UTSA finishes out its regular season at home this week with games against Rice & UNT. This year's squad has shown us that, at its best, they can hang with just about any team in the conference. On the other hand, we've seen the Roadrunners pull 180s and tank against teams that they are more than capable of destroying. It's tough to gauge how our squad will finish this season when the one thing they been consistent on is their inconsistency on the floor. Dominating first halves of play followed up by flat performances and inability to close out games have plagued this team all year.
Not all is bad though. Our guys have proved that they are better than a bottom of the conference team most projected they would be. Two of our seniors have had breakout years. Hill will go down as one of the best players in UTSA basketball history. This year he claimed the #1 spot all-time in rebounds, #3 all-time scoring and has had a nice collection of double-doubles. Kaj Sherman is a different player than I ever anticipated he would be. His contributions on the floor have been what most would want out of their front court. Keon's game at the point has become one that we are not accustomed to seeing. An unselfish, ball distributing and shot making Keon showed up late and surprised us all. We still get flashes of the old Keon every now and then but it seems he has opened up and learned to trust the other four guys on the court. Newcomers like Bowie and Wilson have provided a well needed spark on and off the bench. Bowie (Jr.) will be a huge asset to next year's team and may end up being our oldest guy on the roster. Getting the playing time that he's had this year is great exposure and shows us that the coaches have confidence in his game.
We need UTSA to gut it out and finish strong. The lowest seed UTSA can go is 8th; highest 6th. In order to secure the 6th seed UTSA need to protect home court and win both games in conjunction with MT & UNT dropping both of their remaining games. MT has FIU and FAU lined up this week so the probability of them bombing those games is slim but its MARCH and you never know what will happen in college hoops. UNTs got UTEP on deck before they come to the Convo. For UTSA to get the 7th seed they'll need to win both games this week and UNT to fall against UTEP (likely).
First up for UTSA is Rice on Thursday. Rice (7-9 CUSA) handed UTSA an embarrassing loss in the first game of conference play. Aside from that, they've displayed an up-and-down season with a couple of notable wins against conference studs WKU and UAB. No doubt in my mind that we can take Rice convincingly. We are a completely different team compared to the one that Rice faced back in January.
Last is UNT on Saturday. This is the tougher of the two, in my opinion. UTSA bounced back from the loss to Rice and handed UNT a 71-61 loss on their home floor. UNT (8-8 CUSA) was on a 5 game win streak before they lost against UAB on Saturday. UNT has shown their growth as a team and dished out L's to LaTech, UAB and MT. UNT sits at #5 in field goal percentage with hitting 44% of their shots.
Winning these two games will not be easy but it's not out of UTSAs reach to do so. Defense wins games. UTSA can avoid the necessity of late game heroics by doing a better job of defending that ball. Staying in front of the play and defending without fouling for two complete halves is going to be key. The squad has given teams the freedom to go on these late game runs without matching the same intensity defensively. UTSA will have its shooting slumps but if we can put together two halves of solid defense they'll be giving themselves a better chance of getting back into the game with a lot less effort.
Hopefully some of y'all can make it out this week. It'll be a bitter sweet moment to see Jermoie, one of UTSAs greats, play ball on his home court for the last time. GO RUNNERS!!!!!!
This post was edited on 3/4 12:51 AM by Pist0lPet3
Not all is bad though. Our guys have proved that they are better than a bottom of the conference team most projected they would be. Two of our seniors have had breakout years. Hill will go down as one of the best players in UTSA basketball history. This year he claimed the #1 spot all-time in rebounds, #3 all-time scoring and has had a nice collection of double-doubles. Kaj Sherman is a different player than I ever anticipated he would be. His contributions on the floor have been what most would want out of their front court. Keon's game at the point has become one that we are not accustomed to seeing. An unselfish, ball distributing and shot making Keon showed up late and surprised us all. We still get flashes of the old Keon every now and then but it seems he has opened up and learned to trust the other four guys on the court. Newcomers like Bowie and Wilson have provided a well needed spark on and off the bench. Bowie (Jr.) will be a huge asset to next year's team and may end up being our oldest guy on the roster. Getting the playing time that he's had this year is great exposure and shows us that the coaches have confidence in his game.
We need UTSA to gut it out and finish strong. The lowest seed UTSA can go is 8th; highest 6th. In order to secure the 6th seed UTSA need to protect home court and win both games in conjunction with MT & UNT dropping both of their remaining games. MT has FIU and FAU lined up this week so the probability of them bombing those games is slim but its MARCH and you never know what will happen in college hoops. UNTs got UTEP on deck before they come to the Convo. For UTSA to get the 7th seed they'll need to win both games this week and UNT to fall against UTEP (likely).
First up for UTSA is Rice on Thursday. Rice (7-9 CUSA) handed UTSA an embarrassing loss in the first game of conference play. Aside from that, they've displayed an up-and-down season with a couple of notable wins against conference studs WKU and UAB. No doubt in my mind that we can take Rice convincingly. We are a completely different team compared to the one that Rice faced back in January.
Last is UNT on Saturday. This is the tougher of the two, in my opinion. UTSA bounced back from the loss to Rice and handed UNT a 71-61 loss on their home floor. UNT (8-8 CUSA) was on a 5 game win streak before they lost against UAB on Saturday. UNT has shown their growth as a team and dished out L's to LaTech, UAB and MT. UNT sits at #5 in field goal percentage with hitting 44% of their shots.
Winning these two games will not be easy but it's not out of UTSAs reach to do so. Defense wins games. UTSA can avoid the necessity of late game heroics by doing a better job of defending that ball. Staying in front of the play and defending without fouling for two complete halves is going to be key. The squad has given teams the freedom to go on these late game runs without matching the same intensity defensively. UTSA will have its shooting slumps but if we can put together two halves of solid defense they'll be giving themselves a better chance of getting back into the game with a lot less effort.
Hopefully some of y'all can make it out this week. It'll be a bitter sweet moment to see Jermoie, one of UTSAs greats, play ball on his home court for the last time. GO RUNNERS!!!!!!
This post was edited on 3/4 12:51 AM by Pist0lPet3
