Week in Review – 3/12/12

Men’s Basketball

The Roadrunners traveled to Katy, TX on Wednesday night to begin their Southland Conference title defense against #4 McNeese State. UTSA jumped out to an early lead, relying heavily on the hot hand of Melvin Johnson III and went into the break with a comfortable 30-19 lead. The tides would turn in the second half however, as the Cowboys jumped out to an 11-3 run to start the half, bringing the Roadrunners’ lead down to three. The teams battled down the stretch and a last-second Kannon Burrage three-pointer sent the game into overtime. McNeese pulled away in overtime, forcing four of UTSA’s starters to foul out en route to a 78-74 win. It was a fitting ending for a team that underwhelmed for much of the season after coming into the year with high hopes on the heels of their first ever NCAA Tournament victory. The team will now have eight months to reflect on the season as they prepare for their move to the WAC, with even tougher competition awaiting them.

Earlier in the week, sophomore forward Jeromie Hill was named to the All-Southland Conference Second Team, while teammates Melvin Johnson III and Kannon Burrage joined him on the Third Team and Honorable Mention, respectively.

WAC Basketball

UTSA’s future conference mates held their conference tournament this past week in Las Vegas, Nevada, welcoming all eight conference members into the tournament (including 1-13 San Jose State). 5th-seed Louisiana Tech turned some heads this weekend, knocking off perennial superpower Utah State and the WAC regular conference champion Nevada on back-to-back nights, before falling to #2 New Mexico State in the Championship 82-57. NMSU will advance to the NCAA Tournament as a 13-seed, facing 4-seed Indiana on Thursday. The regular season title was enough to earn Nevada an invite to the NIT, while the remaining two teams with winning records, Idaho and Utah State, were invited to participate in the 4th edition of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

Football

There was one new offer to report this week, as Connally linebacker Michael Egwuagu (6’1″, 195) was reportedly offered by the coaching staff while on campus for UTSA Junior Day three weeks ago. UTSA suffered their first recruiting loss of the 2013 cycle when Steele safety Jordan Sterns committed to Texas Tech over the weekend. Thanks to Coker Chronicles, we also learned of a new preferred walk-on, a potential option for Tight Ends coach, as well as an update on Chibuzor Ugwu. San Angelo Central slot receiver Rileigh Davis (5’9″, 140) will be joining the UTSA program this fall as a preferred walk-on. According to FootballScoop.com, former Texas State running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Charlie Reeve has been offered the tight ends job by Coach Coker. We reported in last week’s edition of Week in Review that c/o 2014 defensive end Chibuzor Ugwu had been offered by UTSA, but that we might be facing an uphill battle. However, it looks like the tides have changed and Chibuzor is now enthusiastic about the UTSA football program, according to a recent tweet.

Track & Field

After leading the team to their 7th consecutive Indoor title two weeks ago, junior high jumper Keith Benford earned second-team All-American honors after placing 14th at the NCAA Championships.

Baseball

The baseball team started off their Southland Conference slate with a 6-3 loss to A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday in Corpus, before winning 7-2 on Saturday. The Islanders closed out the series on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over UTSA thanks to a shutout from Corpus pitcher Daniel Minor. The Islanders gave up just four hits and one walk in Minor’s 139-pitch outing.

Softball

The UTSA softball team kicked off their conference schedule at Corpus as well, splitting the series with the Islanders on Wednesday with a 6-1 victory, followed by a 2-1 loss. This weekend’s home series against Central Arkansas was postponed due to inclement weather in San Antonio. The series has been moved to Saturday, April 7 for a doubleheader at Roadrunner Field.

Tennis

The UTSA men’s tennis team started the week at #58 in the nation, but fell in their lone game of the week to #71 Middle Tennessee by 4-3 after losing the doubles point and splitting the singles match ups.

Published by

Darrell Williams

Darrell started writing about UTSA football before it was even a thing, then he took a few years off, and now he's back.