The UT Arlington basketball teams concluded the non-conference portion of their schedule to mixed results, but it looks like more of the same ole, same ole for the Mavericks team.
On the men's side, they finished with a home win against Cal-Poly of the Big West, but a stretch of three losses in four games have really hurt the Mavericks in a way UTA never really has had to worry about until recent years. The setbacks came against Northern Iowa on the road, Florida Gulf Coast at home and a ranked Creighton team on the road. It was the FGCU home loss that was the most damaging, as it came to a team sitting out of the top 100 in RPI (they are now not in the top 200).
More importantly to me, that showed a team that was easily rattled and had a lack of composure, something I haven't seen from a team wearing a Mavericks jersey in a good long while. Three different Mavericks earned a technical foul and FGCU seemed to be able to make the Mavericks play their game, not the other way around.
In the losses and even many of the wins, UTA exhibited a lack of consistency for a full forty minutes. It was shown against Alabama. Creighton is another example. For 30 minutes in that game, UTA played better and scored more than the Bluejays. But that ten minutes that went to the opponent was horrendous. UTA held a l3-11 lead slightly less than mid-way through the first half. But, as would be the case all game, UTA couldn't stop the Creighton long-range shot and Creighton made five three's by the last media timeout. A made free throw after a made bucket gave Creighton six three point possessions in that stretch. UTA also went cold, getting only five points to allow the Bluejays to build their lead to a game-high 25 points with roughly two minutes left. The final margin of victory was only five points.
