The Claunch of a New Era
Austin Claunch introduced Thursday as the seventh head coach in UTSA men's basketball history
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It has been 13 years since UTSA men's basketball last made the NCAA Tournament. If new head coach Austin Claunch can come through on his goals for the team the Roadrunners might be making an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Claunch laid out his goals for the program at his introductory press conference on Thursday afternoon at UTSA's Park West Field House.
"It's a process and it's going to take building blocks each day," Claunch said. "We always work toward the goal and the goals are the same, win the regular season conference championship, win the conference tournament, make the NCAA tournament, and win games there. I also want to go undefeated at home. Those are the four goals every year."
Claunch also looks forward to getting the community more involved with the UTSA men's basketball program and getting the magic back that the program hasn't really had since the early 2010s when Claunch's childhood friends Devin Gibson and Sei Paye were leading the Roadrunners.
"The vision here is to cut down nets in the Convo," Claunch said. "I want the Convo to be the best home court in the American."
Gibson was coached by Claunch's dad for many years in Houston and Claunch even got to meet the late Brooks Thompson when he recruited Gibson and Paye.
"Brooks left an impact on me because he developed a true relationship with me," Claunch said. "As a young guy who wanted to get into coaching that was special for me."
Claunch comes to UTSA after a year as an assistant coach at Alabama. He was hired by UTSA on March 17 but was allowed to close out the run with Alabama that went to the Final Four last weekend in Phoenix.
"It's been an incredible few weeks. I want to thank Lisa (Campos) for being patient," Claunch said. "I owed it to Coach Oats and Alabama to finish what I started and now I'm down here to do the same thing and play in March."
Before his year in Alabama Claunch was head coach at NIcholls from 2018-23 where he went 90-61 and won the Southland Conference back-to-back in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Before being the head coach at Nicholls, Claunch was an assistant coach for the Colonels in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. Claunch was assistant coach at Clemson in 2015-16 after being a graduate assistant for the Tigers from 2013-15.
Claunch announced his staff of four assistant coaches on Thursday. He will be bringing Trevor DeLoach (formerly an assistant at Jacksonville), Nick Bowman (formerly an assistant coach at New Orleans), Joseph Jones (formerly an assistant at Tarleton State and the 2023-24 WAC Coach of the Year), and Joey Brooks (formerly an assistant at Coastal Carolina).
There are still many months to go before the start of the next basketball season but in the meantime, Claunch will be getting to know the city and being out and about. This past Tuesday he threw out the first pitch at the UTSA softball game against Baylor.
Basketball season will be here before anyone knows it. For the first time in several years, the excitement level for the new season will be through the Convocation Center roof.
That is the effect of Austin Claunch.
FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way