AAC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2023-24 season

The UTSA Roadrunners’ first season in the AAC could be a very difficult one. The team is coming off a last place finish in Conference USA and they’ve lost many players from that team, though that may not be a bad thing, all considered.

Steve Henson seemed to get the rebuild going the right way when he took over in 2016-17, but the Roadrunners have bottomed out in the past two years, combining to win only 20 games overall between the two seasons.

The return of Jordan Ivy-Curry is a fascinating one. He transferred to Pacific before last season, but transferred back to Texas-San Antonio afterwards, citing personal reasons. The guard averaged 10.2 points per game during his first run with UTSA and 10.3 points per game largely off the bench with the Tigers last season. He should jump in as the team’s top scorer upon his return.

Rice’s first season in the AAC may also prove to be a challenge. The Owls are coming off a better season than the Roadrunners, even defeating them in the conference tournament and winning a game in the CBI. This is a big leap in competition for the program, though.

Rice lost a lot of players to the transfer portal, including Quincy Olivari moving on to Xavier. Scott Pera did bring in a couple of transfers from major schools who will be looking to show more against smaller competition: Sam Alajiki from Cal and Noah Shelby from Vanderbilt.

With three-point ace Olivari off to the Musketeers, the scoring onus will fall upon Travis Evee. The senior guard was an All-Conference USA Honorable Mention last year, when he finished second on the team with 15.6 points per game while starting all 35 games for the Owls.