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.