By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners will open their season on Thursday morning in College Station with heightened expectations, hoping to get things rolling with a victory over the Texas A&M Aggies, a Power 4 team from the Southeastern Conference.

UTSA forward Jordyn Jenkins isn’t shying away from talking about the hype surrounding the Roadrunners, who have been mentioned as a potential dark horse candidate to win the American Athletic Conference. Asked recently about the challenges that come with expectations to win, Jenkins offered a philosophical reply:

“I think (the challenges) are just within ourselves,” she said. “…If anything it’s going to be us that (will) hold us back. We have a lot of talent and some newcomers that really get our chemistry going. I think we’re going to do really well. Whatever happens, it’s up to us.”

Today, the Roadrunners will meet the Aggies at 11 a.m. at Reed Arena.

Both teams will bring star power to the floor. A&M (19-13 last season) is led by Africa native and 6-foot guard Aicha Coulibaly, who has played one season for the Aggies and the previous three with the Auburn Tigers. UTSA (18-15 last year) counters with Jenkins, a 6-0 power forward from Kent, Wash.

In 2021-22, Jenkins’ sophomore season with the Southern Cal Trojans, she started making headlines up and down the West Coast. She averaged 14.8 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Trojans and made first-team all conference in the Pac 12. In the offseason, she elected to hit the transfer portal in order to find a new direction.

She found it at UTSA, where she immediately was noticed in summer 2022 as a dynamic scorer. Jenkins always seemed to be on balance in the early workouts, capable of explosive bursts to the hoop or hard-to-handle, mid-range jumpers.

Opening 2022-23, her first season with the Roadrunners, she exploded, averaging 20.6 points and 7.5 rebounds. Displaying impressive speed for a power forward, she often beat her opponents down the floor and finished averaging 49 percent shooting.

Conference USA Player of the Year? It was an easy pick. It was Jenkins. But just as she seemed to be reaching her potential, the Roadrunners’ season ended in the semifinals of the C-USA tournament. And about a month later, adversity struck when she suffered a knee injury in a workout on campus.

After a torn anterior cruciate ligament that required knee surgery, she had to regroup, going through rehabilitation and strengthening workouts just to be able to start to shoot the ball during summer drills. She didn’t start contact work in practice until mid-way through the 2023-24 season.

Stepping up for the team, she played the Roadrunners’ last 12 games, averaging 17.1 points in 22 minutes. Her contribution was crucial to UTSA reaching the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament and then, later, the second round of the WNIT.

This past summer, Coach Karen Aston told her star forward that she wanted her to work on conditioning, setting as a goal trying to hit peak conditioning by the season opener.

“I’ve been working hard in trying to (be ready to) play a 40-minute game,” Jenkins said. “I know that’s what coach is expecting of me. Being a fifth-year senior, I should have my conditioning up. I know I need to be in the game, and getting in the extra conditioning, whether it’s after weights, during my rehab, just whatever I can do to stay on the court (is important).”

Her goal is to play in the WNBA, eventually. But she also has some unfinished business with the Roadrunners leading into her final season. Jenkins scored 23 points on Nov. 1 as the Roadrunners stormed to a 90-38 exhibition victory over Division II St. Mary’s University.

“I’ve definitely tried to bump up my leadership,” she said. “(I) just have a way more grateful attitude towards this because it’s my last year, especially after seeing my teammates grow. I see in them (as) myself when I was younger.

“Just to kind of lead them as positively as I can, I feel like that will help my mental game, as well as my physical game.”

Against the Aggies, who are 0-1 this season after Monday’s home loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the Roadrunners will bring a new look with a raft of speed and long-armed players. Two of the most intriguing new faces include speedy point guard Nina De Leon Negron and Nyayongah Gony.

Immediately, Jenkins hit it off in summer conditioning with De Leon Negron. The 5-6 UIW transfer does a good job running the offense, driving and finding players in the paint with touch passes. Gony, 6-4, who transferred from Mississippi State, defends the basket and runs the floor with long, loping strides.

Gony even leads the fast break, bringing it up court on the dribble.

“She’s very versatile,” Jenkins said. “You know, I’ve actually witnessed her getting down the court in about four dribbles. Jumping from the wing, with her Euro step. She’s really good and adds a whole new dimension to our team, especially offensively. I hope it’ll be really tough (for opponents) to guard a really big lineup with our team.”

UTSA’s rise to respectability after years of lackluster play has caught the attention of the home fans. A core of supporters has been with the program since Aston’s first season. They turn out for preseason meet-and-greet sessions with the team and showed up a few hundred strong for the St. Mary’s exhibition.

The increased attention at UTSA coincides with a national trend, with spikes in popularity at both the NCAA and WNBA levels.

“With all the viewership that’s getting bigger, I think San Antonio will have a really good time watching us,” Jenkins said. “Because, like you said, women’s sports are getting bigger – and so is this team. I think it’s going to be great for us this year.”

Aston calls Jenkins “a very unique talent” and compares her to one of her former players with the Texas Longhorns, Ariel Atkins.

“I think that she’s a very unique talent in a sense of efficiency,” Aston said. “Her production and the efficiency that she plays the game with (are) as good as I’ve ever seen. I have another (former) player, Ariel Atkins of the Washington Mystics, she was just so efficient you just got lost in that.

“They don’t over-exert their energy. They’re very efficient basketball players. Their percentages are normally high. I think that if she can just stay the course … It’s her last year, and I think she understands that. She’s anxious to get on the floor and have a full season again.”

Records

UTSA 0-0
Texas A&M 0-1

Coming up

UTSA at Texas A&M, Thursday, 11 a.m.
UT Rio Grande Valley at UTSA, Saturday, 2 p.m.

Notable

Texas A&M guard Aicha Coulibaly had a career game in the SEC tournament against top-ranked South Carolina last season. Coulibaly scored 32 points against the Gamecocks, who beat the Aggies 79-68 and went on to win the national championship. The Aggies lost 61-59 to Nebraska in the first round of the NCAA tournament…

The Roadrunners have a long losing streak going against teams from the power conferences. A check of the records indicates that the UTSA women have lost 23 straight against teams from leagues that generate the most revenue in NCAA Division I. The Roadrunners haven’t won a game against a power program since Dec. 16, 2010, when they beat the Big 12’s Kansas State Wildcats, 72-55, at home in the Convocation Center.

Even though UTSA coach Karen Aston is 0-7 against power conference foes in her previous three seasons, the Roadrunners have been competitive in those games lately, losing by five points on the road at Texas Tech, by two at home against Houston and by 13 on the road at Oregon. In 2022-23, UTSA played one power team on its schedule and lost on the road at TCU by seven. In Aston’s first season with the Roadrunners, in the fall of 2021, UTSA lost by 29 at Minnesota, by 24 at Arizona State and by 26 at Texas A&M.

The Power 4 this season consists of the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten, the Big 12 and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Previous to this season, the Power 5 consisted of teams from the four conferences listed above, plus the Pac 12. The Pac 12 mostly dissolved this season during realignment…

Aston said sophomore guard Aysia Proctor “has taken a step away” from the UTSA program. “She’s going to take care of some off-court challenges,” the coach said. “I do not have a timetable on her return to play.”