UTSA braces for a visit from the Oklahoma Sooners


UTSA coach Steve Henson starts practice Sunday afternoon in preparation for a much-anticipated home game Monday night against the Oklahoma Sooners.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon at UTSA, assistant basketball coach Mike Peck stopped outside the locker room, opening his eyes wide when asked about the challenge of playing a home game against the Oklahoma Sooners.

“I thought about staying in church til game time, just praying,” Peck said. “Steve said, ‘No.’ ”

Peck’s boss, UTSA head coach Steve Henson, smiled at his assistant’s comment.

Henson acknowledged the challenge at hand in facing the Sooners, for whom he worked as an assistant before taking the job at UTSA in 2016.

But he also said it’s not necessarily in his team’s best interest to slow it down.

Oklahoma (1-0) and UTSA (0-1) will tip off on Monday at 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

“They’re an imposing looking crew,” Henson said. “They are. They’ve done a great job. A couple of those skinny guys came in there, and Bryce Daub on the (OU) strength and conditioning staff has done a great job, bulking them up.

“We’re not going to out-muscle ’em. We’re not going to overpower ’em. But, we’re going to try to spread ’em out, move ’em, attack ’em.

“A lot of times, when you’re playing an elite program like that, you’re worried about trying to slow things down, thinking fewer possessions is better, that fewer possessions is going to increase your chances for winning.

“We’re not going to look at it that way. I don’t know that that’s to our advantage. I think more possessions is better than fewer possessions.”