First-place UTA Mavericks

Back in a past life when I used to work at a popular local sports radio station, the Texas Rangers were in the midst of another losing season. They were last in the four-team AL West from 2000 to 2003. They were third place from 2004 to 2006. All but one of those seasons resulted in an overall losing record. During one of those years, they had a great April and either the end of that month or the start of May, the Rangers receptionist was answering the phone “first-place Texas Rangers.” The radio station got that audio and saved it and would use it often. It was an occasional jab at the Rangers, as the schedule to that point when the audio was recorded was quite easy, but it transitioned to just a general descriptor of the team. Then, after I left the station, it became an accurate way, perhaps even a proud way, to describe the team as they made their runs in the early teens.

I give that long intro to relay the first thing that came to my mind after an epic game between the California Baptist Lancers and the Utah Valley Wolverines. UVU entered the day half a game ahead of the UT Arlington Mavericks in the Western Athletic Conference standings. When CBU won, one easy phrase popped into my head.

First-place UTA Mavericks.

First Week In - the Good

With a slight hiccup at home, the 3-1 start for the UT Arlington men's basketball team was about as perfect a start to Western Athletic Conference play as there could be. Even with the loss, the start is as good as could be expected by Maverick fans. Excitement is building and the players are clearly showing confidence.

It has helped that UTA has played three of the four games to open WAC play at home. As I've watched the season unfold, both non-conference and the first two weeks of Western Athletic Conference play there are legitimately five teams that could win the regular season and six have a realistic shot. The lone road game to this point was versus the one team that I don't think can make a case they will finish near the top and are currently in last place. 

With road games this week against two competitive teams, we'll have a better idea of where UTA could be to start the conference tournament in Las Vegas. But before I get into that, let's look into the first two weeks of conference play.

First Week In - the Bad

The UT Arlington women's basketball team was given a gauntlet of a schedule by the Western Athletic Conference to open conference play and the record reflects it. At 0-4, UTA has a hole to climb out of the rest of the way.

Credit to Derryl Trujillo on Twitter, or X, for getting to this stat first as teams in the WAC are 11-4 when they play on their home floor. That's not a terribly good stat for this squad as their schedule has three of the first four conference games away from the friendly confines of College Park Center. The lone home game featured a team that has a legitimate chance to win the conference regular season title. 

The losing streak was also exacerbated by the injury report. The good news for UTA is much of that slump came with senior point guard Nya Threatt out. She was back on the floor after missing the first three WAC games to start conference play. She returned to action against Abilene Christian on Saturday.