NORMAN, Okla. – The UT Arlington men's basketball team (3-6) will head back to the Sooner State for the second time in four days on Sunday as the Mavericks take on an Oklahoma team (8-2) receiving votes in the national polls at 2 p.m.
 

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UT Arlington Game Notes  ///  Oklahoma Game Notes

 
THE OPENING TIP(s)

• Oklahoma will incredibly be the eighth, and final, opponent for UTA in its non-conference schedule which competed in the NCAA Tournament last season – the most of any team in the nation. The only Division-I non-league opponent for UTA which didn't compete in March Madness was Lamar; the Cardinals were also the only NET Quad 4 opponent on the Mavericks' slate.
   
• According to KenPom, Oklahoma makes 60.3 percent of its 2-point shots – the 2nd-highest percentage in the country. Meanwhile, UTA only allows its opponents to connect on 42.4 percent of their 2-point shots – the 14th-lowest percentage in the nation.
   
• UTA enters the contest holding opponents to just 38.8 percent from the floor for the year to rank as the 40th-lowest percentage in the country. OU ranks 10th nationally in field goal percentage at 49.9.

TWEETABLES
1) David Azore needs just six points to reach 1,000 for his career. He would become the 28th member of UTA's 1,000 Point Club, and if he accomplishes the feat Sunday he would do so in only 86 career games.
 
2) Despite playing without its 2nd- and 3rd-leading scorers in Pedro Castro and Nicolas Elame at Oral Roberts on Thursday, UTA erased a double-figure 2nd-half deficit to tie the game at 47-47 before falling short to the nation's best 3-point shooting team.
 
3) Castro (8 ppg) and Elame (7.6 ppg) are both questionable for Sunday's game due to back and hamstring injuries, respectively.
 
4) Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu – the country's active leader in career blocked shots per game (3.26) – ranks 12th in the nation this year with 3.1 blocks per outing. He has blocked at least one shot in a nation-leading 24-straight games, and in 22 of those he has 2+ rejections.
 
5) As a team, UTA averages 5.6 blocks per game to lead the Sun Belt Conference and rank 25th in the nation.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• Oklahoma is receiving votes in both national polls this week after taking down then-#10 Arkansas, 88-66, last Saturday. The Sooners also have a win over then-#12 Florida to open the month of December.
   
• One of OU's two losses this year came at the hands of Utah State on a neutral court in the championship game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational, 73-70. UTA also has played Utah State this year, but that was a true road game in Logan and resulted in an 80-61 win for the Aggies. However, the Mavs were within seven points at the midway point of the 2nd half before USU went on a 14-0 run to pull away.
   
• Porter Moser is in his first year as the head coach of the Sooners after spending the previous 10 seasons in the same position at Loyola Chicago, leading the Ramblers to three regular season Missouri Valley Conference titles since 2017-18 and reaching the 2018 Final Four. Moser was also the head coach at fellow Sun Belt member Little Rock from 2000-03.
   
• In the last 10 seasons, OU has compiled a 52-5 record at Lloyd Noble Center against non-conference foes. The Sooners have six undefeated seasons dating back to the 2014-15 campaign and have compiled a 41-3 record in the previous eight seasons.
   
• Tanner Groves leads a quartet of double-figure scores for the Sooners at 14.8 per contest. He's joined by Umoja Gibson (11.4), Elijah Harkless (10.2) and Jordan Goldwire (10.1). Groves ranks 38th nationally and 3rd in the Big 12 in field goal percentage at 59.2.

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 four games this year, Bischoff is 7-12 from 3-point range, representing 20 percent of UTA's triples this year against D-I opponents (7 of 35).
 
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 18 percent of all of college basketball in terms of players who have played together the most (294th out of 358 teams).
 
UTA's minutes continuity percentage is just 30.3 – 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 64 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
16% – Percentage of UTA's opponent shots this season that have been blocked by the Mavs, ranking as the 19th-highest percentage in the country.
22.1% – Percentage of UTA's opponent points so far this season which have come from made free throws, the 37th-most of any team in the nation.
95.7 – The rating of UTA's opponent defenses so far this season, ranking the 13th-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, 640), steals (4th, 259) and assist-to-turnover ratio (6th, 2.54). Additionally, Levi ranks 3rd in career steals per game at 2.25.
 
MOVING ON UP
David Azore is tied for 6th on UTA's all-time program list for made free throws with 309, and currently ranks 8th in free throw percentage at 79.4.
 
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 (4x)
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

• Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu posted a career-high 14 points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked six shots against Lamar on Dec. 11. 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).

• 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 close out its non-conference schedule with a home contest against Greg Young's alma mater, Howard Payne, at the College Park Center on Wednesday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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