ARLINGTON – Two games into his tenure with the UT Arlington men's basketball, DaJuan Gordon has already made his presence felt as the graduate transfer on Monday was named the Western Athletic Conference Player of the Week.
 
Gordon posted a pair of double-doubles in his UTA debut week, averaging 19 points, 12.5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists in leading the Mavericks to their first 2-0 start to a season since 2019-20.
 
In the season opener on Monday, the Chicago native scored a game- and career-high 24 points while pulling down a game-high-tying and career-best 14 rebounds to help UTA erase an 11-point 2nd-half deficit and claim a 75-71 victory over an Oral Roberts team that won 30 games and played in the NCAA Tournament last year. The 24 points were the first time in Gordon's career he tallied 20+ in a game after having finished between 15-19 points on 12 previous occasions.
 
In that same game, the former Kansas State, Missouri and New Mexico State product also eclipsed 500 rebounds for his career, and he now boasts 518.
 
On Saturday, the 6-5 guard scored 14 points, grabbed a game-most 11 rebounds, tied a career high with 4 steals and issued 4 assists in just 23 minutes of action as UTA cruised to a 95-64 triumph opposite UT Tyler on Homecoming Weekend.
 
Twelve of those 14 points came from beyond the arc as Gordon also equaled a career high by making four 3-pointers. That quartet of triples were part of 17 overall for UTA, tying a single-game program record that had only been reached once before on Dec. 8, 2015, versus Bradley.
 
The double-doubles for Gordon represented the sixth and seventh of his career.
 
Gordon is UTA's first conference Player of the Week recipient since David Azore claimed the honor on Feb. 15, 2022. Additionally, in now 2+ years in the WAC (2012-13, 2022-present), Gordon is the first Mav to garner a Player of the Week recognition as a member of the league.
 
NEXT UP
UTA will hit the road for an extremely challenging trip this week, taking on a pair of KenPom top-50 ranked teams. First up, UTA will head to New Mexico to face a Lobo squad on Nov. 16 that was receiving votes in the national polls last week.
 
The Mavs will then remain in the southwest before taking on the defending Pac-12 Champion Arizona Wildcats on Nov. 19. Arizona is moved up from #12 in the Associated Press Top 25 on Monday, and the Mavs will face the Wildcats as the #3 team in the nation after they went into Cameron Indoor Stadium and defeated then-#2 Duke on Friday night, 78-73.  
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