By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Sixth-year UTSA coach Karen Aston said Thursday that her program is riding as much momentum as it’s ever had leading into a new season.
Two years ago, the Roadrunners surged to a school-record 26 victories and a 17-1 record to win the American Conference regular-season title. Last year, they won another championship, but it came with a twist.
They entered the conference tournament under the radar, seeded sixth, and in the type of surprise that can only materialize in March, the Roadrunners steamrolled with an eight-player rotation to four wins in four days to seize the American’s postseason crown.
UTSA finished 18-16 with an opening-round, NCAA tournament loss to the Connecticut Huskies.
Now, 15 days before a Nov. 6 season opener at UNLV, Aston acknowledged that her players seem more suited than last year’s group to dealing with the pressure of heightened expectations.
“It’s nice to come off another situation where we get a ring,” she said after practice Thursday at the Basketball and Volleyball Training Center. “I think that … has motivated this group in a different way maybe than it did last year’s group.
“Again, I couldn’t really feel like, could I give that group last year the pressure of, ‘You just won a championship. What are you going to do with this year?’
“I feel like this is a group I can do that with. I feel like they’re OK with – I don’t want to call it pressure – but an expectation. They seem a lot more comfortable with that.
“So yes, to answer your question, there is more momentum with this group.”
Last year’s team entered the fall non-conference portion of the schedule sort of shell-shocked by a rash of offseason injuries. Maya Linton had been sidelined all summer.
In the weeks leading into the season, Taylor Ross and Sema Udo also went down with season-ending leg injuries, bringing to seven the number of scholarship athletes who were unavailable to play the season opener at Texas Tech.
This week, the UTSA women have practiced with 13 athletes, including Linton and Ross, who both look to be in good shape to play the opening months.
UTSA assistant Cameron Miles said Tuesday night that it’s “refreshing” to be able to practice with so many talented athletes. As opposed to last fall, when he and some other assistants were thrown into the workouts just to have enough people to complete all the drills.
“You can play ‘em against each other,” Miles said. “You can rotate ‘em around. Use different lineups. We couldn’t do stuff like that last year. Again, they’re so big. We can manipulate ‘em all over the place. Taylor Ross is playing the three some here and there. I think it’s going to be fun. We’ve got a lot of tools.”
Aston said she thinks she could play as many as 10 players in the season-opening road games at UNLV and San Diego State.
To illustrate the depth on the roster this fall, when the team started work on Tuesday afternoon, it had six players on one side of the floor in a center-power forward group and seven on the other end, in a cluster of point guards and wings.
Miles said he has been impressed lately with the progress of 6-foot-7 sophomore Emily Hunter.
“Like, I’ve never had a hammer, like a 6-7 hammer,” he said. “Just to open up my tool box and say, ‘Get the 6-7 kid off the bench.’ It’s going to be fun. (Emily) is learning the way we coach. The way Karen wants it to be (done). She’s learning. She had a great week this week. This was a big week for her.”
Aston said she has eight players in contention to start on opening night, declining to name names.
But, quite possibly, the starters might be returning senior Idara Udo and newcomer Praise Egharevba in the front court, with Mia Hammonds on the wing and Damara Allen and Adriana Robles in the backcourt.
Once again, the coach declined to speculate too much on how good the team can be in March, though she did indicate that it might be as good defensively as any she’s coached at UTSA.
“I wouldn’t say we have necessarily figured ourselves out yet,” Aston said. “There’s too many new faces … But as I said before and I will continue to say, I really like the potential of this group.”
Notable
Three athletes on UTSA’s 16-player roster are dealing with injuries and haven’t practiced this week, including forward Sema Udo and guards Bhret Clay and Rihyana Kinsey.