The UTSA Roadrunners have expressed mixed feelings about 11 days off between games during the stretch drive of the Conference USA regular-season race.
But with the team coming off a disappointing road trip that ended last Saturday at Louisiana Tech, and then not playing again until Feb. 28 at home against first-place Old Dominion, coach Steve Henson wants his players to use the time wisely.
“I like the fact that we’ve got days to take advantage of, for a lot of different reasons,” Henson said.
In a C-USA bonus play schedule announced last weekend, the No. 4 Roadrunners were matched against the first-place Old Dominion Monarchs and No. 5 UAB Blazers at home, followed by the second-seeded Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and No. 3 Southern Miss Golden Eagles on the road.
For most teams in the C-USA’s three groups, the competition starts Saturday, with Group 1 openers featuring Western Kentucky at Old Dominion and UAB at Southern Miss.
The Roadrunners will have to wait another five days before they tip off at home against the Monarchs.
Henson didn’t like the outcome of his last two games, a 7-point loss at Southern Miss and a 5-point loss at Louisiana Tech.
But he said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that he likes the opportunity to focus for a few days on fine tuning his own team before starting work next week on Old Dominion.
“We had a couple of days off coming back from the trip, which was good,” Henson said. “Our guys really came in with good energy today because of that extra day off.
“It gives us a chance to work on some things we need to work on as part of our base,” he added. “This time of year, you spend so much time working on specifics for your next opponent.
“We’ve got a few days to work on some general things … to help us be a better basketball club, and then we’ll still have time to get ready for Old Dominion.”
Group 1 schedules
Here are the schedules for teams in Group 1 of Conference USA’s bonus play. After bonus play is complete, the standings leader is the C-USA regular-season champion and the top four get first-round byes in the C-USA tournament.
1) Old Dominion (21-6, 11-3)
Saturday – Western Kentucky at Old Dominion
Feb. 28 – Old Dominion at UTSA
March 6 – Southern Miss at Old Dominion
March 9 – Old Dominion at UAB
2) Western Kentucky (16-11, 9-5)
Saturday – Western Kentucky at Old Dominion
Feb. 28 – Western Kentucky at UAB
March 3 – Southern Miss at Western Kentucky
March 6 – UTSA at Western Kentucky
3) Southern Miss (17-9, 9-5)
Saturday – UAB at Southern Miss
March 3 – Southern Miss at Western Kentucky
March 6 – Southern Miss at Old Dominion
March 9 – UTSA at Southern Miss
4) UTSA (15-12, 9-5)
Feb. 28 – Old Dominion at UTSA
March 3 – UAB at UTSA
March 6 – UTSA at Western Kentucky
March 9 – UTSA at Southern Miss
5) UAB (16-11, 8-6)
Saturday – UAB at Southern Miss
Feb. 28 – Western Kentucky at UAB
March 3 – UAB at UTSA
March 9 – Old Dominion at UAB
They said it
UTSA forward Byron Frohnen
“The time off is kind of nice, (but) it sucks because I feel like we were playing well, even though we were coming off two losses … But the time off is going to be good. Get some rest. Get caught up in class and just relax a little bit going into the home stretch.”