By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA men will play in the Mile High City today, taking on the Denver Pioneers at 1 p.m.
Against the Pioneers (1-2), the Roadrunners (1-2) are looking for their first win of the season against an NCAA Division I opponent.
After opening with a lopsided home victory over the non-NCAA College of Biblical Studies, UTSA has struggled to find consistency.
In their last two games, the Roadrunners have lost at home, falling 77-60 to the SIU Edwardsville Cougars, and on the road, getting beat 80-69 by the Texas State Bobcats.
Six-foot-five guard Jamir Simpson leads the Roadrunners in scoring at 17 points per game. A graduate student transfer from Southern Utah and a native of Ohio, Simpson is shooting 40 percent from three-point range.
Other standouts for UTSA have been 6-9 freshman forward Kaidon Rayfield and 6-5 sophomore forward Baboucarr Njie.
Rayfield, from Oklahoma City, has averaged 13 points and 10.3 rebounds. Njie, another Ohio native from Dayton, has averaged eight points and six rebounds off the bench.
Guard Vasean Allette, regarded as the team’s top offseason pickup out of the transfer portal, has yet to play. Coach Austin Claunch said earlier in the week that Allette is day to day.
The Pioneers also started off slowly, dropping road games at Seattle, 84-73, and Washington, 84-70.
They won their first game last Sunday, winning on the road against the Montana State Bobcats, 75-73.
Forward Jeremiah Burke leads the team with 19.7 points per game and 6.3 rebounds. He’s hit eight of 17 from three-point distance. Forward Logan Kinsey averages 17.7 points and guard Carson Johnson 15.3.
Records
UTSA 1-2
Denver 1-2
Coming up
UTSA at Denver, today, 1 p.m.
Southwestern Christian at UTSA, Tuesday, 11 a.m.
Notable
The Pioneers, who play in the Summit League, have never reached the NCAA Division I men’s tournament in some 40 seasons at the highest level of college basketball. Denver entered Division I for a stretch from the early 1960s through the late 1970s and then again from 1998-99 to the present.
Tim Bergstraser is in his first year as head coach. He is charged with turning around a program that hasn’t had a winning record since the 2016-17 team finished 16-14. The Pioneers finished 17-17 in the 2023-24 season but slumped to 11-21 last year.
The Roadrunners, who started playing basketball in 1981-82, have made four NCAA tournaments. They qualified in 1988, 1999, 2004 and 2011. The Roadrunners have had four straight losing seasons, including 12-19 last year in Coach Austin Claunch’s first year.
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