ARLINGTON – Five days after it was originally scheduled, UT Arlington and Tarleton will finally tip off in a Monday matinee inside the College Park Center at 4 p.m. with the Mavericks looking to carry the momentum over from their impressive Saturday win.
 

GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Game 24	UT Arlington (8-15, 3-7 WAC) vs. Tarleton (12-11, 5-5 WAC)
Date | Time	Monday, Feb. 6 | 4 p.m.
Location	College Park Center (7,000)
Tickets	Free Admission
Video	ESPN+
Audio	620 AM | Varsity Network App
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Game Notes	UT Arlington | Tarleton

GAMEDAY PROMOS

• Doubleheader/Free Admission
  • The contest will be the second game of a doubleheader which begins with the women's basketball team facing Southern Utah at 1 p.m. That game was rescheduled from Thursday morning also because of the inclement weather conditions in North Texas last week. Admission to both games will be complimentary.

OPENING TIP(s)

• UTA is coming off an impressive 70-58 win over Sam Houston on Saturday. Trailing 21-18 at the midway point of the 1st half, UTA orchestrated a 28-7 extended run to close the half, took a 46-28 halftime lead and never allowed the Bearkats to get closer than five the rest of the way.
   
• That win gave UTA its second Quad 2 victory of the season as Sam Houston was a WAC-best #50 in the official NCAA NET Rankings. Only three schools in the nation with losing records have more Quad 2 wins than UTA: Washington State, Vanderbilt and Fresno State (all each have three Quad 2 victories).
   
• UTA will be looking to avenge a 70-63 league-opening loss at Tarleton on Dec. 29 (recap and box score). In that contest, the Mavs scored a season-low 16 1st-half points before tallying a season-high (versus a Division-I opponent) 47 in the 2nd half.
   
• The Mavs rank 7th in the nation in offensive rebounding at 13.7 per game (1st: College of Charleston, 14.1). Shemar Wilson is leading the charge as the sophomore is 13th nationally with 3.6 offensive rebounds an outing. He has registered three games of 8+ offensive boards this year – tied for the 3rd most in the country against D-I opponents (leaders: four games).
   
• After having just one player reach the 20-point plateau in the first 19 games of the season, the Mavs have had a player get there in four-consecutive games: Aaron Cash (20 vs. UTRGV), Kyron Gibson (20 at Abilene Christian; 22 vs. California Baptist) and Chendall Weaver (21 vs. Sam Houston).

TWEETABLES

1) UTA connected at a season-best 54 percent (25-46) from the floor on Saturday. The Mavs also set season highs for 1st-half points (46) and halftime margin (+18) against a D-I opponent.
 
2) After allowing its previous three opponents to each shoot at least 50 percent from the floor for the first time since 2008, UTA held Sam Houston to just 33 percent (19-58), its 2nd lowest to a D-I foe this year (New Mexico State: 32 percent).
 
3) Over his last four games, Montez Young Jr. – who earned his first start on Saturday – has scored 33 points and grabbed 22 rebounds. Prior to that, he had 20 points and 29 rebounds in 15 games this season.
 
4) Wilson – who averages 11 points and 8 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: 12).
 
5) The Mavs have had 11 different players reach double-figure points in a game this year, and also have had eight different leading scorers – the 3rd most in the nation behind only James Madison and Longwood with nine each.

ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• Tarleton was the only team in the nation both undefeated at home (10-0) and winless on the road (0-9) entering its game at home against UT Rio Grande Valley on Saturday. However, the Texans dropped that contest, 68-65, to stop what was a two-game winning streak – including an 81-62 rout of Grand Canyon last Saturday.
   
• Tarleton is in its third season as a D-I member and is in the midst of its required four-year NCAA reclassification period. The Texans are eligible to compete in the WAC Tournament, but are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament due to the NCAA mandate.
•  
• The Texans were an NAIA member until 1994 when they joined the D-II ranks, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament at that level 14 times in a 16-year stretch.
   
• Tarleton is 12th in the nation in turnovers forced at 17.4 per game, helping lead to an average of 24.9 free throw attempts (2nd nationally behind UTRGV) and 16.7 free throw makes (15th in the country) per outing.
   
• 2021 WAC Freshman of the Year Freddy Hicks leads the Tarleton offensive attack at 14.9 points per game and also pulls down a team-best 5.6 rebounds. He did not play in the first meeting this season due to an apparent hand/wrist injury.

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 Southern Utah is in 2nd place with an 8-3 league record, Sam Houston (3rd place at 7-4) would be the #2 seed due to accumulating 3.98 points, and Southern Utah would be the #3 seed (2.57 points). UTA (-4.60) would be the #12 seed despite currently sitting in 10th 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 D-I teams faced in the regular season, not just conference play. Teams receive more credit for scheduling, and beating, stronger opponents than weaker ones – particularly on the road. This should help WAC members have higher NET rankings, a key-criteria used by the NCAA Selection Committee.

FRESHMEN OF THE WEEK

Weaver was named the WAC Freshman of the Week for the second time this calendar year on Jan. 23. Weaver also claimed the award on Jan. 9, and he is one of just two players (Grand Canyon's Kobe Knox) in the WAC to have won twice this year. Along with Brandon Walker collecting the honor on Dec. 5, UTA has a league-high three Freshman of the Week recognitions this season.

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

1: UTA picked up a 60-56 win over Horizon League preseason favorite Northern Kentucky on Nov. 22. NKU had defeated Cincinnati – picked to finish 3rd in the American Athletic Conference – two games prior by 13 points.
 
2: UTA secured its second road win of the season over a 2022 NCAA Tournament team 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: UTA is just four wins shy of 800 all-time program victories. 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 one of only seven players nationally to secure at least eight offensive rebounds and zero defensive boards in a game.
 
10: Marion Humphrey had six steals against Southwestern on Nov. 12 to tie for the 10th most in single game program history.
 
12: Gibson passed out a season-best 12 assists versus UTRGV on Jan. 19, representing the most helpers by any WAC player in a game this year against a D-I opponent.
 
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.
 
26: The 26 assists UTA issued against UTRGV were the most at home against a D-I foe in nearly six years – since the Mavs passed out 27 on Jan. 23, 2017, versus Louisiana.
 
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 metric).
 
55: The 55 points UTA limited New Mexico State to 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 permitted Bradley to score just 51.

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:

• 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
  • Leaders – 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 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:
 
Kyron Gibson: 22 (9x – Includes 2 Ties)
Chendall Weaver: 21 (4x)
Aaron Cash: 20 (2x – Includes 1 Tie)
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

NEXT UP

UTA will play its third game in six days after having 10 days in-between games when the Mavs head to UT Rio Grande Valley to face the Vaqueros on Thursday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. The Mavs will then have another extended break with six days off before returning to the court at Sam Houston on Wednesday, Feb. 15.
 
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).