SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA men's basketball team will open its 2020-21 season on Friday at 3 p.m. with UT Permian Basin at the Convocation Center. The game will be broadcast live on CUSA TV and Ticket 760 AM.
The Roadrunners are taking a second stab at opening day after seeing their season lid-lifter at Oklahoma, scheduled for Wednesday, postponed due to COVID-19 concerns in the OU program. UTSA ventured back to San Antonio on Wednesday to prepare for Friday's new season opener. UTPB opened its season on Wednesday night in a loss at Texas in Austin.
UTSA will hit the road immediately following the contest with the Falcons on Friday night, traveling for a matchup at UTRGV in Edingburg on Saturday at 3 p.m. on the WAC Digital Network and The Bull 93.3/92.5 FM.
SCOUTING THE FALCONS
UT Permian Basin is opening its season with back-to-back Division I exhibition games. The Falcons opened the season of the UTEP Miners on Wednesday with a 100-81 loss in El Paso. The Falcons shot 42.9 percent in the game and was 11 of 29 from 3-point range, equaling the Miners with 41 rebounds, dishing out 14 assists and turning it out 16 times.
UTPB was led in scoring on Wednesday by Jordan Horn's 26 points, four rebounds, four steals and two assists. Luka Juricki had 12 points and three rebounds, with Quinntez Grimes, Tyler Jarolik and Adam Rivera each chipping in at least eight points.
A 6-foot-2 senior guard who transferred from North Dakota State, Horn is UTPB's leading returning score, after averaging 13.7 points and 3.6 rebounds in seven games last year. As a team, UTPB averaged 83.7 points per game in 2019-20, allowing 84.1 points, shooting 48.2 percent as a team, including a 37.3 mark from distance.
SERIES HISTORY
This marks the second consecutive season the two teams have met and the third time overall. UTPB won the first meeting, 90-85 in San Antonio during the 2014-15 season and the Roadrunners posted a 98-55 win last year.
Last year, UTSA shot 46.6 percent – and 14 of 29 from 3-point range – in the win over the Falcons at the Convocation Center. Jhivvan Jackson led all scorers with 28 points, adding 14 rebounds and four assists. Keaton Wallace chipped in 18 points and three assists, while Jacob Germany added 10 points in 19 minutes off the bench. UTSA held a 53-39 margin in rebounds, holding UTPB to 33.8 percent from the field and 4 of 25 from distance. Carson Newsom had 16 points and six boards to lead the Falcons.
SEASON LIDLIFTERS
The Roadrunners are 15-24 all-time in season openers, including a 1-3 mark under coach Steve Henson, who has faced Oklahoma, Fresno State, East Central and St. Edward's in his first four seasons openers at the helm. Last year, UTSA fell at Oklahoma in the season opener, 85-67.
PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE USA HONORS
UTSA men's basketball standout guards Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace were named preseason All-Conference USA for the third consecutive season in a voting of the circuit's coaches and media.
For the third consecutive season, the UTSA guard duo earned preseason All-Conference USA in a voting of the league coaches and media. Jackson is a two-time, first-team All-Conference USA selection, while Wallace has earned all-league honors in the postseason each of the last two years. The pair of scoring guards led the nation's backcourts – and formed the NCAA's third-highest scoring duo – as juniors, combining for 45.6 points per game.
Jackson, a native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, shattered the C-USA scoring record with 26.8 points per game as a junior, ranking second in the nation. He broke UTSA season and career scoring marks, while having the most prolific scoring season in league games in C-USA history. He enters his senior season with the top career scoring average in program history – and second-best in C-USA – at 22.8 points per game. He averaged 5.6 rebounds per game as a junior, ranking second among the NCAA's players six-feet and under.
Wallace, who prepped at Dallas' Richardson High School, is a two-time second-team All-Conference USA selection by the league's coaches and media. He is coming off back-to-back electric season performances, including averaging 20.2 points and 5.0 rebounds as a sophomore and 18.8 points and 4.5 rebounds as a junior. Wallace, who played in a scoring guard role as a sophomore, slid over to the point guard role as a junior after the departure of a three-year starter in the role the year before. He dished out 3.1 assists per game, while scoring 20 or more in 14 games, including eight straight in league action. Wallace enters his senior season with the sixth-most points scored in UTSA career history.
2020-21 C-USA Preseason Team
Jordan Shepherd, Charlotte
Jahmir Young, Charlotte
Taevion Kinsey, Marshall
Jarrod West, Marshall
Javion Hamlet, North Texas
Bryson Williams, UTEP
Jhivvan Jackson, UTSA
Keaton Wallace, UTSA
Taveion Hollingsworth, WKU
Charles Bassey, WKU
ALLEY, PARRISH GRANTED IMMEDIATE ELIGIBILITY
UTSA's roster got a big boost for 2020-21 when transfers Cedrick Alley Jr. and Eric Parrish were granted immediate eligibility for the season.
A 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward, Alley played his first two seasons at Houston after a star career at Klein Forest High School, where he earned 2017 6A Mr. Basketball Honors from the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches. He played in 60 games with 16 starts over two seasons with the Cougars.
Parrish, a native of Cypress, Texas, joined the UTSA roster in the middle of the season last year after opening his season at Nevada. Parrish, a 6-foot-6 wing, opened his collegiate career at Akron, where he averaged 8.8 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in 2017-18. He then transferred to Bossier Parrish [La.] Community College, where he was ranked as the fourth-best junior college recruit in the nation after averaging 18.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
FOUR SIGN NLIs IN NOVEMBER
UTSA men's basketball has inked four standouts to National Letters of Intent for the 2021-22 season, it was announced by head coach Steve Henson.
UTSA signed a pair of scoring junior college talents who hail from South Sudan, including 6-foot-8 Austin High School and Temple College product Aleu Aleu and 6-5 guard Dhieu Deing, who prepped in High Point, N.C., before opening his career with a season at USC Aiken and transferring to Dodge City [Kan.] College.
The Roadrunners have also added a pair of high school talents in Lamin Sabally, a 6-7 guard out of Berlin, Germany, and Azavier Johnson, a 6-5 guard from Las Vegas.
"We are thrilled to welcome these four young men and their families into our UTSA family," Henson said. "They each bring a unique skill set to our roster and have the ability to immediately impact our program. We can't wait to get them to San Antonio and start helping them achieve their goals on and off the court."
HENSON SHOW RETURNS FOR 2021
The fifth season of The Steve Henson Show presented by Methodist Healthcare will return on Monday, Jan. 4, UTSA Athletics and Learfield IMG College's Roadrunners Sports Properties announced Monday.
The one-hour show will air live on Ticket 760 AM from a socially distanced location on UTSA's campus.
Fans can watch the broadcast of the show through the UTSA Athletics Facebook page, which features Henson and host Andy Everett for a one-hour radio show each Monday throughout the season.
All shows will be carried live in the San Antonio area on Ticket 760 AM (subject to change) and also can be heard online at Ticket760.com and via the free all-in-one iHeartRadio app.
2021 The Steve Henson Show Schedule
Monday, Jan. 4: 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 11: 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 18: 7 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 25: 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 1: 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 8: 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 15: 7 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 22: 7 p.m.
Monday, March 1: 7 p.m.
Monday, March 15: 7 p.m.
FOUR SCORE OVER 20 IN BLUE/WHITE GAME
Luka Barisic, Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace each had 25 points to highlight UTSA's Blue-White game, held on Tuesday, Nov. 17 without fans at the Convocation Center.
Barisic, Jackson and Wallace each had 25 to lead the scoring in the scrimmage, which was UTSA's lone tune-up before tipping off 2020-21. The Blue team posted a 101-70 win over White, owning a 51-39 lead at halftime and overcoming an 8-0 White team run to open the second stanza.
Sophomore center Jacob Germany added 24 points, with sophomore guard Erik Czumbel adding 15 points and junior guard Eric Parrish chipping in 13 points. Freshmen guards Jordan Ivy-Curry (11 points) and Jaja Sanni (eight), each showed scoring potential inside and behind the arc.
The Roadrunners also saw junior forward Adrian Rodriguez reach 10 points.
UTSA's roster is paced by the return to dynamic scoring threats in Jackson and Wallace, who led the nation's backcourts in scoring with 45.6 points per game combined. Jackson finished No. 2 in the nation in scoring, shattering UTSA and Conference USA scoring records with 26.8 points per game, while Wallace added 18.8 points per game, a year after sporting 20.2 points per outing.
Barisic, a native of Osijek, Croatia, ranked third on the team in scoring during his debut season in 2019-20, averaging 6.6 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. Germany, who came to UTSA as the highest ranked recruit in program history, a four-star prospect out of Kingston, Okla., started 21 of 31 games as a freshman in 2019-20, averaging 5.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
Czumbel was also a key contributor as a freshman, stepping right into the starting lineup as a native of Verona, Italy, and averaging 4.2 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.
UTSA ANNOUNCES FAN SAFETY PROTOCOLS
UTSA Athletics announced a comprehensive plan for fans to attend home basketball games as safely as possible this season at the Convocation Center.
The plan, which will allow attendance at a reduced capacity of 15% and with physical distancing measures, follows all state and local health directives and focuses on risk mitigation strategies that promote the safety of student-athletes, fans and staff. Since the situation remains fluid and continues to evolve, the plan is subject to change based on emerging information as well as local and state health developments.
"This plan's primary goal is to provide the safest experience possible for our home basketball games at the Convocation Center, much like what we have implemented for our home football games at the Alamodome," UTSA Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Lisa Campos said. "We have worked in coordination with university committees, local and state health experts, Conference USA and the NCAA to develop a plan that will help create a safe environment for our student-athletes, coaches, staff, fans and community. We're all in this together and it will require all of us to adhere to the safety protocols in place so that we can continue to cheer on our teams this year."
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