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.