Nov. 27, 2004
LARAMIE, Wyo. - UTA Men's Basketball head Coach Eddie McCarter had trouble sleeping Friday night in preparation for today's non-conference game against Wyoming. McCarter understands what is at hand - back-to-back road wins against two heavily favored teams.
The UTA-Wyoming game tips off at 5 p.m. (CT) and can be heard on UTA Radio and Arlington Comcast Cable CHannel 98.
"Anytime you can come on the road and get a victory, especially non-conference because we play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. It is really a big win for us," said McCarter of the 88-67 win over New Mexico State Nov. 24 in Las Cruces, N.M. It marked just the eighth non-conference win away from Texas Hall in McCarter's 12-plus year tenure at UTA
"(Wins) are tough to come by, especially when we are in the situation we are in where we go and play so many guarantee games and we go into situations where so many things are against you, it just makes it awful tough on us. For us to go and do what we did at New Mexico State was just a tremendous feat. It is maybe the sweetest win I have had since we beat Wyoming in the opening round of their tournament in Casper (Wyo.) my first year."
UTA shot a blistering 62.5 percent against the Aggies. The Mavericks out-rebounded NMSU 38-26 and will need to repeat the effort against a Wyoming team that boasts a front line of 7-foot, 6-10 and 6-9. Senior forward Alex Dunn returns after earning honorable mention all-Mountain West Conference honors last season. He scored 13 points and grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds in a 64-59 double-overtime win over Princeton on Nov. 22.
"I think this team is going to be up and down a little bit, but once develop some consistency we can be a very dangerous basket team," said McCarter. "We are trying to develop some consistency. (Against NMSU) we had some lapses. We let them back to within eight points in the second half, but gained our composure and the kids came back and played. I thought took a lot of character and showed me some things about this group."
After Saturday's game, UTA returns to Texas Hall to host Texas Wesleyan Tuesday at 7 p.m. The banner for the 2004 Southland Conference regular season crown will be dropped. UTA continues the home schedule Dec. 4 against San Diego at 3 p.m.