SAN ANTONIO - UTSA men's basketball team, under the direction of second-year head coach Steve Henson, held its first practice of the 2017-18 season Monday afternoon. The team spent the bulk of the energetic two-and-a-half hour practice working on defensive -- both sets and transition -- in preparation for the upcoming season. The session was the first of 30 in a 42-day span leading to the opening game of the season against East Central on Sun., Nov. 12 at the Convocation Center.
UTSA returns eight letter winners, including three starters, from last year's team that posted 14 wins, highlighted by the program's first Conference USA tournament victory. Making a return to the starting five are sophomore guards Byron Frohnen and Giovanni De Nicolao along with junior forward Nick Allen. Frohnen (8.5 ppg/6.7 rpg), De Nicolao (8.2 ppg/3.3 apg) each started all 33 games, averaging 30.2 and 27.2 minutes, respectively. Allen (5.8 ppg/4.2 rpg) made 20 starts a year ago, averaging 20.8 minutes per contest.
Five additional Roadrunners return from the 2016-17 squad. The quintet combined for 104 games played and seven starts. Senior guard Austin Karrer (2.5 ppg/3.9 rpg) appeared in all 33 games last season and made one start. Sophomore guard George Willborn III (4.5 ppg/1.8 rpg) saw action in 31 games with six starts and classmate Mitar Stanojevic (1.5 ppg/1.1 rpg), a forward, made 21 appearances off the bench. Senior center James Ringholt (0.4 ppg/0.5 rpg) played in 12 games, while junior guard Kyle Massie, a walk-on, logged action in seven games.
Seven newcomers will don the Blue and Orange for the first time in2017-18, including three freshmen and four transfers. The freshmen class is composed of Texas high school guards Jhivvan Jackson (Euless Trinity HS) and Keaton Wallace (Richardson HS) along with Oklahoma high school forward Adrian Rodriguez (Union HS). Junior college transfer guard Deon Lyle (Cloud County [Kan.] CC) is joined by JUCO forward Toby Van Ry (Northwest [Kan.] CC). The Roadrunners also welcome the addition of four-year transfers Dane Buford (Oklahoma) and Kendell Ramlal (Texas State). Buford is required to sit out the 2017-18 season, while Ramlal joined the team in January while serving a year in residency last season.
Fans will have their first opportunity to see the Roadrunners in action on Tues., Nov. 7 in an exhibition contest against Southeaster Oklahoma State. As in years past, the exhibition game will be FREE of charge and open to the public.
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