STILLWATER, Okla. – The UT Arlington men's basketball team officially tips off its 2021-22 season on Tuesday, Nov. 9, against Oklahoma State for the second-straight year.
THE OPENING TIP(s)
- Greg Young was named the ninth head coach in program history on Apr. 5 following 12 seasons on the UT Arlington sidelines as either an assistant (2009-13) or associate head coach (2013-21).
- Oklahoma State claimed a narrow 75-68 win in Arlington last year – the first game of a 1-for-2 home-and-home series as UTA is also scheduled to return to Stillwater in 2022-23.
- The Cowboys will be just the sixth opponent that UTA has opened a season against in back-to-back years, and three of those are current Big 12 Conference members. The Mavs faced TCU in their season opener for five-consecutive seasons between 1979-83; the other occurrences have all only been two-straight years: 2003-04 vs. TCU, 1996-97 vs. Tulane, 1988-89 vs. UTSA, 1963-64 vs. Baylor and 1959-60 vs. East Central Oklahoma.
TWEETABLES
1) The loss to OSU in 2020-21 snapped a six-game winning streak for UTA in season openers, and was just the Mavs' second defeat in year-beginning games since 2005-06 (13-2).
2) This is UTA's first time opening a season on the road since an 86-75 win at Bradley on Nov. 14, 2014.
3) Oklahoma State will be the first of an incredible eight opponents for UTA in its non-conference schedule which competed in the NCAA Tournament last year (more info later).
4) Javon Levi – who ranks in the top 5 among active career Division-I players in assists, steals and assist-to-turnover ratio – needs just one assist to reach 600 for his career (more info on Levi later in this release).
5) UTA claimed a 68-64 exhibition win over Southeastern Oklahoma State on Nov. 1 in its lone regular-season tune-up, while OSU defeated Central Oklahoma in an exhibition contest on Nov. 5, 76-68.
SCOUTING OKLAHOMA STATE
- Oklahoma State – which is receiving votes in the national poll(s) – was picked to finish 5th (tied with West Virginia) in the Big 12 Conference Preseason Poll. The Cowboys are coming off a 21-9 season in 2020-21, including an 11-7 mark in the Big 12.
- OSU received a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament last year, and knocked off No. 13 Liberty before falling to eventual Elite Eight participant Oregon State.
- The Cowboys return three of their top-4 scorers from a season ago in All-Big 12 Championship team member Avery Anderson III (12.2 PPG, 4.0 RPG), Kalib Boone (9.4 PPG, 5.4 RPG) and two-time All-Big 12 selection Isaac Likekele (9.1 PPG, 6.6 RPG). OSU lost No. 1 Overall NBA Draft Pick and Arlington native Cade Cunningham when the Detroit Pistons selected him in July after being named a Consensus First Team All American.
- OSU head coach Mike Boynton also added four high-major transfers in former Kansas standout and McDonald's All-American Bryce Thompson, former Memphis big man Moussa Cisse, former Texas Tech forward Tyreek Smith and former Syracuse wing Woody Newton. Cisse was named to the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award Watch List.
- Last Wednesday, the NCAA rejected Oklahoma State's appeal and banned the Cowboys from participating in the 2022 postseason, in addition to reducing their scholarship limit by three and imposing other recruiting restrictions stemming from a 2017 FBI investigation into college basketball corruption.
- That investigation revealed that former OSU associate head coach Lamont Evans accepted between $18,150 and $22,000 in bribes to guide players from Oklahoma State (and South Carolina where he had been an assistant coach) to certain agents and financial advisers. None of the current players on Oklahoma State were involved in that investigation.
MILESTONES APPROACHING
UTA has a distinct possibility this season of having three different players each reach 1,000 career points:
Javon Levi: 918 | Needs: 82
David Azore: 872 | Needs: 128
Pedro Castro: 813 | Needs 187
Azore would be the only one of the three to accomplish the feat with all his points coming at UTA, which would make him just the 26th member of the program's 1,000 Point Club.
In addition to Azore's upcoming scoring milestone, he also needs just six more made free throws to crack the program's top-10 career list (current: 267), and he is currently tied for the 8th-best career free throw percentage at .790 (record: .886).
AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE
Javon Levi spent the previous four seasons at UT Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), accumulating statistical numbers which place him among the best guards in the nation. Levi – who needs just 82 points to reach 1,000 for his career – ranks in the top 5 among all active Division-I players in the country in career assists (3rd), assist-to-turnover ratio (4th) and steals (5th).
NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
UTA's 2021-22 non-conference schedule features an incredible eight opponents which competed in the NCAA Tournament last season: Oklahoma State, Abilene Christian, North Texas, San Diego State, Utah State, UC Santa Barbara, Oral Roberts and Oklahoma.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Pedro Castro began his collegiate career with UTA, redshirting as a freshman in 2017-18 before playing in 33 games with three starts as a redshirt freshman in 2018-19. Then, the Fort Worth product transferred out of the program to Blinn College for his redshirt sophomore season in 2019-20 and Houston Baptist last year, where he averaged team bests in points (14.8), rebounds (7.3), steals (1.5) and blocks (1.1).
Castro is one of only nine D-I players in the country this year playing for the school in which they started their college career, transferring out of that school and then returning (
bold denotes current team):
Jaylen Fornes:
UNC Wilmington (2016-19) | Nicholls State (2019-21)
Kevin Marfo:
Quinnipiac (2017-20) | Texas A&M (2020-21)
Dimencio Vaughn:
Rider (2016-20) | Ole Miss (2020-21)
Elijah Olaniyi:
Stony Brook (2017-20) | Miami (2020-21)
Caleb Grill:
Iowa State (2019-20) | UNLV (2020-21)
Tyler Harris:
Memphis (2018-20) | Iowa State (2020-21)
Both Gach:
Utah (2018-20) | Minnesota (2020-21)
Andrej Jakimovski*:
Washington State (2020-21) | Loyola Marymount (2021)
* Transferred to LMU in June of 2021 before returning to WSU in August of 2021.
RE-TWEETS
- 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).
- 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. UTA and ACU will face each other at the College Park Center on Nov. 16.
- 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.
- The Mavs were a perfect 9-0 last season when having a better field goal percentage than their opponent, and UTA won three games last year at the buzzer or in the closing three seconds of regulation.
GLOBAL FOOTPRINT
UT Arlington's 15-player roster is collectively represented by seven countries and four states.
Countries: United States, Canada, Brazil, France, Nigeria, Congo and Australia.
States: Texas, Utah, Illinois and Arizona.
MWAMBA AFRICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Patrick Mwamba represented his native Democratic Republic of Congo this past summer at the FIBA AfroBasket 2021. Mwamba, who was raised in Bukavu in coastal eastern Congo, earned a spot on the national team to compete in the African Championships which are contested once every four years.
In three games – one win and losses for Congo all in the Group Stage – Mwamba averaged nine points, four rebounds and 1.3 assists in 27.5 minutes per contest.
KAO K-Os SHOTS
Last year,
Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu was a walk-on who played at a scholarship level, and that's exactly what he got as he received a full ride after a season most didn't see coming. Akobundu-Ehiogu – who didn't have a scholarship offer from any school – wasn't even cleared eligibility-wise until mid-December. He made his debut with just two non-conference games remaining, and after minimal action in UTA's first four Sun Belt games he emerged onto the scene with a seven-block performance off the bench against Louisiana on Jan. 15 – the most by any walk-on in the country last season, tied for the 3rd-highest in single-game program history and the most by a Sun Belt player in a conference game in 2020-21.
Akobundu-Ehiogu led the Sun Belt in conference games with 3.2 blocks per game, and for the entire year he averaged 3.3 blocks, which would have ranked 3rd in the nation if he qualified (had to appear in 75 percent of UTA's games; he played in 69 percent due to not being cleared until mid-December). His 60 total blocks in 18 games were the 3rd-most in single-season program history and ranked as the 18th-most in the nation.
Additionally, he had five games of 5+ blocks last season – no one else in program history has even had four such games for their career.
SUN BELT CONFERENCE ITEMS
Since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2013-14, only Georgia State (98) and Louisiana (90) have won more league games than UTA (87).
Georgia State: 98
Louisiana: 90
UT Arlington: 87
Georgia Southern: 77
ULM: 75
Texas State: 74
Little Rock: 71
South Alabama: 67
Arkansas State: 62
Appalachian State: 53
Troy: 48
Coastal Carolina: 44 (Been A Member Since 2016-17)
In the past seven seasons (since 2014-15), UTA's average NET/RPI of 138 in 2nd best among all Sun Belt teams to only Georgia State's 121.
UTA was picked to finished 9th in the 2021-22 Sun Belt Preseason Poll. This is just the fourth time since joining the league that the Mavs have been picked to finish 7th or worse (bottom half of the conference), and in each of the first three occurrences UTA far exceeded the preseason prognostications:
2013-14: 7th >> T-5th
2015-16: 8th >> 3rd
2018-19: 11th >> T-2nd
The 2021-22 Sun Belt regular-season schedule features a divisional structure model, but the league will not utilize East/West divisions for conference standings this year – as was the case last year due to COVID when only East teams played East teams and West teams played West teams.
UTA will play 18 total Sun Belt games: 10 home and away against divisional opponents (Texas State, Louisiana, ULM, Little Rock, Arkansas State), and eight non-division contests. For the Mavericks, that results in them playing seven teams in the conference twice (those five "West" members, plus South Alabama and Troy), but will only face Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina and App State once. Three of those four programs reached the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals last year, with App State winning the title.
The Sun Belt Tournament returns to Pensacola, Fla., for a second-straight year in March. Teams will be seeded 1-12 for the conference tournament based off regular-season standings. The top-four teams earn 1st-round byes through to the quarterfinals on Saturday, Mar. 5.
After reaching the Sun Belt Final in 2018 and 2019, UTA has lost in the First Round each of the past two seasons. The only other time the Mavs have lost in the opening round of the Sun Belt Tournament was in 2015 to Texas State.
TOP-10 SINGLE-SEASON PROGRAM RECORDS SET IN 2020-21
Scoring Margin: 10th, +3.4
Record: +9.8, 2015-16
3-Pointers Made: 8th, 235
Record: 310, 2016-17
* Most 3s ever made in a 26-game season (previous occurrences: 127 in 1995-96 and 151 in 1998-99). The 3-point line was adopted by the NCAA in 1986-87.
* Third-straight year UTA has posted a top-10 program record in 3-pointers made: 234 in 2018-19 (10th) and 250 in 2019-20 (7th).
3-Point Percentage: T-9th, .357
Record: .406, 1988-89
Free Throw Percentage: 8th, .736
Record: .760, 1965-66
* Third-straight year UTA has posted a top-10 program record from the charity stripe: .741 in 2018-19 (6th) and .748 in 2019-20 (4th).
Opponent Field Goal Percentage: T-7th, .423
Record: .391, 2012-13
* Third-straight year UTA has posted a top-10 program record in defensive field goal percentage: .423 in 2018-19 (T-7th) and .412 in 2019-20 (T-5th).
ROSTER IDs
All UTA player year classifications for the 2021-22 season reflect a COVID season factored in (i.e. those who were sophomores in 2020-21 remained sophomores for 2021-22, unless they graduated and are now listed as grad students).
COLLEGE PARK CENTER
UTA will be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the College Park Center during a men's and women's doubleheader on Feb. 5, 2022, against App State. The CPC opened on Feb. 1, 2012, with the Mavs capping a men's and women's doubleheader with a 67-66 victory over UTSA in front of a then-school-record crowd of 6,228.
The Mavs need just five more wins to reach 100 all-time victories inside the College Park Center.
UTA Record At The College Park Center
2012: 4-0
2012-13: 7-8
2013-14: 9-5
2014-15: 9-5
2015-16: 13-2
2016-17: 14-1
2017-18: 13-2
2018-19: 9-5
2019-20: 8-8
2020-21: 9-4
2021-22: 0-0
Total: 95-40 (.704)
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).
