SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA men’s basketball team (6-6, 0-0 AAC) opens the New Year with a fresh slate, as the Roadrunners travel to New Orleans to square off with Tulane (7-7, 1-0 AAC) in their American Athletic Conference opener. The Roadrunners traveled over 10,000 miles in non-conference play in December and take the short flight to New Orleans to take on the Green Wave on Saturday, Jan. 4, who already hold a conference victory. With a 5 p.m. tipoff, the game is set for broadcast on UTSA Radio and will be featured on a linear national broadcast on ESPNU.
On the Air, TV and on the Web
Saturday’s matchup on the court at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse will be the first of three UTSA games set for national television, airing on ESPNU. Also streaming live on ESPN+, Drew Fellios (play-by-play) and Perry Clark (analyst) will be on the broadcast call of the action. The radio broadcast will appear on Sports Radio AM 760 The Ticket and, as always, will feature a 30-minute pregame and 15-minute postgame show – available online at Ticket760.com or via the free iHeartRadio app.
Tulane Athletics will also provide Live Stats.
About the UTSA Roadrunners
Head coach Austin Claunch is back in Louisiana, where he is 53-13 as a head coach in games played in the state, leading the Roadrunners into his first American Athletic Conference game. The Roadrunners finished non-conference play at 6-6, going .500 for the first time since 2021-22, falling just short on a 15-point comeback at Army – the game ending on an off-mark buzzer-beater, 78-75.
It's no secret that UTSA has one of the top scorers in the country in senior guard Primo Spears, who has not missed reaching double-figures in a single game, has eight 20+ scoring affairs and ranks fifth nationally with an AAC-leading 22.3 ppg – shooting 44.2 from the field and 88.6 percent at the line. UTSA has plenty of scoring support in the wings and post, ranking 75th in the NCAA and third in the league at 80.5 ppg, pushed up the court by a seventh-ranked 18.2 ppg off fast breaks and a 19th-ranked tempo. Making moves in transition, UTSA is fifth nationally in steals per game (10.4) and 20th in turnovers forced (16.3) – both tops in the AAC.
Coming on strong since the beginning of December, senior guard Tai’Reon Joseph is back in his home state and comes into Saturday with a 13.5 ppg average – and was the centerpiece to the win at North Dakota. Last season at Southern, he averaged 20.5 ppg and previously helped 12th-ranked Scotlandville Magnet School to four consecutive state championships. A counter for Joseph on the arc, grad student Damari Monsanto is scoring 11.1 ppg on a team-high 36 threes, ranking second in the conference at 41.4 percent from deep for a league-high 3.27 threes per game. Meanwhile, point guard Marcus Millender rounds out four Roadrunners averaging double-figures with 11.1 ppg in addition to a team-high 3.5 assists per outing. In the post, Jonnivius Smith leads the team on the glass with 8.7 rpg and an AAC second-best 1.82 block average. Meanwhile, Raekwon Horton tops the conference with 2.0 steals per game.
About the Series
The Green Wave and Roadrunners will meet for fifth time on Wednesday and in back-to-back years. In 2024’s dramatic series renewal last January at the Convocation Center, the game featured nine ties and 19 lead changes, capped by Jordan Ivy-Curry's buzzer-beater in the 89-88 UTSA win. In UTSA’s last appearance in New Orleans in 2014, UTSA dropped a 56-68 decision. UTSA trails 1-3 in the series and are 0-2 on the road since the series opener in 1982. During his time as coach at Nicholls State, coach Claunch did not square off with the Green Wave despite a distance of less than 60 miles.
About the Tulane Green Wave
Opening up the conference slate in the sixth season under Ron Hunter, the Green Wave finished the non-con just one game under, but opened up AAC play with a big road win at Charlotte on Tuesday, 83-68. Tulane is 7-7 heading into Saturday’s matchup.
Defensive prowess continues to be a hallmark under Hunter, as the Green Wave lead the AAC in field goal percentage defense, limiting opponents to an NCAA 18th-ranked 38.2 percent. Tulane is also in the AAC’s upper tier in scoring defense at 67.2 allowed ppg (third AAC) and three-point defense at 30.4 percent (fourth AAC), while forcing 13.1 turnovers per game for fifth in the league and leading the conference at 5.4 blocks per outing. Much like Army, Tulane also slows the game down, ranking 10th among AAC fast break points (9.6 ppg) with the 152nd-ranked pace of play. The Green Wave rank 11th in the conference in field goal percentage at 42.5 percent, but make up some ground by firing off 25.1 threes per game at a 33.5 success rate.
A very young team, the Green Wave have nine freshmen or sophomores on the roster, as opposed to UTSA’s experienced squad. However, Tulane has length, with an average height of 6-8 across the roster; the 36th-tallest team in the nation. Pacing the Green Wave in scoring and on the boards, junior forward Kaleb Banks is averaging 18.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg and 1.3 bpg since transferring this season from Indiana. Redshirt sophomore guard Rowan Brumbaugh transferred from Georgetown and is averaging 13.6 ppg with an AAC-leading 4.9 apg. The pair have knocked down 25 threes apiece, but Louisiana-raised star freshman Kam Williams is taking the lead on that stat with a team-high 33 treys toward his 10.2 ppg.
Up Next
UTSA will make its first New Year appearance at the Convocation Center, hosting Tulsa in the AAC home opener on January 7.
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