That's about Right

 It's that time of year where anticipation for the upcoming UT Arlington basketball seasons is starting to build. Schedules have been released, there's little fall outlets for sports competition and in the case of this year, tons of new faces and a new coach on the men's side. Rankings and preseason polls are coming out. 

Yesterday, the Western Athletic Conference released the coaches' poll for how they see the conference race ending. Those that know me know I'm not a fan of these things, with one exception: they are wildly wrong way more than they are close to right and provide fodder and motivation in a distractionary way. In the transfer portal era, where just about every team seems to have at a minimum 50 percent roster turnover, these are worth the paper they are printed on. However, they are great for talking and getting ready for the season. 

 The Mavericks were tabbed seventh, which is about right for where we were last year. The Mavs were tabbed first and second, depending on the poll and finished eighth. There were injuries that caused issues, but they underperformed against teams they shouldn't have. So, this is about right.

The poll, with first-place votes in parenthesis:

1. Grand Canyon     (6)    93

2. Southern Utah    (5)    87

3. California Baptist        83

4. Utah Tech                    71

5. Stephen F. Austin        61

6. Abilene Christian        54

7. UT Arlington                53

8. UT Rio Grande Valley    42

t9. Tarleton                        22

t9. Utah Valley                22

11. Seattle                        17

I'm not sure Grand Canyon is head and shoulders above the rest, but their roster is stacked. Stephen F. Austin, usually in the mix for these kinds of things, had a roster and coaching turnover, so no one knows where they really are. Southern Utah is the defending champs but lost a lot too. CBU may be overrated as one of their best players transferred to GCU. UTA picked up one of SFA's and Seattle's better players but lost the player of the year to the portal.

And these were just the questions I came up with in a cursory glance at the polls.

The preseason individual awards are worth just as much as he polls, but here they are.

Preseason Player of the Year: Breaunna Gillen, G, Utah Tech

Preseason All-WAC:

• Grace Schmidt, F CBU
• Trinity San Antonio, G, GCU
• Tiarra Brown, G, GCU
• Tomekia Whitman, G Southern Utah
• Breaunna Gillen

Every player here was a former WAC player last year, so the missing piece to put a team over the top that came in the transfer portal will have zero rep here.

The season tips off on November 6 at Tampa, Florida against the University of South Florida.