LOGAN, Utah – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (1-4) continues its challenging non-conference schedule Saturday when the Mavericks head to perennial mid-major force Utah State (4-1) to take on the Aggies inside Dee Glen Smith Spectrum at 8 p.m. Central (7 p.m. local Mountain).
 

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UT Arlington Game Notes  ///  Utah State Game Notes

 
THE OPENING TIP(s)

• Utah State will be the fourth of five-straight opponents for UTA which played in the NCAA Tournament last year. The Aggies will also be the third road test for the Mavs in the first three weeks of the season which is currently ranked in the top 70 by KenPom (Oklahoma State: 34, San Diego State: 36, Utah State: 67).
   
• The Aggies will already be the fifth 2021 NCAA Tournament opponent for UTA this month, and in total the Mavs will play eight such foes in their non-conference docket – believed to be the most of any team in the nation. The sixth opponent comes up on Monday, Nov. 29, at UC Santa Barbara.
   
• This will be the second-straight Mountain West Conference opponent for UTA as the Mavs battled San Diego State to a 68-62 loss last Saturday in a contest that was tied with eight minutes remaining. The Mavs will play a third MW member when they welcome Nevada to the College Park Center on Dec. 7. UTA is 9-16 all-time versus current MW teams.

TWEETABLES
1) UTA has had eight different double-figure scorers in a game already this season, and all of those occurrences have come in three games. The Mavs led the nation last year along with Abilene Christian and Murray State with 13 different double-figure scorers.
 
2) The Mavs have used four different starting lineups in their first five games this season.
 
3) True freshman Montez Young Jr. became the first UTA player to secure double-figure rebounds in a game this season with 10 at San Diego State. Five of those came on the offensive glass in the 2nd half.
 
4) UTA ranks 19th in the nation in blocked shots per game (6.0) and 30th in the country in defensive field goal percentage (37.1). Individually, Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu is 16th nationally in 3.2 blocks per game.
 
5) Patrick Mwamba is UTA's 2nd-leading returning scorer from last season (6.9 per game), but so far this year only has three total points in two games. He has missed three of the last four games due to health reasons.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• This will be the fifth all-time meeting between UTA and Utah State, with the Mavs holding a 3-1 series lead. UTA traveled to Logan for a non-conference matchup in December of 2011 (73-69 USU win) as part of the Athletes in Action Classic.
   
• The Mavs and Aggies then met three times in an eight-week stretch during UTA's lone season as a Western Athletic Conference member in 2012-13. The Mavs won all three of those games, including in the WAC Tournament Quarterfinals, 83-78.
   
• UTA's Carson Bischoff was a member of Utah State during the 2019-20 season, but did not play and utilized a redshirt year. Bischoff – who has not played in a game this year – is not expected to play after undergoing back surgery last week.
   
• After suffering a home season-opening loss to UC Davis, 72-69, Utah State has won four in a row, including sweeping three games on Coastal Carolina's home court last weekend to win the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The Aggies took down Penn in double overtime, blew out New Mexico State by 27 before knocking off Oklahoma in the title game, 73-70. UTA heads to Norman to play OU on Dec. 19.
   
• Justin Bean has put up gaudy numbers through the first five games, averaging 24 points and 13.8 rebounds so far this season to rank 5th and 2nd, respectively, in the nation. Bean – who pulled down 19 rebounds against OU – is 2nd in the nation with four double-doubles already this year.
   
• Brandon Horvath is averaging 15.2 points per game and shooting 56.5 percent (13-23) from 3-point range to rank 6th in the country. Rylan Jones is USU's other double-figure scorer at 12.8 per outing; Brock Miller is just shy of that mark by averaging 9.6 per game.
   
• Utah State is the nation's 18th-best free throw shooting team at 79.6 percent, and the Aggies also rank 19th in the country in assists per game at 18.4.
   
• The Aggies lost to San Diego State in the Mountain West Championship last year, but still garnered an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament where they battled Texas Tech to a 12-point game. Utah State has won at least 20 games in three-straight seasons.
   
• Ryan Odom is in his first season as the head coach of USU after holding that same position from 2017-21 at UMBC, guiding the Retrievers to the only 16 seed over 1 seed upset in NCAA Tournament history in 2018 when they took down Virginia.

STILL FINDING THEIR FOOTING
In addition to facing a challenging schedule, UTA is still trying to adapt to a new style of play with a roster which has not spent a lot of time together. Based off KenPom's 'Minutes Continuity' analysis, UTA ranks in the bottom 15 percent of all of college basketball in terms of players who have played together the most (304th out of 358 teams).
 
UTA's minutes continuity percentage is just 27.7 – essentially meaning that just 27 percent of the Mavs total minutes this season have been played by the same players from last year. Of the 54 teams with a worst percentage than UTA, 13 are at 0 percent due to not playing any games last year (i.e. the Ivy League teams and some other select schools).
 
OTHER NOTABLE KENPOM NUMBERS
62.6% – Percentage of UTA's points this year which have come off 2-point field goals, ranking as the 16th-highest rate in the country.
29.7% – Percentage of UTA's opponents points so far this season which have come from made free throws, the 3rd-most of any team in the nation.
91.2 – The rating of UTA's opponent defenses so far this season, ranking the 7th-hardest schedule in the country in terms of defenses faced.
 
ACU SUMMARY
UTA suffered an 80-71 overtime loss last Tuesday to 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, where the Wildcats out-scored the Mavs, 17-8.
 
RE-TWEETS

• The 36 points UTA scored last Thursday at North Texas were the 3rd-fewest in a single game in program history (31 at SMU on Dec. 16, 1989 and 35 versus Denver on Dec. 31, 2012). UTA also made just 12 field goals, tied for the fewest in program history with a dozen at the aforementioned SMU contest.
   
• The Mavs turned the ball over 28 times against Abilene Christian – their most in any game since committing 31 giveaways at Oklahoma State on Dec. 19, 2012.
   
• UTA shot 64.2 percent (43-67) from the floor on Nov. 13 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. 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.


• 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).
   
• David Azore has four career games of 11+ defensive rebounds. The only player with more than Azore's four is all-time leading rebounder Kevin Hervey with five.
   

NEXT UP
UTA remains on the road and heads back to California for the second time in a little over a week when the Mavs take on UC Santa Barbara on Monday, Nov. 29, at 8 p.m. Central (6 p.m. Pacific). The defending Big West Conference Champions won 22 games last season and had a shot at the end of their NCAA Tournament game against Creighton to win, but ultimately fell one point short, 63-62. The Gauchos and Mavs have met twice previously: 1970 in Santa Barbara and 2019 in Arlington.
 
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).