It's San Antone Tuesday night

Getting a preview of things to come, San Jose State is off to San Antonio for a Tuesday night contest with future WAC member, the UT San Antonio Roadrunners. Yes, this will be the second 'Beep Beep' team the Spartans will encounter this season (the other being Cal State Bakersfield).

Brooks Thompson is the UTSA head coach and he possesses an intriguing background. Thompson played as a backcourter at Texas A&M and then Oklahoma State before becoming a first-round selection of the Orlando Magic in 1994. He was also a member of the Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks. Later on, he turned to college coaching and assisted at Arizona State.

In his four years in the Alamo City, the Roadrunners have exhibited a remarkable turnaround, including back-to-back 19-win campaigns in 2008-10 years that marked the program’s best two-year span since 1990-92.

This season, the RRers own victories over Cameron and Troy (which sounds like a skating duo but are actually two separate colleges) and a road loss at Evansville.

6-foot-8 freshman Jeromie Hill, at 17 ppg and 65% shooting, leads the SA offense. He is also tops in rebounding at 7.3 a contest. Hill is a frontcourter who could do some major damage against the Spartans as he is shooting 65% from the floor, 66% on nine three-point attempts (4-5 in the match up with Evansville) but just 55% on his free throws. Figure that one out.

6-foot senior Devin Gibson is next at 15.3 on 54% overall shooting. He also is second in rebounding at 5.3 a game and tops on the team in assists. Gibson has gone to the foul line 26 times, the most of any Roadrunner, indicating he is a dribble-drive penetrator. He also has pilfered 12 steals in four game so the Spartan backcourters will need to be careful offensively and defensively.

Next in scoring is by 6-foot-5 sophomore Melvin Johnson at 13.3. 27 of his 44 shots this season have been from long distance and he also is averaging just 1.8 boards a game -- no offensive rebounds -- telling us he resides away from the basket offensively. Johnson, who comes off the bench, was named the freshman of the year in the Southland Conference last season.

6-foot-6 Stephen Franklin checks in at 7.0/5.3 points/rebounds a contest. Center Alex Vouyoukas in't s putting up much in the way of scoring or rebounding to date.

Here is a statistical comparison of the two squads:

UTSA SJSU
76.8 Scoring 74.6
.452 Field Goal Pct. .401
.318 3-Pt Field Goal Pct. .356
.708 Free Throw Pct. .805
40.0 Rebounds 37.8
12.3 Assists 11.4
18.0 Turnovers 11.2
9.0 Steals 4.8

The starters for Thompson are:

* Devin Gibson 6-foot-0

* Sei Paye 6-foot-3

* Stephen Franklin 6-foot-6

* Jeromie Hill 6-foot-8 230

* Alex Vouyoukas 6-foot-8 235


The Roadrunner roster (by position, alphabetized)

This team is a veritable United Nations with players from Australia, Greece and Serbia.

* Kalif Bakare G 5-11 190 So.
* Devin Gibson G 6-0 190 Sr.
* Melvin Johnson G 6-5 165 So.
* Djuro Majstorovic G 6-4 205 Fr.
* Sei Paye G 6-3 170 Jr.
* Ryan Whitehead G 6-0 190 Fr.

* Jordan Sims G/F 6-4 185 Fr.

* Stephen Franklin F 6-6 205 Jr.
* Jeromie Hill F 6-8 230 Fr.
* Igor Nujic F 6-8 215 Fr.
* Mike White F 6-8 220 Jr.
* Larry Wilkins F 6-4 250 Jr
* Tyler Wood F 6-6 230 Fr.

* Alex Vouyoukas F/C 6-9 235 Jr.
* T.J. Williams F/C 6-7 250 Fr.