By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
UTSA women’s basketball coach Karen Aston on Monday acknowledged the disappointment of coming up short in the team’s quest to reach the NCAA tournament, but she said she feels “extremely blessed and pleased we’re still playing.”
Coach Karen Aston Roadrunners will take a 26-4 record into a first-round WBIT game Thursday at Gonzaga. – File photo by Joe Alexander
The Roadrunners will play in the 32-team Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, opening on the road Thursday against the Gonzaga Bulldogs in Spokane, Wash. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. Central time.
It’s the second straight season that the Roadrunners have reached a national postseason tournament after last year’s squad competed in the WNIT.
“The fact that we were able to take another step this year and elevate the tournament that we’re playing in is a huge accomplishment for this program, in a short period of time,” said Aston, who is in her fourth season at UTSA. “So, just thankful (for the opportunity). I could say a lot of things about disappointment (and) all of those things of not making the (NCAA) tournament. But at the end of the day you wake up and you’re grateful for what you have and to still be playing.”
Last year, UTSA played at home in the WNIT’s opening round and knocked off Northern Colorado for the first national tournament victory in school history. The Roadrunners lost in the second round in a road game at Wyoming.
UTSA bid for three home games in this year but was dispatched to play in the state of Washington against the Bulldogs, who were co-champions (at 22-10, 17-3) of the West Coast Conference. In the WBIT, teams were seeded 1-4 in each of four quadrants of the bracket. The Bulldogs drew a No. 4 seed. The Roadrunners (26-4, 17-1) were not seeded after winning the American Athletic Conference regular-season title outright.
Both Gonzaga and UTSA went 0-1 in the respective conference tournaments, with the Bulldogs losing to Oregon State in the WCC semifinals and the Roadrunners falling to Rice in the AAC quarterfinals.
Asked how she felt about being slotted into the WBIT bracket, Aston said, “I feel good about the team. You know, I don’t have any qualms about us going on the road. Obviously, like you said, we went 17-1. We have the ability to have some road toughness about us, or we wouldn’t have accomplished what we did. So I feel very confident in that. You know, very disappointed that we’re not hosting for our players, our staff, all the people that made our home environment really special, that we could go undefeated (at home).
“Not sure I have an answer for why we’re not hosting when you look at four or five teams that are that are that we have a better NET (ranking and) we won our league. But as I told our players, everything doesn’t always end up the way you expect it to or want it to. And you have to respond to that. And that’s a life lesson and a life skill that comes in pretty handy along your way.”
The Roadrunners have experienced two major disappointments over the past week — first, losing in the AAC tournament and then, second, gathering on Sunday to get confirmation that they would not, after all, be playing in the NCAA tournament. Even for a team as talented as the Roadrunners, it may be a challenge for them to re-set and prepare for the WBIT in the wake of all the emotion.
“You have to dig into your competitive juices a little bit,” Aston said. “And I think for our program, every single step that we take — I mean, we got a postseason win last year. This is a very, very competitive tournament. There are multiple teams that should have played in the NCAA that are in this tournament. So there’s a ton that we’re playing for. We’re graduating two players (in Jordyn Jenkins and Nine De Leon Negron). So, what are the rest of them learning in this experience of what it feels like to be continuing to play in March.
“Like I told them, some people are done two weeks ago and (are) on the beach somewhere. For us to understand what it feels like to continue to grind and prepare and take care of your bodies and stay in the gym, like, all of those are learning experiences for young players. And if you’ve got six or seven, or five or six, or whatever we had, who had never even experienced what a Selection Show was, then there’s a lot of learning still ahead for our group.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the start time of UTSA’s game at Gonzaga. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. Central time on Thursday.