ABILENE, Texas – Coming off its most impressive offensive performance of the season, the UT Arlington men's basketball team will look to carry the momentum into Saturday when the Mavericks head west on 1-20 to face Abilene Christian at 6 p.m. inside Moody Coliseum.
OPENING TIP(s)
- UTA is coming off an 85-73 win over UT Rio Grande Valley on Thursday, establishing season highs against a Division-I opponent in points, field goals made (31), 3-pointers made (11) and assists (26). The 26 assists were the most at home against a D-I foe in nearly six years – since UTA issued 27 on Jan. 23, 2017, versus Louisiana.
- The Mavs will be in search of their first three-game winning streak this season after opening league play 0-5. Those five losses came to teams who are currently a combined 24-8 and all .500 or better in the WAC. The winning streak started at New Mexico State last Saturday, and that began a stretch of five-consecutive opponents for UTA with a current combined record of 8-23 and all .500 or below in the league.
- UTA ranks 3rd in the nation in offensive rebounding at 14.3 per game (1st: Saint Peter's, 14.7). Shemar Wilson is leading the charge as the sophomore is 8th nationally with 3.9 offensive rebounds an outing. He has registered three games of 8+ offensive boards this year – tied for the 2nd most in the country against D-I opponents with Long Beach State's Lassina Traore (leader: Kentucky's Oscar Tshiebwe with four).
- Wilson – who averages 8.5 rebounds per game – 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: 10).
TWEETABLES
1) Montez Young Jr. tallied a career-high 14 points and season-best nine rebounds against UTRGV. Entering the game, he had scored 20 points and grabbed 29 rebounds all season.
2) Aaron Cash tied a career high with six 3-pointers Thursday en route to a season-high 20-point performance – the most any UTA player has scored against D-I competition this season.
3) Kyron Gibson passed out a season-best 12 assists versus the Vaqueros, representing the most helpers by any WAC player in a game this year against a D-I opponent.
4) UTA did not record a block against UTRGV. It's just the fifth time since at least 2010 that has happened to the Mavs against a D-I member in a game they won, and not since Mar. 15, 2017, at BYU.
5) The Mavs have had 11 different players reach double-figure points in a game this year, and eight different leading scorers – the 3rd most in the nation behind only James Madison and Longwood with nine each.
ABOUT THE MATCHUP
- Abilene Christian has lost four games in a row after picking up its lone WAC win at home against Tarleton on Dec. 31, 69-63. The Wildcats are coming off an 84-54 setback at Utah Valley on Wednesday night.
- After leading the nation in turnover margin (+8.4) and ranking 2nd in steals per game (10.9) last season, ACU currently ranks 8th (+5.1) and 15th (9.6), respectively, in those categories this year. The Wildcats also rank 12th nationally in bench points per game (30.4) and 26th in assists (16.4).
- Immanuel Allen (11.8) and Tobias Cameron (10.5) lead ACU in points per game, with Cameron also pacing the Wildcats on the glass at 4.7 rebounds.
- ACU went 25-11 and reached the WAC Tournament Final last season. In 2021, the Wildcats upset Texas in the NCAA Tournament after winning the Southland Conference Tournament.
- UTA and ACU were both founding members of the Southland Conference in 1963. UTA remained in the league until 2012; ACU left the league in 1973 to join the Division-II Lone Star Conference before re-joining the Southland and D-I in 2013, and the WAC in 2021.
WAC STANDINGS
Click Here To View The Updated WAC Standings
The top-12 teams based off WAC record advance to the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas (as of today, New Mexico State would not qualify). Once those 12 participants are decided, a résumé-seeding system will be used to determine how teams are seeded at the WAC Tournament (
denoted by WAC Points in this link; higher point total = a better seed).
For example, right now even though Sam Houston is just 4-3 in the WAC and in 6th place, the Bearkats have accumulated 3.48 points and would be the #2 seed in the WAC Tournament if it started today; UTA (-3.95) would be the #12 seed despite currently sitting in 9th place.
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 rewarding the best teams throughout the entire season, the résumé-seeding system was introduced.
It is an algorithm that rates performances against all Division-I teams faced in the regular season, not just conference play. Teams receive more credit for scheduling, and beating, stronger opponents than weaker ones. This should help the WAC have higher NET rankings, a key-criteria used by the NCAA Selection Committee.
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.
BY THE NUMBERS
2: UTA picked up its second road win of the season over an NCAA Tournament team from last year when the Mavs took down New Mexico State, 66-55, on Jan. 14. The first came on Dec. 19 at San Francisco, 68-63.
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.
5: UTA is just five wins shy of 800 all-time victories in program history (795-996). The Mavs are in their 64th season, with UTA's inaugural campaign taking place in 1959-60.
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).
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 win at San Francisco 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)
55) The 55 points UTA limited NM State to on Jan. 14 represented just the second time in the last six seasons that the Mavs have held an opponent to 55 or fewer points on the road (52 at Arkansas State on Jan. 2, 2020). Prior to that, the last time the Mavs did it was on Dec. 16, 2016, when they allowed Bradley to score just 51.
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 so far this year:
- 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
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 11 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 (3x)
Aaron Cash: 20 (2x – Includes 1 Tie)
Kyron Gibson: 19 (7x – Includes 2 Ties)
Taj Anderson: 19 (1x)
Shemar Wilson: 18 (5x – Includes 1 Tie)
Marion Humphrey: 17 (3x – Includes 1 Tie)
Brandon Walker: 17 (1x – Tied)
Brandyn Talbot: 15 (1x)
Montez Young Jr.: 14
Dario Domingos: 12
Pedro Castro: 12
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 had 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 return to the College Park Center for a three-game homestand beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. against California Baptist.
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).
