Tickets On Sale July 14 | Season Ticket Renewals | SBC Composite Schedule

NEW ORLEANS, La. - The UTA men and women's basketball teams open their fifth season in the Sun Belt Conference in late December, each looking to come away with a league title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The Sun Belt, which announced its 2017-18 conference basketball schedules today, will utilize an 18-game conference schedule for each men's and women's basketball program.

Men's and women's basketball games will be played on a Thursday-Saturday schedule as doubleheaders throughout the 2017-18 season. Travel partners will be utilized as men's and women's teams will play identical opponents, generally during doubleheaders. The opening weekend of conference play will follow a Friday-Sunday schedule as league games start on Friday, December 29, and continue on Sunday, December 31.

Each of UTA's basketball programs are coming off successful seasons. The men's team won a program-record 27 games, earned its first Sun Belt championship and, after defeating BYU and Akron, fell just four points shy of a trip to Madison Square Garden for the National Invitation Tournament quarterfinals. The women's side finished as runner-up in the league standings, won the third-most games in program history and was invited to participate in the National Women's Invitation Tournament.

The UTA men and women's programs combined to win 73.1 percent of its games last season, which tied as the 18th best winning percentage among the 350-plus NCAA Division I programs nationally and the second-best among Division I programs in the state of Texas.

"Moving the schedule to Thursday-Saturday doubleheaders is the right decision for the benefit of our men's and women's basketball teams," Sun Belt Conference commissioner Karl Benson said. "This is the second consecutive year our basketball student-athletes, coaches and fans will see the benefits of our 12-team membership structure with six sets of travel partners located in seven states.

"A 12-team league allows for a manageable travel schedule for our men's and women's basketball student-athletes that results in less missed class time and much more time on campus rather than on airplanes and buses."

Travel partners will be utilized for two-game road trips throughout the conference schedule to maximize rest, minimize travel times and limit missed class time for men's and women's basketball student-athletes. Men's and women's basketball teams will only travel four times for two-game road trips and will each take just one, single-game road trip all season. Those single-game road trips will be for rivalry games.

Tip times for most UTA home games have already been announced and are listed on each team's schedule page on UTAMavs.com (Men | Women). Each league institution will release game times at its discretion.

The 2017-18 men's and women's basketball season will be the second in which an 18-game schedule with 12 teams will be utilized. Each of the league's 12 men and women's basketball teams will travel to the 2018 Sun Belt Basketball Championships, scheduled for March 6-11 at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans.

2017-18 SEASON TICKETS
New season tickets go on sale July 14 at 10 a.m. Visit UTATickets.com, call (817) 272-9595 or come by the UTA Box Office at College Park Center for more information. Click here for new season tickets or click here for renewal information. To join Maverick Club and enjoy a variety of benefits, including preferred seating, call (817) 272-0694.

FOLLOW THE MAVS SOCIALLY
For up-to-date news, photos, videos and updates you can follow UTA sports program online at UTAMavs.com or via any of several social media accounts: Twitter @UTAMavs, Instagram @UTAMavs, Snapchat @UTAMavs and Facebook at UTArlingtonAthletics. You can also find UTA men's basketball on Twitter at @UTA_MBB and women's basketball at @LadyMavHoops.