ARLINGTON – Looking to earn its third-straight win, the UT Arlington men's basketball team (11-14, 7-7 SBC) welcomes Arkansas State (15-9, 6-6 SBC) to the College Park Center on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tipoff in the home finale surrounded by plenty of pomp and circumstance.
 
In lieu of the traditional "Senior Day" due to COVID providing student-athletes a potential extra year of eligibility, UTA will instead hold a "Grad Day" on Saturday before the game to honor those student-athletes who are on track to graduate this year with either their undergrad or graduate degrees, but have not necessarily exhausted their playing eligibility.
 
Additionally, it's also Alumni Day will several former men's basketball players, coaches and staff members expected to be in attendance, and former head coach Bob "Snake" LeGrand will be recognized at halftime. LeGrand was the first UTA coach to win 100 games as he accumulated 122 victories from 1976-87, leading the Mavs to the 1981 NIT.
 

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Game Notes: UT Arlington  ///  Arkansas State  ///  Sun Belt  ///  Gameday Program

 
THE OPENING TIP(s)

• UTA will be looking for its first three-game winning streak since starting Sun Belt Conference play 3-0. The Mavs and Red Wolves enter tied in the conference standings for 6th place with .500 records despite A-State playing two fewer games. UTA is 4-2 against the top-5 teams in the league, but is also 3-4 against the bottom-5 teams; however, the four losses have been by 1, 2, 3 and 7 points, and three of those came in overtime.
   
• With a UTA win and losses by Georgia State (at Georgia Southern) and South Alabama (at App State), the Mavs would move into a tie in the win column with USA for 4th place (USA: 8-6, UTA: 8-7). The top-4 teams (based off winning percentage) in the Sun Belt receive a bye into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament in two weeks. UTA – which has already beaten South Alabama this year – plays in Mobile next Friday to conclude the regular season.
   
• David Azore – who was named Sun Belt Player of the Week for the second time this season on Tuesday – continues his Sun Belt Player of the Year campaign as he leads the conference in both overall scoring (19.9) and league scoring (25.1) – six points better than anyone else. He has four 30-point games in conference play; the rest of the league combined has just two such outings. Azore is responsible for the top-3 scoring contests in Sun Belt action of 37, 36 and 33 points.
   

TWEETABLES
1) UTA has forced its opponents into 39 turnovers the last two games (Louisiana: 21, Little Rock: 18) – the most in a two-game stretch all season. The Mavs have converted those into 24 and 26 points, respectively – the two highest-scoring performances all year.
 
2) The 85 points UTA scored in its 85-70 win over Little Rock on Thursday were its most in a regulation game this year versus a Division-I opponent. The Mavs also knocked down a season-high 11 3-pointers and committed just six turnovers – their second-fewest in a game this year.
 
3) The 15-point win was UTA's largest over a D-I opponent this year. Still, the Mavs' seven Sun Belt wins have come by an average of 7.7 points, and their seven Sun Belt losses have been by an average of 4.5 points.
 
4) UTA leads the Sun Belt in scoring at 72.7 per game in league play and is also 1st with 15.4 assists; A-State is 2nd at 15.3. The Mavs are 2nd in steals per game (7.5) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.2).
 
5) Azore ranks 10th nationally in free throws made (133), Javon Levi is 25th in assists per game (5.3) and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu is 29th in blocks per game (2.36).
 
ABOUT ARKANSAS STATE

• A-State has lost three-straight games following an 84-67 setback at Texas State on Thursday. However, all of those losses have come on the road against three of the top-4 teams in the league: Texas State (1st), Troy (2nd, 79-77) and South Alabama (4th, 70-51).
   
• In the first meeting between UTA and A-State on Jan. 20, the Mavs let a 14-point lead late in the 1st half slip away en route to a 75-70 loss in Jonesboro. The Red Wolves used a 16-2 run bridging both halves, and after being out-scored in the 1st half, 35-26, out-scored the Mavs in the 2nd, 49-35 – the second-most points (50, App State) UTA has allowed in any half this year.
   
• In a matchup of likely the two leading candidates for Sun Belt Player of the Year along with Azore, A-State's Norchad Omier – the Preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year – is averaging 19.2 points and 13.3 rebounds in league play. The freshman – who is technically in his second year factoring in the COVID extra season – is the nation's active leader in career rebound average at 12 per game. He also ranks 2nd in the country this year in field goal percentage at .650.

UTA IN THE SUN BELT RANKS
David Azore
Points Per Game: 25.1 (1st)
Free Throw Percentage: 84.2 (3rd)
Field Goal Percentage: 46.2 (5th)
 
Javon Levi
Assists Per Game: 5.9 (1st)
Assist-To-Turnover Ratio: 3.0 (1st)
Steals Per Game: 1.8 (T-2nd)
 
Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu
Blocks Per Game: 1.9 (2nd)
 
Carson Bischoff
3-Pointers Made Per Game: 2.1 (7th)
 
EXTRA TIME
UTA has already played a program-record six overtime games this season, and five have come in conference action – also a single-season program record. In the previous five seasons (2016-21), UTA played just six total overtime contests. Additionally, UTA is closing in on the all-time single-season NCAA D-I record for overtime games of eight (including the postseason) set by Western Kentucky in 1977-78, Portland in 1983-84 and Valparaiso in 1992-93.
 
STANDOUT PERFORMANCES
Against Little Rock on Jan. 22, Azore tied for the 10th-most points in single-game program history with a career-high 37. He made 17 free throws in that game – tied for the 3rd-most by any player in the nation this year, the most by a UTA player since 1979 and tied for the 4th-most in program history.
 
In that same game against the Trojans, Carson Bischoff tied a single-game program record with nine made 3-pointers, reaching double-figure points for the first time in his UTA career with 27. The nine 3s are the most by a Sun Belt player in any game this year and tied for the 9th-most in the country this season.
 
NOTEWORTHY

• Azore has tied a single-season program record with two 35+ point games this year (career-high 37 at Georgia Southern; 36 versus App State). His four 30-point contests are tied for the 5th-most in single-season program history behind Eddie Stallings (5) in 1967-68 and 1968-69, Sam Norton (6) in 1983-84 and Marquez Haynes (7) in 2009-10.
   
• Levi recorded just the third triple-double in program history with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against Louisiana on Jan. 13. Erick Neil had UTA's only other two triple-doubles before Levi's performance: Nov. 27, 2017, versus UT Dallas (10p, 10r, 13a), and Jan. 28, 2016, at ULM (27p, 10r, 12a).

JOINING THE WAC
On Jan. 21, UT Arlington officially accepted an invitation to join the Western Athletic Conference effective July 1, 2022, making UTA the 15th member of the WAC and eighth school based in Texas during the 2022-23 academic year.
 
UTA was a member of the Southland Conference from 1963-2012, a one-year former WAC member in 2012-13 and has been a Sun Belt institution since 2013-14.
 
NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE STRENGTH
UTA played the hardest non-conference schedule of any Sun Belt team (13th-toughest in the nation). The Mavs faced five Quad 1 opponents; no other team in the league faced more than three as UTA was responsible for 22 percent of the Sun Belt's 23 combined Quad 1 games. In fact, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Troy and Coastal Carolina have combined for just two Quad 1 games – three fewer than UTA on its own.
 
KEY NUMBERS
2: UTA lost its then-2nd-leading scorer Pedro Castro for the season after he underwent back surgery on Dec. 18 following an injury suffered at Oral Roberts two days prior.
 
4: UTA committed just four turnovers against Troy on Jan. 1 – tied for the fewest in program history in the last 10 years (Louisiana on Jan. 31, 2020).
 
5: Akobundu-Ehiogu recorded his eighth-career game of 5+ blocks against Little Rock on Feb. 17; no other player in program history has more than three such games, and Akobundu-Ehiogu has played just 43 contests with UTA.
 
6: Six of UTA's 11 wins this year have come when scoring in the 50s, 60s, 70, 80s, 90s or 100s.
 
8: UTA played the most non-conference opponents in the nation that participated in the NCAA Tournament last year with incredibly eight. Of the nine D-I foes the Mavs faced in their non-league schedule only one (Lamar) didn't play in March Madness in 2021.
 
9: The Mavs played four-straight games from Jan. 6-15 with just nine scholarship players due to injuries and COVID protocols. UTA was without Jack Hoiberg and Bischoff at Georgia State and Georgia Southern and without Azore and Rojas versus Louisiana and ULM.
 
12: UTA has already used 12 different starting lineups in 25 games – tied for the 8th-most combinations of any team in the nation (16: Memphis, Alabama State, Coppin State; 14: Little Rock, Eastern Illinois; 13: Stony Brook, UTRGV).
 
40 – Percentage of UTA's total minutes this season which have been played by its bench (non-starters), the 26th-most of any team in the nation.
 
51: UTA pulled down 51 boards on Jan. 6 in out-rebounding Georgia State, 51-32. That's the most caroms for the Mavs versus a D-I opponent since 55 against Troy on Mar. 5, 2016. Additionally, 18 of those came on the offensive glass – UTA's most against any D-I team in more than a decade.
 
100: With a 62-57 win over Troy on Jan. 1, UTA claimed its 100th all-time victory in the College Park Center (100-41, .709). The first game took place on Feb. 1, 2012, with 2012-13 being the first full season of the CPC.
 
1,000: Azore reached 1,000 career points with a free throw in the 1st half of UTA's contest at Oklahoma on Dec. 19, becoming the 28th member of UTA's 1,000 Point Club. Levi crossed off the milestone on a layup at Georgia Southern on Jan. 8; 918 of the grad transfer's points came at UTRGV.
 
AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE
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 10 among all active D-I players in the country in career assists (4th, 732), steals (4th, 286) and assist-to-turnover ratio (9th, 2.57). Additionally, Levi ranks 7th in career steals per game at 2.18.
 
MOVING ON UP
Azore is 3rd on UTA's all-time program list for made free throws with 400, and currently ranks 8th in free throw percentage at .803.
 
Akobundu is 4th on UTA's all-time program list for blocked shots with 119 in 43 games.
 
DEPTH ON DISPLAY
UTA tied for the national lead last season by having 13 different players score double-figure points in a game. So far this year, the Mavs have had 12 different double-figure scorers – tied for the 3rd-most in the nation (Bowling Green, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi each with 13). Below is a list of those players, their respective season highs and how many times they have led UTA in scoring:
 
David Azore: 37 (16x)
Carson Bischoff: 27
Patrick Mwamba: 22 (3x)
Pedro Castro: 17 (3x)
Nicolas Elame: 17 (1x)
Shemar Wilson: 15 (1x)
Javon Levi: 14, 2x
Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu: 14
Brandyn Talbot: 13
Montez Young Jr.: 12 (1x)
Lazaro Rojas: 12, 2x
Jack Hoiberg: 11
 
RE-TWEETS

• Akobundu-Ehiogu posted a career-high 14 points, pulled down six rebounds and blocked six shots against Lamar on Dec. 11. The six blocks are tied for the most by any Sun Belt player this year and are tied for the 5th-most in single-game program history. 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 #135 – Quad 3 opponent at home) on 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.
   
• 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.
   
• 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.
   
• 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.

NEXT UP
UTA concludes the regular season with a pivotal road trip to Alabama. First up, the Mavs will face Troy on Wednesday, Feb. 23, before heading to South Alabama for a matchup on Saturday, Feb. 25.
 
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).