Heckuva Turnaround

The UT Arlington women's basketball team was an enigma coming into the season. In addition to the numerous seniors and graduate students, the mysterious departure of Staar Jacobs to Arkansas Pine-Bluff was a plot twist that came out of left field. It was made all the more shocking that it was a Southwestern Athletic Conference school, usually one of the lowest-rated NCAA Division I conferences. They've done decent this year, but that is a historical anomaly. As an aside, unlike other multiple-time transfers, she hasn't logged a minute for the new team after the rule was lifted about sitting out a year.

I heard on the most recent broadcast that the team lost 94 percent of its scoring from last year. Sure enough, when I looked at the stat sheet, only sophomore Nya Threatt scored a point for the Mavericks last year. That's incredible. I knew there was turnover, but not as bad as it was in actuality. In all my years of following college sports, I've never heard that save for a scandal involving a coach. Alas, such seems to be the new reality in a post-transfer-portal and NIL era.

That begged the question, how would this year's version fair? I'm not a big fan of intra-conference transfers, but there were a few of them in the WAC this year. UTA had two in Avery Brittingham and Taliyah Clark from Stephen F. Austin and Seattle U respectively. I heard rumors UTA as a team was looking strong from those in the know prior to the start of the season. 

But it sure looked rough when they started the year at 1-8. Some of the teams they lost to seemed like ones that they should beat if they were conference-title contenders. In that stretch home losses to Lamar (74-57), UT San Antonio (70-66) and a conference road loss to Abilene Christian (94-76) were among the losses that I felt we should have performed better. Their zone defense looked porous and seemed to allow teams to find an open shot way too easy.

Lamar has performed well this year, sitting at 11-5 and 5-1 in Southland play, good for a second-place tie. UTSA isn't doing as well at 10-8, but are 4-3 in American Athletic Conference play, or 7th out of 14. ACU was the headscratcher. They dominated UTA last year in Abilene and narrowly lost in Arlington and have talent for sure but are .500 overall outside of playing the Mavericks this year.

Also from the most recent broadcast, the announcers cited the game against Colorado, an eventual 95-74 loss to the eighth-ranked team, as a turning point. The 74 points scored were the third most of the year at that point but against much tougher competition. It would also be the last loss in a while.

The Mavs reeled off eight straight wins, helping the Western Athletic Conference out with two wins against Conference USA in the CUSA-WAC scheduling initiative with a road win at Jacksonville State and one-point win against New Mexico State at College Park Center. UTA also secured a road win in a previously scheduled game versus Sam Houston State in Huntsville. 3-0 versus C-USA. Pretteh, pretteh, pretty good.

WAC play started with a home shellacking of Tarleton State, a game where UTA should clearly be above a school still making the transition from Division II. The 73-49 score was the largest margin of victory for the Mavericks this year. 

SFA was on deck and a game very few people gave UTA a chance in. The Lumberjacks were widely considered to be conference contenders. The last time the teams met at CPC, a double-overtime thriller, resulted in a 'jack victory. This time around, the Mavs left no doubt, winning every quarter on their way to a 81-62 win. Brittingham seemed on a mission securing a triple double with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Clark added 27 in the statement game. That gave notice that the Mavs are a legit contender for a WAC title.

UTA would reel off two more wins, both on the road, to stretch the win streak to eight games. A hiccup in Edinburgh came this Thursday as UTA dropped a 62-64 affair to UT Rio Grande Valley. UTA missed 9 free throws while making 13. A two for six performance in the fourth quarter hurt. No question, UTA should have beaten the Vaqueros, but after three road games, maybe their legs were dead and their number was due.

A rematch of the first conference game occurred on Saturday and really solidified the fact that this team is much better. ACU was held in check after a slow start and what really hit me was how much better the zone defense looked. ACU lives by the three and they had a harder time finding the open three, going 7-26 from behind the arc. UTA led by 13 halfway through the fourth before coasting to a 74-65 win.

This winning stretch of nine wins in ten games has shown more than just a better defensive rotation. Unlike the last few years, anyone can lead the offensive charge. Last year, Jacobs was the leading scorer in 16 of their 31 games. Four other Mavs were team leader and none eclipsed that category more than five times. This year, Gia Adams has led the team seven times. Behind her are Adela Valkova and Clark with four, Brittingham has two and Threatt has one. Three Mavs average in double digits, six are above five points a game and nine are above two with another player at 1.9 ppg. 

The Mavericks now sit at 9-9 on the year with a 5-3 conference ledger, good for fourth in the WAC. They'll have almost a full week off before traveling to the conference leaders in Grand Canyon. UTA lost 77-48 at home in December. This will be a great test to see where they actually sit within the WAC.