DENTON, Texas – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (1-2) continues its most grueling stretch of the non-conference season Thursday night at 7 when the Mavericks renew their local rivalry with North Texas (1-1) from The Super Pit.
 

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UT Arlington Game Notes  ///  North Texas Game Notes

 
THE OPENING TIP(s)

• UNT will be the third of an incredible eight opponents for UTA in its non-conference schedule which competed in the NCAA Tournament last year. Additionally, the Mean Green are the second of three opponents for UTA in a five-day stretch this week which played in March Madness last year.
   
• UTA suffered a heart-breaking 80-71 overtime loss on Tuesday to the first of those three NCAA Tournament opponents, Abilene Christian, despite holding a three-point lead with less than two seconds remaining in regulation. Leading 63-60, UTA's Shemar Wilson grabbed a rebound off a missed ACU free throw and was surrounded by a pair of Wildcats. One official signaled for an ACU foul for grabbing Wilson around the waist with 1.5 seconds left. However, another official under the basket called for a jump ball. That ended up being the final decision, and with the possession arrow in favor of ACU, the visitors got the ball back under their own basket and knocked down a contested 3-pointer on the ensuing inbounds to force OT.

TWEETABLES
1) The Mavs turned the ball over 28 times on Tuesday against ACU – their most in any game since committing 31 giveaways at Oklahoma State on Dec. 19, 2012.
 
2) UTA has had seven different double-figure scorers this season – all of which have come in the last two games – and that doesn't yet include the Mavs' second-leading returning scorer from last year in Patrick Mwamba.
 
3) Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu has reached double-figure points (10) in back-to-back games for the first time in his career. He is a perfect 9-9 from the floor in the last two games, and 14 of his 24 points this year have come off dunks.
 
4) Tuesday's game against ACU featured 15 lead changes and 11 ties, with the nine-point final margin being the largest either team had all game.
 
SCOUTING NORTH TEXAS

• UNT is 1-1 on the year after opening the season with an 84-53 win over Oklahoma Christian last Tuesday and suffering a narrow 69-66 loss to a quality Buffalo program at home on Monday night.
   
• The Mean Green are the back-to-back defending Conference USA champions. They won the 2020 Conference USA Regular Season Championship and the 2021 Conference USA Tournament title.
   
• That conference title earned UNT the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament, and the Mean Green – in their fourth trip to March Madness – upset Purdue in overtime in the First Round, 78-69, for the school's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.
   
• Newcomer Tylor Perry has been UNT's leading scorer in each of its first two games, averaging 20 per contest. The Mean Green lost 60 percent of their scoring from last season, including their top-two scorers (Javion Hamlet and James Reese) and three of their top-four scorers.
   
• Grant McCasland is in his fifth season as the UNT head coach, and in that time he has led the Mean Green to a pair of C-USA championships, three-straight 20-win seasons in his first three years and the 2018 CBI Championship. Prior to his time in Denton, McCasland was the head coach at Sun Belt member Arkansas State in 2016-17, leading the Red Wolves to a 20-12 record.
   
• UNT was accepted as a new member of the American Athletic Conference last month, and is expected to join the league in the next few years.

RE-TWEETS

• UTA shot 64.2 percent (43-67) from the floor last Saturday against Mary Hardin-Baylor, which was tied for the 7th-best mark in single-game program history. It was the 2nd-highest percentage in program history when making at least 40 shots (66 percent, 40-62, at Texas Wesleyan on Jan. 2, 1965).
   
• Wilson led the way with that shooting percentage as he went a perfect 6-6 from the floor – tied for the 9th-most makes in program history without a miss.
   
• Javon Levi posted his seventh-career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists against UMHB. It was the first points-assists double-double by a UTA player since Brian Warren had 15 and 12 versus Arkansas Tech on Nov. 24, 2019.
   
• Greg Young secured his first-career win at the Division-I level with the 104-75 victory over Mary Hardin-Baylor on Nov. 13. Young – who was named the ninth head coach in program history this past spring following 12 seasons on the UTA sidelines as either an assistant (2009-13) or associate head coach (2013-21) – had previously served as a junior college head coach for 10 seasons, accumulating an overall record of 168-139.
   
• The Mavs had six different players reach double-figure points against UMHB. The last time UTA had exactly six in double figures was an NIT Second Round victory over Akron on Mar. 20, 2017. UTA had eight double-figure scorers in a 117-53 win opposite Howard Payne on Dec. 22, 2020.
   
• The Mavs handed out 28 assists against UMHB, one shy of cracking the top-10 single-game program record list.

• UTA's 43-point loss to Oklahoma State on Nov. 9 was its largest ever in a season opener, and biggest setback since a 48-point defeat (92-44) at Kentucky on Nov. 25, 2014. The Wildcats were the nation's top-ranked team at that time.
   

2020-21 RETWEETS

• UTA had 13 different players score double-figure points in a game last season – tied for the most of any team in the nation along with Abilene Christian and Murray State.

• Despite returning just eight letterwinners from last season, the Mavericks bring back four starters, including four of the five who started their Sun Belt Conference Tournament game.
   
• UTA finished in the top-40 nationally last year in blocks per game (21st, 4.8), steals per game (24th, 8.3), turnover margin (33rd, +2.8) and 3-pointers made per contest (37th, 9.0).
   

NEXT UP
UTA continues its challenging stretch when the Mavs head to California to face San Diego State on Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. local Pacific (9 p.m. Central). SDSU is 1-1 on the season with a 66-53 win over UC Riverside and a narrow 66-60 loss at BYU, which went to Eugene and destroyed #12 Oregon on Monday, 81-49. The Aztecs host Arizona State on Thursday night before welcoming UTA.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
For updates, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more engaging and personal content, be sure to follow the men's basketball program on Twitter (@UTAMavsMBB), Instagram (@UTAMavsMBB) and Facebook (/UTAMavsMBB).