Oklahoma, Tulsa coach Frank Haith called Jackson “a terrific scorer.”

“I thought he was dynamite tonight, made some tough shots,” Haith said. “He knows how to put that ball in the hole.”

Records

UTSA: 4-3

Tulsa: 4-3

Leading scorers

UTSA: Jhivvan Jackson 29, Keaton Wallace 17, Deon Lyle 14, Giovanni De Nicolao 12, George Willborn III 11.

Tulsa: Junior Etou 20, Sterling Taplin 18, Curran Scott 16, Martins Igbanu 10.

Coming up

At home: UTSA returns home to play the Ottawa Spirit from Sunrise, Arizona, on Thursday night.

On the road: The team will hit the road again with games at Utah Valley on Saturday and at Oklahoma on Monday.

Kendell Ramlal shows Henson, UTSA that he can play

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Nearly a year has passed since UTSA coach Steve Henson had a chance meeting with a student after one of the Roadrunners’ home basketball games.

As it turned out, this particular student towered over most fans in the Convocation Center that night.

He was 6-feet-8, and he also carried 220 pounds on a chiseled frame.

Henson didn’t know all the details, but Kendell Ramlal was looking for a chance to play.

“What’s your story?” the coach asked.

Ramlal spelled it out. He once played for Episcopal High School in the Houston area. He played three years at Texas State.

And now he was just a student at UTSA, working out and playing 5-on-5 in the rec center, looking for another opportunity.

Not too many days went by before Ramlal’s phone buzzed.

“They texted me,” Ramlal said. “They said ‘We need you.’ I said, ‘Ok, I’ll be there.’ It was that simple.”

A year later, Henson is most happy to have made Ramlal’s acquaintance.

The fifth-year senior is starting to take on a significant role for the Roadrunners, who play on the road tonight at Tulsa.

In the past two games, Ramlal has come off the UTSA bench, gradually seeing more and more court time as his confidence grows.

Henson played him 17 minutes in a 72-58 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last Friday.

He responded with a career-high 11 points, four rebounds and three blocks.

“We knew he could help us defensively,” Henson said. “But he’s making the right plays. Big blocks. He rebounds. Guards his own guy.

“He’s just a different level athlete. We don’t have anyone else who can rebound above the rim. It was very exciting to see him do that for us.”

Henson said he is surprised with Ramlal’s emergence.

“Honestly, yes,” the coach said. “He surprises me that he’s doing it while the lights are on. He had some days where he did that in practice. He did it in June.

“Just didn’t know as we got closer to the games, (if) he was going to do it when the pressure was on.

“And he is. He’s stepping up big time. Again, he just didn’t play that much at Texas State. You wonder, why is it going to be different now? But he’s been fantastic.”

After punishing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with his hustle and all-around play, Ramlal smiled and admitted that it feels great to contribute..

He said he sees himself as UTSA’s “energy guy,” hitting the floor to boost the team when it needs a push.

“Definitely,” he said. “I’m the energy guy. I’m a fifth-year senior, so I bring a lot of leadership. I’m honestly the biggest, strongest guy out here, so I try to show the guys – lead by example – how to be the bigger and tougher guy.

“I was able to do it tonight, so I feel great about that.”