UTSA forward Atem Bior had 9 points and 7 rebounds.
UTSA’s Keaton Wallace produced six points, five assists and four steals in the second half of a 90-68 victory last Friday against Wiley College. – Photo by Joe Alexander
Last season, if you hit a jump shot from 20 feet, 9 inches in an NCAA Division I college basketball game, court side wags would dutifully write down a “three” next to your name on the score sheet.
Your effort would be cheered by the fans and hailed by the public address announcer, who’d croon your name along with two additional words, “for threeeeeee!”
This season, a jumper from 20-9 just isn’t the same. It counts the same as a layup. It’s only a two.
To earn three points for your team this season, you must hit the jumper from an arc measured at 22-1 and 3/4 inches.
Division I programs have been practicing with the new distance since the middle of the summer, but it’s still an adjustment for everyone, including the UTSA Roadrunners, as the calendar turns to the last day of November.
The 1-5 Roadrunners are shooting just 29.1 percent from beyond the arc, which represents quite a drop from last year (34.4) and from two years ago (36.1).
But even with the decline in efficiency, UTSA isn’t changing anything in regard to its overall offensive philosophy.
Last Friday, the Roadrunners hoisted 31 threes and knocked down 11 of them in their home opener against Wiley College.
Over the last eight minutes of the game, they took seven and made four from long distance and buried the Wildcats 90-68 for their first victory of the season.
Tonight, UTSA hosts Prairie View A&M, and fans are certain to see much of the same.
The Roadrunners will continue to play what is called “inside-out” basketball, hoping to collapse the defense and then pass out to the open man.
If the open man is standing behind the arc, he’s expected to take it and make it.
Earlier in the season, with UTSA playing its first five games away from home, the perimeter shooting in general was poor for a number of reasons.
But UTSA guard Keaton Wallace said earlier this week that the additional 16 and 3/4 inches on the three-point arc wasn’t a good thing initially for a team that was also trying to figure out its point guard situation.
“I think it affected us a little bit, since we are stretched out on the floor a little bit more,” Wallace said. “I feel like, sooner or later, we’re going to start using it to our advantage.
“We do have guys on our team that can shoot the ball. I feel like it’s going to stretch out the defense a little bit more.
“Once we start putting things together, start jelling a little bit more, I think it’ll be an advantage to us and not a disadvantage.”
Wallace said UTSA players worked hard over the summer in an attempt to adjust to the new court dimensions.
“I feel everyone was locked in and trying to get their shot adjusted,” he said. “Some guys have that shot, you know, muscle memory. When they shoot it, they know it’s going in. It’s just second nature.
“Guys had to make slight adjustments. You know, jump higher. Flick (the wrist) a little harder. We worked on it pretty well.”
UTSA made one major personnel adjustment after the 0-5 start.
In an effort to get a better flow on the offense, the Roadrunners moved freshman Erik Czumbel into the starting lineup at point guard and sent Wallace back out to the wing.
Wallace continued to struggle a bit with his shot against Wiley, hitting only 5 of 14 shots, including 2 of 7 from three.
But the feeling is that Wallace, who is shooting 29.7 percent from the field and 26.5 from three, will come around eventually.
There’s also a feeling that other shooters also will flourish once they get a few home games under their belt.
UTSA coach Steve Henson isn’t so much concerned about the new three-point arc as he is about the execution of the offense. He just wants to see his players take better shots.
“Exactly,” he said. “And to do that, we’ve got to get some different types of penetration. Some dribble penetration. We got to get some guys rolling to the basket. We need to get the ball into the post and then back out.”
As the UTSA Roadrunners prepare to host the Prairie View A&M Panthers Saturday night at the Convocation Center, they know what needs to happen as they continue efforts to dig out of a 1-5 hole to start to the season.
They need to keep making the defensive stops that turned up the tempo in the second half last Friday night against Wiley College.
They need to run the floor in the open court, move the ball around and let the shots fly with some confidence.
Against Wiley, they did that successfully after the halftime break, scoring 51 points on the NAIA program en route to a 90-68 victory.
Now it’s on to Prairie View, and a chance for UTSA to notch its first victory of the season against an NCAA Division I team.
“I feel like we still haven’t found our identity yet,” UTSA guard Keaton Wallace said. “You know, it’s still fairly early. We still got a lot more games to play. We’re not even close to conference yet.
“But I feel like we still got a lot of work to do. I feel like we haven’t reached our peak. We still got a lot of potential to bring out of this team.
“Throughout these next few practices, these next few games, we’re just going to keep getting better.”
Records
Prairie View A&M 2-5
UTSA 1-5
UTSA freshman Erik Czumbel nails a 3-pointer from the top of the circle. Czumbel hits the shot on a second chance, off a feed from Byron Frohnen. pic.twitter.com/dMSXJABUSM
— Jerry Briggs (@JerryBriggs) November 23, 2019
Freshman point guard Erik Czumbel on Friday night shrugged off the pressure of making his first start in college basketball.
He just played his game, guiding the UTSA Roadrunners to their first victory of the season, a 90-68 win over the NAIA Wiley College Wildcats.
Afterward, the 6-foot-3 native of Italy couldn’t hide his joy at moving into the starting lineup in only his sixth game for the Roadrunners.
“It feels great,” Czumbel said. “It gives me a lot of confidence, and the home crowd gave me energy. It gave all the team energy, especially in the second half.”
Playing its home opener in front of an announced 917 at the Convocation Center, UTSA turned it on after intermission, shooting 54 percent from the field and outscoring the visiting team, 51-37.
As a result, the Roadrunners finally notched a mark in the win column, improving to 1-5.
Coach Steve Henson acknowledged some sloppy play by his team early, which allowed the visitors to stay close.
“Second half, (we) kind of let them hang (around) and then finally at one point, a couple of guys really stepped up,” Henson said. “I thought Atem (Bior) and Keaton (Wallace) stepped up defensively, and Jhivvan (Jackson) got a little more active.
“I thought Erik was terrific all night all night long. When those two or three guys really set the tone for us defensively, our activity picked up and we got some transition, and that kind of allowed us to pop the game open.”
Jackson led the Roadrunners with 31 points on 10 of 19 shooting. Bouncing back from some sub-par outings earlier in the season, Wallace filled the box score with 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds. He also had five steals.
Bior came off the bench for 11 points and six rebounds. But it was the play of Czumbel, who had 10 points, five assists and six rebounds, that had the media on press row talking.
If he can emerge as a steadying force as a starter at the point, UTSA has a chance to make a run for a conference title in March.
Czumbel played well on Monday in a loss at Utah State, which prompted coaches to consider giving him an expanded role against Wiley. He continued to play well in practice on Wednesday and Thursday, and, by Friday, he was the starter.
“Really proud of him,” Henson said. “I thought he did a lot of good things the other day against Utah State. He’s been steady all year in practice. Again, it’s just the impact we think he can have on getting Keaton back to his normal self.”
First-half recap
The Roadrunners hit six 3-pointers in the first half, racing to a 39-31 lead on Wiley College at intermission.
Playing its first home game of the season at the Convocation Center, UTSA nailed 6 of 18 from long distance and out-rebounded the Wildcats, 27-15.
Nine offensive rebounds for the Roadrunners contributed to a 22-5 advantage in second-chance points.
Records
UTSA 1-5
Wiley 2-2
Notable
The Roadrunners are 3-1 in home openers under Henson.
UTSA freshman Jacob Germany buries a 15-foot jumper in the first half against Wiley College. https://t.co/hyCDEtJ4sq pic.twitter.com/bZFmxIPNJV
— Jerry Briggs (@JerryBriggs) November 23, 2019
UTSA’s Keaton Wallace (center) passes the ball up to Jhivvan Jackson.
Erik Czumbel is averaging 4.4 points in 12 minutes off the bench through UTSA’s first five games. – Photo by Joe Alexander
Hoping to break through with their first victory of a new season, the UTSA Roadrunners are considering a change in the starting lineup on the eve of tonight’s home opener.
UTSA coach Steve Henson said Thursday he may start with freshman Erik Czumbel at point guard when the Roadrunners play the NAIA Wiley College Wildcats.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
Asked if Czumbel could get his first start, Henson said it could happen.
“We haven’t made the full decision on that, but there’s a very good chance,” the coach said.
Surprisingly, the Roadrunners haven’t won any of their first five games.
Moreover, they couldn’t sustain much consistency in a road opener at Oklahoma, in three neutral-site games in Florida and, finally, in a 32-point road loss Monday at 15th-ranked Utah State.
“We haven’t played the way we expected to, the way we are capable of, against some really, really good opponents,” Henson said. “We expected to be a little further along than we were.
“(It was a) tough start. We got to figure some things out. We got to defend better. Got to get better possessions offensively. We got to settle into a (playing) rotation.
“It’s a combination of everything.”
Hopes were high coming into the season with the presence of scoring stars Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace and a cast of promising newcomers.
With those two 20-point scorers from last year returning, the Roadrunners were picked to finish second in Conference USA.
Readying for a three-game homestand, UTSA has yet to make much magic.
The Roadrunners come in shooting an unsightly 34 percent from the field as a team. They’re averaging only 63 points. Opponents are averaging 81, including 86.5 the past two games.
“We haven’t been making shots, and we haven’t been getting the stops we needed,” Jackson said. “We’re really ready to step it up and start winning some games.”
Henson hopes that a return to the home court will help.
He also hopes that by playing Czumbel more at the point, he can relieve Wallace from some of his ball-handling responsibilities and allow him to start finding open spaces and knocking down more threes.
“We got to get Erik in there a lot more, because that’s going to help Keaton and Jhivvan,” Henson said.
UTSA’s starting backcourt tonight could be Czumbel, with Jackson and Wallace on the wings.
In that case, senior Byron Frohnen likely moves to the power forward, with either Atem Bior or Luka Barisic at center.
For the past three years, the Roadrunners started Giovanni De Nicolao at the point, and he emerged as a steady passer and ball handler who didn’t shoot much unless a play broke down.
He was solid defensively.
Czumbel has also exhibited strong defensive capabilities, but on offense, he has proven to be more of a shooter than a facilitator — at least, to this point.
The 6-3 guard from Italy, averaging 4.4 points in 12 minutes through five games, has has hit 8 of 13 from the field and 5 of 9 from three.
He has four assists and four turnovers.
The 15th-ranked Utah State Aggies allowed the UTSA Roadrunners to hang around for a few minutes to start the game.
But they weren’t going to be that generous for too long.
Utah State rolled on a 14-0 run over a four-minute stretch in the first half and never faced another serious challenge in routing UTSA 82-50 Monday night.
In the game played before a raucous crowd of 8,667 in Logan, Utah, Sam Merrill scored 21 points to lead the undefeated Aggies, who improved to 5-0.
The Roadrunners fell to 0-5 on a night when they were out-rebounded 55-36.
UTSA played well defensively in stretches but couldn’t close out possessions, getting beat 38-8 in second-chance points.
An ugly offense and, perhaps an unsettled point guard situation, also contributed to the Roadrunners’ demise. They shot 28.6 percent from the field.
Notable
UTSA is 0-5 for the second season in a row.
Quotable
“Probably the best team we’ve played in my three-plus years here. Great environment. Great opportunity for us. I thought we were ready to go there in the first half. We (knew we) were going to have to play a really, really good ball game. We gave up that (14-0) stretch and in the second half we got whooped.” — UTSA coach Steve Henson, on the team’s radio broadcast.
Records
UTSA 0-5t
Utah State 5-0
Statistically speaking
UTSA stars Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace combined to shoot 11 of 41 from the field. Jackson was 7 of 25.
Coming up
UTSA opens its home schedule Friday night against Wiley College, an NAIA program based in Marshall, Texas.
A three-game home-stand continues against Prairie View A&M on Nov. 30 and against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 3.
The Roadrunners play at Texas State on Dec. 7.
Still in search of a victory after four games, the UTSA Roadrunners will play on the road Monday night against the undefeated and 15th-ranked Utah State Aggies.
It is regarded as UTSA’s toughest challenge since an opening-night road test at Oklahoma.
History would suggest that the odds are stacked against the Roadrunners, who haven’t won against a ranked opponent since 1994, when they knocked off Arizona State in Tempe, Ariz.
UTSA will enter the game struggling offensively, averaging 67 points on 35.5 percent shooting.
The Roadrunners, who were picked in the preseason to finish second in Conference USA, have lost on the road at Oklahoma and in three neutral-site games in Florida against Southern Illinois, Oakland and Delaware.
The Utah State game will be televised on Facebook (Stadium) and will be broadcast on Ticket 760 AM. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m.
Records
UTSA 0-4
Utah State 4-0
Coming up
UTSA opens its home schedule Friday night against Wiley College, an NAIA program based in Marshall, Texas.
A three-game home-stand continues against Prairie View A&M on Nov. 30 and against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Dec. 3.
The Roadrunners play at Texas State on Dec. 7.
UTSA on Wednesday signed two players for the 2020-21 season, including a guard out of the Houston area and a forward from Australia.
Jaja Sanni, a 6-foot-4 guard, is from Clear Lake High School. He is rated as the No. 25 player in the state by TexasHoops.com.
UTSA also signed 6-6 Australian forward Lachlan Bofinger. Bofinger prepped as a junior and senior at Montverde Academy in Florida.
Guard Nate Darling poured in 38 points Sunday as the Delaware Blue Hens posted a 91-79 victory over the winless UTSA Roadrunners.
Competing in the finale of the Sunshine Slam at Kissimmee, Fla., the Roadrunners (0-4) played better on the offensive end than they had in three previous losses.
But they couldn’t stop Darling or Kevin Anderson, a pair of 6-foot-5 juniors, and lost for the third time in three days.
Anderson scored 31 for the Blue Hens (4-0).
As a team, Delaware shot 59.2 percent from the field and 56.5 percent from three (on 13 of 23) in winning for the third time in three days in Kissimmee.
Jhivvan Jackson scored 31 and Keaton Wallace had 19 for UTSA. Knox Hellums added 10 off the bench.
The Roadrunners shot 50.9 percent afield and 44.4 percent from beyond the arc (12 of 27).
UTSA entered the game averaging 63 points and shooting 32.8 percent.
Records
Delaware 4-0
UTSA 0-4
Coming up
UTSA will play at Utah State on Nov. 18.
First half highlights
The Roadrunners had trouble stopping Delaware from scoring in the first half and fell behind 47-37 at intermission.
Darling led the Blue Hens with 18 points
UTSA made a game of it in the final few minutes, rallying on an 11-2 run against the Blue Hens to cut the deficit to 10.
Freshman center Jacob Germany sparked the scoring spree with a dunk off a feed from Jhivvan Jackson.
Jackson hit a three for the final points of the half with 25 seconds left.