By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
For the UTSA Roadrunners, it’s time to turn the page on a four-game losing streak. With five games left in the regular season, they know they need to start playing with more urgency as the American Athletic Conference tournament looms next month.
Coach Austin Claunch’s UTSA Roadrunners will host the South Florida Bulls tonight at 7 at the Convocation Center. – File photo by Joe Alexander
The Roadrunners kick off the stretch run with a home game tonight against the South Florida Bulls, and UTSA coach Austin Claunch doesn’t want a repeat of their last game, when they lost concentration and allowed the Tulsa Golden Hurricane to run up a big lead before halftime.
UTSA rallied in the second half and nearly pulled out a victory, but the effort just wasn’t enough.
It came too late to prevent an 0-2 record on the road trip through Wichita State and Tulsa. Now, the Roadrunners (4-9 in the AAC) find themselves in 11th place in the AAC standings, a game behind Tulsa and South Florida (both 5-8).
“We had guys come in this morning, worked hard, shot well,” Claunch said on his Monday media session. “Certainly we wish we had more wins. That goes without saying. I thought the first half against Tulsa was the first time we’d sleep walked through a game in a long, long time. I don’t mean to say that, we weren’t playing hard, or whatever the case may be.
“But there were just some mental mistakes and just some lapses that we haven’t made in awhile. By a few of our older, better guys that have been playing a lot of minutes for us. Guys that should know better.
“So again, just a really bad start to the game. Haven’t had one of those (since) I would say against FAU (on Jan. 29, on the road) we got off to sort of a snoozer of a start. This one was kind of similar.
“But we’re always looking forward, whether it’s win or lose. At the end of the day, if we had won both games, we (still) wouldn’t be where we want to be. There’s a lot of work to be done. There’s still a lot to play for in these last five games to try to build some momentum as we go to Fort Worth.”
Records
South Florida 12-14, 5-8
UTSA 10-15, 4-9
Coming up
South Florida at UTSA, tonight at 7
UTSA at East Carolina, Sunday, 1 p.m.
Rice at UTSA, Sunday, March 2, 5 p.m.
Memphis at UTSA, Tuesday, March 4, 6 p.m.
UTSA at Charlotte, Sunday, March 9, 3 p.m.
AAC men’s tournament
March 12 – At the Super Pit, in Denton (first round).
March 13-16 – At Dickies Arena, in Fort Worth (second round, quarterfinals, semis and finals)
Honoring Amir Abdur-Rahim
UTSA coach Austin Claunch paid tribute to the late Amir Abdur-Rahim this week, talking about the 43-year-old South Florida basketball coach who passed away last fall, a few weeks before the opening of the college basketball season.
In January, the American Athletic Conference announced that it would create a postseason sportsmanship award in the coach’s name:
“The Amir Abdur-Rahim Sportsmanship Award will be presented annually to the men’s basketball student-athlete who, as determined by the league’s head coaches, best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, fair play and leadership,” according to a news release from the conference.
Claunch said he honestly hasn’t given much thought to who on the Roadrunners he might nominate for it, but supports the idea wholeheartedly.
“This season is about Amir,” Claunch said. “It’s incredible the season they had last year, right? But again, when you hear people speak about him, certainly, that’s something I hope one day people speak about me in the same light. He was clearly an incredible leader, someone that just carried himself with incredible class and dignity.
“When I think about the award, there’s plenty of guys (deserving of it). But I haven’t thought too much about that. Again, this season is to honor Amir. Whoever wins that award certainly should feel that, it’s an award you shouldn’t take lightly. Something that you should understand … is named after an incredible man, and it means something.”
McHone’s homecoming
Second-year South Florida assistant coach Griffin McHone played his high school basketball for the Boerne Greyhounds. He played at Boerne under his father, Greyhounds coach Kimble McHone. Griffin is the grandson of longtime college and pro basketball coach Morris McHone, formerly the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.