By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Two Texas-based men’s college basketball programs, both looking to gain traction in the American Athletic Conference under new coaches, will meet Tuesday night in Houston when the UTSA Roadrunners play the Rice Owls at Tudor Fieldhouse.
UTSA guard Marcus Millender, who played in high school at Clear Brook in Friendswood, will return to the Houston area tonight as the Roadrunners tip off against the Rice Owls. – File photo by Joe Alexander
Both UTSA and Rice, entering their second year in the AAC, are coming off disappointing seasons in which they won only five conference games Both UTSA and Rice went 5-13 in the American a year ago and responded by overhauling their coaching staffs.
The Roadrunners said goodbye to Steve Henson and hello to Austin Claunch. The Owls, meanwhile, parted ways with Scott Pera and then hired Rob Lanier.
Both Claunch and Lanier have been tasked with the same charge — to bolster sagging hoops fortunes at universities separated by about 200 miles of highway on Interstate 10.
As far as NCAA tournament appearances go, Rice hasn’t been to one since 1970, one of the longest droughts in Division I, while UTSA’s last trip was 2011.
Records
UTSA 7-8, 1-2
Rice 11-6, 2-2
Coming up
UTSA at Rice, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
North Texas at UTSA, Saturday, 3 p.m.
Notable
Lanier’s Owls started 11-4 and 2-0 in the conference, opening the first week of January with a 70-64 AAC road win at Tulsa and then returning home to beat the Charlotte 49ers, 68-55.
Last week, they stumbled, getting blown out 81-59 at North Texas last Wednesday and then coming home to play close against Temple, only to fall 73-70 in the final seconds.
Claunch, whose team played at a high level for the most part last week but came out of it 1-1, said it won’t be easy to win in Houston.
“Every week (in the AAC) is tough,” he said on a Monday zoom call. “Ultimately, now, we’ve got to go on the road against a good Rice team that’s 2-2 in league. They lost a tough one (to Temple) the other day. So we got to be ready to go and execute and play how we’ve been playing.
“And then we come home and play not just a good team but a great program with North Texas that’s had a ton of success over the past few years. Big week for us. We just got to put our heads down and keep working.”
The Roadrunners opened conference play on Jan. 4 at Tulane and suffered their most lopsided loss of the season, a 92-63. Returning home, they hosted Tulsa and had the Golden Hurricane down by 16 points early in the second half, only to squander the lead and fall 82-77.
Playing at home again last weekend, the Roadrunners put together defense and offense as well as they have all season and downed the Wichita State Shockers, 88-75. An extremely promising sign was that they tallied their most points against a Division I team with leading scorer Primo Spears held to only eight.
Big man update
The Roadrunners are playing short-handed in the frontcourt. Six-foot-eight power forward Jaquan Scott hasn’t played in six of UTSA’s last seven games. He’s been away for the last two attending to a family matter. In addition, 6-11 center Mo Njie has missed four straight with a foot injury.