LAFAYETTE, La. – After its two-game weekend series was adjusted due to multiple factors associated with the record-breaking winter weather, the UT Arlington men’s basketball team heads to Louisiana to face off with the Ragin’ Cajuns on Monday at 5 p.m.

The contests originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday were postponed on Wednesday. On Friday, it was announced that one of the games would be played on Monday with the other one canceled.

SEEDING IMPLICATIONS

The matchup is a pivotal one in the Sun Belt Conference West Division as UTA resides just one game back of Louisiana as both teams have two games next weekend remaining. Below is a look at the conference standings entering this weekend:

West Division
1) Texas State: 9-3 (.750)
2) Arkansas State: 7-5 (.583)
3) Louisiana: 8-6 (.571)
4) UT Arlington: 7-7 (.500)
5) Little Rock: 6-8 (.429)
6) ULM: 3-11 (.214)

East Division
1) South Alabama: 8-5 (.615)
2) Appalachian State: 6-4 (.600)
3) Coastal Carolina: 6-5 (.545)
4) Georgia Southern: 6-7 (.462)
5) Georgia State: 3-4 (.429)
6) Troy: 4-8 (.333)

The top-2 teams in each division receive a 1st-round bye in the Sun Belt Tournament scheduled for Mar. 5-8 in Pensacola. All 12 teams make the postseason tourney, which will be seeded off winning percentage as a result of the unbalanced scheduling due to COVID.

KEY STORYLINES

• This will be the third meeting of the season between the two teams after splitting the first two at the College Park Center in mid-January. UTA won the first, 91-86, with the 91 points representing its 2nd-most in a game this year against a Division-I team. However, Louisiana handed the Mavs a 68-51 loss the next day, with the 51 points representing the fewest UTA has registered in a contest this season.
   
• UTA posted a single-game program record 12 blocks in that first contest on Jan. 15 – its first double-digit performance ever against a D-I opponent. Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu was responsible for seven of those – tied for the 3rd-most in single-game program history and the most by a Sun Belt player in a conference game this season; also tied for the 9th-most by any player in the nation this season.
   
• Akobundu-Ehiogu leads the Sun Belt in conference games with 3.5 blocks, while Louisiana’s Theo Akwuba is 2nd at 2.4. For the year, walk-on Akobundu-Ehiogu is averaging 3.6 – which would rank 2nd in the nation if he qualified (must have appeared in 75 percent of UTA’s games this season). Akwuba is currently 10th nationally with 2.8 per game. Akobundu-Ehiogu has 50 blocks (13th-most in the nation) in 14 games – everyone else with 35+ blocks has played at least 15 games. Akwuba’s 58 blocks are the 6th-most nationally. In just 14 career games with UTA, Akobundu-Ehiogu has five games of 5+ blocks; no one else in program history has even four such games.
   
• Shahada Wells (247 points, 58 assists) and Sam Griffin (228 points, 36 assists) have accounted for 50 percent of UTA’s scoring in Sun Belt games this year (475 of 959) and 53 percent of its assists (94 of 178).

TWEETABLES

1) David Azore (11.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.1 APG) is questionable, and Lazaro Rojas (4.4 PPG, 3.3 RPG) is doubtful for Monday with leg injuries. Those two have missed the last 13 and 12 games, respectively.

2) The Mavs are coming off making 14 3-pointers at Texas State (Feb. 13) – their most ever in a conference game that they lost. It’s the 2nd-most makes in any loss in program history (15 at TCU on Dec. 19, 1999).

3) UTA’s top-25 national rankings: total steals (12th, 182), total blocks (11th, 102), 3-point attempts (19th, 569) and 3-pointers made (22nd, 202). In Sun Belt games, UTA is 2nd in free-throw percentage (77.1).

4) UTA (5.1) and Louisiana (4.1) rank 1st and 2nd, respectively, in the Sun Belt in blocks per game in league contests.

5) UTA and Georgia Southern are the only Sun Belt teams to have posted six-straight years of 10+ league victories. The Mavs need to win all three of their remaining games to stretch that run to seven and be the only team in the league to accomplish that feat (GS: 6-7, only three games remaining).

SCOUTING LOUISIANA

• Cedric Russell leads Louisiana with 17.8 points per game overall and 17.1 in league contests – an average which ranks as the 4th-best in the Sun Belt. The senior guard has also knocked down 43 3-pointers in conference games – the 2nd-most in the league – and his 60 for the year are 26th-most in the nation.
   
• Akwuba is nearly averaging a double-double on the season with 11.2 points and 9.2 rebounds. The junior forward has eight double-doubles on the year to rank as the 3rd-most in the league and 21st-most nationally. He pulls down 3.7 offensive rebounds per game – the 11th-most in the country.
   
• Mylik Wilson is averaging 13.1 points per game on the year, and Dou Gueye is averaging exactly 10 to complete the quartet of Louisiana double-figure scorers. Wilson ranks 25th in the nation with 2.1 steals per contest.
   
• Junior guard Brayan Au will undergo season-ending knee surgery, Ragin’ Cajuns head coach Bob Marlin announced on Monday. Au ranks 6th in the Sun Belt in league games with 3.8 assists per contest. Au started both games against the Mavs last month, scoring eight points and issuing a game-high six assists in the Jan. 15 contest.
   
• In Sun Belt games, Louisiana ranks 2nd in points per game (75), field-goal percentage (45.8) and 3-point percentage (41.1).
   
• Louisiana is the only Sun Belt team to have beaten Texas State this year. The Ragin’ Cajuns have taken three of the four meetings with the Bobcats, including a sweep (by a combined three points) last month in San Marcos.

UTA BACK-TO-BACK AVERAGES

UTA is 3-4 on the first day of back-to-backs in Sun Belt play (all Fridays except Thursday vs. Texas State), and 4-3 on Saturdays. Below are the key statistical averages (UTA listed first, opponent in parenthesis):

Points Per Game
1st Day: 73.4 (74.3)
2nd Day: 63.6 (67.6)

Field-Goal Percentage
1st Day: 39.9 (45.5)
2nd Day: 37.4 (42.5)

3-Point Percentage
1st Day: 37.1 (36.8)
2nd Day: 34.6 (38.1)

Free-Throw Percentage
1st Day: 79.5 (74.6)
2nd Day: 74.2 (72.6)

BY THE NUMBERS

0: To this point of the season, UTA has not had a single game impacted due to COVID.

4: Four of UTA’s first five games this season came against opponents which won 20+ games last year and/or finished in the top 100 of the NET: Oklahoma State (64 NET), Arkansas (20 Wins & 43 NET), Louisiana Tech (22 Wins & 87 NET) and Tulsa (21 Wins & 78 NET).

5: UTA played five games in the first 10 days of the season; the only team in the country to play more games during that time was San Francisco with six (several teams tied with five).

5: Jordan Phillips landed at #5 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 Plays for Jan. 15 after an and-1 dunk against Louisiana.

7: The Mavs have won games this season when scoring in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 100s and 110s.

7: Wells had seven steals on Jan. 22 against Little Rock – tied for the 4th-most by any player in the nation this year (tied for the 3rd-most against a Division-I opponent). It’s also tied for the 3rd-most in single-game program history.

12: UTA has had 12 different players reach double-figure points in a game this season, tied for the 3rd-most in the nation: Wells, Azore, Patrick Mwamba, Nicolas Elame, Griffin, Fredelin De La Cruz, Jordan Phillips, Brandyn Talbot, Rojas, Grayson Carter, McKade Marquis and Davis Steelman.

90: The Mavs scored 90+ points in four-straight games between Dec. 11-Jan. 1. It marked the first time since the start of the 1992-93 season that UTA had scored 90+ in four-consecutive contests.

93: The 93 points UTA scored in a 102-93 setback at Little Rock on Jan. 1 were its most in a regulation loss since a 102-94 setback at Sam Houston State on Feb. 14, 2002.

95: UTA shot 95 percent (19-20) from the free-throw line on Jan. 1 at Little Rock, which at the time was the 8th-best by any team in the nation this year (minimum: 15 makes).

SCHEDULE ALTERATIONS

Like every team’s non-conference schedule, UTA’s was drastically impacted and ended up significantly different than it was originally; however, to this point, the Mavs have not had any games affected by COVID. The non-league docket featured eight contests – four at home, one at a neutral site and three on the road. Each of those games were drivable and regionally located. In early December, UTA and Oral Roberts mutually agreed to delay the start of their home-and-home series by one season to 2021-22 (were scheduled to play at ORU on Dec. 19), and UTA added Dallas Christian to make up for that.

UTA played five games in 10 days to open the season, including two Power-5 teams (vs. Oklahoma State, @ Arkansas) and three opponents which won at least 20 games a season ago (@ Louisiana Tech, @ Arkansas, @ Tulsa).

SUSTAINED SUCCESS

Despite finishing last year with a 14-18 record, UTA still posted the 2nd-highest NET Ranking (formerly the RPI) in the Sun Belt at #129 – behind only Texas State at #120. To further demonstrate the Mavs’ consistency over the last six years, since 2014-15 (its second season in the league) UTA has the 2nd-best average NET/RPI among all Sun Belt teams at #121 (Georgia State: #119).

SUN BELT SUCCESS

UTA and Georgia Southern are the only two Sun Belt Conference teams to have posted six-straight years of double-figure league victories. The Mavs went 9-9 in SBC action in their first year in the conference in 2013-14, and since then have posted at least 10 Sun Belt wins in every season.

YOUNG NAMED TOP ASSISTANT COACH

Longtime UTA associate head coach Greg Young has been named the top assistant coach in the Sun Belt Conference, as unveiled by Stadium’s Jeff Goodman.

Young, who is entering his 12th season with UTA in 2020-21, was voted as the top assistant coach in the Sun Belt by his peers as Goodman polled at least 20 coaches in the conference.

Since joining UTA in 2009-10, Young has helped guide the Mavericks to a 207-152 record (.577) and advanced to the postseason four times: 2012 NIT, 2013 CIT, 2016 CIT and 2017 NIT. 

He has been a member of two regular-season championship teams – 2012 Southland Conference and 2017 Sun Belt – in addition to reaching the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Final in 2013 and the Sun Belt Tournament Final in both 2018 and 2019.

NET CHANGES

Prior to this season, the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee announced that the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) will be changed to increase accuracy and simplify it by reducing a five-component metric to just two. The remaining factors include the Team Value Index (TVI), which is a result-based feature that rewards teams for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home, as well as an adjusted net efficiency rating.

The adjusted efficiency is a team’s net efficiency, adjusted for strength of opponent and location (home/away/neutral) across all games played. For example, a given efficiency value (net points per 100 possessions) against stronger opposition rates higher than the same efficiency against lesser opponents and having a certain efficiency on the road rates higher than the same efficiency at home.

No longer will the NET use winning percentage, adjusted winning percentage and scoring margin.

NEXT UP

UTA concludes its regular season with a pair of home contests against Arkansas State next Friday and Saturday (Feb. 26 and 27).

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).