SAN ANTONIO – Heavy foot traffic on Commerce and Market streets are typical, but this week has a different flair.
NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four festivities made their return to downtown San Antonio. The Alamodome is set to serve as host of college basketball’s biggest weekend for the fifth time since 1998.
There are plenty of Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston fans who sported their favorite teams’ gear, but it did not take long to find a young fan wearing a University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Roadrunners shirt or an adult wearing a Carmelo Anthony jersey from his one and only national championship season at Syracuse.
The foot traffic correlated with other factors, as well. Parking spaces were at a premium.
Several San Antonio police officers stopped traffic Friday afternoon at the intersection of Commerce Street and Losoya Street to ensure safe passage for a large bus with the Duke men’s basketball logo pasted to its side, presumably bound for practice at the Alamodome.
The sun and humidity were also out in full force. Thursday and Friday morning felt more like early August than early April.
None of these factors seemed to faze Austin Claunch. Armed with a Starbucks coffee cup and seemingly endless energy, Claunch recently completed his first season as head coach of the UTSA men’s basketball program.
“I would like to think it’s my love for the game,” Claunch said Thursday. “I really, really enjoy, obviously, coaching. It’s a passion of mine. I’m sure the coffee helps. I have two or three cups of day. I gotta (sic) thank the coffee a little bit, right?”
Claunch, like his assistant coaches Nick Bowman and Joey Brooks, were in attendance at this week’s National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Convention. The convention is held annually in the host city of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four. The Henry B. González Convention Center hosted this year’s convention.
“It’s not my first, it’s my second — actually, third time being in San Antonio for the Final Four,“ Claunch said. ”So, I’m fired up."
Not his first Final Four rodeo
When Claunch was formally introduced as UTSA’s new men’s basketball coach on April 11, 2024, he made an admission to reporters and Roadrunner supporters.
“When I started preparing for this, I had never watched my last press conference at Nicholls, which was six years ago (in 2018),” Claunch said.
“I watched it,” UTSA Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Lisa Campos, who sat to Claunch’s right, said.
“I had never watched it, so I went and watched it,” Claunch continued. “And all I could think about was, ‘What in the world was Nicholls doing hiring that guy?‘”
There was reasoning in his line of thinking. Claunch was 28 when he became a Division I head men’s basketball coach for the first time at Nicholls, which is located in Thibodaux, Louisiana.
Following a bumpy first season, Claunch delivered a 21-win season in year two. After that, the Colonels won Southland Conference regular season titles in back-to-back seasons. In all, Nicholls won 90 games in five seasons under Claunch’s watch — including winning 67.4% of games in league play — before he resigned to become an assistant coach at Alabama in 2023.
During his only season in Tuscaloosa, Claunch helped the Crimson Tide earn a 2024 Final Four appearance — the program’s first — in Glendale, Arizona.
Going way back
Claunch grew up in Houston and attended Strake Jesuit College Preparatory, a boys-only Catholic school located on the city’s Southwest Side. On the athletics side, the school is perhaps best known for its reputation in boys basketball.
He had a solid high school career as a two-time team captain and an all-district performer before suiting up at Emory University, an NCAA Division III school. It was not, however, a similar prep career to Brooks, Claunch’s varsity teammate of two years.
Brooks later earned a scholarship to play at Notre Dame, which was then a member of the NCAA Division I’s toughest basketball conference: the Big East.
“(He was) always a feisty competitor, like he still is to this day,” Brooks said on Friday. “We used to go in the gym with (former San Antonio Spurs head coach) John Lucas, who obviously is a Houston legend and has one of the best histories of player development. ... We were in those gyms. I’m talking about guys who are NBA veterans. Austin Claunch, who was a D-III point guard, is trying to take their heads off.”
After graduating from Notre Dame in 2013, Brooks worked out of and around basketball, but he didn’t feel a pull towards college coaching until he became a graduate student manager at Purdue in 2017.
While at Purdue, Brooks said working with fellow Greater Houston area native Carsen Edwards — an All-American and eventual 2019 NBA Draft pick — changed him.
“My relationship with Carsen Edwards, with (former Purdue player/current Purdue assistant coach) P.J. Thompson, with that first team (in 2017) — really showed me my purpose,” Brooks said. “When he (Edwards) told me I couldn’t have made it here if it wasn’t for our relationship and the things we talked about, it became deeper than a ball going in a basket.”
‘A funny story’
Bowman — a South Webster, Ohio, native — said he and Claunch came from somewhat similar backgrounds. Bowman’s father was a high school basketball coach for 22 years while Claunch’s dad was Austin’s basketball coach during the summer.
“When I got to middle school, or maybe my eighth grade year, he (Bowman’s dad) decided he didn’t want to coach high school anymore,” Bowman said. “He came to coach my eighth grade team. Then he was just a dad when I was in high school, which I really appreciated.”
Bowman said he went to college and did not want to pursue a career around basketball. He wanted to be a regular student at the University of Kentucky.
“I don’t really remember what exactly — it might have been a hard class. I might have had a really hard class and thought, ‘You know what? Why don’t I just coach basketball?‘” Bowman said. “I remember changing my major to physical education because I was going to be a high school coach. I was going to move back to home to Ohio, I was going to be a high school coach and do what my dad did.”
Before moving back to South Webster, Bowman said he wanted to work with a college basketball program while in college.
Kayla, Bowman’s then-girlfriend and now wife, transferred to Eastern Kentucky University and suggested he reach out to EKU to see if that program had any opportunities.
“I remember I sent an email to a guy named Jeff Neubauer. He was the head coach at the time, and he emailed back immediately,” Bowman said. “I went down there, transferred and became a manager for him.”
In 2015, Bowman joined Clemson from EKU. He was introduced to Claunch, who would share the same office with him.
However, Bowman said he remembered seeing Claunch one year earlier.
“There’s a funny story,” Bowman said. “He broke his hand or his arm when was a GA (graduate assistant) at Clemson. He was walking around in a full arm cast at the Final Four the year before (2014). I always joke that I might have known him because he was the guy walking around in a full cast at the Final Four.”
Bowman joined Claunch as an assistant coach at Nicholls in 2018. One year later, Brooks also became an assistant coach alongside Bowman.
“At this point now, we (along with Claunch and Brooks) do have a really good feel for each other,” Bowman said. “A lot of people will tell you, ‘Don’t hire your friends.’ But I think one of our superpowers as assistant coaches for him (Claunch) is that we’re able to separate that friendship from that working relationship. And he’s incredible at navigating those waters as well to where those lines are never blurred.”
Claunch and Brooks are both thirtysomething coaches experiencing significant personal landmarks. Claunch will marry his fiancé, actress Gimena Gómez, later this month. Brooks became a first-time father in March.
Claunch’s UTSA staff skews younger and features other coaches with deep Texas ties, including former Texas A&M standout Joseph Jones as well as San Antonio native and St. Mary’s University alum Robbie Benavides.
“Anytime you’re building a staff or building a team or program, you’re looking to surround yourself with people that you know and that you trust,” Claunch said. “That allows your program to blossom and have those special relationships that make it easier to coach on the court.”
Year 1 in review
Back at his April 2024 introductory news conference, in between one-liners and thank-you’s, Claunch outlined his overall goal for the men’s basketball program.
“The vision is to cut down nets at the Convo(cation Center), right?" he said on April 11, 2024. “That’s what we want to do.”
In the 43 previous seasons of existence, UTSA had only qualified for the NCAA Tournament four times and won a regular season title three times. Considering the program’s history, Claunch is chasing a lofty goal.
In 2024-25, the Roadrunners looked to establish a new identity in his first season. Coaches said they made some strides, but they weren’t entirely reflected in the win-loss column.
UTSA went 12-19 overall and finished tied for ninth in the American Athletic Conference (6-12).
Claunch said he is not backing down from his eventual goal for the program.
“We (UTSA) were picked, I think, tied for 11th, and we finished tied for ninth in the league. It’s very similar to my first year at Nicholls when we were picked 12th and finished tied for ninth (in the Southland Conference),” Claunch said Friday. “I’m not like Babe Ruth — I’m not calling my shot or anything like that — but I certainly think the goal is now to win championships at UTSA."
Nine of the Roadrunners’ 12 AAC losses all came by seven points or fewer, including a five-point loss to conference champion Memphis, who won the league by two games.
“Anytime you join a new league, you’ve got to learn about the league,” Claunch said. “Different styles win in different parts of the country in different leagues at different levels. Going through the league, as close as we were in a lot of games, I think there’s a lot of things that we’ve picked up on and now understand a little bit better that goes into recruiting, preparation (and) practice that I think is going to help us propel forward.”
NIL allegations
Eight days ago, three UTSA Roadrunners from the 2024-25 team went on social media and accused the program of not meeting its financial commitments to them.
The now-former players who made the allegations are guard Damari Monsanto, forward/guard Raekwon Horton and guard/forward Skylar Wicks.
On March 28, Monsanto posted to X, formally known as Twitter, where he first accused UTSA’s coaches of being “slimey.”
In two posts published later that day, Monsanto shared a screenshot of a text that referred to a potential $125,000 name, image and likeness (NIL) payment and alleged that the program was “lying about some bread” and that Claunch “blocked” his number.
Horton and Wicks, in response posts to Monsanto, claimed that they also had not been paid.
Claunch and Brooks, who is also the general manager of the men’s basketball program, denied the allegations in their interviews with KSAT on Friday. Both coaches said the program’s NIL financial agreements with Monsanto, Horton and Wicks were paid in full.
“All money contracted to our guys was paid and completed in a normal fashion,” Brooks said.
Brooks further clarified that Monsanto and his teammates already had their full NIL commitment from the program when he made those allegations on March 28.
“I think we’re going through (this) as a community — not just here at UTSA; these things are happening all over the country — where we’re having (what) I think of as growing pains," Brooks said. “Our model for so long has not been set up for athlete profit. ... So now, as we begin to make these things more mainstream, more understood collectively, that I just think some mistakes are going to be made.”
Claunch and Brooks both said the text message screenshot shared by Monsanto did not belong to the head coach.
“I’m not going to use names, but that (text message) did come from someone within our program,” Brooks said. “I think it was a mistake that got taken a little bit out of context.”
Claunch said he did not block Monsanto’s number. He “was on a plane” after he spoke to him on the morning of March 28.
“As we continue to move in this space, it’s important we all become better at communicating certain expectations and be clear on where we all stand,” Claunch said. “We want to be clear, as we move forward, that that’s not something that is representative of UTSA. Certainly not for men’s basketball and certainly not its athletic department as a whole.”
KSAT called, left voicemails and texted Monsanto, Horton and Wicks multiple times for a chance to discuss the allegations. None of the ex-Roadrunners responded to the station’s inquiries.
Aston appreciation
Claunch’s aspiring goal of cutting “down nets at the ‘Convo’” was Karen Aston’s reality.
Aston, the UTSA head women’s basketball coach, led the Roadrunners to 26 wins in 2024-25 and their first regular season title since 2011. After UTSA clinched the AAC title, confetti fell from the Convocation Center ceiling.
In 2021-22, Aston’s first season as the head coach in San Antonio, the Roadrunners won seven games and lost 23.
“I think it’s just been a culmination of a vision that was started when we did first get here,” Aston told KSAT in March. “It’s been fun to watch the evolution, not just of the players but of my staff, of the fanbase. It was pretty nonexistent when we got here. To see how many people have gravitated towards women’s basketball, it’s been a joy to watch.”
After she was reportedly considered for the head coach opening at Houston, Aston appeared to signal that she is staying with the Roadrunners in a social media post earlier this week.
Her work at UTSA offers a window to what’s possible for Claunch and the men’s basketball program.
“I’m No. 1 in the Karen Aston fan club. She’s one of the best coaches I have ever been around,” Claunch said Friday. “It’s such a blessing for them to practice right before us, and I get to sit in there and watch the way she coaches, the way she demands with such precision and clarity. She’s an incredible teacher, an incredible coach and clearly cares so much about her players and the school as a whole. We’re extremely lucky to have her, and I’m glad we have her for another year, that’s for sure.”
More NCAA Men’s Final Four coverage on KSAT:
