By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
UTSA forward Macaleab Rich underwent season-ending groin surgery Tuesday morning, Roadrunners coach Austin Claunch announced.
Macaleab Rich wowed the crowd at preseason ‘Rowdy Jam’ festivities when he jumped over UTSA coach Austin Claunch and dunked. – File photo by Joe Alexander
As a result, the slumping UTSA men will play the remainder of the American Conference schedule without their best inside scoring threat. The Roadrunners (4-12, 0-4) will carry a nine-game losing streak into a home game Wednesday night against Rice.
“After going through doctor’s appointments and MRIs and X-rays, Macaleab had a partial tear in his groin from the FAU game,” Claunch said on his weekly zoom media conference. “Unfortunately he had season-ending surgery today, and so he won’t be back.
“He really wanted to look at some different options. He really wanted to play and compete. He was really starting to come into his own. So, I hate it for us. But moreso I hate it for him just because he was really starting to turn the corner on how he was playing.”
Rich, originally from East St. Louis, Ill., is a 6-foot-7, 245-pound junior transfer from Kansas State. After playing in a reserve role in the first 11 games of the season, he exploded on Dec. 22 for a career-high 25 points at home in a 71-68 loss to Seattle.
In that game, he muscled inside to hit 11 of 15 shots from the field.
Unfortunately for Rich and UTSA, it would be his last impactful performance of the season. On Dec. 31, in the first game after the holiday break, he played four minutes in the conference opener at FAU before he suffered the injury.
Rich will finish the season averaging 8.1 points and 2.4 rebounds. His shooting percentage of 55.6 is second on the team to forward Daniel Akitoby’s 63.0. His scoring average is third behind Jamir Simpson’s 16.6 and Austin Nunez’ 9.5.
The Roadrunners have suffered their share of adversity in Claunch’s second season at UTSA. After reeling in four players from high-major programs through the transfer portal last spring, only two of them — Rich and guard Austin Nunez — have been able to appear in more than a handful of the team’s 16 games.
TCU transfer Vasean Allette, perhaps the top player out of the portal in UTSA’s signing class, has not and will not play in any games for personal reasons. His loss for the season was announced on New Years Eve.
Also, Duke transfer and seven-foot center Stanley Borden has played a total of 20 minutes in three games. He is currently sidelined with a hand injury.
Rich played in the first 11 games, started two and averaged 15 minutes. Nunez, from San Antonio Wagner High School after transferring in from Arizona State, has started and played in 15 games, averaging 26.7 minutes.
Nunez is the only one of the four expected to start against the Owls.
Aside from the players who joined the team from high-profile programs, the Roadrunners also have missed point guard Pierce Spencer, who played four games before injuring his shoulder. Spencer is also out for the season.
Coming up
Rice at UTSA, Wednesday, 7 p.m.
UTSA at Memphis, Sunday, 5 p.m.
Records
Rice 7-10, 1-3
UTSA 4-12, 0-4
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