Oct. 31, 2008

ARLINGTON, Texas - With two goals shoved out of the way - a Southland Conference Tournament Championship and NCAA Tournament berth - UT Arlington quickly turns it sites to 2008-09 in search of accomplishing something else the Mavericks have never done.

UT Arlington is still searching for its first outright conference championship. The Mavericks shared the league crown in 2003 with UTSA and Southeastern Louisiana.

Mavericks coach Scott Cross, a hero of sorts after leading the Mavs to the 2008 SLC Tournament title and the nationally-televised NCAA Tournament game against Memphis, said last season broke a lot of barriers at UT Arlington and should help feed a hungry fan base.

But he and his staff have long thought that the 2008-09 squad might have more potential than the record-breaking team from last year. Assuming that players stay healthy and perform to their potential, this season's Mavericks will have more shooting threats from outside, and be able to defend a little better, particularly on the wings.

In terms of speed and quickness, there's no comparison. Cross says the 2008-09 squad is much more athletic.

"We'll be able to do a lot more offensively this year, and we have more guys who can shoot the ball from the outside than we've had in my three years," Cross said. "A lot of it depends on how our younger guys and redshirt players adjust to the Division I level, but the potential to be an outstanding shooting team is there."

POINT GUARD
Roge'r Guignard spent most of last season at point guard and broke the school's single-season record for 3-pointers in a season with 99. Guignard is back for his junior year and will most likely float between the point and shooting guard depending on which lineup the coaching staff decides to use.

Joining Guignard at the point are guards Jeremy Smith, Dwight Gentry II and Marquez Haynes. A sophomore from DeSoto, Smith showed flashes of brilliance last season, particularly in UT Arlington's biggest game in school history.

Against Memphis in the NCAA Tournament and being guarded most of the night by NBA No. 1 draft pick Derrick Rose, Smith finished the night with eight assists and no turnovers.

Haynes is one of the most highly-touted recruits in UT Arlington men's basketball history. He was a consensus Top 150 player in the country coming out of high school. He is expected to be one of the SLC's top perimeter defenders as well as a scorer. Dwight Gentry II is eligible after sitting out last season. A former transfer from Richland College, Gentry II hit 46 percent of the 3-pointers he took his sophomore year. He hit 71 3-pointers overall.

SHOOTING GUARD
UT Arlington learned quickly what Brandon Long meant to the team last season when Long went down with a thumb injury. To that point, the Mavericks were 8-0 and had defeated Wichita State and Arkansas-Little Rock on the road. Long was averaging 12.3 points per game, but most importantly, he had become one of the Mavs' clutch performers. Long hit a pull-up 3-pointer from the left wing against Arkansas-Little Rock to help put the Mavericks back up for good in the road victory.

It was also Long's 6-foot runner that put the Mavericks in the lead against the Shockers. Long and Guignard had developed a chemistry that appeared ready to take on the Southland. Long then went up for a shot against TCU in the final minute of overtime and tore a ligament in his thumb. In addition to his double-figure scoring average, Long had hit 36.4 percent of his 3-pointers. It took the Mavericks nearly all season to find the right combination of players in the right spots to make its run in the Southland tournament.

This year, UT Arlington can also look at two other sources for scoring at the shooting guard spot. Also waiting in the wings is freshman Armani Williams. A 6-foot-2 sharpshooter from Elgin High School just outside of Chicago, Williams hit 337 career 3-pointers to become the all-time leading 3-point shooter in Elgin history. He's sixth all-time in Illinois high school history.

Jon Miller, a freshman from Flower Mound, will also battle for time on the perimeter. Miller was the Marcus Marauders leading scorer last season at 15 points per game and hit 29 3-pointers.

SMALL FORWARD
UT Arlington could use Marquez Haynes at shooting guard, but his ability to penetrate and get to the rim also might make perfect on the wing at small forward. Coaches say that Haynes brings a toughness and leadership quality that the team lacked at times last year. They also say that fans shouldn't be surprised if the transfer from Boston College ends up being the Mavericks' best player. Haynes played 18 minutes per game in the ACC and started three games for a team that went to the NCAA Tournament.

Also ready to get some playing time after redshirting last season is 6-foot-5 athletic swingman LaMarcus Reed III, a former Dallas Skyline High School standout who spent last season working on his game. Coaches say Reed didn't waste a second of his redshirt year, saying that Reed drastically improved his game from the first time he had arrived on campus.

Reed can shoot from the outside, drive and defend. Coming out of high school, he was ranked 18th in the state by Texasroundball.com. He was the Class 5A Region II champion in the 400 meters as a track athlete his senior year.

The Mavericks also have the experience of three-year letter winner Jeremy Dewalt at the wing spot.

POWER FORWARD
The Mavericks have plenty of experience at power forward, and they might have the best back-to-the-basket player in the Southland Conference with Anthony Vereen. The 6-foot-7, 245-pound senior was the Most Valuable Player of the SLC Tournament and got stronger as the games got bigger. Vereen scored at least 20 points in five of UT Arlington's final six games.

His 13.8 scoring average came while averaging just 22.8 minutes per game. Also ready to fill the power forward slot are two-year letterman Tommy Moffitt and transfer J.D. Davis.

Moffitt is 6-foot-5, 220 pounds and spent much of last season inside battling guys in the paint. He averaged 6.0 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Moffitt creates matchup problems himself because of his ability to shoot from the outside. Moffitt hit 36.8 percent of his 3-pointers a year ago.

Davis, a former Arlington Bowie high school graduate, scored 7.1 points per game for a Seminole (Okla.) State College team that went 22-9.

CENTER
The emergence of Trey Parker as a legitimate shot blocker last season puts the sophomore from Terrell in the lead to lock down the starting center position if UT Arlington coaches elect to go with a taller lineup.

Parker is 6-9 but has a 7-foot-3 wingspan and swatted away 36 potential shots last season while averaging just 10 minutes per game. One of the most impressive stats regarding Parker is that he had just 14 turnovers in 314 minutes of action.

Mavs' coaches are also excited about the addition of Jordan Kinnear and Ishmael Awange, who will step on campus as the two tallest players on UT Arlington's roster. Kinnear is 6-foot-10, 275 pounds and recently closed out an All-Panhandle season at Canyon Randall High School. Awange is 6-foot-10 and has a 7-foot-3 wingspan.