Tag Archives: Raekwon Horton

Raekwon Horton won’t play for UTSA in AAC tournament

Posted on by
Reply
Raekwon Horton at UTSA men's basketball senior day 2025.

Raekwon Horton averaged 12.2 points and 5.9 rebounds in 34 minutes per game for the Roadrunners. His most memorable moment came when he scored a season-high 23 in UTSA’s 54-50 road victory over the North Texas on Feb. 1.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

If the UTSA Roadrunners men’s basketball team hopes to make noise in the American Athletic Conference postseason tournament, they’ll have to do it without senior forward Raekwon Horton.

“He won’t be with us on the trip and obviously you won’t see Raekwon for the rest of the year,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said.

Primo Spears. Memphis beat UTSA 75-70 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Primo Spears was named second-team all conference in the AAC on Tuesday. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Claunch made his remarks on Tuesday afternoon, just before the Roadrunners boarded a bus and headed for Fort Worth.

While the AAC men’s tournament opens in Denton on Wednesday, the remainder of the tournament starting Thursday will be in Fort Worth at Dickies Arena.

The 11th-seeded Roadrunners will play their first game Thursday at 8 p.m. against the No. 6 East Carolina Pirates. It’ll be the fourth of four second-round games played that day.

Horton played a major role for the Roadrunners in his one and only year with the program, averaging 12.2 points and 5.9 rebounds in 34 minutes.

He played 25 games, notched three games with 20 or more points, produced 13 in double figures and added four with double-figure points and rebounds.

His most memorable contribution came on Feb. 1 when he scored a season-high 23 points as the Roadrunners upset the North Texas Mean Green 54-50 in Denton.

The Mean Green went on to construct a 23-7 season, including 14-4 in the AAC, good for a No. 2 seed in the tournament.

Horton played his last game for the Roadrunners on March 2.

In his finale, he was honored on Senior Day in a pre-game ceremony. Then he started and played 19 minutes as the Roadrunners routed the Rice Owls, 84-56. Horton finished with two points and seven rebounds.

He has not played in UTSA’s last two games, including a five-point loss at home to AAC champion Memphis and a three-point road victory at Charlotte. Claunch said after the Memphis game that Horton was away from the team on personal leave.

Without Horton at the tournament, the Roadrunners likely will play with a seven-man rotation initially, though others could be pressed into action if they get hot and start to win.

“We feel good,” Claunch said. “We’ve won two out of three, and even during that losing streak, we felt like we played some really good ball. I know that’s easy to say. You got to find a way to win those games.

“That’s sort of the next progression of our program. Not just be in big games but find a way to win big games.

“It was great to finally win one of those close ones at Charlotte. We played really well against Memphis. We played great against Rice. And now we’re playing a good ECU team that we played two really competitive games against.

“So, we’re certainly excited to get on the bus and go compete.”

To win the tournament, the Roadrunners would need to win four games in four consecutive days. If they beat the Pirates on Thursday, they would play the No. 3 UAB Blazers on Friday at 8 p.m.

Potentially they would play No. 2 seed North Texas on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the semifinals. The finals would be played on Sunday at 2:15 p.m.

Records

East Carolina 10-8, 18-23
UTSA 6-12, 12-18

Coming up

UTSA vs. East Carolina, Thursday, at 8 p.m., at Fort Worth, Dickies Arena
(AAC tournament second-round game)

Notable

Guard Primo Spears was the only UTSA player honored in the AAC’s postseason awards announced on Tuesday. Spears, from Hartford, Conn., was named second-team all conference. He averaged 19.8 points and 4.0 assists.

Guard Marcus Millender enjoyed the best season of any UTSA player not named in conference’s honors list.

He averaged 14.6 points, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals. Since Jan. 11, Millender played 16 games, scored in double figures in all of them and notched at least 20 seven times.

In his first season at UTSA coach, Austin Claunch has led the Roadrunners to a 12-win season going into the tournament.

Though two of the victories came against sub-Division I competition, it’s the most total wins for a Roadrunners team since the 2020-21 season when they finished 15-11 under a previous staff led by former head coach Steve Henson.

The six conference victories are also the most for a UTSA team since the ’20-21 ball club posted a 9-7 record in Conference USA. That was the last season for former four-year UTSA standouts Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace, the Nos. 1 and 2 scorers in school history.

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

Posted on by
Reply
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.”

Spears, Horton uphold the ‘standards’ for UTSA’s revamped basketball program

Posted on by
Reply


Guard Primo Spears has played at Duquesne, Georgetown and Florida State in his NCAA Division I basketball journey. The 6-3 guard will suit up for the UTSA Roadrunners this season.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Florida State transfer Primo Spears was one of the first players to commit to the UTSA Roadrunners last spring. He was one of the first to arrive on campus earlier this summer. In the four or five practices I’ve seen since September, Spears has clearly emerged as one of the team leaders.

Raekwon Horton. The UTSA men's basketball team on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, at the Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

James Madison transfer Raekwon Horton brings high-level experience after playing in the NCAA tournament the past two seasons.. – File photo by Joe Alexander

First-year Austin Claunch has said it time and again. Spears, a 6-3 guard, is expected to lead UTSA defensively and, really, in much of everything it does this season. That’s why a question posed to Claunch on ESPN+ at the American Athletic Conference media day Monday was significant as I sat here in my living room, trying to sort things out a little more than two weeks shy of opening night.

The question: “Coach, when you went out recruiting (Primo Spears), why did he have to be on this year’s team?”

The answer: “I think, obviously, you watch film and his talent jumps off the page. But what’s been really encouraging for me is just his leadership and the way he carries himself every single day. He wants more accountability. Really, both these guys.”

Attending the event in Irving, for UTSA, were Spears and James Madison transfer Raekwon Horton.

“For us, for a first-year head coach, you certainly want an expectation,” Claunch continued. “(You want) your standard (to be) … to win every game. You want to win the championship every year. But it’s really important that we get a certain kind of person in (our) locker room … (Primo) holds himself to the highest standard, and Rae is the same way.

“That’s why I’m really encouraged by this year and what we’re going to do.”

The Roadrunners enter the 2024-25 season with their own fans likely viewing every positive media report with a grain of salt.

New UTSA men's basketball coach Austin Claunch was at the Roadrunners softball game on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, at Roadrunner Field to throw out the first pitch. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA men’s basketball coach won 90 games and two regular-season championships at Nicholls State University. – File photo by Joe Alexander

The fans, after all, have witnessed three straight discouraging losing seasons under the previous coaching staff. Three straight seasons with more than 20 losses. Following the past two seasons, UTSA fans have watched an exodus of most of the scholarship players leaving the program for better on-the-court situations as well as better NIL financial arrangements.

With Claunch coming in to replace Steve Henson as coach, the Roadrunners last spring had 12 scholarship players take their chances elsewhere. Guard Naz Mahmoud was the only player from the previous regime to return. Claunch, hired in March, wasn’t able to devote his time fully to the new job until he finished his old job.

As an assistant coach at Alabama, he rode the wave, all the way to the NCAA Final Four.

“Coach (Nate Oats) was super excited for me,” Claunch said. “I told (UTSA) it was really important for me to finish what we were doing at Alabama. You know, I owe coach so much for the opportunity, and it meant a lot. You know, it was my first time in the NCAA tournament. I wanted to finish it the right way.

“Of course, (we had) an incredible run for a couple of weeks. To finish it at the Final Four was certainly special. I want to be able to replicate that experience with these guys. The NCAA tournament is a special thing. I want our guys to ultimately experience that same thing.”

Claunch, 34, who grew up in Houston, finally arrived in San Antonio in April. All of a sudden, he was hit with a wave of tasks. Doing an introductory news conference. Hiring a coach staff. Getting on the phone and then talking athletes into visiting the campus.

“Yeah, we were certainly drinking out of the fire hose for a little bit,” he said of his first few weeks on the job. “But, I was really lucky. I brought in some guys who had worked for me at Nicholls (State). Whether it’s a (coaching) staff or a team, you want to surround yourself with guys you trust and people that value the things you value. And I felt we did that. Our staff did an incredible job.

Added Claunch: “I’m excited about where we are and the people we have in our locker room.”

Spears, who grew up in Connecticut, said it was important for him to find the right fit after he entered the transfer portal.

“(Coach Claunch) is one of the youngest coaches in the country,” he said. “He’s hungry. He’s gritty.” Added Horton, a 6-foot-6 wing player and a South Carolina native: “For me it was coach, and the community, as well.”

Horton has played in the NCAA tournament in each of the past two seasons, in 2022-23 with the College of Charleston and last season with James Madison.

“Me and my teammates, we talk about March Madness,” he said. “I told ’em, like, what it felt like. How special it could be. I told ’em the work it would take to get there. So we’re just locked in and focused on that.”

Realistically, it’s the longest of long shots that Horton will hit the jackpot and play in an NCAA tournament for the third year in a row with a third different team.

At the same time, the UTSA players didn’t like the idea that the AAC coaches picked them to finish tied for 11th in a 13-team conference.

Horton isn’t making any bold proclamations, saying only that he expects a “gritty” effort from the Roadrunners.

“We’re looking to change how it was from last year,” he said.

Claunch said the Roadrunners will be “process-oriented” in his first season at the helm.

“It’s not just about, do we win or lose the game,” he said. “We’re trying to build something special. Something that’s bigger than any of us. More important than the result, every single day, is who we are and the program we’re building.”

Notable

UTSA will play an exhibition game against Southern Cal on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Upcoming, the Roadrunners are expected to take on the McNeese State Cowboys in a closed scrimmage.

They’ll open the regular season with two home games, with the opener set for Nov. 4 against Division III Trinity University of San Antonio, followed by a Nov. 9 meeting against North Dakota. UTSA will play on the road at Bradley University on Nov. 12, then will return home to face Little Rock (Ark.) on Nov. 16.

Two of UTSA’s better non-conference games will be at Saint Mary’s, Calif., on Dec. 3, followed by a game at Arkansas on Dec. 7. Saint Mary’s is one of the favorites in the West Coast Conference. Arkansas is expected to contend under first-year coach John Calipari, who has led UMass, Memphis and Kentucky to the Final Four.

The Roadrunners open conference play on Jan. 4 at Tulane. UTSA’s first conference home game is set for Jan. 7 against Tulsa. Last year, the Roadrunners finished 11-21 overall and 5-13 in the AAC. Henson was fired following a first-round AAC tournament loss to Temple.

Predicted order of finish in the AAC men’s basketball race, according to the coaches’ poll, with first-place votes in parentheses and total points:

1 UAB (9) 141
2 Memphis (4) 136
3 South Florida 108
4 Wichita State 102
5 Florida Atlantic 97
6 Temple 86
7 North Texas 83
8 Charlotte 65
9 East Carolina 63
10 Tulsa 44
11 UTSA 35
Tulane 35
13 Rice 18

AAC preseason honors:

Player of the Year
Yaxel Lendeborg, Sr., F, UAB

Freshman of the Year
Jared Harris, G, Memphis

All conference first team
Yaxel Lendeborg, Sr., F, UAB*
RJ Felton, Sr., G, East Carolina
PJ Haggerty, R-So., G, Memphis
Tyrese Hunter, Sr., G, Memphis
Jamal Mashburn Jr., Gr., G, Temple

All conference second team
Efrem ‘Butta’ Johnson, Jr., G, UAB
Alejandro Vasquez, Sr., G, UAB
KyKy Tandy, Gr., G, Florida Atlantic
Colby Rogers, R-Sr., G, Memphis
Jayden Reid, So., G, South Florida
* denotes unanimous selection

AAC head coaches

Years at their respective schools
Starting first year: Austin Claunch, UTSA; Rob Lanier, Rice; John Jakus, Florida Atlantic.
Second year: Amir Abdur-Rahim, South Florida; Ross Hodge, North Texas; Aaron Fearne, Charlotte; Adam Fisher, Temple; Paul Mills, Wichita State.
Third year: Eric Konkol, Tulsa; Michael Schwartz, East Carolina.
Fifth year: Andy Kennedy, UAB.
Sixth year: Ron Hunter, Tulane.
Seventh year: Penny Hardaway, Memphis.

AAC in the 2024 NCAA men’s tournament
Recap
UAB Blazers — No. 12 seed UAB, an automatic qualifier as the AAC tournament champion, lost to the No. 5 San Diego State Aztecs 69-65 in the Round of 64.
Florida Atlantic Owls — No. 8 seed FAU, an at-large selection, lost to the No. 9 University of Northwestern Wildcats 77-65 in overtime in the Round of 64.

.