By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
After a seven-day layoff, the UTSA Roadrunners will play their second game of the season Tuesday night in Peoria, Ill., against the Bradley Braves, the preseason favorites to win the Missouri Valley Conference.
First-year UTSA coach Austin Claunch hopes to pick up a road victory toight in Peoria, Ill., against the Bradley Braves. – File photo by Joe Alexander
UTSA comes into the contest at 1-0 on the season to face the Braves, who are 1-1.
Bradley coach Brian Wardle’s program has had winning records in seven of its last eight seasons, including five with 20 or more victories.
Last year, the Braves went 23-12, with a 13-7 mark in the MVC. In the postseason, they entered as the No. 3 seed and reached the semifinals of the conference tournament before getting knocked out by the Drake Bulldogs.
Left out of the NCAA tournament, they accepted a bid to the NIT and reached the second round, where their season ended with a loss to Cincinnati. The Braves ended the year at No. 57 in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
“Coach Wardle does a heck of a job,” UTSA coach Austin Claunch said Monday. “They’ve got experience. They’ve got shooting. It’s just going to be a big-time game.”
The Roadrunners are coming off a string of a dozen seasons in which they have had nine losing records. After three straight 20-loss seasons under the previous coaching staff, they brought in Claunch to turn things around.
Claunch and his coaches have been pleased with the progress thus far. In a couple of preseason games, they played well in long stretches against both Southern Cal and McNeese.
On Nov. 4, they opened the season with a 103-77 victory over Division III Trinity but haven’t played since.
A home game scheduled for last Saturday against North Dakota was postponed because of weather- and travel-related delays for the visitors.
Now they’re faced with testing their resolve on the road against a traditionally-good, mid-major program. To win, they’ll need to earn it on the defensive end, an area that Claunch sees as the “bread and butter” of his team eventually.
“I do think that’s going to be part of our bread and butter, making people miss, and trying to force turnovers within that as well, and doing that as best we can without fouling,” Claunch said on his weekly zoom call.
Claunch said fouling will be a byproduct “a little bit when you’re playing hard and flying around,” but he said that is why depth on the roster is emphasized.
“You know, I don’t want our guys thinking about that too much,” he said. “We’ll let guys play with foul trouble at times. I want us thinking about making it not fun to play UTSA. I want it to be physical. I want our guys to blow up actions and kind of make our name on that side of the ball.”
Bradley opened its season with an 88-60 victory over Southeast Missouri and then lost on Saturday night, on the road, to the Washington State Cougars, 91-74. Trailing by three at the half, the Braves were blitzed 46-32 after intermission.
Fouls plagued the Braves with three starters fouling out of the game. Forwards Christian Davis and Darius Hannah each scored 14 points for Bradley, while guard Zek Montgomery scored 13.
Coming up
UTSA at Bradley, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Little Rock at UTSA, Saturday, 3 p.m.