UTSA women’s basketball has been historically bad under Kristen Holt. It’s time for change.

Author: Jared Kalmus – @JaredUTSA 

As I write this post the UTSA women’s basketball team holds a 2-17 record, the losers of 15 straight games. The Roadrunners’ two wins this season came against Division III Sul Ross State (8-12) and Northwestern State (0-18). UTSA hasn’t won a conference game since January 9th, 2020, a time before most of us had ever heard the word “coronavirus”.

In this season’s abbreviated play, UTSA has suffered losses to Incarnate Word, UTRGV, and a nearly 30 point loss to Sam Houston State.

Through four seasons of leading the UTSA program, Kristen Holt holds a 24-82 record which translates to a miserable 29% winning percentage.

While UTSA’s women’s basketball program hasn’t been good in a decade and couldn’t claim many major accomplishments before that, Holt has brought the program to unforeseen lows.

Barring a miraculous win in next week’s conference tournament, this will officially go down as UTSA’s worst season in program history, “surpassing” 1991-1992’s .148 winning percentage (4-23). Last year’s winning percentage was the third worst in program history, while 2018-2019 was fourth worst. Next season forecasts to be even worse for the Roadrunners as the program’s top rebounder and second leading scorer Mikayla Woods has entered her name into the transfer portal.

It’s clear action must be taken to turn this program around. Given the lack of historical success and the less than stellar facilities, I don’t entertain high expectations for the Roadrunners’ women’s basketball program. I do, however, expect the program to compete at par with its conference opponents, claim wins over programs with drastically smaller budgets, and represent the university well. That has not happened under Kristen Holt despite being afforded more than enough time to compose a winning program.

I’m not sure what Holt’s contract situation is or what kind of candidates UTSA could attract on the open market, but as one of Lynn Hickey’s remaining hires I think it’s past due for Lisa Campos to thank Coach Holt for her service and start looking for new leadership in the athletic department’s worst-performing program.