TULSA, Okla. – Looking for its third-straight win, the UT Arlington men's basketball team (3-5) heads to Oral Roberts (5-5) for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Thursday from the Mabee Center.
 

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UT Arlington Game Notes  ///  Oral Roberts Game Notes

 
THE OPENING TIP(s)

• Oral Roberts will be the seventh UTA opponent already this season which played in the NCAA Tournament last season. In total, the Mavericks will play eight NCAA Tournament foes from last year – the most of any team in the nation. The only Division-I non-conference opponent for UTA which didn't compete in March Madness was Lamar.
   
• UTA has played the hardest schedule of any team in the Sun Belt Conference (strength of schedule is 36th; was ranked 4th entering this past Saturday's game against Lamar). The Mavs are the only team in the Sun Belt with a strength of schedule inside the top 75, and Lamar is the only Quad 4 opponent on UTA's non-league slate.
   
• According to KenPom, 48 percent of ORU's points this year have come off 3-pointers, the 2nd-highest percentage in the nation. Conversely, 58 percent of UTA's points on the year have come from 2-pointers, the 40th-highest percentage in the country. ORU's opponents get 61 percent of their points off 2-pointers, ranking as the 9th-highest percentage in the nation.

TWEETABLES
1) David Azore needs just 22 points to reach 1,000 for his career. He would become the 28th member of UTA's 1,000 Point Club.
 
2) Oral Roberts leads the nation in 3-pointers made per game at 12.8 and averages 82 points per outing to rank 26th in the country. UTA has not allowed an opponent to score more than 80 points since the season opener at Oklahoma State (88).
 
3) After committing more turnovers than its opponent in each of the first four games (22 turnovers per game), UTA has turned the ball over fewer times that its opposition in three of the last four contests (13 turnovers per game).
 
4) UTA ranks 27th in the nation in field goal percentage defense (38.1) and is also 27th nationally in blocks per game at 5.5. Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu – the nation's active leader in career blocked shots per game (3.27) – leads the charge by ranking 11th in the country with 3.1 blocks per outing.
 
5) The Mavs defeated Lamar on Saturday, 56-47, despite not having their 3rd (Nicolas Elame, 7.6) and 4th (Shemar Wilson, 6.6) leading scorers due to a hamstring injury and coach's decision, respectively.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• Last season, ORU became just the second No. 15 seed to ever reach the Sweet Sixteen (FGCU) after taking down No. 2 Ohio State and No. 7 Florida before suffering a 72-70 loss to No. 3 Arkansas with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.

• Max Abmas led the nation in scoring last year at 24.5 per game, and he ranks 9th in the country in points per game this year at 21.2. Abmas – a CBS Sports Third-Team All-American and Summit League Player of the Year last season – is leading the nation in 3-pointers made per game this year at 4.4.

• ORU ranks 21st nationally in 3-point percentage (38.8), 30th in rebounds per game (41.7) and 31st in offensive rebounds per outing (13.2).

• UTA and ORU have both played Oklahoma State, but in extremely different circumstances. UTA suffered an 88-45 season-opening loss in Stillwater days after the NCAA handed the Cowboys an extremely questionable postseason ban, whereas ORU dropped a 78-77 overtime decision at home to OSU the day after Thanksgiving.

• DeShang Weaver is the only other ORU player averaging double-figure points at 11.2 per outing. Isaac McBride is right on the cusp at 9.9 per game, while Trey Phipps averages 9.2. ORU has eight different players averaging better than 5 points per contest.

LAMAR PERFORMANCES
Akobundu-Ehiogu posted a career-high 14 points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked six shots against Lamar. The six blocks were tied for the 5th-most in single-game program history, and he went 7-7 from the floor thanks to six alley-oops – tied for the 6th-most makes without a miss in program history (minimum five makes).
 
After scoring just four total points in his first three health-impacted games this year, Patrick Mwamba – who also missed three games due to health protocol – has now posted back-to-back double-figure point games with 10 against Lamar. He has 20 points in his last two games after just the four in his first three appearances of the season.
 
LONG-RANGE THREAT IS BACK
After undergoing minor back surgery to repair an on-going nerve issue the week of Nov. 15, Carson Bischoff was cleared to return to the court the week of Nov. 22 and made his season debut on Nov. 27 in front of about 30 friends and family at Utah State. A native of Ogden, Utah, Bischoff knocked down three 3-pointers – half of his season total from last year. Through just three games this year, Bischoff is 5-9 from 3-point range, representing 17 percent of UTA's triples this year against D-I opponents (5 of 30).
 
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 17 percent of all of college basketball in terms of players who have played together the most (295th out of 358 teams).
 
UTA's minutes continuity percentage is just 30 – essentially meaning that just 30 percent of the Mavs total minutes this season have been played by the same players from last year. Of the 63 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
42.1% – Percentage of 2-point shots made this season by UTA's opponents, ranking as the 16th-lowest in the country.
24.3% – Percentage of UTA's opponent points so far this season which have come from made free throws, the 11th-most of any team in the nation.
94.9 – The rating of UTA's opponent defenses so far this season, ranking the 6th-hardest schedule in the country in terms of defenses faced.
 
AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE
Javon Levi spent the previous four seasons at UTRGV, accumulating statistical numbers which place him among the best guards in the nation. Levi ranks in the top 6 among all active D-I players in the country in career assists (5th, 636), steals (5th, 257) and assist-to-turnover ratio (6th, 2.53). Additionally, Levi ranks 3rd in career steals per game at 2.25.
 
MOVING ON UP
David Azore is 7th on UTA's all-time program list for made free throws with 306, and currently ranks 8th in free throw percentage at 79.5.
 
DEPTH ON DISPLAY
UTA led the nation along with Abilene Christian and Murray State last season by having 13 different players score double-figure points in a game. So far this year, the Mavs have already had nine different double-figure scorers. Below is a list of those players, their respective season highs and how many times they have led UTA in scoring:
 
David Azore: 21 (3x)
Pedro Castro: 17 (3x)
Nicolas Elame: 17 (1x)
Shemar Wilson: 15
Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu: 14
Javon Levi: 14
Montez Young Jr.: 12 (1x)
Jack Hoiberg: 11
Patrick Mwamba: 10, 2x
 
RE-TWEETS

• The Mavs were scheduled to face Nevada (NET #149 – Quad 3 opponent at home) last Tuesday, Dec. 7; however, that contest was canceled due to COVID protocols within the Wolf Pack program.
   
• UTA won at UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 29, 70-62, snapping the 6th-longest home winning streak in the country at 20 in a row dating back to 2019. UCSB was the last of five-straight opponents – and six-straight D-I foes for UTA – which played in the NCAA Tournament last year.
   
• UTA's win at UCSB (ranked #93 at the time by KenPom) was its first road non-conference win over a KenPom top-100 team since the Mavs took down BYU (then #73) on Nov. 18, 2018.
   
• Utah State shot 52 percent from the floor on Nov. 27 – one of only two UTA opponents this season to connect at better than 35 percent (Oklahoma State: 47 percent).
   
• Pedro Castro was held scoreless at Utah State, his first pointless game since he was a redshirt freshman with the Mavs (two schools in-between) on Mar. 16, 2019, in a Sun Belt Tournament semifinal win over Georgia Southern. He bounced back impressively with a team-high 16 points at UC Santa Barbara two days later.
   
• The 36 points UTA scored Nov. 18 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).
   
• Shemar Wilson led the way with that shooting percentage as he went a perfect 6-6 from the floor – tied for the 10th-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 D-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. His first-career victory over a D-I opponent came on Nov. 29 at UC Santa Barbara.
   
• The Mavs had six different players reach double-figure points against Mary Hardin-Baylor. 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 in any game 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.

ACU SUMMARY
UTA suffered an 80-71 overtime loss on Nov. 16 to Abilene Christian despite holding a three-point lead with less than two seconds remaining in regulation. Leading 63-60, UTA's 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.

NEXT UP
UTA will return home for a couple of days before heading right back to the Sooner State to face Oklahoma on Sunday, Dec. 19, at 2 p.m. The Sooners – off to an 8-2 start – are receiving votes in this week's national polls after taking down #12 Arkansas this past Saturday.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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