SAN ANTONIO – UTSA men’s basketball coach Austin Claunch announced on Tuesday the fourth transfer signee for the Roadrunners’ 2024-25 roster, revealing the addition this summer of Southern Utah leading scorer Jamir Simpson for Claunch’s second season at the helm in San Antonio.
“Jamir is an experienced and proven scorer who has the ability to give us points at all three levels,” Claunch said. “He’s a big guard that shoots the ball really well and can defend four positions. He’s also not afraid to be physical the way we expect in this program.”
Coming in as a 6-foot-5, 205-pound guard/forward with a three-star rating from 247Sports and On3, Simpson spent the past two seasons at Southern Utah, redshirting with no game action in 2023-24. However, in 2024-25, Simpson started all 31 games and led the Thunderbirds in scoring at 16.1 ppg on 38.9 percent from the field, 33.9 percent from three and 80 percent at the line. Simpson scored 10+ points in 26 games and went over 20 points in 14 of those outings. He was named Second Team All-Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and listed as the league’s No. 2 scorer, sporting the WAC’s third-best three-pointers per game (1.96), third-most free throws (132), fifth-best field goal percentage and sixth-best free throw percentage. In addition, Simpson gathered the team’s second-most assists (55/1.8 apg) and second-most boards at 4.7 rpg.
Simpson arrived at SUU following two seasons at Division II University of Wisconsin-Parkside, leading the Rangers to a 21-9 record, the regular season Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance in his sophomore season (2022-23). Simpson crested 20 points in nine of his 30 games (29 starts) that season and was named Second Team All-GLIAC, as Parkside’s second-highest scorer at 14.6 ppg while shooting 46 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent beyond the arc, also topping the squad on the glass with 6.0 rpg and generating 1.9 apg. In his first season at Parkside in 2021-22, Simpson started all 28 games and was the second-leading scorer (12.2 ppg), shooting 51.2 percent from the field and leading the team in rebounding (5.4 rpg).
Simpson played his first year of college basketball as a forward at the University of Pikeville (2020-21) where he averaged 11.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game including two double-doubles and a 29-point game. He shot an impressive 57 percent from the floor on 183 field goal attempts.
Reaching a double-digit scoring average in each season of his career, Simpson brings the Roadrunners 112 games (88 NCAA) of collegiate experience and has racked up 1,533 career points (1,267 NCAA) with a 13.7 ppg average, alongside 600 career rebounds (471 NCAA) with a career 5.4 rpg average.
Originally hailing from Lima, Ohio, Simpson was named OPSWA Division I All-Ohio Third Team following his senior year. Helping Lima High School reach Ohio’s Final Four twice and the Regional Finals twice more, he was a two-time First Team All-Conference honoree. His father was a standout player at Ohio State and West Virginia and was named Ohio Mr. Basketball in back-to-back seasons.
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