Dec. 17, 2010

Arlington, Tex. -

UT Arlington Men's Basketball Game Preview

UT Arlington at Louisiana Tech

Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010 - 7 pm CT

Thomas Assembly Center - Ruston, La.

Radio: KVCE-AM (1160)/kvceradio.com

Series: Louisiana Tech leads 21-7

COMPLETE UTA GAME NOTES PACKAGE

After a week off for finals, the UT Arlington men's basketball team returns to action Saturday at Louisiana Tech. These two former Southland Conference rivals will be meeting for the first time since 1986.

UTA comes into the game 5-3 after dropping a 68-60 decision at Samford last Saturday. The Mavericks have now lost consecutive games for the first time this season. LaMarcus Reed leads the Mavericks in scoring at 16.6 per game. UTA is still one of the top teams in the nation in field goal percentage defense as the team is ranked 13th this week allowing opponents to shoot just 36.6% from the field.

Louisiana Tech is led by Fort Worth native DeAndre Brown who averages 16.7 points per game for the Bulldogs who are 8-4 overall and 4-0 at home.

MAVERICKS AT A GLANCE

A LOOK AT THE MAVERICKS UT Arlington gets back to action after finals week as it plays at Louisiana Tech Saturday...the Mavericks come into the game 5-3 after losing at Samford 68-60 last Saturday...the Mavs have now dropped their last 2 games...Saturday's game is the 3rd in a span of six consecutive road games for UTA as they will go from Nov. 27-Jan. 5 not playing a home game.

COVERAGE The Louisiana Tech game can be heard on KVCE 1160 AM in the DFW Metroplex...the game can be listened online via kvceradio.com...Mike Young, the "Voice of the Mavericks", and Associate AD Gregg Elkin call the action...Gametracker is also available via utamavs.com.

UTA - LOUISIANA TECH SERIES Tonight's game is the 29th meeting between the former Southland Conference schools but the first time they have played since Feb. 29, 1986...the Bulldogs lead the series 21-7 and have won the last 7 meetings...Louisiana Tech leads the series in games played in Ruston 12-2 with UTA's last win there coming on Feb. 6, 1982 (73-60)...the only other win for UTA in Ruston was a 79-77 double overtime victory on Feb. 4, 1978.

UTA vs. WAC Outside of its series against Louisiana Tech (which all came as members of the Southland Conference), UT Arlington is 3-15 against the other current members of the WAC...the Mavericks are 1-1 vs. Idaho, 1-3 vs. Fresno, 1-10 vs. New Mexico State and 0-1 vs. Boise State...the last time UTA played a WAC team was in 2004-05 against NMSU.

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross Scott Cross is in his 5th season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 71-60 (.542)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 32-32 and 3-3 in the conference tournament...Cross led the Mavericks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2008 after winning the Southland Conference Tournament...in 2008 he led his team to a school-record 21 victories and his team completed a school record 17-game home winning streak (3 games in `07 and the first 14 of `08)...Cross reached 50 wins faster than any coach in school history (90th game)...a 1998 graduate of UT Arlington, Cross was a 2-time Academic All-American at his alma mater where he lettered 3 times from 1995-98.

GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START OVERALL AND IN NOVEMBER UTA started the season 5-1 which tied for the 4th best mark in school history...the Mavericks also went 5-1 to start the 1984-85 season...the best starts were 8-0 in 2007-08 followed by 7-1 in 1980-81 and 6-1 in 1971-72...the Mavericks posted 5 victories in November which was the 2nd-highest total in school history...the 2007-08 team was 6-0 in November.

DEFENSE AMONG THE TOPS IN THE NATION The Mavericks are ranked 13th in the nation in field goal percentage defense in the latest NCAA statistics at 36.6%...UTA has held their opponents under 40 percent from the floor in 5 of the 8 games (but have not done so in the last 2 games)...Florida State leads the country in this category at 32.5%...UTA opponents are also shooting just 31.1% from 3-point range.