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.”