ARLINGTON – The UT Arlington men’s basketball team returns home to the College Park Center to face ULM this weekend for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively.

Saturday’s game will represent the Mavericks’ contest as part of the UTA Beats Cancer initiative. The program has elected to focus on colon cancer and the importance of getting screened; the disease claimed the life of UTA head coach Chris Ogden’s grandfather. To join the fundraising efforts, purchase the UTA Beats Cancer shirt and more information, click on the image above.

KEY STORYLINES

• UTA (9-9, 5-5) enters the weekend just two games back of Louisiana for 1st place in the tightly compact Sun Belt West Division. ULM (4-13, 2-8) comes in on an eight-game losing streak, but has been competitive in many of those contests, including last weekend at preseason favorite Little Rock (full standings later in this release).
   
• The Mavs are coming off a thrilling game-winning buzzer-beater from Shahada Wells to defeat Arkansas State last Saturday, 65-64. Wells went coast-to-coast in just over 5 seconds off a missed A-State free throw to make the layup as time expired (click here to read the complete recap)
   
• That was UTA’s second one-point win in the closing seconds this year – the first came at ULM on Jan. 9 as the Mavs erased a four-point deficit with 12 seconds left to win in regulation (complete recap later in this release).
   
• The backcourt duo of Wells and Sam Griffin has been exceptional this year, particularly in Sun Belt play. The two have accounted for 49 percent of UTA’s scoring in league games this year: Wells at 18 per game and Griffin at 17.3 (353 points of 714 for the Mavs). They are the only set of teammates averaging better than 15 points per game in Sun Belt action. Additionally, they have combined to account for 52 percent of UTA’s assists (65 of 126) in conference contests.
   
• Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu has also emerged as a key contributor for UTA since he was cleared in mid-December. In only 10 career games played with UTA, the walk-on incredibly has four games of five or more blocks (5, 5, 6 and 7) – the only player in program history with four career games of 5+ blocks. Additionally, Akobundu-Ehiogu’s 3.5 blocks-per-game average would be the 2nd-best in the nation if he qualified (must have appeared in 75 percent of UTA’s games this season).

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 both games this weekend with leg injuries. Those two have missed the last nine games and eight games, respectively.

2) UTA’s top-25 national rankings: total steals (13th, 151), 3-point attempts (16th, 468), 3-pointers made (19th, 166) and total blocks (21st, 78). In Sun Belt games, UTA leads the conference in free-throw percentage (.790) and blocks per game (5), and is 3rd in turnover margin (+1.9).

3) The Mavs are coming off a +3 rebound margin (37-34) at Arkansas State on Saturday – just their third positive rebound margin in Sun Belt play this year – the first two came at ULM (+11, +5).

4) UTA is 8-1 when leading at halftime this season (lone loss came last Friday at Arkansas State), and 1-8 when trailing at halftime (lone win Saturday at Arkansas State). The Mavs are 7-1 when leading with 5 minutes remaining (loss: last Friday), and 2-8 when trailing with 5 minutes remaining (wins: last Saturday and Jan. 9 at ULM).

INSIDE THE MATCHUP

• UTA has won eight of the last nine meetings in the series with ULM. While the Warhawks have a commanding lead in the all-time series (51-24), the Mavs have won 15 of the past 21 meetings, and 17 of 25 dating back to 2003.
   
• The 8-1 record for UTA against ULM in the last nine meetings represents the best nine-game stretch for the Mavs in series history, which dates back to 1975 (previous: 7-2 stretch from 2004-15). Additionally, 12 of UTA’s 24 wins in the all-time series have come since joining the Sun Belt in 2013.
   
• After opening its season with a home sweep over Arkansas State, ULM has dropped eight-straight games – a stretch which began with UTA sweeping the Warhawks in Monroe Jan. 8-9.
   
• Of the six losses since ULM played UTA, four of them have been by 10 points or less, including last Friday at Little Rock. ULM held a seven-point lead with 3:39 remaining before being outscored 13-2 in a 66-62 loss. 
   
• Russell Harrison (13.5 points per game) and Koreem Ozier (12.9) are ULM’s lone double-figure scorers this year. Harrison also leads the Warhawks in rebounding at 5.5. Elijah Gonzalez ranks 19th in the nation with 36 total steals; he also leads ULM’s in assists at 3.4 per contest.

SUN BELT STANDINGS

West Division
Louisiana: 7-3 (13-4)
Texas State: 5-3 (11-6)
Little Rock: 6-4 (10-7)
UT Arlington: 5-5 (9-9)
Arkansas State: 3-5 (5-9)
ULM: 2-8 (4-13)

East Division
Coastal Carolina: 6-3 (12-4)
Appalachian State: 6-4 (12-7)
Georgia Southern: 5-5 (11-8)
Georgia State: 2-3 (8-4)
South Alabama: 3-5 (9-8)
Troy: 3-5 (9-9)

EARLIER THIS YEAR AT ULM

After claiming a relatively stress-free 77-64 win over ULM on Jan. 8, UTA took the thrilling 75-74 victory on Jan. 9 with an incredible comeback.

UTA found itself down, 74-70, following a pair of free throws by Ozier at the 21-second mark. On the ensuing Maverick possession, Jordan Phillips drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to bring the visitors within one, 74-73, with 11.5 seconds left.

 On the ensuing inbound pass, Davis Steelman got his hand on a ULM dribble attempt up the court, and the ball re-directed to Wells at the top of the ULM 3-point arc. Wells gathered, and with 8 seconds showing took a couple dribbles before delivering a perfect bounce pass to Fredelin De La Cruz, who layed in the eventual game-winning points for the Mavs with under 6 seconds left.

 With timeouts at its disposal, ULM elected to not stop the clock and pushed the ball into the frontcourt. That insurgence was met with a blockade by Phillips and Patrick Mwamba along the right sideline, and the Warhawks never got a shot attempt off.

BY THE NUMBERS

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

1: UTA posted a single-game program record 12 blocks in its 91-86 win over Louisiana on Jan. 15 – the first double-digit performance ever against a D-I opponent

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

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

7: Wells had seven steals on Jan. 22 against Little Rock – tied for the 3rd-most by any player in the nation this year (tied for the 2nd-most against a Division-I opponent). It’s also tied for the 3rd-most in single-game program history.

7: Akobundu-Ehiogu’s seven blocks on Jan. 15 against Louisiana were tied for the 3rd-most in single-game program history and are the most by a Sun Belt player in a conference game this season; also tied for the 8th-most by any player in the nation this season.

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, Mwamba, Nicolas Elame, Griffin, De La Cruz, Phillips, Brandyn Talbot, Rojas, Grayson Carter, McKade Marquis and 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). Currently: tied for the 21st-best rate in the country this season.

TOP-10 RECORD PERFORMANCES

UTA closed its non-conference schedule by posting several top-10 program records following wins of 117-53 over Howard Payne (Dec. 22) and 109-48 versus Dallas Christian (Dec. 17).

Howard Payne

• Points: 117 – Tied for the 9th-most in any game, tied for the 7th-most in a regulation 40-minute contest and the most in any game since 1998 (record: 154).
• Double-Figure Scorers: 8 – Tied for the most ever, with the only other occurrence coming on Dec. 7, 1981, against Texas Wesleyan.
• Final Margin: +64 – The 3rd-largest all-time and biggest since 1991.
  • 69 (154-85) vs. Huston-Tillotson (Nov. 29, 1990)
  • 66 (130-64) vs. Huston-Tillotson (Nov. 28, 1991)
• Field Goals Made: 46 – The 8th-most all-time and most since 1991.
• 3-Pointers Made: 16 – Tied for the 2nd-most along with a performance at Texas State in 1991; fell one shy of tying the all-time mark of 17 against Bradley in 2015 (attempted: 42 – tied for the most all-time).
• Assists: 31 – Tied for the 4th-most and the most since 1991 (record: 34).
• Rebound Margin: +30 (61-31) – Tied for the 7th-largest along with a performance on Dec. 11 against Hardin-Simmons (record: 36 on two occasions).
• 1st-Half Points: 67 (67-25) – The 3rd-most in any 1st half.
  • 78 vs. University of Dallas (Dec. 8, 1990)
  • 69 vs. Austin College (Dec. 13, 1966)

Dallas Christian

• Final Margin: +61 – The 4th-largest all-time.
• Rebound Margin: +29 (55-26) – The 9th-largest differential ever.
• Free-Throw Percentage: 85.2 (23-27) – The 8th-best (minimum 20 makes).
• Points: 109 – The 3rd-most this century.
  • 111 vs. Howard Payne (Nov. 13, 2013)
  • 110 @ Texas State (Feb. 3, 2007)

NEWCOMER DIVERSITY

UTA has seven newcomers on its roster this year, and in a unique twist each class is represented:

Freshmen: Brandyn Talbot, Antonio Romanelli
Sophomore: Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu
Juniors: Shahada Wells, Fredelin De La Cruz, Carson Bischoff
Senior: Lazaro Rojas

The Mavs are one of only 14 teams in the nation to have a newcomer in each class: California Baptist, East Tennessee State, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Hawaii, Montana State, New Mexico State, Oral Roberts, Portland State, Seattle, SIU Edwardsville, Weber State and Wichita State.

GLOBAL IMPACT

The UTA roster this year is represented by seven different countries, five different continents and three different states: Nigeria and Congo (Africa), Canada and Dominican Republic (North America), Brazil (South America), France (Europe) and Australia; Texas, Utah and Florida. The seven different countries represented are tied for the 2nd-most of any team in the nation (Maine, 8).

CLOSING IN ON 1,000

Redshirt junior David Azore began this season with 718 career points – well on pace to become only the 26th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone (currently: 809).

Only three players in program history have scored more than 1,500 career points: Willie Brand (1,907 from 1987-91), Kevin Hervey (1,783 from 2014-18) and Erick Neal (1,557 from 2014-18). Among those three players, only one had scored more points through his first two years than Azore:

Brand: 979 Points
Azore: 718 Points
Neal: 622 Points
Hervey: 510 Points

AMONG THE NATION’S BEST

UTA finished in the top-40 in the nation in four key statistical categories last season: assist-to-turnover ratio (16th, 1.3), defensive 3-point percentage (20th, 29.6), fewest turnovers per game (29th, 11.2) and assists per game (35th, 14.9).

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).

RE-TWEETS

• After playing the nation’s 7th-hardest non-conference strength of schedule in 2018-19, UTA played the 3rd-most difficult non-league slate in 2019-20.
   
• UTA finished in 7th place in the Sun Belt regular-season standings last year with a 10-10 record – the first time since joining the league in 2013-14 that it did not finish in the top-5 of the conference (was the only team in the league to have accomplished that feat).
   
• The Mavs have a pair of current 15-game winning streaks: Houston Baptist (1980-2014) and Texas Wesleyan (1984-2009).

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 will remain at home and welcome rival Texas State to the College Park Center for a 6 p.m. tipoff on Thursday, Feb. 11. The Mavs will then head to San Marcos to face the Bobcats on Saturday, Feb. 13, at 4 p.m.

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).