Dec. 27, 2011

Arlington, Texas - As college basketball gets back into full swing this week, the UT Arlington men's basketball team finds itself moving up some of the nation's computer rankings.

USA Today's Jeff Sagarin College Basketball Rankings has the Mavericks among the top 130 teams in the nation at No. 127 as the week begins.

A look at the teams in the Mavericks new home, the Western Athletic Conference, starting next season, shows the team is ranked within shouting distance of some of the best that league has to offer.

New Mexico State is the highest WAC team at No. 57 but the group the Mavs are close behind are Nevada (No. 112), Idaho (No. 114) and four-time defending champion Utah State (No. 117). Nevada will not be the conference when UTA joins next season.

So far this season, the Mavericks are 1-1 against teams from its new conference as they defeated Louisiana Tech at home in November and then lost at Utah State last week by only four points. Utah State is also one of the toughest, if not the toughest place to play in the country, as they have won 90 of their last 93 games at home.

The Mavericks future home is also ranked 12th in the nation as a conference.

UTA is ranked third in its current conference in today's Sagarin's ranking behind Lamar (No. 80) and UTSA (No. 118). UTSA will also be joining the WAC next July.

UT Arlington begins it final season of Southland Conference play Jan. 4 when it hosts Southeastern Louisiana at Texas Hall. After those three teams, the next team to be ranked in Sagarin is Northwestern State at No. 229.