Middle Tennessee and UAB road games on tap this week for Roadrunners

SAN ANTONIO – UTSA men's basketball begins its four-game stretch against Conference USA's top teams with a pair of road games this week. The Roadrunners start with a Thursday evening tipoff against league co-leader Middle Tennessee, then travel to UAB to take on the fifth-place Blazers Saturday at 7 p.m.
 
Middle Tennessee game overview
• UTSA continues Conference USA play Thursday evening with a road game at Middle Tennessee. The game will tip at 6:30 p.m. from the Murphy Center in Murfreesboro. The contest will air on the Roadrunners Sports Network (92.5/93.3 The Bull in San Antonio) with Andy Everett providing play-by-play. The game will also be web streamed worldwide on WatchStadium.com with Ron Thulin (play-by-play) and Tim Scarborough (analyst) on the call. 
 
Series history vs. Middle Tennessee
• UTSA and Middle Tennessee have met five times on the basketball court with the Blue Raiders holding a 4-1 advantage. The first game of the series was played in January 2014 with the Blue Raiders taking an 80-58 win in Murfreesboro. UTSA's lone win in the series came on Jan. 29, 2015 via a 69-58 final at the Convocation Center. MT has won the last three meetings, including an 86-70 win to knock UTSA from the C-USA tournament last March. 
 
UAB game overview
• UTSA continues Conference USA play Saturday evening with a road contest at UAB. The game will tip at 7 p.m. from the Bartow Arena in Birmingham. The contest will air on the Roadrunners Sports Network (92.5/93.3 The Bull in San Antonio) with Andy Everett providing play-by-play. The game will also be web streamed worldwide on via the WatchESPN platform. 
 
Series history vs. UAB
• UTSA and UAB have played four times on the hardwood since becoming members of Conference USA. UAB holds a 3-1 margin, claiming the first three meetings. UTSA upset the Blazers in the Convocation Center last February by an 82-67 final. 
 
Roadrunners own seven weekly C-USA freshman honors
• UTSA freshmen Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace have combined to win seven of the Conference USA's Freshman of the Week honors through the season's 11 weeks.
• Wallace has been bestowed the honor three times (Nov. 13, Dec. 4, Dec. 11), while Jackson has also earned the weekly plaudit four times (Nov. 20, Dec. 26, Jan. 2, Jan. 8).
• Head coach Steve Henson has now coached 11 C-USA Freshman of the Week award winners – the seven this season along with Byron Frohnen's three last season and Giovanni De Nicolao's one.
• UTSA had never produced a C-USA Freshman of the Week honoree prior to Henson's arrival in 2016. 
 
C-USA's top scoring freshmen duo
• UTSA's Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace easily compose the top scoring freshman duo in Conference USA. Jackson leads the Roadrunners at 18.5 points per game, while Wallace averages 12.8. 
• Jackson and Wallace are two of four freshmen among the top-30 scorers in C-USA, ranking fifth and 27th, respectively. UAB's Zack Bryant - 13.5 ppg - is 22nd and WKU's Taveion Hollingsworth - 12.7 ppg - is 28th.
 
Frohnen on the boards
• Sophomore forward Byron Frohnen leads UTSA and ranks seventh in Conference USA with a per game average of 7.6 rebounds. 
• Frohnen, who starts at power forward, but also spends time at small forward, has totaled 151 total rebounds with 103 coming on the defensive end. 
• The Las Vegas native has led the Roadrunners on the glass in 11 games, including season-highs of 11 against Bethany, North Texas and FIU.
• Frohnen's 372 rebounds in only 53 career games ranks 18th on the UTSA career list. He needs 18 more to reach the top 15 and 89 to crack the top 10.
 
Jackson starts and Wallace breaks through
• Freshman Jhivvan Jackson made his first appearance in the starting lineup in place of fellow frosh Keaton Wallace on Jan. 20 against UTEP. 
• Jackson finished the game with 11 points, despite being the primary objective of the Miners' ever-changing defensive schemes. 
• However, it was Wallace that made the largest impact in his 31 minutes off the bench, scoring a team-high 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting, including a trio of 3-pointers. Wallace had been in a slump over the four previous games, averaging 5.3 points and shooting a woeful 16.2 percent from the field. 
 
Starting lineup shakeups
• After starting the same five for the season's first 17 games, UTSA head coach Steve Henson has played two different lineups over the past three.
• Sophomore guard George Willborn III has started the last three games at the small forward position and is averaging 8.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per outing. 
• Henson then made the aforementioned lineup change on Jan. 20 to insert Jhivvan Jackson, who most likely was on track to be the Conference USA Sixth Man of the Year, at shooting guard for Keaton Wallace. 
 
Rebound the basketball
• After struggling to on the glass in the early portion of the season, UTSA has made quite the improvement since Conference USA play began. Against C-USA competition the Roadrunner average 41.3 caroms per game, despite featuring no regular contributor taller than 6-foot-8.
• The Roadrunners are the top rebounding team in the league overall and rank 10th in the NCAA at 40.8 rebounds per game over the season's 20 outings.
 
Jackson among top scoring freshmen in the nation
• As of Jan. 21, Jhivvan Jackson's 18.5 points per game rank sixth among freshmen scorers in the NCAA.
Top freshmen scorers in the NCAA (as of Jan. 21)

 
Freshmen bucket getters
• In just 20 games, Roadrunner freshmen Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace already rank among the top-10 freshmen scorers in UTSA history. Moreover, Jackson is already one of only five freshmen in UTSA history to score more than 300 points.
• In addition to Jackson and Wallace, the top-10 UTSA freshmen scoring list features current Roadrunner sophomores Byron Frohnen (280 points in 2016-17) and Giovanni De Nicolao (272 points in 2016-17). In less than two full seasons, head coach Steve Henson has recruited and coached four of the most prolific freshmen scorers in program history. 
Top-10 UTSA freshmen scorers

Up Next
• UTSA return home to the Convocation Center to face Marshall on Feb. 1 and Western Kentucky on Feb. 3.