New(ish) Conference Rivals

The news has been out for several weeks now, so this is more a reactionary post. Rumors were that a couple of other schools would be following the lone announcement, but since the October 10th news only the Little Rock Trojans are officially set to become the ninth member of the soon-to-be United Athletic Conference. I won't wait any longer and truth be told, the Trojans are worthy of their own entry.

This will only be a post to offer my perspective and some points. The first being, I wonder if there should be concern that rumors were swirling of three schools, but only one has made the commitment. Either way, I've alluded to this before, but I'm happy to share the conference distribution with fewer schools.

Second, it was very good to see a conference that the UT Arlington Athletic Department is a part of expand with a member school that is an existing member of Division I. For the Western Athletic Conference in its current geographic footprint to expand, the infill likely would have been Division II schools transitioning to DI. California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Tarleton State and Utah Tech all followed that pattern. While there have been some successes at these schools to varying degrees, I want all schools to have their sports programs compete now and who have a history of competing.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 7 - Starting Conference

The last time the 1969 UT Arlington Rebels made an appearance on this series, they lost to New Mexico State in the home opener and second game of the year. The theme of that entry was the solid attendance the team attracted in the decade that followed and the struggles for UTA's home stadiums in coming years.

After a 15-game home winning streak ended in the last game of the 1968 season, it turned into a home losing streak in the link game. Previously, the longest home losing streak was four, set in 1963. The first home game of 1964 was a tie, making it a five-game streak with no wins. It would be five true loses at the fourth home game of the year.

After the NMSU game, UTA went on the road again, though it was one of the shorter road trips in program history to Commerce, Texas where they beat the East Texas State Lions, 38-28. One more road game followed a week later in Lake Charles, Louisiana, a 13-7 Rebel victory. It was the last game of six against the McNeese State as non-conference opponents.

Not Officially in Last Place

Sports can be a crazy thing. Outside of middle school and even some high school settings, the old adage of anyone can be beaten on any given day rings true. Just when you think you have a team figured out, something wacky comes along and throws a wrench in the machine.

Coming into Saturday's volleyball matches the Western Athletic Conference had exactly one of its seven teams in the top 100 of the RPI in the NCAA. That was 5-0, 14-3 overall Utah Tech. Sitting in the mid-200's (out of 348 Division I programs) UT Arlington was headed south, losing four in a row and eight of the last nine. UT, on the other hand, was heading in the other direction, having won six in a row and nine of its last ten.

The only thing that appeared in the Mavericks favor, at least from a superficial standpoint, was the match was scheduled at home in College Park Center. However, UTA was 2-2 in CPC going into the match while the Trailblazers were an impressive 5-1 in true road matches to that point. It had the ingredients for a 3-0 loss in the recipe book.

Only it didn't happen that way.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 6 - Common Rivals

Back to the 1980 season for today's edition of This Day in UTA Football History. Two weeks ago, we saw the Mavericks had lost to Drake 30-20 in the second game in Maverick Stadium's history. Last week, 45 years ago, long time non-conference opponent West Texas State, now West Texas A&M, came to the Mav and the Buffaloes topped the UT Arlington Mavericks, 38-26.

As discussed in the link, UTA really should have been better than 0-5. They could have easily been 2-2 entering the WTS game. The Mavericks were driving in the fourth quarter. With the ball on the Buffs 15-yard line, UTA's quarterback was hit on a secondary blitz, causing a fumble. The West Texas drove 2/3rds down the field and scored, giving a more lopsided score.

Instead of a record just above or just below .500, the Mavs were winless in the debut of their new home. I don't know what would have happened in the scenario of a near-.500 team, but attendance should have been higher at this point in the season. One or two wins out of three total games in the new place would have encouraged fans to come later in the season. As the 2015 edition chronicled, when the team had something to play for later in the season, attendance did increase.

Officially in Last

Two more matches resulted in two more losses for the UT Arlington volleyball squad this past weekend as the losing streak was extended to four in a row, all matches within the Western Athletic Conference. UTA needs one match to reach the halfway point of WAC play and UTA is tied for sixth, which is essentially last place at this point.

The Mavericks started the week against the preseason favorites. The Utah Valley road match, or maybe neutral match as their gym was unavailable, was going to be a tough test. BYU lent their gym and while UTA made spurts, it was clear the Wolverines were the better team. Watching the match, it was clear that UVU controlled the net. They were able to effect UTA's offensive game and rack up points on the defensive side of the net. The Wolverines logged 15 blocks. UTA recorded one.

As the set scores were 16-25, 24-26, 21-25, those 15 blocks were huge. Now, UVU is one of the best blockers in the country from a pure numbers standpoint. The digs disparity I mentioned last week was still present. UVU notched 52 to the Mavericks 47. This was a great example about how important a piece Paige Reagor was to the Mavericks the last couple of years.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 6 - No Better Example

Most every year of This Day in UTA Football History contains 12 games. As today is the halfway point, it seems odd that one year of only a three-season rotation hasn't been introduced. That was done by design. I've pointed out dozens of times over the years how poorly run the UTA football program was in the 1970's.

While there were ancillary, outside factors that also played a part, such as the Rebel to Maverick mascot controversy, changing demographics of the campus to a more commuter campus and suppressed interest from the outside community, the UT Arlington Athletic Department surely did as much or more to shoot themselves in the foot. 

I contend that interest still would have been higher had the team stayed at Memorial Stadium, currently on the site of the Maverick Activities Center. The site is visible to the entirety of campus, unlike Maverick Stadium today, and was easily accessible via Cooper Street, also unlike Maverick Stadium which is tucked off Mitchell Street.

In 1965, UTA averaged 85 percent capacity of 10,022-seat Memorial Stadium. In 1966, it was 87 percent, '67 rose to 92 percent, same in '68 and a small drop to 84 percent in its final year hosting a UTA football team.

But even on pure numbers, no season in Turnpike, later Arlington Stadium, reached the same highs. 

The Slide Continues

I didn't post about the UT Arlington volleyball team last week because they played only one match against the worst team in the Western Athletic Conference. They swept Southern Utah, which I said in the most recent volleyball post that UTS needed to sweep SUU for the Mavericks to be in contention for a second WAC title. However, sets two and three were too close for a WAC contender. UTA held the Thunderbirds to 13 in the first set, but 20 and then 21 in the last two. 

Looking at the box score, offensively, UTA did very well. The top three UTA kill leaders would have led SUU. Same with assists, which is understandable as they go hand-in-hand with kills. Blocks were about even. UTA continued to excel in aces against their opponent. What stood out to me was digs. Junior libero Samantha Glenn has been doing well all season and recorded 21 in three sets. After her though, the team only grabbed 23. Glenn had almost as many as the rest of the team combined. Two Mavericks logged six digs, one kept four balls alive and no other Mav grabbed more than two.

That may be the biggest difference from last year. UTA could count on three to five ladies to keep the ball alive at any given time.

After the SUU win, the Mavs were 1-0 in conference play and had the two remaining Texas WAC schools left. And the bottom dropped out.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 5 - Returning Home

The last time we checked into the 1980 UT Arlington football team, they started the season 0-2 after a loss to Northwestern State with a date looming against national powerhouse Southern Methodist University.

Resetting the stage. 1980 was the first year Maverick Stadium opened. The year prior, the Mavs were 9-2 and one point away from an Independence Bowl bid and a Southland Conference title. Momentum was high and if the cards were played right, this really could have set the program up for long-term success.

Instead, after a thumping to debut the stadium, they went on the road for two games and had a bye week, mirroring the problems with how the program was run in the 1970's. A month into the season and UTA was 0-3 with only one home game, a loss at that.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 4 - Home Sweet Home?

As September comes to a close, this day in UTA football history looks at the 1969 team for the first time, sort of. Last week's entry was a link to the 2014 counterpart that opened the season, a 17-3 win. Back in the 1960's, the football season often started after the halfway mark of this month. 

I'll let last week's version set the stage for the year, but I do want to add some refreshers. The 1960's were the most successful decade in UTA football history, and it isn't close. In this decade, the Mavericks were 57-42-1, a winning percentage of .575. And that's with one win in 1963 and three wins in '64.

To compare, in the 1970's, UTA had a winning percentage of .370 while the shortened decade of the 1980's was .432. No doubt that number would have been better after 1986, as we'll discuss in a moment. 

Ouch!

The Maverick Rambler has mentioned several times this year that it seemed the UT Arlington volleyball team was playing with fire, losing sets to teams they should not have. Though they won most of the matches prior to this weekend, it wasn't pretty. There has been one sweep this year and on paper, there should have been more if this is a conference championship contending team. All that came to a head this past weekend. I gave my fears more than fuel about how the next two months in conference play will shake out.

I don't say this lightly, but this may have been the worst weekend in program history from a performance standpoint. I mentioned in the last volleyball post that the team would travel to San Antonio to participate in UTSA's Roadrunner Classic. The participating teams weren't stacked but should have been on UTA's general level.

The tournament started out poorly as the Mavericks and the hosts squared off. As I said, these two squads should have been near parity, but the Roadrunners won the match in a sweep. Only the second set was close, if a four-point loss is considered close. At 15-25, 21-25 and 13-25, the Roadrunners dominated. 

While some content that UTSA elevation into the American Athletic Conference makes this less of competitive match, UTA volleyball is a premiere sport on campus. It is the only fall team sport. Top 50 if not 25 all-time winning percentage across the entirety of the NCAA, appeared in a national championship postseason tournament 17 times since its founding, another two Invitational postseason tournaments and has produced numerous All-Americans all mean a little more than just conference pecking order. Especially when one considers the success attained last year. UTA faithful would not be surprised with a win against any school. 

But, the weekend was still salvageable and UTA could ride into Western Athletic Conference play on a high note. But it went the exact opposite way.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 3 - Repeat

For those who follow the Maverick Rambler's This Day in UTA Football History, you know I try to follow a few general rules. Unfortunately, one of those will be broken today. Specifically, I try to avoid multiple games in a row from the same season. I just have no other choice.

There are two things working against me in this week. First, to refresh, there are only three season to choose from. That in and of itself makes that guideline difficult. But, as for today specifically, it is one of only two dates I can recall between the second week in September and the second to last week in November to have only one game. It is uncommon to have a bye week in September. However, 1975 and 1980 both had a bye week today.

Ironically, the first season to qualify, 1969, is the only game that was every played by an Arlington State / UT Arlington football team on September 20.

First Miss

As I mentioned in the last post about the UT Arlington volleyball team, it had been almost one year since the last regular season loss for the Mavericks. While I have pointed out a few times this year's schedule was not chock full of world beaters, but you play who you play. 

This past weekend was the first home sighting for the Mavericks as they partook in the UNT-UTA Invitational. In years past, it's just been the UTA Invitational (as well as the UTA Classic) so I'm not sure what occurred to cause UTA to join forces with North Texas.

Friday opened with another familiar foe as, like in past weeks, a former Southland Conference rival squared off against the Mavericks. Northwestern State is not a good volleyball school and into this match in Denton at 1-8. It was another match that made me think the Mavericks are just not quite there as five sets were needed to pull out the win. The Demons have had one winning record in the prior five years and it doesn't look like that will change in 2025.

The List Grows

While looking for something unrelated, I found a women's flag football tidbit last week that I wanted to share. I mentioned in my initial entry when talking about the next sport coming to the UT Arlington portfolio that there were not many schools in Texas and certainly not as many NCAA institutions near UTA that sponsored the sport at the time.

However, there were some folks that were optimistic that number would grow. At the time, the only known NCAA schools Division I were Alabama State, Long Island University, Mercyhurst and Mount Saint Mary's. The known Texas school was Concordia University.

There have been so many additions to the sport since then that keeping up and staying current is turning into a labor of love. It's also one that has been missed by me too often with so many new programs getting their announcement.

Schedules Released

I think I'm just about to finish playing catch-up with the next couple of posts. In this one, both basketball teams released their schedules last week and both have some really good highlights in the march to conference play. There should be a challenging yet winnable games along the way.

I'll posts the schedules and after each off, provide my take.

The women's schedule is as follows:

Conversation with an AD Part Five - Wrapping it up

In the first four parts of the Maverick Ramblers one-on-one with UT Arlington Athletic  Director Jon Fagg, the discussions centered around the United Athletic Conference, the upcoming flag football team, the always present topic of a football rebirth and the state of several sports.

For the fifth and final installment, we kind of it on several topics pulled from a few different directions.

The Maverick Rambler: Two kinda related to the budget and I think I'll be good.

Jon Fagg: Mm hmm.

TMR: Any facility improvements on the horizon?

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 2 - Stereotypical

When I look back at wasted opportunities for the UT Arlington football program, there are a lot to choose from, starting in the 1970's and going all the way to the unplayed 1986 season. There were three seasons that one more UTA win would have resulted in an Independence Bowl berth. Their last conference title team came in UTA's last year in Division I-A, or today's Football Bowl Championship Subdivision. But, that was the first year the Indy Bowl didn't team with the Southland Conference and the conference champ did not play in the postseason. Would a bowl team increased enthusiasm in the program? Maybe. Especially considering a bowl berth was much more difficult in that time period.

Mistakes of some kind or another usually resulted in the losses. While an opponent can force a fumble or goad their foes into untimely penalties, more often it is undisciplined play by the fumblers or by the penalty committers that are the likely culprit. That was a defining trait of Head Coach Harold "Bud" Elliott's tenure.

There was, of course, the mascot controversy when the University transitioned from the Rebels to the Mavericks. Playing off campus didn't help either. Going from Memorial Stadium, on the site of the Maverick Activities Center, to a baseball stadium that could accommodate football, which in turn transitioned to being at the mercy of a Major League Baseball team, which then transitioned to a high school stadium in Cravens Field at Arlington Lamar High School was a black eye.

Still Streaking

At the start of the 2025 volleyball season, the UT Arlington program was coming off one of the best seasons in program history and by pure winning percentage, THE best season. At 29-3, UTA lost to two ranked teams and the American Athletic Conference's runner-up. At 16-0, it was the first undefeated conference run since 1992, and the only undefeated conference mark that played double-digit games in loop play.

One would have to go back to September 20th of last year to find the last regular season loss to this point in the 2025 season. Just FYI, between a funeral in California, a new work schedule and transcribing the interview with Athletic Director Jon Fagg, I just didn't have enough hours in the day to cover the first volleyball weekend tournament. So, I'll give my thoughts on it here.

I mentioned in the preseason poll post that the first Mav opponents weren't world-beaters. Quinnipiac was rated highly in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which isn't a powerhouse league by any stretch (third worst overall conference last year). Western Illinois was picked sixth in the Ohio Valley. The OVC is only rated a few spots higher. Host Bradley's predicted finish in the Missouri Valley isn't available as the conference didn't publish its full list.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 1 - What Could Have Been

It is one of the more exciting times of year for me on this blog as the first Saturday in September kicks off This Day in UTA Football History. For long-time readers, you know that we are in a period of time where prior years covered the same seasons as the current edition.

The rules are simple, in the University era, UT Arlington rarely played on any other day but a Saturday. I can think of only one exception. Every junior college game I have found is the same, but I don't have them all, so I can't definitively say for the entire program. As such, the entries are posted on Saturday. The 2014 entries will be this year's sister season. For the next 12 weeks, we will look at games from the 1969, 1975 and 1980 seasons. But there will be twist this year.

Between my interview with UTA Athletic Director and this, I've been saying excited a lot. But it is genuinely true. I'm excited to announce this twist. Football schedules are made years in advance. Some colleges and universities today schedule games almost a decade out. Contracts are signed, penalties are enforced and conference games planned around these non-conference games. This was true decades ago. It is one reason why the Arlington State College Rebels played only seven games in its first season as a four-year school. There were not enough openings by opponents in a short time to schedule a full season.

No one knew as 1985 progressed that the final game of the program was nearing until the Monday following the last game against North Texas. UTA had already published schedules for 1986 and 1987. Had the program not been disbanded, 1986 would have qualified for this year's entries. I personally have wondered, like many, how the team would have fared. Now, every so often, a game that was scheduled was postponed or rescheduled, so nothing in 1986 was 100 percent guaranteed.

Conversation with an AD Part Four - Sports Quick Hits

The first three parts of my sit-down interview with UT Arlington Athletic Director Jon Fagg focused on a near singular topic each. As the interview reached the half way mark, the topics came closer in time and at a quicker pace. There has been a small delay in the release of part four as I originally envisioned part four being the last portion. However, the post itself started becoming too long. 

As we transition from the topic of football, we started discussing the sports we have on campus.

The Maverick Rambler: Well let's talk about pouring the efforts into, into men's basketball.

Jon Fagg: Yeah, sure.

Conversation with an AD Part Three - Gridiron Gossip

In part two of a long sit down interview with the UT Arlington Athletic Director Jon Fagg, we both discussed the start of the Mavericks flag football team. The topic transitioned to Maverick Stadium and teetered towards the men's side of the pigskin.

For part three of a one-on-one interview with the AD, we jump all in to football.

The Maverick Rambler: If you had a dollar for every time football was brought up to you in some capacity...

Jon Fagg: I'd have some money already. 

TMR: You'd be able to buy a private island.

Conversation with an AD Part Two - Behind the Scenes of a New Sport

In the first part of my sit-down interview with UT Arlington Athletic Director Jon Fagg, we had a great discussion regarding the Mavericks current home, the Western Athletic Conference, and its transition to the United Athletic Conference starting next year. It was a great talk with some behind the scenes information that wasn't generally known.

In that same theme, particularly the behind the scene workings, the Maverick Rambler looks behind the curtain of UTA's next, newest sport, coming at the dawn of the UAC. At the end of this edition, the topic starts to shift organically to one of the most common topics on campus. 

Here's part two of the one-on-one with the UTA Athletic Director.

The Maverick Rambler: We're going to go back to ... to, to your President for a second. Because, one of the other big headlines: women's flag football.

Jon Fagg: Yeah, women's flag football!

Conversation with an AD Part One - the UAC Rebrand

While I don't want the purpose of this blog to vary from its core, opinions and commentary on various aspects of the UT Arlington Mavericks Athletic Department, I have been contemplating in recent years how to do a little more, take it to the next level if you will. I attempted what follows last year, but obviously it didn't work, likely due to user error. I took a different approach, shook a few more hands and viola. 

On Friday afternoon, I had the genuine pleasure of a sit-down question and answer session "on the record" with the Athletic Director at UT Arlington, Jon Fagg. While I intended to make the interview a singular blog post, he allowed me to keep going. My thought process was if he offered 30 minutes, I was going to take 31. However, he let me go for over an hour and a half. As such, I really have to break it down into multiple parts. 

While I picked his brain about quite a bit of items, the drive home was filled with internal questions about things I should have followed up on more than I did, it was only natural. I did hit a lot of main points though. There is quite a bit of information in the conversation.

With that said, the Maverick Rambler presents its one-on-one with the AD.

Volleyball Preseason is Near the End

The Western Athletic Conference released the 2025 volleyball preseason poll and I have a suspicion that the UT Arlington Mavericks will feel a little disrespected. The defending champs were picked second by the conference's coaches.

The Utah Valley Wolverines were tagged as the preseason favorites, garnering five of the seven coaches first-place votes and a total of 34 points. UTA garnered one and the Utah Tech Trailblazers grabbed the final first-place vote. The Mavs edged the Blazers in total points, 29 to 25.

California Baptist was fourth (21), Abilene Christian (17), Tarleton State (12) and Southern Utah (9) round out the preseason poll.

2025 Schedule Detective

As summer closes and Universities across the country start to release the upcoming basketball season schedules, it is time to start compiling what we know about the UT Arlington schedules. To refresh your memories, UTA is usually makes their schedule known at the back end of school releases. They are usually quite late to the game. It gets harder and harder to schedule teams at UTA's level to get quality games, or in some cases, games at all. 

I get my non-conference information from two sources generally. The individual teams that have released their schedule already and Rocco Miller, who does about the best job out there of covering every school in the country as you'll find. Occasionally a third source comes out, but that is rare. 

Additionally, the Western Athletic Conference has released the upcoming conference slate. As was rumored, there will be a third game, ending the traditional round-robin, home-and-away format that has been the staple. Once the schedules are released, I'll opine my opinion of that and how the Mavs fare with that third game.

Here's what we know:

Facility Ranking

This summer has been the hardest to come up with content. Like last summer, I'm working on stuff that, also like last summer, hasn't panned out yet. It may not, or it may come a little later than I want, but the main point is that I think there have been fewer posts this summer than usual. 

However, I was thinking about a conversation I had on Twitter, or X, with another Mav fan about the state of Maverick Stadium from a several years ago. With the advent of a new sport coming to the venue, I was rethinking about that exchange. Specifically, what would Maverick Stadium need in terms of an upgrade or renovation.

While the pace has slowed, the have been renovations or new facilities in the last two decades that have completely changed the presentation of UT Arlington athletics from when I was a student. With that in mind, I thought about ranking the facilities on campus. Obviously, an apples-to-apples comparison is difficult, but using a base theme, like player amenities, curb appeal, fan comfort, location and overall function. the ranking can be standardized a bit.

With that framework set, here's my ranking of all Maverick athletic facilities:

Top Five 2024/25 Moments

 As July transitions into August, the end of the collegiate summer doldrums is in sight. Volleyball opens the 2025/26 athletic season at the end of the month. While many schools have been analyzing the offseason moves of their respective football team or pontificating on whether a new coach was the right hire, we UT Arlington Maverick fans are gauging if UTA can repeat as WAC champs on the volleyball court or looking for pieces to the basketball schedules.

As fall is still a lonely time for Mavs, that doesn't diminish the anticipation some have for the upcoming year. With that constraint, let's look back at past year and see the top five moments from 2024/25.

There will be some guidelines I will impose on the list. First, no team can have more than one moment. Without that constraint, it is probable that one team could own multiple spots and the list would rapidly lose balance. Second, this list will be constrained to athletic feats or milestones. For example, as excited as I am about women's flag football coming next season or as newsworthy as the Western Athletic Conference transforming to the United Athletic Conference was, they will be excluded from this list. Third, it doesn't have to be performance or scoreboard based, just has to revolve around a program at UTA.

With that framework set, let's start the countdown.

Passing of a Character

Former UT Arlington men's basketball coach Robert, Bob, "Snake" LeGrand passed away on July 19 of this year at the ripe old age of 81. For those who know the history of the Maverick program, the loss hits pretty hard. He had a personality larger than his impact on the court for the UTA basketball program.

Snake coached from the 1976/77 season to the 1986/87 year. In those 11 seasons, LeGrand compiled a career record of 122-184. That amounts to a winning percentage of .399. Within the Southland Conference, LeGrand was 30-78, a worse .278 percentage.

It is important to note several things working against Snake during this time.

UAC Find

Any time a university changes its conference affiliation, it creates headlines and is a hot topic. It creates conversations on a national scale where people who wouldn't mention a school are now discussing the changes. Some even try to present themselves as experts, though they knew little about the situation or school prior.

UTA, along with the remaining members of the Western Athletic Conference, certainly qualify as they and the members of the Atlantic Sun reorganized 15 schools into two conferences. The members of the two entities rarely garner much national attention so to hear all of these "experts" know the ins and outs of Tarleton State and Bellarmine make me chuckle.

However, I did find the following video on the WAC message board from the Big Mountain Podcast on the WAC being re-branded to the United Athletic Conference and the reorg with thew ASun. The Big Mountain guys tend to focus on all conferences in the western end of the U.S. and have more knowledge than the average folks.

A New Coat of Paint

There was big news from both a UT Arlington perspective and conference affiliation shuffling that came out this week. As has been the case for its entire history, the Western Athletic Conference will survive, despite the handwringing from the media and social media circles.

What was known prior to this week was Seattle University and Grand Canyon were out of the conference at the end of this month. Common belief among the remaining WAC members was good riddance to the second. That left seven schools, Abilene Christian, California Baptist, Southern Utah, Tarleton State, Utah Tech, Utah Valley along with UTA, for the upcoming athletic year. Seven is the minimum for an automatic berth into the men's basketball tournament.

California Baptist accepted an invitation from the Big West Conference several months ago and Utah Valley formally did the same last month. That would leave only five members for the 2026/27 athletic year. With limited options in the footprint, schools bailing for competitively weaker conferences and no Division II schools ready to move, people were predicting the WAC's demise.

End of Year

With the Western Athletic Conference Tournament over, UT Arlington baseball again getting eliminated and a sub.500 record, the year is over. With the exception of a few individuals in the track and field sports, that effectively means the 2024/25 athletic season is over.

I'll do a brief recap, later, but in the WAC tourney, the Mavericks over performed as a seven seed and went 2-2 in the field.

In the entry prior to the conference tournament, I pondered how hard it was for a team who swept another in the regular season to win a fourth game in the postseason. UTA took all three from Tarleton State, one by a run, another by two.

Somehow, the opening game was never close and it was UTA, who either wins big or loses close, who bombed the Tarleton State Texans 10-1. TSU had one of the better front-line pitchers in the WAC with Junior pitcher Brian Panneton. For whatever reason, he didn't start. The Mavs got four runs off the starter in the first inning and never looked back. UTA's Sophomore pitcher Caylon Dygert went six and a third innings pitched and gave up the one earned run. 

That was an important win as seeds five through eight play each with the loser's run in the tournament ending at one game. That set the stage for UTA taking on Utah Valley, the three seed. UTA swept the Wolverines in Arlington and going for a fourth win would be tough. 

Postseason Baseball

The UT Arlington Mavericks start the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Tuesday. This may be one of the hardest conference tournaments that UTA has participated in to handicap as UTA can play with anyone but has proven they can lose to anyone as well.

I'll start with how they got there. Going into the last two conference series of the year, UTA was on track to really move up in the standings. They were facing the two teams at the bottom of the WAC in Utah Tech on the road and Seattle at home. Sadly, they lost both series, but didn't get swept. Had they won both series, but not swept, they'd be in a tie for third place and have a first round bye. Instead, they are in sole possession of seventh place.

Against Seattle, they lost by scores of 2-6 and 5-10. I've noted a few times this year that UTA specializes in losses of three runs or less. I haven't determined if I'd rather have the Mavs lose to the only team not to make the conference tournament by larger or smaller margins. A loss is a loss, but it would have been nice to see a little more fight. The Mavs won on senior day 8-1.

To recap, UTA has a 19-31 record. Nine losses, roughly 29 percent of their total losses, are by one run. Five losses are by two runs and three L's are by three runs. Over half of the losses were a base hit or home run away from a different outcome. But when they win, it is by a large margin. 11 of the 19 wins are by five runs or more.

Maverick Stadium will see the Pigskin Again

 Big news out of Arlington Thursday as the UT Arlington Mavericks will be bringing football to the official sports offering of the Athletic Department. 

I thought about using that line on the Western Athletic Conference message boards, but wanted the full qualifier in the title there to avoid misleading the average reader. I did it to one of my sons who got really excited. He wanted to go to Maverick Stadium in the fall.

But here, either you already know the news or, for some weird reason, you choose the Maverick Rambler as your news and know my irreverent style already.

Women's Flag football will debut on campus for the Spring 2027 season.

2025 Diamond Quickhits

I wanted a fuller post on the end of the softball season and the second-to-last weekend of the baseball regular season, but big news dropped out of the UT Arlington Athletic Department today that will take the bulk of my limited time to produce these entries.

The softball team ended their season with a 4-1 loss to the host California Baptist Lancers in the Western Athletic Conference tournament. I really dislike the WAC's format, as the first games by the five through eight seeds are single-elimination, but UTA ends the year on a 4-13 slide and a once promising winning season, which hasn't happened since 2019, eluded UTA again. The Mavericks finished 24-25 on the year,

The baseball team kept their theme intact for the year. They lost a weekend series 1-2 at the last-place team in the WAC. After winning 11-1 in eight innings against Utah Tech, to open the three-game set UTA dropped game two 10-8 and game three 9-7.

Limping Towards the End

In the recent UT Arlington softball posts, I have mentioned the downward trend the team is on as the season comes to a close. The trend did not reverse itself this past weekend in the season finale and senior day at Allan Saxe Field. 

Heading into the series, UTA was 23-22. They are hoping for their first winning season since 2019. They were playing a team tied with them in the standings at their own friendly confines. They were playing for their seniors at home. All the pieces were there for a bump heading to the Western Athletic Conference tournament in Riverside California.

Coming into this weekend, UTA had won two of its last 12 games. After climbing to 21-10 and 6-3 in the WAC, the Mavericks looked like they were on pace for their best season in a while. But a sweep at the hands of Grand Canyon and series losses to Utah Valley, California Baptist, Southern Utah and now Seattle have put that in jeopardy

UTA will need to go at least 3-2 in the conference tournament for that winning record or split to avoid a losing season. There's an additional impediment that the other teams aren't facing to reach that goal.

Much Needed Weekend

The theme of the 2025 UT Arlington baseball team has been one of near misses. This past weekend did not exhibit any of the traits I have observed this season. It was one of the more dominant weekends this year.

In the last post regarding baseball, I had the following quote:

Eight one-run losses, two losses by two runs and three losses by three account for 13 of UTA's  24 losses.

Counting the week after that post, but prior to this weekend, that number had grown to nine one-run losses and three two-run losses. UTA lost by one run to Grand Canyon and had a two-run setback to Texas Christian in a midweek loss.

The Slide Continues

The UT Arlington softball team was hoping for a redemption weekend on the road against the University of Southern Utah and they were on pace for it, but for the first time that I have personally witnessed, UTA was just as big an impediment to a win as their opponent.

Going into the series, both teams were 8-10 in the Western Athletic Conference and fighting for positioning in the standings and the upcoming conference tournament. With two series left, it was a pretty big weekend.

In game one, things went about as expected. The Mavericks won 14-5 in an abbreviated five innings. The offense scored in every inning but the fourth, culminated by five in the second inning and six runs in the third. Utility Junior Marley Nieses, Sophomore catcher Mia McNulty and utility Sophomore Kaitlyn Sailor each hit a home run. Sixth-year pitcher Emilie Hoelscher picked up the win.

Shooting Blanks

I normally don't like putting two sports in the same post for a few reasons. One of those reasons is I try to try keep a theme to the post and different sports and/or teams tend to be on different trajectories or have different personalities. However, this past week, both the baseball and softball teams from UT Arlington had a very similar performance. Each had a winless weekend. While I could put up two shorter posts rather than one medium one, the theme seems fitting to keep them together.

In last week's softball entry, I noted how there was a bit of a slide entering the weekend after a really good start to the season, losing the previous two Western Athletic Conference series, winning one and losing two in consecutive weekends. Well, this past weekend was worse overall. With the ever-hated Grand Canyon Antelopes coming to Allan Saxe Field, UTA had a chance to make a little bit of noise, but it did not pan out. 

On Friday, UTA lost consecutive doubleheader games in a run-rule fashion, 3-11 and 1-10, each ending after six innings. Sophomore pitcher Abi Gutierrez started the first game and went five innings, giving up eight runs, six earned, in the loss. Sixth-year pitcher Emilie Hoelscher started the second and had a nearly equally rough outing, 5.2 innings pitched, nine runs given up, six earned. UTA never had a lead in either game.

Hitting a Stride

The UT Arlington softball team may well be the most surprising team of the current athletic season. The volleyball team won a regular season and tournament crown, bucking a general UTA trend of disappointing performances in the postseason in all sports, but were picked second in the preseason polls. The cross country teams finished in the approximate position of their pre-race picks prior to the conference race. Same with the indoor track teams. The women's basketball team was like the volleyball girls. The men's basketball team may be in the running, but in today's era of transfers nothing surprises me regardless of the preseason pick.

This blog entry would have been a little more on topic two weeks ago, but consecutive 1-2 weekends have dropped their position in the Western Athletic Conference standings. Picked in a tie for seventh in the WAC, the Mavs are currently in a tie for third. After five straight losing seasons, they are currently 22-16 overall and 8-7 in the WAC.

Looking at the stat lines for the team, there is no one dominant reason for the over .500 record. What we have seen over the last few weeks has been team play, getting a timely hit or out when needed, stiff defense and a general improvement in the team performance.

Trading One for Two

The 2025 version of the UT Arlington baseball has been a theme: fairly consistent from start to April. That consistency has been seen in the series, stats, records and performance. While the average sports fan tends to want consistency, what this UTA team has shown has been a hair below par.

I'll start with the series' so far this year. Between both conference and non-conference series, UTA has played eight to this point. All but a weather shortened two-game set against Oklahoma State saw three games played. The good news, the Mavericks have not been swept to this point in three full games. However, UTA hasn't earned a sweep either. 

UTA has won two series of the eight, the first against UT San Antonio on the road to open the year and the second occurred at Clay Gould against Little Rock in the middle of March. In addition to OSU, UTA has lost to Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Sacramento State, California Baptist, and Lamar.

To add insult to injury, UTA is 1-5 in midweek games. Sam Houston State, Oklahoma, Texas-Austin, Baylor and a ranked Dallas Baptist account for the five losses. Three were to ranked teams. UTA stopped the streak on Tuesday against TCU. It took April for the Mavs to see their first non-weekend win.

Hoops Closes Out 2025 - Women's Edition

 As mentioned at the start of the last post, the UT Arlington women's basketball team concluded their season this month. Unlike the men, they ended on a higher note. Like the men, the losses they faced were to teams that are hard to lose to in any sport. 

UTA opened the Western Athletic Conference tournament against California Baptist and after splitting the season series, UTA was looking to advance, which they did, 72-66. UTA used a nine-point first quarter advantage and two two-point second and third quarters to weather a seven-point deficit in the fourth for the six-point win. 

That set the stage for a semifinal affair with Tarleton. Like CBU, UTA split the regular season games against the Texans and were looking for a series win. UTA trailed by one at the half, but wore out the Texans for a 66-55 win. 

Hoops Closes Out 2025 - Men's Edition

Both versions of the UT Arlington basketball teams concluded their seasons at different points of March and heading into the offseason, the squads are playing different notes. In the current era of the NCAA, momentum and returnees mean little, but as a fan, it means something. So with that, let's look at the conclusion of the basketball seasons.

The men ended their campaign in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament on March 12th. Adding insult to injury was the team the Mavericks lost to in the quarterfinals. 

When UTA joined the WAC, I watched the New Mexico State / Grand Canyon University stakeholders go back-and-forth on the it's-a-rivalry/not-a-rivalry. I assumed it was due to NMSU's fan base and their reluctance to say the Aggie program, with its century of competition and long list of accomplishments, didn't want to be associated as a rival with a school that recently transitioned and had no history. Turns out, between how that school funds its athletic programs and how obnoxious its fan base is, NMSU didn't want to give the impression programs were similar. 

Ladies Tourney Tidbits

UTA opens the Western Athletic Conference Tournament tomorrow and like the men, here's some random factoids regarding the Lady Mavericks and their respective conference tournaments.

Entering the 2025 WAC tournament in Las Vegas, UTA earned the third seed after finishing in a tie for second and losing the tiebreaker to Tarleton State. It will be the seventh time UTA will enter a conference tourney at three spot.

After hosting a tourney in 1983, the Southland Conference abstained for four years, hosting the second in 1989. UTA got its first three seed in 1997, beating UTSA.

It was the first of three straight years at that seed as in 1998, the Mavericks lost to Northwestern State and in 1999, the Mavs defeated Sam Houston.

Tourney Tidbits

As mentioned yesterday, the UTA men start the conference tournament tomorrow against Grand Canyon in the late game. On the eve of the Western Athletic Conference tournament games at the Orleans Arena, here's some random conference tournament factoids surrounding the men's program.

UTA has been the seventh seed eight times amongst the three conference they have been a part of since the Southland Conference's first tourney in 1981. There were some years only four or six teams would qualify and UTA didn't make it. But this does not contain when UTA finished seventh and did not make a conference tournament.

UTA was a seventh seed seven times in the SLC, once in the Sun Belt Conference and now once in the WAC. Using math to state the obvious, this is the ninth time UTA will be a seven seed.

WAC-ing time

Both basketball teams start the conference tournament this week after different ends to the conference schedule. While there are clear favorites for both sides, both teams are certainly capable. However, enthusiasm is not where it was last year overall, though the teams seem on different trajectories.

For the ladies, after a previous five-game losing streak, they ended the year with a dominant 87-73 win over California Baptist. After trailing by three at the end of the first quarter, the Mavs got on one of those runs I mentioned were lacking in the five-game losing streak. An 18-7 stretch in the second quarter keyed the victory. A layup by Senior guard Taliyah Clark gave the Mavericks a 26-25 lead and UTA would never trail. The Mav advantage climbed to almost 20 in the third quarter. UTA did give up a 13-4 run in the fourth quarter to narrow their lead to five. Graduate forward Avery Brittingham got back-to-back baskets and the Mavs turned it on the remainder of the way to seal the victory.

On a bright spot, the 10-1 home record this year was the best home winning percentage since a 10-1 mark in 2006/07.

The win was the tenth in conference for the Mavericks. UTA tied with Tarleton State for second with a 10-6 Western Athletic Conference record. The Texans were the surprise team of the conference at an overall 19-12 mark. The teams split the regular season by winning on their home floors. By virtue of their -.0115 score in the controversial WAC resume seeding system that former WAC commissioner Brian Thornton pioneered (and was widely despised by conference members) the Texans earned the second seed. UTA had a -1.585 score.

Limping Towards the End

Sometimes it can be a challenge getting two posts up in a week when The Maverick Rambler is a hobby. I'm a proud dad who watched his oldest son go from playing the B team in football in eighth grade, cut from the seventh-grade basketball team to an every-game starter for both sports his freshman year this season. I've got two others that play all three common sports in some youth league or another. Sports seasons are hectic. Coupled with an eighteen-month-old, a full-time job, a wife that fortunately wants to spend time with me, time is at a premium. 

Each post usually takes several hours to compose, edit and, despite the errors that do make it, proofread. I'm not a fan of articles that say little and exist to be clicked on. While I could say X team did this, it was ____ and they do this next, I like to get a little more in depth. That however, takes time. The writing time is large, but manageable. The research is much larger.

I strive to get at least one post a week for the sports going at the time. Most times that morphs into late season sports getting the bulk of the attention. I want to get both basketballs into the mix, but in the last three weeks, the women's team was neglected. 

That's a long-winded way of saying, I'm combining the two teams into this week's post. It fits as well as when the theme of this point in the season is similar.

Home Stretch

As the 2024/25 season is on its way to the record books, the UT Arlington men's basketball team had an eventful two weeks in latter February, setting the stage for an interesting end to the regular season. The road will be uphill, but a successful 2-1 homestand was really needed.

The start came in a dramatic come-from-behind win over California Baptist. The Mavericks trailed by 17 points in the second half. That Lancer lead was built with five minutes gone after halftime. At the time, CBU was sitting solidly in third place in the Western Athletic Conference and it looked like the standings would be reflected in the score.

After trading three points, the lead was still 17 for the Lancers when UTA went on a 20-2 run to grab a brief lead. UTA needed only five minutes or so to do it as well. In these scenarios, I like to highlight someone who keyed the run, but so many Mavs contributed via steals, offensive rebounds, made shots and even free throws (which has been the Mavs Achilles Heel this year) that it is hard to name one person.

Test Time

 It was a successful last week for the UT Arlington women's basketball team as they avenged their lone conference loss and put a little separation in the Western Athletic Conference standings between themselves and third place. That sets the stage for the toughest week of the conference season as two road trips to good teams await.

When the Mavericks previously played Utah Valley in Orem, Utah on January 16, UTA got an early lead in the first quarter before losing it, then in the second, the deficit climbed to double digits. The Mavs were unable to climb out of that hole as they basically played even from that point.

In Arlington last week, the formula was the same in the first half, but in the third quarter, UTA used several mini runs to stay within striking distance, which culminated in their first lead since the beginning of the game with less than a minute to go until the fourth. UVU answered and the fourth started with a tie game.

Streaking Down Again

Counting this new entry, the Maverick Rambler has made three posts regarding the UT Arlington men's basketball team in Western Athletic Conference play, and all of them involve a streak, either winning or losing. The first one dealt with the four-game losing streak to open conference play, while the second had an equal streak of four, just those games went in the win column. 

Now, after this past week's performance, two road games in the WAC, the Mavericks again embarked on a losing streak, plunging two games below .500 and now sit sixth in the standings.

The first loss wasn't unexpected, but to say the score differential was disappointing is an understatement. The Utah Valley Wolverines are in first at this point by 1.5 games and have a 4-1 record against teams sitting in second through fourth. They are in the driver's seat to say the least. 

But they are a great example of where UTA could be, as the Mavs had a late, multi-possession lead in regulation and ultimately a tie game in overtime with single-digit seconds remaining. They can compete with anyone in the conference. But in Orem on Thursday, that did not seem to be the case.

Halfway There

While the most memorable basketball comes in March, the best and most meaningful regular season basketball occurs in February and as the UT Arlington men's team starts the month, they have made a noticeable effort at the end of January to help give February more meaning.

The last time the Maverick Rambler posted about the UTA men, they were last in the Western Athletic Conference at 0-4. Now, the streak is the same, just in the other direction as the Mavs stopped the slide with a win against Seattle (65-56), a road win at Abilene Christian (79-76 in OT) and rematch wins in Arlington versus Southern Utah (70-68) and Utah Tech (73-71).

I mentioned in the last post that Head Coach K.T. Turner was 9-4 when playing a team from the Western Athletic Conference a second and third time. The two wins this week moved that mark to 11-4 and 2-0 this year. 

Tighter than Expected

When the Western Athletic Conference started play for the women's basketball teams, I thought the UT Arlington squad was a top half, but not top third team overall. I believed they might pull off an upset or two, but that there would be a clear hierarchy for the teams.

But as of this post, the team sits in second place with a solid 7-1 record halfway through the conference season, one game behind preseason favorite Grand Canyon, who, as much as it pains me to give this private (not) not-for-profit private school diploma mill the top spot, was my pick to win the regular season.

Now, there's a bit of a catch. The Mavericks have had an easy start to the schedule. Of the top four teams, UTA notwithstanding, UTA is only 1-1 so far. Against the bottom half, the remaining four teams, UTA is 6-0. 

Is Ice Cold too Warm?

Four games into the 2025 Western Athletic Conference schedule and there's no more worst-case scenario as far as result go than this for the UT Arlington men's basketball team. The Mavericks sit at the bottom of the standings at 0-4, tied with Abilene Christian one-quarter through the WAC slate.

The small bright side is that three of the losses were on the road and the fourth was to the conference leader at home. In that game, and two others, UTA had a lead late and could not hold it. The WAC has a good track record of home team wins, so the possibility of a rebound similar to last year is there, but the Mavs have to figure something out.

I heard Josh Sours mention before the Utah Valley broadcast that UTA was kind of in a must win situation when he interviewed head coach KT Turner in the pre-game. With every team making the conference tournament, I don't agree with that sentiment. A regular season championship is ceremonious in meaning and only the tournament winner has weight. 

But, as far as confidence and fan support, I think he's right.

Mixed Results with an Upward Trend

It's been roughly a month since the Maverick Rambler checked in on the UT Arlington women's basketball team, much too long by any metric. They last appeared here with a 3-5 record in non-conference, closing in on the start of the regular season.

After getting a quality 61-57 win at home against the Houston Cougars, the Mavs sat 2-5 against Division I competition and the Florida International Panthers sitting on the horizon to complete the WAC/CUSA scheduling agreement.

UTA would close the remaining three conference games with a couple of wins and a loss to UT San Antonio on the road. On of the wins was to the NAIA's Wiley College. UTA closed out the non-conference schedule with a 5-6 record, 3-6 against DI.

This will likely get repetitive, but graduate transfer forward Koi Love and fellow graduate student forward Avery Brittingham led the charge, got a combined 84 points and 50 rebounds in the three games.

Conference Eve

The non-conference portion of the schedule has concluded for both UT Arlington basketball teams, as well as all of the Western Athletic Conference teams, and for both genders the results are mixed. The good news, except for a couple of outliers either way, UTA's fortunes were the same as their conference brethren. I'll get a separate post about the women soon.

On the men's side, they last appeared in The Maverick Rambler right before their Thanksgiving event in Florida. In what I thought would be a good measuring stick on where the Mavs stood, Murray State defeated UTA in a neutral game, 79-66. The Mavericks trailed 14 at the half and won the second by a point. In what will be a trend in losses, they shot poorly behind the arc, four of 17. Transfer Graduate Student forward Lance Ware kept them in it as best he could with 26 points and nine rebounds. 

UTA rebounded in the next game, 68-58 against the Atlantic Sun Conference's Austin Peay. The Mavs made five more three's with the same number of attempts. Junior transfer guard Brody Robinson led the way with 16, of which only six points came from three-point land. UTA trailed by as much as five in the second half, got a brief lead after five minutes gone then traded leads for about five minutes. The final portion of the second half was all UTA.