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Men's Basketball By: Jason MacBain (@JaBain)

@UTAMavsMBB Game 29 Infographic Preview: Georgia Southern

GAME 29
UT Arlington (13-15, 9-8 Sun Belt) vs. Georgia Southern (16-12, 10-7 Sun Belt)

February 22, 2020  ||  2 PM  ||  College Park Center  ||  Arlington, TX

For The Complete Set Of Infographic Game Notes, Click On The Image Above

ABOUT THE MATCHUP
 

  • In the first meeting with Georgia Southern this season back in December, UTA let an 11-point halftime lead slip away en route to a 77-74 loss. In that contest, David Azore registered one of only two 30-point double-doubles by a Sun Belt player this year with a career-high 33 points and season-best 12 rebounds. Brian Warren added a season-high 28 points for UTA.
     
  • Georgia Southern has dropped two-straight games at home to Appalachian State last Saturday, 62-57, and on Thursday at Texas State, 70-55. In the contest with the Bobcats, the Eagles shot just 2-14 (14.3 percent) from 3-point range and trailed at halftime, 42-20.
     
  • The all-time series between UTA and Georgia Southern is tied at 6-6, and neither team has ever swept a regular-season series.

 

  • Ike Smith leads a quartet of double-figure scorers for Georgia Southern at 14.3 per game. However, in conference games it’s Quan Jackson pacing a trio of double-figure scorers at 14.9 per outing.
     
  • Jackson ranks 5th in the nation with 2.6 steals per game, and is 4th in the country in total thefts with 72 this season.
     
  • As a team, Georgia Southern ranks 21st in the nation in total steals (225) and 41st in steals per game (8.0).
     
  • The Eagles have won five games this year in which they’ve trailed by double-figure points.
Average RPIs Last 5 Years MBB
2019-20 Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll

SUN BELT CONFERENCE PRESEASON POLL

After being predicted to finish 2nd-to-last (11th place) in the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Poll in 2018-19, UTA has been picked to finish 2nd in 2019-20 in voting conducted by the league’s head coaches.

The Mavericks shattered those expectations last year by finishing in a tie for 2nd with a 12-6 Sun Belt record; that nine-spot improvement from preseason to final regular-season finish was tied for the best in the nation along with Siena, which was picked 11th in the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and finished in a four-way tie for 2nd.

UTA has reached the Sun Belt Tournament Final each of the last two seasons, losing in the championship game both times to Georgia State.

SUN BELT CONFERENCE SUCCESS


UTA owns the 2nd-most Sun Belt wins (77) since joining the league in 2013-14 (Georgia State: 89; Louisiana: 77), and is one of just three members (Georgia Southern, Louisiana) to post five-straight seasons of double-figure SBC wins.

In 2016-17, the Mavericks won their first-ever SBC Regular Season Championship, and in 2017-18 they were the preseason favorites to repeat. Last year, UTA – due largely to a nearly entirely new roster – was predicted to finish 11th in the SBC, but exceeded all outsiders’ expectations with a 2nd-place showing. The Mavs have been picked 2nd in the 2019-20 Preseason Sun Belt Poll by the league’s head coaches.

Sun Belt Conference Finish Last 5 Years
Since joining the Sun Belt for the 2013-14 season, UTA is the only team in the league to finish in the top-5 of the regular-season standings every year.

PROTECTING THE ROCK
UTA committed a combined nine turnovers in two games on Jan. 30 and Feb. 1 – four versus Louisiana and five against ULM. Combined with a five-turnover performance in the non-conference finale at Houston in December, UTA is one of just four schools in the nation with three games of five or fewer turnovers this season (all occurring in the last 18 games). Minnesota leads the country with four such games.

In the previous nine seasons combined (2010-19), UTA had a total of just two games of five or fewer turnovers (a span of 306 games). The four-turnover performance against the Ragin’ Cajuns were the fewest in a game by the Mavs since at least 2010.

RECAPPING LOUISIANA
Louisiana executed a full-court inbound and knocked down a contested, off-balance 3-pointer as the buzzer expired on Jan. 30, sending UTA to a heartbreaking 66-65 loss. Coleman Sparling put UTA in front, 65-63, with 2.7 seconds remaining, but on the ensuing inbound Dou Gueye caught the pass, turned quickly and with 6-foot-9 Sparling’s hand in his face, threw up a 3-point attempt which hit nothing but net to give Louisiana the walk-off win. The shot landed at #1 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays for Jan. 30.

1,000 POINT CLUB
TiAndre Jackson-Young eclipsed 1,000 career points on Jan. 30 against Louisiana; on Jan. 18 at ULM, Radshad Davis reached 1,000 career points. Both players began their career at junior colleges for two seasons.

SHOCKING STEELMAN
UTA’s win over Arkansas State on Jan. 2 was spearheaded shockingly by junior walk-on Steelman. He came off the bench to score a game-high 14 points; Steelman had not scored a single point all season coming into the game. In five games previously he had played 16 minutes, grabbed one rebound and went 0-2 from the floor. At A-State, he played 25 minutes, grabbed three rebounds and went 6-7 from the floor. Steelman started the next four games following A-State.

On the other side of the ball against Gonzaga, Jabari Narcis – a 6-foot-9 forward – went a perfect 5-5 from 3-point range, tying for the best 3-point percentage performance in program history. Of players who have made at least five 3-pointers in a game, Narcis is now just the third player to go 5-5 or better, joining Scott Cross (5-5 vs. UTSA on Feb. 14, 1998) and Kevin Butler (7-7 at Idaho on Feb. 14, 2013).

In his initial ranking earlier this summer, ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi installed UTA as the Sun Belt favorites in 2019-20. Andy Katz from the NCAA also predicted UTA to make the NCAA Tournament in his preseason bracket.

RE-TWEETS

1) UTA’s 64-62 win at Texas State on Jan. 25 represented the third-fewest points the Mavs have scored in a win since the 2014-15 season: 56-51 at Bradley (Dec. 16, 2016) and 61-58 at Coastal Carolina (Jan. 12, 2019).

2) For the first time since Louisiana and ULM became travel partners in 2015-16, UTA swept the Lafayette and Monroe road trip Jan. 16-18.

3) Against App State on Jan. 9, UTA won for the first time this season when having a worse field-goal percentage than its opponent (UTA: 40 percent, App State: 44 percent). It also marked the Mavs first win this year when scoring less than 70 points.

4) UTA issued 27 assists on 31 made field goals (87 percent) at Arkansas State. Those are the most assists since matching that total in a 105-89 win in the 2017 NIT at BYU.

4) Azore recorded his second double-double of the year with a career-high 33 points and season-best 12 rebounds at Georgia Southern. All 12 rebounds came on the defensive end – tied for the 10th-most in single-game program history.

6) Against Arkansas Tech on Nov. 24, Warren (15 points, career-high 12 assists) and Narcis (career-high 23 points, 11 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles – the first time that multiple UTA players have registered double-doubles in the same game in the Ogden era.

7) Warren’s 12 assists were the most by a Mav since Erick Neal issued 13 against UT Dallas on Nov. 27, 2017.

8) Under Ogden, UTA is 26-9 when scoring at least 68 points (11-7 this year).

9) UTA shot just 23.4 percent (15-64) from the field at #14 Oregon on Nov. 17 – the worst performance in program history.

10) With its 84-50 victory over UT Dallas on Nov. 5, UTA has now won six-straight season openers.

11) UTA made 15 3-pointers (15-37) against UTD, tying for the 3rd-most in a game in program history (all-time record: 17 vs. Bradley on Dec. 8, 2015). The Mavs also made 15 3s at South Alabama this past February.

12) UTA has had three games of 24+ assists this year: 24 against Arkansas Tech, 25 versus UT Dallas and 27 at Arkansas State.

13) The 50 points UTD scored were the fewest allowed by UTA since Rice tallied just 49 on Nov. 29, 2017.

14) UTA started 2-0 for the third-straight year; in each of the previous two seasons the Mavs have gone on to play in the Sun Belt Tournament Final.

15) For just the second time in program history, UTA held its first two opponents of a season both under 60 points. The only other time that had occurred was the 1987-88 season; it’s never been done three-straight times to commence a year.

16) UTA’s 50 points at App State on Feb. 6 were its 2nd-fewest in a Sun Belt game in program history (fewest: 49 versus Georgia State on Feb. 27, 2014) and its fewest ever in a road Sun Belt game.

17) The 89 points UTA scored in its 92-89 loss at Little Rock on Jan. 4 were the most in a loss since Feb. 14, 2015, at South Alabama (97-91). It represented the most points UTA has scored and allowed in a game this year.

Warren Sun Belt Preseason First Team

After being named to the Sun Belt Third Team and Sun Belt All-Tournament Team in his initial season as a Maverick, Brian Warren has landed on the Preseason All-Sun Belt First Team. The senior led UTA in scoring (15.4), assists (3.6), steals (1.2) and minutes played (29.8) last year, in addition to grabbing 2.6 rebounds.

Warren made four shots which forced overtime or double overtime, and converted the go-ahead/eventual game-winning free throws twice. He ranked 8th in the Sun Belt in assists, 7th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.7) and 5th in free-throw percentage (.805). The Indianapolis native eclipsed the 20-point mark eight times during the year and poured in 30+ points twice, including a career-high 33 versus ULM in late February. All told, Warren’s 507 total points rank tied as the 17th-most in single-season program history.

Preseason All-Sun Belt First Team
Quan Jackson, Georgia Southern (R-Jr., G, Tallahassee, Fla.)
Josh Ajayi, South Alabama (R-Sr., F, El Monte, Calif.)
Trhae Mitchell, South Alabama (R-Sr., F, Austell, Ga.)
Brian Warren, UTA (Sr., G, Indianapolis, Ind.)
Nijal Pearson, Texas State (Sr., G, Beaumont, Texas)

SINGLE-SEASON TOP-10 RECORDS

In head coach Chris Ogden’s first season at the helm of the Mavericks in 2018-19, UTA secured several top-10 all-time single-season program marks:

Best 3 Point Percentage Defense Single Season
Single Season Top 10 Records
Chris Ogden Coach of the Year
Ogden NABC All-District
Ogden Coach of the Year Finalist
Ogden Mid Major Finalist

In his first season as a head coach in 2018-19, Chris Ogden garnered the following noteworthy honors and awards:


Sun Belt Coach of the Year: Just the third UTA coach to ever win a conference Coach of the Year award, joining Bob LeGrand (1981, Southland Conference) and Scott Cross (2012, Southland Conference; 2017, Sun Belt Conference).

NABC District 24 Coach of the Year: Consists of all Sun Belt Conference members.

Hugh Durham Award Finalist: Presented annually to the nation’s top mid-major coach.

Joe B. Hall Award Finalist: Given annually to the top first-year head coach in D-I.

UTA posted a -0.6 scoring margin last year, but still managed to secure a winning record at 17-16. It’s the first time since 1999-00 that a UTA team has had a winning record (15-12) with a negative scoring margin (-2.1).

Over the last 12 years, UTA has finished with a positive scoring margin 10 times; in the first 48 years of the program, that occurred just eight times.
CPC Facility

KEY RULE CHANGES
 

Among a plethora of major rule changes for men’s college basketball in 2019-20 are the following noteworthy items: 

1) Increase the 3-point line to FIBA distance: 22 feet and 1 ¾ inches. 
2) Reset the shot clock to 20 seconds on an offensive rebound in the front court. 
3) Permit the head coach to call live-ball timeouts during the last two minutes of a game. 
4) Basket interference/goaltending can be reviewed in the last two minutes of a game.

Flags MBB

UTA has players from five different foreign countries on the 2019-20 roster – a total which surpasses the amount of different states (four) represented on the team. The Mavs’ multi-cultural roster features players from Belgium, Bahamas, Congo, France and Trinidad & Tobago; states: Indiana, Florida, Texas and Washington.

Patrick Mwamba NBA Academy Posed

One of those foreign players for UTA is sophomore Patrick Mwamba, who is a product of the NBA Academy Africa.

NBA Academies, a network of elite basketball training centers around the world, include educational development for top male and female prospects from outside the U.S. and mark the NBA’s signature elite player development initiative. The initiative exposes elite prospects to NBA-level coaching, facilities and competition and provides a global framework for them to maximize their success.

Mwamba is one of 12 male NBA Academies graduates who are attending, or have committed to, D-I schools, and he is just one of two NBA Academy Africa products:

  1. Oumar Ballo (NBA Latin America Academy; Mali; Gonzaga)
  2. Francisco Caffaro (NBA Global Academy; Argentina; Virginia)
  3. Hunter Clarke (NBA Global Academy; Australia; Montana)
  4. Alex Ducas (NBA Global Academy; Australia; St. Mary’s)
  5. Francisco Farabello (NBA Academy Latin America; Argentina; TCU)
  6. Anyang Garang (NBA Global Academy; Uganda; Oklahoma)
  7. Timothy Ighoefe (NBA Academy Africa; Nigeria; Georgetown)
  8. Hyunjung Lee (NBA Global Academy; South Korea; Davidson)
  9. Patrick Mwamba (NBA Academy Africa; Congo; UT Arlington)
  10. Jermaine Miranda Perez (NBA Academy Latin America; Puerto Rico; Hofstra)
  11. Jonathan Tchatchoua (NBA Global Academy; Cameroon; Baylor)
  12. Kurt-Curry Wegscheider (NBA Academy Africa; Central Africa Republic; New Mexico)
After having the least amount of returning points in the nation last year (3.2 percent; 87 of 2,640), UTA returns 67 percent (1,527 of 2,284) of its scoring this season. Additionally, the Mavs bring back 67 percent (822 of 1,237) of their rebounding and 65 percent (272 of 421) of their assists.
ESPN2 Texas State

For the first time in program history, UTA will have a regular season home game broadcast on national television as the Mavericks’ 2019-20 finale at the College Park Center against rival Texas State will be shown live on ESPN2. To accommodate the move to ESPN2, the game will now take place on Friday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. It was originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 29, at 5 p.m.

During UTA’s run to the NIT quarterfinals in 2017, the Mavericks had a pair of those games at the CPC air nationally on ESPNU, but this will be the first time a regular-season game at the CPC will be broadcast to the country. UTA’s version of Friday Night Lights will take on even more significance as – in addition to airing on ESPN2 – the game will serve as Senior Night as it will be the final home regular-season contest of the year.