Roadrunners eagerly await test
As Oklahoma was wrapping up its practice and UTSA was arriving to begin its session Sunday afternoon at the Convocation Center, Roadrunners coach Steve Henson came out to the court a bit early to chat with Sooners coach Lon Kruger.
Henson’s relationship with Kruger dates to when he was recruited to play for Kruger at Kansas State in 1986. Henson’s son, Pearson, is a student manager on the OU staff, and Henson said Sooners director of operations Mike Shepherd has been one of his closest friends since Shepherd worked as a student manager on the K-State teams Henson played for.
Henson will coach opposite his mentor as the Roadrunners welcome a Power Five school to the Convocation Center for the first time when they host Kruger and the Sooners at 7 p.m. Monday.
“It’s fun. I’m glad they’re here,” Henson said. “Big, big benefit for us and our program for them to come to town and play us. Once the game starts, just line up and play it like any other game.”
After a nine-year professional playing career, Henson took his first coaching job under Kruger as an assistant at Illinois in 1999. He followed Kruger to the Atlanta Hawks for two years, then was an assistant on Kruger’s staff at UNLV from 2004-11 and at Oklahoma from 2011-16 before taking the job at UTSA.
“Every couple weeks, we talk about different games or different outcomes,” Kruger said. “Usually a congratulations back and forth on a win. He’s a great guy. We’ve been together for so long, and I’m a huge fan of theirs, now.”
UTSA lost 97-85 against Oklahoma last year in Norman, Okla., and will visit OU again during the 2019-20 season.
The Sooners (1-0) open the 2018-19 season with back-to-back road games, as Oklahoma traveled to Edinburg to face UT-Rio Grande Valley on Friday. UTRGV coach Lew Hill was an assistant alongside Henson on the staffs at UNLV and Oklahoma, and his hiring at UTRGV was announced just one day before Henson was announced at UTSA on April 1, 2016.
Kruger was inducted into the UTRGV Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony Thursday, recognizing his tenure at the program’s legacy institution Pan American University from 198286. He and his wife, Barbara, were also inducted into the program’s Hall of Honor after becoming the first six-figure donors to the athletics department.
“We had the opportunity to play one swing,” Kruger said. “It seemed like a good fit and a good challenge for us, starting with two games on the road.”
Henson said the matchup has created significant buzz around the Roadrunners program.
The UTSA athletics department made 600 student tickets available Wednesday, and all were claimed within an hour.
“It’s going to be electric. It’s going to be big time,” senior Nick Allen said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. I think people are going to be really into it. We’re really, really into it. We’re super excited. I can’t wait.”
Allen said UTSA has been especially focused in practice this week, wanting to wash away the taste of a 77-76 loss to Division II St. Edward’s in the Roadrunners’ opener Wednesday.
Henson said UTSA would likely struggle to match power with a strong, experienced Sooners team, so the focus will be on spreading the floor and pushing the pace. He expects to see some familiar defensive principals and baseline out-of-bounds plays given his history with Kruger, but he said that will make very little difference relative to execution.
“We’re not going to tiptoe in here,” Henson said. “We’re going to come in and fly up and down the court the best we can, and try to make shots and go right at them.”