SAN ANTONIO — First-year head men's basketball coach Steve Henson unveiled his program's 2016-17 schedule, which includes 15 home games and an 18-game Conference USA slate, on Tuesday.
The 31-game regular season schedule features nine matchups against teams that competed in the postseason a year ago, including four contests against NCAA Tournament participants.
"Our coaches and student-athletes are very excited about this season's schedule," Henson said. "It's a schedule that will challenge our team with nine games against postseason teams from last year, including opponents from the Big 12, Pac-12 and Mountain West. The non-conference portion of the schedule will give us a great opportunity to see where we are at as a group, especially with early tests on the road at Fresno State and Oregon State, and will better prepare us for conference play.
"We are really looking forward to our Nov. 19 home opener. I know the players and staff cannot wait for the opportunity to play in front of the amazing atmosphere created by our students and fans at the Convo."
The Henson era will begin on Nov. 7 when the Roadrunners host Arkansas Tech in their lone exhibition game at the Convocation Center. UTSA then will open its 36th season of play with three consecutive road games, two of which come against NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago.
That stretch starts on Nov. 11 at Fresno State before contests at Oregon State (Nov. 13) and Illinois-Chicago (Nov. 16). The Roadrunners will return to the Alamo City for their home opener on Nov. 19 against Prairie View A&M and then take to the road again for a matchup against former Southland Conference foe Lamar (Nov. 22).
UTSA will close the month at the Convocation Center when it hosts I-35 rival Texas State on Nov. 25. The squad again will hit the road for three consecutive games at Cal Poly (Dec. 1), Utah Valley (Dec. 3) and Texas Tech (Dec. 7).
The nonconference slate comes to a close with the Roadrunners playing three of four games at home beginning with a matchup against Southeastern Oklahoma State on Dec. 10. The one road game in the stretch will come on Dec. 18 at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UTSA will close out the calendar year with home contests against Utah Valley (Dec. 21) and East Central (Dec. 29).
Now in their fourth season as a member of C-USA, the Roadrunners' league slate will open with a New Year's Day matchup against UTEP at the Convocation Center before road tilts at Southern Miss (Jan. 5) and Louisiana Tech (Jan. 7).
UTSA will host Florida Atlantic (Jan. 12) and FIU (Jan. 14) and then play its next three contests away from home against UTEP (Jan. 21), Marshall (Jan. 26) and WKU (Jan. 28).
The month of February will feature a four-game home stand, followed by a four-game road stretch.
The home stand will start against the defending C-USA Tournament and league regular season winners in Middle Tennessee (Feb. 2) and UAB (Feb. 4), respectively, and close against Southern Miss (Feb. 9) and Louisiana Tech (Feb. 11). Trips to Rice (Feb. 16), North Texas (Feb. 18), FIU (Feb. 23) and Florida Atlantic (Feb. 25) will follow and UTSA will wrap up the regular season with home games against Charlotte (March 2) and Old Dominion (March 4).
The top 12 teams in the league will play for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament at the C-USA Tournament, which will be held March 8-11 in Birmingham, Ala.
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