Tag Archives: Karen Aston

Jenkins named AAC player of the year as four UTSA women win postseason honors

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA women’s basketball team cleaned up with four individual postseason awards Friday a year after they didn’t get any, another sign of growing respect for the Roadrunners in the American Athletic Conference.

Two of the awards were fairly obvious to everyone after the Roadrunners rolled to a 26-3 record, including 17-1 for the AAC regular-season championship, and those included Jordyn Jenkins as player of the year and first-team all conference, and Karen Aston as coach of the year.

Two others honored included point guard Nina De Leon Negron and forward Idara Udo. De Leon Negron, a transfer from the University of the Incarnate Word, was newcomer of the year while both players were all-conference second team.

Jenkins led the AAC in scoring with 18.7 points per game. She also showed off a multi-faceted skill set with 6.9 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.2 blocks. Offensively, she was efficient, hitting 48 percent from the field, 36 percent from three and 82 percent at the free-throw line.

The honor was the second for Jenkins in her UTSA career. In her first season in San Antonio after a transfer from Southern Cal, she was named in player of the year in Conference USA for the 2022-23 season.

In April of 2023, she suffered an offseason knee injury that forced her to miss most of 2023-24 season in rehabilitation.

During the time that she couldn’t play in games, she worked extensively on skill development. It led to her developing a more dependable three-point shot to add to her prowess in the post and the mid-range.

With more versatility, she ended up scoring 20 or more points in eight of 16 conference games this season.

“The only surprise to me was that she wasn’t unanimous,” Aston said.

Aston was a unanimous selection for coach of the year after leading the Roadrunners to a historic season, including their first AAC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in tournament. UTSA’s 26 wins are a program record, while their 17 conference victories are the second-most in AAC history.

De Leon Negron was a steadying influence as the team’s primary playmaker, while Udo helped make UTSA the conference’s best in rebounding.

“I told the group a few minutes ago, anytime you get an individual award, it’s based on what the team does,” Aston said. “It’s a team award, and I think that those two feel that way, that everyone’s been a part of these individual awards that are being given, but there’s no question they showed a true reflection of senior leadership this year.

“I mean, they produced and it’s always about production in this business, but their leadership skills were tremendous, along with (guard) Sidney (Love). You know, Sidney’s was tremendous and she didn’t rewarded for that, but again, she got rewarded with a championship.”

Another possible oversight in the awards was the absence of UTSA forward Maya Linton from the all-defensive team.

Notable

UTSA will play in the AAC tournament at Fort Worth as the No. 1 seed, starting Monday at noon in the quarterfinals against either the UAB Blazers or the Rice Owls.

The Roadrunners likely will need to win three games in three days for the conference’s postseason championship to get rewarded with a trip to the NCAA tournament.

In other words, even if they win twice and reach the finals and lose in the title game, it’s uncertain whether they would get an NCAA at-large bid.

If the Roadrunners fail to make the 68-team NCAA field, they are assured of a spot in the 32-team Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament.

Aston said UTSA has an automatic bid to the WBIT based on its regular-season title, and she confirmed that UTSA would play in that tournament if it is not selected for the NCAA.

Last season, the Roadrunners were ousted in the second round of the AAC tournament and played in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT), reaching the second round.

UTSA women hope to clinch AAC title outright on Saturday

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Jordyn Jenkins. UTSA beat Tulsa 64-53 in American Athletic Conference women's basketball at the Convocation Center on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Forward Jordyn Jenkins is averaging an AAC-leading 18.7 points for the Roadrunners, who have forged a 24-3 record with two games remaining in the regular season. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

In a pre-game ceremony set for 11:40 a.m. Saturday at the Convocation Center, the UTSA Roadrunners will honor forward Jordyn Jenkins and guard Nina De Leon on a Senior Day spiced with championship implications.

Afterward, the UTSA women will tip off at noon against the Florida Atlantic University Owls, hoping to win and clinch sole ownership of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the AAC tournament.

If they beat the Owls, they could lose in the regular-season finale on Tuesday at East Carolina and still finish ahead of both the South Florida Bulls and the North Texas Mean Green in the standings.

Nina De Leon Negron. UTSA women's basketball beat Sam Houston State 79-36 on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Point guard Nina De Leon Negron has contributed 9.6 points, 5.3 assists and 5.2 rebounds for the Roadrunners, who have already clinched at least a share of the AAC regular-season title. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Earlier this week, the Roadrunners claimed at least a share of the championship, and now they want it all in front of a crowd that school officials hope will eclipse the school record attendance of 2,000.

Jenkins, who is making a strong bid for AAC Player of the Year honors, ever-so-cautiously declined to speculate on how it would feel to clinch at home.

“I would always say I’m trying to stay grounded and stay in the present, because it’s easy to get ahead of myself and already see confetti and already (see myself holding) the trophy above my head,” she said Friday afternoon. “So, I just try to think about what I’m going to have for dinner tonight.”

The AAC women’s tournament opens in Denton at the Super Pit on March 8. It will shift to Fort Worth and Dickies Arena on March 9. UTSA, with a double bye through the first two rounds, will open in the quarterfinals on March 10.

What the Roadrunners have accomplished is nothing short of remarkable. Picked in the preseason to finish fifth in the AAC, they have won 17 of their last 18 games for a 24-3 record. Their record in conference is a robust 15-1. Moreover, they’re 12-0 at home going into their final regular-season home game.

Still, they won’t be assured of an NCAA tournament berth unless they can win three in a row in Fort Worth for the automatic bid. It’s a thought that is troubling to coach UTSA coach Karen Aston.

“After going through this, I think it is tragic that conference (regular-season) champions don’t get automatic bids,” she said. “I mean, I’ve been processing all of this. Like, how do you keep us out of the tournament, if we don’t win the conference tournament?

“This is a team that has sustained excellence for a really long period of time, which is how you win a conference. You (probably need) some luck somewhere along the way. Which, we probably did at Memphis. But you also have something in you, to get through this whole 18-game process.

“I think that’s what I appreciate the most (about the Roadrunners). I want for them to win the (AAC) tournament. I want them to go to the NCAA tournament so bad, for them. But I am more proud of this. Because it’s so difficult … It takes a really special group to do what we’re doing.”

Aston said she doesn’t even want to start thinking about what it will be like once the season is over and Jenkins and De Leon Negron have moved on in their careers.

While Jenkins bounced back from a knee injury that caused her to sit out all but the final 17 games last year, De Leon Negron traveled a hard road, moving from her native Puerto Rico to the United States as a teenager, speaking mainly Spanish at the time, and then forging her college career at three schools.

Last summer, De Leon Negron joined the UTSA program as a transfer from the University of the Incarnate Word, from one San Antonio-based NCAA Division I program to another.

“I’m just trying to enjoy the journey with this group,” Aston said. “It’s one of those teams you’re going to look back on and, like, they don’t make ‘em like this very often. This is a group that I told (them) a month or two ago that they better enjoy this, because it just doesn’t come around like this very often.

“What I will appreciate most (about Jenkins and De Leon Negron) is their leadership, and it’s been constant,” the coach added. “It’s been Nina coming in and getting her feet wet and understanding what the team needed and Jordyn becoming Jordyn again, really, after what she went through (last year).

“They almost like met in the middle. In the middle of the summer, and they realized that we could be special and that they were going to take the reins of that. I mean, it’s their leadership Their numbers are great. Their performances are great, and all of that. But what I will appreciate most are the efforts they’ve made off the court to make this team really special.”

De Leon Negron lauded Aston, describing her as a caring mentor for everyone on the team.

“I want to shout out coach,” De Leon Negron said. “And I know Jordy feels the same way. Because we talk about this all the time. But with transfers … and experiencing different coaches, I always tell the girls, like, we get (to have) a good year.

“We have a coach that just cares about everybody.”

Speaking directly to the coach in the news conference, De Leon Negron told Aston, “It’s kind of like I want to tell you, I really appreciate you and every time I feel like I’m not good mentally and I come into your office, you always make me feel better. So, just never change . So always keep being that person for everybody.”

Blushing at her lead guard’s comments, Aston said, “I’m too old to change.”

Records

FAU 10-19, 2-14
UTSA 24-3, 15-1

Coming up

UTSA at East Carolina, Tuesday, 5 p.m.
(end of regular season)
UTSA in AAC tournament quarterfinals, at Fort Worth, Monday, March 10, opponent and time, TBA

Excitement reigned when when UTSA clinched an AAC title

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Karen Aston. UTSA beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 62-43 in non-conference women's basketball on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Karen Aston’s Roadrunners have clinched at least a share of the AAC regular-season title. They’ll try to win it outright Saturday at home against Florida Atlantic. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Just about the same time that the UTSA basketball radio show ended Wednesday night at the Chicken N Pickle restaurant, the fourth quarter of the South Florida at Tulsa women’s game had just begun.

Most of the UTSA boosters and even assistant coaches for the Roadrunners’ women’s program had left the premises.

But UTSA head coach Karen Aston, a few administrators and some of the program’s most ardent supporters decided to stay and watch, sensing the possibility that they might get to share in a special moment in each other’s company.

“We were just talking, and the game got close and I was like, ‘Let’s just sit here and finish it,'” Aston said.

It was a good call by the coach, as Tulsa defeated South Florida, and UTSA clinched at least a share of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title.

An emotional moment, to be sure. Because in 2020-21, UTSA women’s basketball was in dire straits, finishing 2-18.

And now, in Aston’s fourth season, the UTSA women have romped to a 24-3 record, including 15-1 in the AAC, with two more to play in the regular season.

So, given all that has transpired, were there any tears shed at the Chicken N Pickle on the night that the Roadrunners could call themselves champions?

In a telephone interview Thursday afternoon, Aston sidestepped the question.

“Oh, just excited, more than anything,” the coach said. “Just wanted to relay (the news) to the (players) and congratulate everybody. It was obviously an unexpected surprise. Not surprised necessarily that Tulsa won. But it was unexpected.”

Moving forward, UTSA has a home game set for Saturday at noon against Florida Atlantic and a Tuesday night road test against East Carolina.

A victory in either game would clinch the regular-season title outright and also the No. 1 seed in the upcoming AAC tournament.

Aston noted that the Nos. 1, 2 and 3-ranked teams all lost their first games in quarterfinals matchups last year, so it’s hard to say that seeding provides that much of a competitive advantage.

The importance of winning the regular season, the coach said, is just in winning it, period. And now with the opportunity to clinch outright at home on Saturday on Senior Day? In front of what could be a record crowd at the Convocation Center?

“That’s pretty special,” she said.

Aston, in her 17th year as an NCAA Division I head coach, is regarded as one of the best in the business.

The former head coach of the Texas Longhorns has won 347 games, has achieved a winning percentage of about 63 percent in her career and has led her teams to seven NCAA tournaments, including four trips to the Sweet 16 and one to the Elite Eight.

This year’s regular-season title is her first.

Asked what it meant to get it done with her current group, she acknowledged that it’ been “extremely rewarding.”

“This has been a wonderful group to work with,” she said. “I couldn’t have scripted a better group to really go on this experience with. It’s been quite a journey. I’ve really, really enjoyed it, and (I’m) enormously grateful to everyone involved.”

UTSA women playing for high stakes today at home against Memphis

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Karen Aston. UTSA beat Temple 70-61 on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, at the Convocation Center in American Athletic Conference women's basketball. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Karen Aston’s American Athletic Conference-leading UTSA Roadrunners will shoot for their 15th straight win at home today. Tipoff against Memphis is at 2 p.m.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Coach Karen Aston’s UTSA Roadrunners have always dreamed of playing in the NCAA tournament, but not until this season have they won enough games through the middle of February to be regarded as the favorite in their own conference to claim a coveted bid.

In the last two years, the Roadrunners have made enough noise to this point in the season that they entered the NCAA discussion. But never have they achieved so much with five games remaining in the regular season to claim status as the team to beat.

UTSA hopes to burnish its reputation even further today.

Winners of 21 of 24 games on the season and 14 of their last 15 overall, the first-place Roadrunners host the Memphis Tigers at 2 p.m., wondering in the back of their minds what it would really feel like to see the name of their school in the 68-team NCAA bracket next month.

On one hand, they are faced with the here and now. The Roadrunners nearly lost at Memphis last month, winning 70-68 with a frantic fourth-quarter rally, so they know how hard it will be to beat a team like this for the second time in 32 days.

Then again, as far as the rest of the world in NCAA Division I women’s basketball is concerned, UTSA is in the driver’s seat in the American Athletic Conference. According to ESPN, the Roadrunners are favored to claim the AAC’s automatic bid into the 68-team field.

But here’s where it gets complicated. There are two avenues into the NCAA bracket, the automatic and the at large bid. For UTSA, the automatic is the one avenue upon which it can go about its usual business and control its own destiny.

If they stay hot and keep winning, and they win the AAC tournament in Fort Worth next month, they get the auto bid and the ticket to the Big Dance. Anything less than that, however, it’s a slippery slope toward being left out.

For instance, if the Roadrunners win the regular season title, claim the No. 1 seed in the AAC tournament and then lose in the finals, their fate will be in the hands of an NCAA committee to decide if they are deserving of an at-large bid.

At the moment, if the ESPN analysis is correct, it appears the second-place South Florida Bulls might be the conference’s only hope of snagging one of the at-large spots. The Bulls are the only team in the American on a list of teams ranked just outside the field of 68. They’re ranked 73rd.

Earlier this week, Aston was asked if she was coaching her team as if she believed it needed to sweep to the AAC postseason title to earn its way into the NCAA tournament, and she declined to comment directly, implying that she might have something to say on that front in about 10 days.

So, stay tuned.

Records

Memphis 6-17, 4-8
UTSA 21-3, 12-1

Coming up

Memphis at UTSA, today, 2 p.m.
UTSA at Rice, Saturday, Feb. 22, 4 p.m.
UTSA at Tulane, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 6:30 p.m.
Florida Atlantic at UTSA, Saturday, March 1, noon.
UTSA at East Carolina, Tuesday, March 4, 5 p.m.
(End of regular season)

AAC standings
(Women’s basketball)

UTSA 12-1, 21-3
South Florida 10-2, 17-8
North Texas 10-3, 18-7
Tulane 8-4, 15-8
Temple 8-5, 14-10
Tulsa 6-6, 12-12
UAB 6-7, 15-10
Rice 5-7, 12-12
East Carolina 5-8, 13-12
Memphis 4-8, 6-17
Charlotte 3-9, 8-15
FAU 2-10, 10-15
Wichita State 2-11, 8-18

Saturday’s games

Charlotte at East Carolina, 1 p.m.
South Florida at FAU, 1 p.m.
Memphis at UTSA, 2 p.m.
North Texas at Tulsa, 2 p.m.
Rice at Wichita State, 2 p.m.
Temple at Tulane, 3 p.m.

UTSA women have 20 wins in mind as they prepare for a road test at Wichita State

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

A 20-win season is in reach for the surging UTSA Roadrunners.

Karen Aston. UTSA beat Temple 70-61 on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, at the Convocation Center in American Athletic Conference women's basketball. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Karen Aston’s first-place UTSA Roadrunners lead in the AAC standings by one game in the loss column over the South Florida Bulls. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Karen Aston’s first-place Roadrunners (19-3, 10-1) will play on the road against the Wichita State Shockers (8-16, 2-9) in an American Athletic Conference game that tips off at 1 p.m. Saturday at Koch Arena.

UTSA has won 20 in a season only three times in the first 43 years of the program. The Roadrunners first hit the plateau in 1983-84 when they went 21-6 under Coach Bill MacLeay. They did it again in 2007-08 and ’08-09 when they carved out back-to-back marks of 23-10 and 24-9, respectively, under Rae Rippetoe-Blair.

For Aston, winning 20 would be a meaningful milestone because she has always thought it represented a successful season. It might be more meaningful for the fourth-year coach this time, considering UTSA was 2-18 in 2020-21, the year before she was hired.

Aston has won 20 eight times in her 16 previous seasons as a head coach. She reached the plateau twice in four years at Charlotte and six times in eight seasons at Texas.

The Roadrunners are on a roll, registering a 12-1 record in their last 13 games. The only loss in the streak came Jan. 22 at South Florida. On that day, they played without star forward Jordyn Jenkins for the only time this season and fell 75-63 to the Bulls.

UTSA, in its last two games, played at home and downed a pair of AAC challengers in the Temple Owls and the North Texas Mean Green. Against North Texas on Tuesday night, Jenkins produced 26 points and eight rebounds, Idara Udo notched a double double and Sidney Love blocked a potential game-tying shot at the buzzer. The Roadrunners came away with a 54-52 victory.

The Roadrunners are trying for a series sweep against Wichita State. They beat the Shockers 69-51 on Jan. 11 in San Antonio.

Men’s basketball

Meanwhile, the UTSA men will play later Saturday at home in the Convocation Center when they host the East Carolina Pirates. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m.

The Roadrunners (10-12, 4-6) lost the first game in the second half of the AAC schedule in heartbreaking fashion Wednesday night, allowing the Tulane Green Wave to erase a 10-point deficit in the final three minutes to win 61-60. Marcus Millender scored a career-high 28 points in the loss.

The Pirates (12-11, 4-6) also lost a home game on Wednesday, falling 73-60 to the Rice Owls.

Only two losses, and it’s Jan. 21? ‘Pretty amazing,’ Aston says

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston could not ask for much more than what her players have given at this point in the season.

Karen Aston. UTSA women's basketball beat UAB 67-56 in an American Athletic Conference game on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Karen Aston’s UTSA Roadrunners (16-2) will take a nine-game winning streak into a Wednesday night home game against Tulsa. – File photo by Joe Alexander

The Roadrunners, at 16-2, have emerged as one of only 19 teams in the nation in NCAA Division I that have lost two or fewer games over the first two and a half months.

“I think it’s pretty amazing,” Aston said Tuesday. “I really do. I think the amount of work that our staff and players have put into what I call, a product, you know, a product that the community can be proud of, a product that UTSA can be proud of, I think it is absolutely incredible where we are today.”

From November, through December and into the first three weeks of January, most of the big news around the team has centered on the winning streaks.

They won seven straight last fall. Now, they’ve won nine in a row leading into Wednesday night’s home game against Tulsa.

One more victory and the Roadrunners will have tied for the second-longest streak in school history, trailing only the record of 13 set in the 2002-03 season.

But what jumped out over the weekend was the dwindling number of teams around the nation that have lost two or fewer games. After Saturday night, the number was 20.

Now it’s down to 19, after Tennessee lost to Vanderbilt in Nashville on Sunday. Twelve of the 19 teams on the list play in Power 4 conferences — in the SEC, the Big Ten, the ACC or the Big 12 — and one more — Connecticut — plays in the basketball hotbed of the Big East.

UTSA, meanwhile, remains as one of only six squads in the nation at the sub-power conference level that have two or fewer losses, with the others being Montana State (17-2), Grand Canyon (17-2), Quinnipiac (15-2), Buffalo (15-2) and Harvard (14-2).

What does this mean in UTSA’s quest to reach the 68-team NCAA tournament?

The speculation is already starting to percolate, as the team is rated 65th in the nation today on the NET national ratings system. Moreover, Charlie Creme’s tournament projection at ESPN.com has the Roadrunners making the field and slotted in as a No. 12 seed.

Then again, as Aston said recently, it’s way too early to guess what might happen. It seems Creme thinks UTSA will win the AAC tournament, which would yield the conference’s NCAA automatic bid. But if they fail to win it, then their chances are greatly diminished.

It’s just not certain that the Roadrunners could do enough between now and, say, a runner-up finish in Fort Worth, to secure what would be an at-large NCAA berth. On top of all that, they have teams like Tulsa coming at them nightly, trying to knock them off.

“There’s so much more work to be done,” Aston said Tuesday. “You don’t want to rest on your laurels, so to say, and be happy with where you are. I’m proud. Really, really proud. I think the challenge is just to stay focused and stay humble.

“I don’t even have to talk about it … They have a goal. They understand what they’re trying to get accomplished. So I think they’re staying pretty grounded with the ‘next game’ mentality. Because of our leadership, I wouldn’t expect it to be any different.”

With that being said, Aston continued, “You can’t get around the acknowledgment that it’s pretty amazing what we’ve accomplished so far, over the last four years.”

Records

Tulsa 9-9, 3-3
UTSA 16-2, 7-0

Coming up

Tulsa at UTSA, Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.

Two losses or less

Here is the list of teams with two losses or less in NCAA Division I women’s basketball:

x-LSU 20-0
x-UCLA 18-0
x-TCU 19-1
x-Kansas State 19-1
x-South Carolina 18-1
x-Ohio State 17-1
x-USC 17-1
x-Kentucky 16-1
x-Texas 18-2
y-Connecticut 17-2
x-Minnesota 17-2
z-Montana State 17-2
z-Grand Canyon 17-2
x-Notre Dame 16-2
x-Maryland 16-2
z-UTSA 16-2
z-Quinnipiac 15-2
z-Buffalo 15-2
z-Harvard 14-2

x-Teams from Power 4 conferences
y-Teams from the Big East
z-Teams from non-Power 4 conferences

Coach touts Maya Linton as ‘the difference’ for UTSA against Tulsa

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Maya Linton. UTSA beat South Florida 65-42 in American Athletic Conference women's basketball on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Maya Linton and others held the leading scorer in the American Athletic Conference to 10 points in Saturday’s 60-53 road victory at Tulsa. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA coach Karen Aston on Monday praised junior forward Maya Linton for her effort on the defensive end in a 60-53 victory Saturday at Tulsa.

Linton held Golden Hurricane star Delanie Crawford to 10 points as Roadrunners won their fifth in a row and improved to a school-record 12-2 record, including 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference. Crawford, the AAC’s leading scorer at the time, was held to 3 of 13 shooting from the field.

“Really proud of our team’s resiliency at Tulsa,” Aston said. “I thought that was a hard-fought game. Both teams played really hard. I just thought that we showed some toughness and resilience in that game, for sure.”

Aston said that Linton, a 5-foot-11 junior from Duncanville, was “the difference in the game.”

“No question about it,” the coach said on her weekly zoom call with the media. “Delanie Crawford is a wonderfully-gifted offensive basketball player. I just thought Maya committed to being unconcerned about other things … and just made it difficult for her to get shots off.”

The coach said “a lot of different people” guarded Crawford but she said Linton sets the tone for the team defensively.

Coming up

As play in the American continues, the UTSA men (6-7, 0-1) will host Tulsa (6-9, 0-2) on Tuesday at 7 in the Convocation Center, and the women will host the defending AAC tournament champion Rice Owls (8-6, 1-1) on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Notable

Despite 17 points and nine rebounds from UTSA forward Raekwon Horton, the short-handed Roadrunners men suffered a 92-63 loss at Tulane on Saturday afternoon. Tulane manufactured a 15-0 run early in the game to take charge. The Green Wave led 47-23 at intermission and by as many as 35 points in the second half.

UTSA played without 6-foot-11 center Mo Njie for the second game in a row. Coach Austin Claunch said that Njie has a foot injury and might be out for between “a couple of weeks” and a month. “Obviously we really, really miss his size,” the coach said. “That’s a tough break. More than that, just the spirit he plays with. He’s (rehabilitating) every day and when we get to that point in February, maybe he can get back in and help us.”

UTSA coaches applaud groundbreaking on basketball-volleyball training center

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Karen Aston. UTSA beat Northern Colorado 80-62 in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston likes the idea that her players will be able to work out at any time in the school’s new basketball-volleyball training center. Officials say the facility is expected to be completed by mid- to late-2026. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Editor’s note: The UTSA men’s basketball team will take on the Southwestern Adventist Knights Thursday at noon in the first of two games at the Convocation Center. The women will host UT Arlington at 4.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Seated behind her desk last July, UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston welcomed a reporter into her office and waited for the interview to begin. Right off the bat, she was asked if she had been talking to her players and recruits about the prospects of a new, on-campus training base.

After all, the final details on construction of a proposed practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball seemed all but certain to come together by the end of the year. Aston, however, delivered a carefully measured reply.

“In the business we’re in now, you’re living in the moment,” UTSA’s fourth-year coach told The JB Replay at the time. “What you have (in terms of infrastructure), is what you have to focus on, just because of the ever-changing climate. So I think that as much as I want to sell the (new) practice facility to the recruits and all of that, the reality is, we’re just living in the moment.

“What we have, is what we need to do the best with. So, that’s kind of been my mindset. You want to stay in the moment and make the most of it. When that ground breaks, I think that’s when you can really start getting excited with your current players.”

That magical day for Aston arrived Wednesday when school officials, boosters and civic leaders gathered on the west end of the UTSA campus to cheer the start of construction on a complex that could very well alter the trajectory of basketball and volleyball at the school.

UTSA’s newest major facility for athletics is a $35 million project.

By the time it’s completed in 2026, men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball will have a new home base, a structure measuring 53,000 square feet, complete with two practice courts, locker rooms, a team lounge for each of the three programs, a weight room, athletic training with hydrotherapy, meeting rooms and coaches’ offices.

Teams will continue to play games in the Convocation Center, but coaches are thrilled with the prospect of a more expansive setup for practices, with all the amenities on the premises.

“I think we’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Aston told reporters, “so it’s something I knew when I came here, and everybody that’s part of our athletic program knows, that this is a long time coming, and if you want the game to change for the basketball and volleyball programs, this has to be a piece of that.”

“I’m excited, for sure, but also appreciative of the people that gave the donations that allowed us to get this off the ground, (of) the commitment from the president (of the university, Taylor Eighmy) and (athletic director) Lisa (Campos). I think, all around, it’s a great day.”

A trio of coaches — Aston, men’s basketball coach Austin Claunch and volleyball coach Carol Price-Torok — met with the media after the groundbreaking and offered their views on how the facility could impact their programs and day-to-day operations.

Basketball and volleyball games will continue to be played at the Convocation Center, just as they have since the 1981-82 season, but the lives of the athletes wearing UTSA jerseys will be changed. Coaches believe that their daily routines will be more conducive to high-level performance.

“I think it’s just gym time, to be honest with you,” Aston said. “If you’re trying to play at a high level, you recruit players that want to play at a high level, and the ones that (do) will be in the gym. They want 24-hour access. They’re different than we are. They want to take a nap, wake up at midnight and go shoot.”

With the new facility, it’ll all be possible for young and restless athletes willing to put in the time.

“(Athletes) want to be able to get in the gym any time, get in the weight room,” Aston said. “I just think amenities are fantastic. They make you feel like you’re headed in the right direction as far as having a respected basketball program. But, bottom line, it’s the gym time.”

Claunch said on a zoom call earlier this week that the facility promises to affect the athletes’ daily lives in many ways. Having a weight room in the same building as the practice court. Having a team room to watch film.

The practice facility, he said, “is something that’s going to affect our student athletes every single day. Daily deposits to help them improve physically, mentally, and that’s … obviously, it’s a game changer.”

Claunch signed two players in the early period last month, guard Dorian Hayes from the Houston area and forward Kaidon Rayfield from Oklahoma City. He said he talked to both of them about the benefits that they would get from the new facility during their careers at UTSA.

“Absolutely,” Claunch said. “Obviously Dorian and Kaidon are fired up about what we’re doing, but also, when you’re talking about what they’re going to have in their sophomore year, I mean, that’s going to help their player development, it just makes their entire experience here easier and better and help them win more games.

“Quite, frankly it’s going to help us. It’s going to translate to more wins, you know, just in a lot of different ways.”

For the past 40-something years, all three UTSA teams have played and practiced in the Convocation Center. Currently, volleyball season starts in the late August and runs through mid-November. Basketball season starts the first week of November and runs through the first of March, generally.

Practices for all three sports are ongoing for most of the year, restricting teams to certain times of day without much wiggle room to re-schedule.

“Right now, we’re practicing in the morning, which is great, and we can make it work,” Price-Torok said. “But if we want to sleep in until 9 and then go from 9 to 12 (noon), we can’t. Because you’re in somebody else’s practice time. So, I think it gives us the freedom to make some of those changes … and give those players the time that they need.”

Price-Torok also talked about how the move should ease some of the burden of trainers, who currently move between the RACE building and the Convocation Center, which is about a five-minute walk across campus.

“For them to be housed in one location … it’s just going to be game-changing for them,” the coach said. “The time that our trainers spend every single day, to spread people out, because we’re all sharing this big training room … to be able to go in here (into the new facility) and make her time demand and her job a little bit easier, (it) will help us keep trainers longer (and improve) their quality of life.”

Jordyn Jenkins named first-team all conference in AAC preseason honors

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Jordyn Jenkins. UTSA beat Northern Colorado 80-62 in the first round of the WNIT on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Jordyn Jenkins averaged 17.1 points on 47.9 percent shooting in 12 games last season. She sat out most of the season while recovering from knee surgery. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA forward Jordyn Jenkins has been named as a first-team all conference selection in the American Athletic Conference’s preseason honors for women’s basketball announced Friday.

Jenkins and the Roadrunners are pegged for a fifth-place finish out of 13 teams in the AAC championship race.

On the men’s side, UTSA has been picked to finish tied for 11th out of 13 leading into Austin Claunch’s first season as head coach.

Jenkins, from Kent, Wash., arrived at UTSA in the summer of 2022 after being selected first-team all conference in the Pac 12 at Southern California.

She immediately made an impact for the Roadrunners, averaging 20.6 points in the 2022-23 season and claiming Conference USA Player of the Year honors.

UTSA’s Guttadauro shines in preseason work after a soul-searching sophomore year

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Siena Guttadauro. UTSA women's basketball at the Convocation Center on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. - photo by Joe Alexander

Junior guard Siena Guttadauro figures to play a prominent role on the team this season following a disappointing season in which she averaged only 2.9 points and was benched for much of January and February. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA guard Siena Guttadauro says she never lost confidence in herself last January and February when she fell out of favor with her coaches and dropped out of the playing rotation. But with her banishment to the end of the bench, she acknowledged that it did hurt her pride.

“Oh yeah, it hurt,” the Roadrunners’ three-point sharp shooter said. “Because I knew I could play and help the team.”

By March, Guttadauro had come to terms with the reality of the situation. She wasn’t playing much for a variety of reasons, but mainly because she wasn’t living up to her end of the deal with Head Coach Karen Aston.

Karen Aston. UTSA women's basketball at the Convocation Center on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston says if the season started today, Siena Guttadauro would be in at least the top seven of her playing rotation. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Now that the air has been cleared between the two parties, so to speak, all is well leading into the feisty 5-foot-6 guard’s third season with the Roadrunners.

Things are so good for Guttadauro, in fact, the native Californian has already worked her way into the discussion for a healthy expansion of her role.

She was one of the best players on the floor Monday afternoon during the Roadrunners’ first official preseason workout, burying at least 3 three-point baskets, all while running the offense and pushing the pace as a point guard.

Guttadauro and newcomer Nina De Leon Negron were both playing the point as returning starter Sidney Love nursed what was termed as a “minor” setback.

“(Siena) makes some really good decisions, and then there are times that she gets a little carried away with trying to make a play instead of just getting us in the flow,” Aston said. “But she’s definitely improved in that area. I’m comfortable with her in the game, period. If we had to play a game today, she’d have to be right up there with the top six or seven.”

The season starts in a little less than a month. After a Nov. 1 home exhibition against the St. Mary’s Rattlers, the Roadrunners open the regular season Nov. 7 at Texas A&M.

After Monday’s workout, Guttadauro discussed an array of subjects, including her feelings that UTSA can win 20 games this season.

She also expressed an interesting take on why she never lost confidence in herself last year after sitting out seven games in a 13-game stretch from Jan. 6 through Feb. 25.

Nina De Leon Negron. UTSA women's basketball at the Convocation Center on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. - photo by Joe Alexander

Incarnate Word transfer Nina De Leon Negron is also expected to play point guard in the wake of Kyra White’s departure. White is playing professionally in Ireland. – Photo by Joe Alexander

“Like, me personally, I’m a hooper,” Guttadauro said “I just love to hoop. I just want to get on the court. I want to play. I want to do all these things. But, like, when you get to college basketball, one thing that coach emphasizes, and why our team is so good, is that it’s not just about basketball. It’s about (things) outside basketball.”

Specifically, she mentioned that “turning assignments in on time” and “turning paperwork in on time” in the classroom became a problem for her, and that coaches were sending her a message to rectify the situation.

“I was immature,” Guttadauro said. “I was irresponsible. You know what I’m saying? I didn’t have my stuff together as much (as I should have).”

Fortunately for the Roadrunners, she got her stuff together just in time for the team’s final road trip of the season. On March 2, the former high school standout from San Jose, Calif., knocked down four 3-pointers in UTSA’s 68-61 victory at Wichita State.

Her redemption tour continued at the American Athletic Conference tournament, where she hit two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter of a 58-56 win over South Florida in the quarterfinals. Guttadauro enjoyed another solid game off the bench on March 24 in the second round of the WNIT.

She contributed five points, five rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes of a season-ending loss to the Wyoming Cowgirls.

“Somewhere at the end of conference play – Wichita State, yes – I feel like at that point she was in the rotation,” Aston said. “Once she got herself in it, she never was taken out of it, to be honest with you, and I think that jump-started her spring and her summer.”

By July, Aston was marveling about how her rising junior guard had changed.

“She has dramatically improved,” the coach said. “Improve might even be the wrong word. She has dramatically matured … and I’m really proud of her because a lot of players would have checked out. You know, they would have gone some place else to see if there was going to be a better situation. But she stuck it out, and now she’s kind of over the hump.”

Nyayongah Gony. UTSA women's basketball at the Convocation Center on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. - photo by Joe Alexander

Six-foot-four Mississippi State transfer Nyayongah Gony is regarded as a shot blocker and a rebounder who can also run the floor in transition. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Guttadauro said she never considered transferring.

“I love what (the coach) is doing,” Guttadauro said. “Everything she does, there’s a reason behind it. She’s a high-caliber coach with a high-caliber staff. Why would I leave? I have a goal to play overseas (after graduation). Why would I risk that? Like I say, there’s a reason why everyone’s staying.

“Like, why have we had the same team for the last two years? The last three years now. You know why. It’s because people love what she’s doing. I want to be a part of it. For sure.”

Guttadauro seemed to spark a flurry of aggressive play during Monday’s workout.

During full court five-on-five, she started her shooting binge with a triple from the top of the circle after a play in the paint broke down. A few possessions later, De Leon Negron came down on the dribble and fired a one-handed pass cross court to Aysia Proctor, who caught it and knocked down a corner trey.

The flow continued when Maya Linton kicked a pass out to Guttadauro, who drilled another shot from beyond the arc.

“You know, it’s been my position my whole life,” she said of playing the point. “The last two years is the only time I haven’t been a point guard. To be honest, it’s only because Sid is out. I just wanted to step up and play (it) so coach trusts me at that position.

Mia Hammonds. UTSA women's basketball at the Convocation Center on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. - photo by Joe Alexander

Six-foot-three freshman guard Mia Hammonds from Steele High School was regarded as one of the best players in the San Antonio area last season. – Photo by Joe Alexander

“It’s been fun. It’s been cool. I do miss my two spot. I’m excited for Sid to come back, for sure. It’s a lot of responsibility.”

The UTSA women will have a hard act to follow after last year’s team finished 18-15 with the program’s first trip to a national postseason tournament in 15 years.

Even though they’ll miss point guard Kyra White, who is playing pro ball in Ireland, and center Elyssa Coleman, who has medically retired, the Roadrunners showed off impressive athleticism all over the floor in their first official workout of the fall.

“I’ve been feeling really good,” Guttadauro said. “Been really excited to be in the gym a lot. So I’m just really excited for the year, for the team we have. The potential we have and how young we are. I mean, this is going to be really a fun year.

“We have people (the last couple of years) that haven’t been able to show what they can do. So this year, I’m excited for that, me personally and for the team, for sure.”

Notable

Both forward Jordyn Jenkins and guard Sidney Love had a “minor setback” a couple of weeks ago and were limited in Monday’s practice, UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “So they’re easing back into it,” the coach said. “They’ve got a lot of experience, and it’s OK to give others reps and let them ease into it. They’re good. We’re just easing them back from a couple of minor setbacks.”