ARLINGTON – Looking to bounce back from a league-beginning setback on Thursday, the UT Arlington men's basketball team will welcome longtime foe Stephen F. Austin to the College Park Center on New Year's Eve for a 1 p.m. matinee showdown in the Mavericks' Western Athletic Conference home opener.
 

GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Game 15	UT Arlington (5-9, 0-1 WAC) vs. Stephen F. Austin (9-5, 1-0 WAC)
Date | Time	Saturday, Dec. 31 | 1 p.m.
Location	College Park Center (7,000)
Tickets	UTATickets.com
Video	ESPN+
Audio	620 AM | Varsity Network App
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Game Notes	UT Arlington | Stephen F. Austin

GAMEDAY PROMOS

• Doubleheader: The contest is the first of a doubleheader which will conclude with the UTA women taking on Tarleton at 4 p.m. (separate ticket admission).
• Holiday Hoops: All kids 18 and under receive free admission (more info: utamavs.com/holiday).
• House of Mavericks: Game of Thrones themed promotions, including a halftime knighting ceremony by members of the Scarborough Renaissance Festival and character meet-and-greets on the concourse until tipoff of both games.
• T-Shirt Giveaway: The first 200 fans at each game receive a UTA House of Mavericks t-shirt.

OPENING TIP(s)

• This will be UTA's first home WAC game since its one previous year in the league in 2012-13 when the membership looked drastically different. In that 2012-13 campaign, the Mavs went 11-7 in the conference and reached the WAC Tournament Final before falling to New Mexico State, 64-55, in the title game. The WAC is currently ranked as the 12th-best conference (out of 32) in the nation.
   
• UTA ranks 5th in the country with 14.4 offensive rebounds per game (Marshall is 1st at 15.4); individually, Shemar Wilson is 1st in the WAC and 34th nationally with 3.3 offensive rebounds per outing.
   
• The Mavs challenging non-conference slate featured a stretch of four-straight games earlier this month against teams that played in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT last year. They lost the first three by a combined 13 points: LSU (63-59), North Texas (60-57) and Texas State (71-65) before picking up a massive NET Quad 2 win at San Francisco, 68-63. Two days later, the Dons defeated then-#25 Arizona State by 37 points, 97-60.
   
• UTA's wire-to-wire win against San Francisco ended the Dons' 16-game home non-conference winning streak and was the Mavs' first Quad 2 or better non-conference win since an 89-75 victory at BYU (Quad 1) in November of 2017. The win also jumped UTA 45 spots in the NET Rankings.

TWEETABLES

1) UTA opened WAC play with a 70-63 loss at Tarleton on Thursday night despite shooting a season-best 81 percent (21-26) from the free throw line. The Mavs entered the game connecting at just a 66-percent rate from the charity stripe.
 
2) True freshmen Chendall Weaver (11 points, five rebounds, two assists) and Brandon Walker (10 points, six rebounds) both impressed in their conference debuts at Tarleton. Both started the game, and for Walker it was his first collegiate start.
 
3) Kyron Gibson led UTA offensively on Thursday with 15 points, and all of those came in the 2nd half after being saddled with two fouls in the 1st half and playing limited minutes.
 
4) UTA does not have a single player averaging double-figure points this year; however, the Mavs have six players averaging between 7-9.8 points per game. Additionally, UTA has 10 players who have already reached double-digit points in a game this season.

ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• This will be the first meeting between the two sides since UTA departed the Southland Conference at the end of the 2011-12 season. SFA was UTA's second-ever opponent in its inaugural 1959-60 season, and was the first team to ever beat the Mavs.
   
• SFA opened WAC play with a 75-68 home win over Abilene Christian on Thursday. The Lumberjacks were picked to finish 3rd in the WAC Preseason Poll this year after winning the conference regular-season title in 2021-22 and playing in the CBI.
   
• SFA has yet to play a Quad 1 or 2 opponent this year; conversely, UTA has faced five such foes, including the win over San Francisco.
   
• For the second-straight game to open WAC play, UTA will face an opponent that ranks in the top 5 nationally in turnovers forced – Tarleton is ranked 4th (20.3), and SFA is ranked 5th (20.1). The Mavs committed 17 giveaways against the Texans, leading to a +8 advantage in points off turnovers (15-7) for Tarleton in a game decided by seven points.
   
• The Lumberjacks also rank 19th in the country in steals per game (9.8), 22nd in 3-point percentage (38.7) and 24th in assists per contest (16.9). Individually, Sadaidriene Hall is 22nd nationally in field goal percentage (62.3) and has posted consecutive double-doubles.
   
• Hall recorded 18 points and 11 rebounds in the win over ACU. He leads SFA with 13.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game this year. The 'Jacks other double-figure scorers are Jossell Latrell (12.6) and Nigel Hawkins (11.6).

BACK TO THE WAC

After spending the previous nine seasons (2013-22) as a Sun Belt Conference member, UT Arlington officially joined the Western Athletic Conference on July 1, 2022. UTA was a member of the WAC for one year previously in 2012-13 following 48 years in the Southland Conference (1963-2012) – of which it was a founding member.
 
Since the start of the 2015-16 season, UTA boasts the 3rd-best average annual NET/RPI ranking of all current WAC members at #146. New Mexico State (#83) leads the pack, followed by Grand Canyon (#138). With a final ranking of #40 in 2016-17, UTA is responsible for the best single-year NET/RPI by any current WAC school over the past seven seasons. Additionally – in that same timeframe – UTA, NMSU and Sam Houston are the only WAC institutions without a single season NET/RPI above #250.
 
Last year, the WAC ranked as the 15th-best men's basketball conference in the country (out of 32) – two spots ahead of the Sun Belt (17th).
 
In men's basketball, the WAC has sent at least two teams to the NCAA Tournament in 28 of the past 46 seasons. In an effort to continue enhancing its at-large prospects and protecting top seeds in March, a résumé-seeding system will be used to determine how teams are placed at this year's WAC Tournament (men and women).
 
An algorithm will rate performance against all D-I teams faced in the regular season, not just conference play. That will rank teams for the conference postseason tournament. Using this résumé-seeding system, teams will receive more credit for scheduling and playing stronger opponents than weaker ones. This should help the WAC have higher NET rankings, a key-criteria used by the NCAA basketball selection committees.
 
WAC Commissioner Brian Thornton and WAC Associate Commissioner of Basketball Drew Speraw worked with Ken Pomeroy of kenpom.com to put together the formula. To read more about the system – and to see how teams would have been seeded last year as opposed to straight conference record – click here.
 
UTA was picked by the WAC coaches to finish in 11th place in the league this year. The last time the Mavs were tabbed for an 11th-place finish in the preseason polls came in advance of the 2018-19 season when UTA faced similar roster turnover.
 
Instead of finishing 2nd-to-last that year, UTA tied for 2nd in the Sun Belt with a 12-6 league record, earned the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament Final.
 
The nine-spot improvement from preseason to final regular-season finish in 2018-19 was tied for the best in the nation along with Siena, which was picked 11th in the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) and finished in a four-way tie for 2nd.

BY THE NUMBERS

4: The Mavs posted four top-10 single-game program ranks in their 99-41 win over Howard Payne on Nov. 28: rebound margin (T-1, +36), points allowed (T-5, 41), blocks (T-5, 9), margin of victory (T-7, +58).
 
4: The Mavs made just four 3-pointers in their win at San Francisco on Dec. 19, representing their fewest in a road non-conference victory since knocking down three at Grand Canyon during a 66-64 triumph in November of 2014.
 
5: The Mavs have already had five different occasions of a player grabbing 7+ offensive rebounds in a game this year: Shemar Wilson versus Hardin-Simmons (7), Nevada (7), Howard Payne (7) and North Texas (8); Dario Domingos against Northern Kentucky (7).
 
7: UTA is just seven wins shy of 800 all-time victories in program history (793-992). The Mavs are in their 64th season, with UTA's inaugural campaign taking place in 1959-60.
 
8: Against UNT on Dec. 6, Shemar Wilson grabbed eight rebounds, and all of them were offensive. Over the last 6+ seasons – since the start of the 2016-17 campaign – Wilson is now only the seventh Division-I player to secure at least eight offensive rebounds and zero defensive boards in a game.
 
17: In its 60-56 win over Northern Kentucky on Nov. 22, UTA committed 17 turnovers – at the time its most in a victory over a Division-I opponent since the Mavs had 18 in a 75-70 overtime triumph at Cal Poly on Dec. 21, 2018. NKU was installed as the Horizon League preseason favorite, and the Norse had defeated Cincinnati – picked to finish 3rd in the American Athletic Conference – two games prior by 13 points.
 
18: UTA committed 18 turnovers against San Francisco – its most in a road non-conference regulation victory since giving the ball away 19 times in a 77-61 win at North Texas in December of 2016.
 
19: The Mavs recorded 19 steals against Southwestern on Nov. 12, which tied for the 3rd most in single-game program lore (22 versus University of Dallas in 1990 and 21 against Huston-Tillotson in 1991). Marion Humphrey was responsible for six of those thefts, equaling the 10th-highest total by a UTA player in a single game.
 
48: UTA went 30-48 from the free-throw line versus Southwestern on Nov. 12, with the 48 attempts tying for the 5th most in program history.
 
49: The Mavs shot 49 percent (25-51) from the floor in a 71-65 loss to Texas State on Dec. 10 – only the fourth time in the last 8+ seasons (since 2014-15) that UTA has shot at least that percentage and lost:

• Nov. 21, 2017: 51.7% @ Alabama (77-76)
• Jan. 4, 2020: 50% @ Little Rock (92-89)
• Feb. 10, 2022: 50% @ ULM (74-71)

100: The Mavs scored 100+ points in back-to-back games for the 10th time in program history with 103 on Nov. 12 against Southwestern and 100 versus Hardin-Simmons on Nov. 15. Five of the all-time occurrences came between 1990-92, and the last time UTA did it was in 2020 on Dec. 17 and 22 against Dallas Christian (109) and Howard Payne (117).

AMONG THE NATION'S BEST PERFORMANCES

In addition to its overall national rankings, UTA has numerous single-game performances which register among the best of any team in the country so far this year:

• 6th – Free Throws Attempted: 48 vs. Southwestern
  • Leader – Tennessee State: 54 vs. Brescia
     
• T-8th – Rebounds: 63 vs. Howard Payne
  • Leader – Sam Houston: 70 vs. LeTourneau
     
• T-12th – Steals: 19 vs. Southwestern
  • Leader – Four Teams: 24
     
• T-18th – Field Goals Attempted: 83 vs. Hardin-Simmons
  • Leader – Eastern Kentucky: 93 vs. Boyce
     
• T-22nd – Free Throws Made: 30 vs. Southwestern
  • Leader – Tennessee State: 44 vs. Brescia

UTA's 63 rebounds on Nov. 28 against Howard Payne represented the most in any game for the Mavs since at least the 2009-10 season. In that same timeframe, the 83 field goal attempts against Hardin-Simmons were the 2nd most in any UTA game, bested only by 87 versus Howard Payne in 2020.

INSIDE THE DOUBLE-FIGURE SCORERS

Two years ago, UTA tied for the national lead by having 13 different players score double-figure points in a game. Last season, the Mavs had 12 different double-figure scorers – tied for the 3rd most in the nation. So far this year, UTA already has 10 different double-figure scorers.
 
Below is a list of those double-figure players, their respective season highs and how many times they have led UTA in scoring:
 
Chendall Weaver: 20 (2x)
Kyron Gibson: 19 (5x – Includes 1 Tie)
Taj Anderson: 19 (1x)
Aaron Cash: 18 (1x – Tied)
Marion Humphrey: 17 (3x – Includes 1 Tie)
Brandon Walker: 17 (1x – Tied)
Shemar Wilson: 16 (2x)
Brandyn Talbot: 15 (1x)
Dario Domingos: 12
Pedro Castro: 11

CHALLENGING THEMSELVES

UTA is one of only three schools in the nation to have finished with a top-40 NET non-conference strength of schedule in each of the past three seasons, joining Central Arkansas and Texas Southern.
 
UTA
2019-20: 3rd
2020-21: 37th
2021-22: 13th
 
Central Arkansas
2019-20: 6th
2020-21: 9th
2021-22: 27th
 
Texas Southern
2019-20: 2nd
2020-21: 25th
2021-22: 16th
 
Yet again this year, the Mavs are poised to finish with likely one of the country's most-challenging non-league schedules. Based off last year's final NET rankings, UTA has the 4th-hardest non-conference slate in the nation (average NET opponent ranking):
 
1) Nicholls (47)
2) Saint Mary's (72)
3) Seton Hall (83)
4) UT Arlington (88)
5) Alabama (92)

NEXT UP

UTA will remain at home for another pair of WAC contests next week, beginning with a formidable foe in Utah Valley on Thursday, Jan. 5, at 7 p.m. UVU is 10-4 overall and has already won at BYU and Oregon this year, in addition to knocking off Sam Houston – ranked #20 in the NET – in the WAC opener on Thursday by 16 points.
 
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).