Dec. 20, 2006
HOUSTON, Texas -
UTA-Texas Southern game notes
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Giddy, excited?
No, its not children waiting for Santa Claus, rather, almost half of the UT Arlington men's basketball team as they return to their stomping grounds of Houston as the Mavs face Texas Southern tonight.
"I don't know how to act," said sophomore forward Terrell Henry (Gulf Shores Academy) who took a few seconds in between phone calls of friends requesting tickets. "Its been a long time since I've been home."
"I'm going to show you why Houston is the greatest place in the world," sophomore Anthony Vereen (Gulf Shores Academy) told freshman center Matt Read as he boasted about the town.
Henry, Vereen, sophomore guard Jeremy Dewalt (Cypress, Texas), juniors Jermaine Griffin (Houston Sterling H.S.) and Larry Posey (Milby H.S.) and redshirt Baron Sauls (Alief Elsik H.S.) all hail from the Greater Houston Area.
Dewalt, who made his first career start in the Mavs' 78-77 win at UC-Riverside late Monday, is likely to stay in the starting line up after the Mavs snapped their four-game losing streak. Jeremy's father, former UTA football standout Roy Dewalt, will be a halftime guest with radio play-by-play man Bobby Anderson tonight.
The game is also a homecoming for assistant coach Derrick Daniels who was an honorable mention all-American and all-Southwest Conference guard at the University of Houston from 1979-82.
"I haven't made it back here in a long time," said Daniels as he stood in line at a popular hangout, Frenchy's Chicken House, near the TSU and Houston campus waiting for his order. "If this was a Friday or Saturday night, there would be people out to the street (at Frenchy's)."
"We wanted to come to Houston to give our guys a chance to play in front of their families," said UT Arlington Head Coach Scott Cross. "We went to Illinois for Brandon and now we are have made a trip to Houston. I think it is important that we give their families a chance to see them play."
Now, the players just hope Santa would stop early with extra tickets for tonight's game.
