By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
With the regular season opening Monday, here’s an early look at The JB Replay’s annual list of athletes from the San Antonio area who are playing NCAA Division I men’s basketball.
Notable changes from this time last season include: 6-7 forward Micah Peavy, who will play at Georgetown after leaving TCU; 6-8 guard Brendan Wenzel, who’ll play for TCU after starting the past two years at Wyoming; also, 6-8 Jaylen Crocker-Johnson will suit up for Colorado State after a solid freshman season at Arkansas-Little Rock; most intriguing, perhaps, 7-1 center Vincent Iwuchukwu will try to get untracked with the St. John’s Red Storm and coach Rick Pitino after two years at Southern Cal.
Micah Peavy is a Cibolo native and the son of Alamo Heights High School grad David Peavy, now the head coach at Duncanville High School. Micah Peavy graduated from Duncanville, spent one year at Texas Tech and then the next three at TCU, where he played under coach Jamie Dixon. Micah started all 34 games for TCU last season, averaging 10.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists, en route to honorable mention All Big 12 honors and an appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Brendan Wenzel emerged as an all state player when he came out of O’Connor High School in 2019, and he redshirted in his first year at the University of Utah. After playing only a couple of games for the Utes in 2019-20, he transferred to Wyoming, where he sat out the next season on the transfer rule. He spent the last three seasons as a fixture in Laramie, playing in 89 games. As a senior in 2023-24, he averaged 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds. With TCU, Wenzel hit a three in the last minute Friday night to spark TCU to a victory over Arkansas in a charity exhibition.
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson Came out of Warren High School in 2023 as the school’s all-time scoring and rebounding leader. As a freshman at Arkansas-Little Rock last season, he started 32 of 33 games and averaged 9.2 points and 5.4 rebounds. As a result, he was named Freshman of the Year in the Ohio Valley Conference. Crocker-Johnson is considered a key offseason pickup for Colorado State coach Niko Medved.
Vincent Iwuchukwu In San Antonio, the 7-footer known as “Baby Shaq’ led the Cole Cougars to a 3A state finals berth in 2020. After a few seasons in prep school, he reported as a five-star freshman to Southern Cal in the summer of 2022, only to suffer a cardiac arrest at practice. After the health scare, Iwuchukwu never reached his potential with the Trojans, suffering a back injury that same season and playing only 14 games.
In 2023-24, he played another 31, averaging 5.5 points and 3.4 rebounds. Despite the lackluster showing, coaches continued to recruit him. New USC coach Eric Musselman and SMU coach Andy Enfield both wanted him. Hoping for a fresh start, he elected to head east and go with Pitino at St. John’s in New York City.
Note: The following list most likely doesn’t include everyone from San Antonio in Division I, but I do feel like it’s fairly complete after keeping track of this from year to year. I’ll update the list as soon as new information comes to light.
San Antonio area athletes in NCAA Division I
Men’s basketball
Adam Benhayoune, LSU, a 6-5 senior guard from O’Connor HS
L.J. Brown, UTSA, a 6-3 sophomore guard from Johnson HS
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson, Colorado State, a 6-8 sophomore forward from Warren HS, a transfer from Arkansas-Little Rock
Kendrick De Luna, Cal State-Fullerton, a 6-10 sophomore forward from TMI Episcopal
Damarion Dennis, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, a 6-1 freshman guard from Veterans Memorial High School
Marques Gates, Houston Christian, a 5-11 junior guard from Clemens HS
Kaden Gumbs, Texas State, a 6-2 sophomore guard from San Marcos High School
Kalon Hargrove, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, a 5-10 freshman guard from Harlan High School
Vincent Iwuchukwu, St. John’s, a 7-1 junior center, formerly of Cole HS, La Lumiere, Ind., Montverde Academy, Fla., Southern California Academy, a transfer from Southern Cal
Ja’Sean Jackson, Lamar, a 6-0 senior guard from Wagner, previously from Abilene Christian
Carlton Linguard Jr., San Francisco, a 7-foot graduate student center from Stevens High School, a transfer from UTSA, previously from Kansas State
Langston Love, Baylor, a 6-5 redshirt junior guard from Steele HS, Montverde Academy, Fla.
Jordan Mason, Illinois-Chicago, a 6-4 junior guard from Clark HS, a transfer from Texas State
Austin Nunez, Arizona State, a 6-2 junior guard from Wagner HS, transfer from Mississippi, previously at Arizona State
Ze’Rik Onyema, Texas, a 6-9 senior forward from Jay HS, previously from UTEP.
Malik Presley, Texas, a 6-6 sophomore guard-forward from San Marcos HS, a transfer from Vanderbilt.
Juan Reyna, Jackson State, a 6-3 graduate senior guard from Antonian; also Duncanville HS; a transfer from UTSA; also, formerly of Alabama State University and Campbell University.
Aidan Richard, Holy Cross, a 6-6 freshman forward from Reagan HS.
Brendan Wenzel, TCU, a 6-8 senior guard from O’Connor HS; transfer from Wyoming, formerly of Utah.
Athletes from San Antonio who played in high school out of the area
Zach Clemence, Kansas, a 6-11 redshirt junior forward, San Antonio native, from Sunrise Christian (Kan.)
Micah Peavy, Georgetown, a 6-7 graduate student forward, from Cibolo, Duncanville HS; a transfer from TCU, formerly of Texas Tech.