LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The UT Arlington men's basketball team wraps up arguably its most challenging road trip of the season on Saturday when the Mavericks face New Mexico State at 8 p.m. Central (7 local).
 

GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Game 19	UT Arlington (5-13, 0-5 WAC) @ New Mexico State (7-10, 0-5 WAC)
Date | Time	Saturday, Jan. 14 | 8 p.m. CST
Location	Pan American Center (12,572)
Video	ESPN+
Audio	620 AM | Varsity Network App
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Game Notes	UT Arlington | New Mexico State

OPENING TIP(s)

• UTA ranks 2nd in the nation in offensive rebounding at 14.6 per game (1st: Marshall, 15.1). Shemar Wilson is leading the charge as the sophomore is 5th nationally with 4 offensive boards an outing. He has registered three games of 8+ offensive boards this year – tied for the most in the country against Division-I opponents alongside Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe and Long Beach State's Lassina Traore. Wilson is responsible for all five of UTA's double-doubles this year, which rank as the 2nd most among WAC players (Utah Valley's Aziz Bandaogo: eight).
   
• The Mavs are coming off an 80-48 setback at preseason WAC favorite Grand Canyon on Thursday night. UTA actually led at the half, 30-28, but a 46-10 GCU run bridging both halves doomed the Mavs. UTA allowed season highs in points (80), 3-pointers (14) and field goal percentage (58.3). It's just the second time since at least 2010 that UTA has allowed an opponent to make 14+ triples and shoot 58+ percent from the floor (Jan. 14, 2017: Troy, 17 and 58.9).
   
• UTA has already faced five of the top-6 teams in the WAC standings (lone exception: Southern Utah), and that quintet is a combined 23-4 in league play. Beginning with New Mexico State, seven of UTA's next eight opponents are currently in the bottom half of the conference standings.
   
• Chendall Weaver was named the WAC's Freshman of the Week on Monday after averaging 10.5 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 53.3 percent (8-15) from the floor in a pair of starts.

TWEETABLES

1) UTA will be looking to avoid its first 0-6 start to a conference season since 1988-89. That year, the Mavs began Southland Conference play 0-7.
 
2) The Mavs will be facing their second-straight opponent picked to finish in the top-2 of the WAC standings: Grand Canyon (1st) and New Mexico State (2nd).
 
3) UTA has just two players averaging double-figure points this season in Wilson (10.8) and Kyron Gibson (10.2). However, the Mavs have had eight different leading scorers in a game this year – the 3rd most in the nation behind only James Madison and Longwood with nine each.
 
4) Marion Humphrey exited Thursday's game early in the 2nd half with a knee injury and did not return. His status for Saturday is questionable.

ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• New Mexico State is off to an unexpected 0-5 league start after winning the WAC Tournament last year and defeating UConn in the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies trailed by as much as 14 with six minutes remaining at Seattle U on Thursday night, but used a 10-0 run in a 90-second span to eventually trail by just one with 15 seconds left before falling, 69-66.
   
• The last time the Aggies and Mavs met was in the 2013 WAC Tournament Final when NM State claimed a 64-55 win to clinch the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
   
• WAC Preseason First Team selection Xavier Pinson leads the Aggies with 12.8 points and a team-high 4.7 assists per game. DeShawndre Washington is averaging 12.3 per outing and pulls down a team-best 7.2 rebounds. Issa Muhammad rounds out the trio of double-figure scorers for NM State with 10.7.
   
• Washington is one of 16 players in the nation this year to record a triple-double as he opened the season with a 17-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance against New Mexico Highlands.
   
• This is New Mexico State's final year in the WAC before heading to Conference USA next season. The Aggies' 10 WAC Tournament titles are the most in conference history – twice as many as any other program (UTEP, five).

BACK TO THE WAC

After spending the previous nine seasons (2013-22) as a Sun Belt Conference member, UTA officially re-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.
 
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). So far this year, the WAC ranks as the 12th-best league in the country, while the Sun Belt is 15th.
 
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 see the current standings, click here.

BY THE NUMBERS

4: The Mavs posted four top-10 single-game program records 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) and 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.
 
7: UTA has already had seven different occasions of a player grabbing 7+ offensive rebounds in a game this year: Wilson versus Hardin-Simmons (7), Nevada (7), Howard Payne (7), North Texas (8), Stephen F. Austin (8) and Utah Valley (8); Dario Domingos against Northern Kentucky (7).
 
7: UTA is just seven wins shy of 800 all-time victories in program history (793-996). The Mavs are in their 64th season, with UTA's inaugural campaign taking place in 1959-60.
 
8: Against UNT on Dec. 6, Wilson grabbed eight rebounds, and all of them were offensive. Over the last 6+ seasons – since the start of the 2016-17 campaign – he is now one of only seven players nationally to secure at least eight offensive rebounds and zero defensive boards in a game.
 
16: UTA's wire-to-wire 68-63 win at San Francisco on Dec. 19 ended the Dons' 16-game home non-conference winning streak and was the Mavs' first NET Quad 2 or better non-conference win since an 89-75 victory at BYU (Quad 1) in November of 2017. Two days later, USF defeated then-#25 Arizona State, 97-60.
 
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 D-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.
 
27: UTA is the least experienced team in the WAC and 27th nationally (337th of 363) this year based off prior D-I playing experience with an average of just 0.91 years per player (KenPom).
 
44: UTA went just 8-18 (44.4 percent) from the free throw line on Jan. 5 against Utah Valley, marking its worst performance from the charity stripe when attempting at least 18 free throws since going 9-23 (39.1 percent) in a 62-61 win versus Georgia Southern on Dec. 30, 2014. UTA, unfortunately, repeated that exact same performance (8-18, 44.4 percent) on Jan. 12 at Grand Canyon.
 
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

UTA has numerous single-game performances which register among the best of any team in the country this year:

• T-7th – 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-13th – Steals: 19 vs. Southwestern
  • Leader – Four Teams: 24

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 (7x – Includes 2 Ties)
Taj Anderson: 19 (1x)
Shemar Wilson: 18 (4x – Includes 1 Tie)
Aaron Cash: 18 (1x – Tied)
Marion Humphrey: 17 (3x – Includes 1 Tie)
Brandon Walker: 17 (1x – Tied)
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)

Additionally, KenPom currently lists UTA with the 19th-ranked non-conference strength of schedule in the nation this season.

NEXT UP

UTA will return home to face UT Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. inside the College Park Center.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
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