It's been a while for the Maverick Rambler, there was a perfect storm of factors the last month or so. First, as happens every year, February and March has the most activity from the UT Arlington Athletic Department than any other point. Both basketball teams are in the final stretch, baseball and softball started their seasons as did the tennis teams. The Western Athletic Conference meet occurred for the indoor track teams. That is 8 of the 15 programs (17 now I suppose with the wheelchair basketball teams). I don't really cover golf, as I'm not much of an enthusiast and covering them would be generic at best, but I believe their seasons have started too. I always get paralysis of options this time of year. Several ideas at once ironically leads to less coverage and writer's block.
Secondly, I volunteer at my son's school to do public address for the basketball teams. He just finished his first year on the varsity team in the playoffs and that took a lot of my personal time. These are moments I won't get back as a dad as I walk the path so I'm doing my best to treasure it while it goes on.
Third, I had a personal matter pop up a couple of weeks ago that both required lots of my time and attention, while also stifling my motivation to write.
And the fourth reason... Candidly, things just haven't been going well as a whole. I'll touch on each team in this post, something I generally don't like doing. But I've seen the blasé feeling is shared by other Mav fans too. Some good things are happening as well, so I don't want to sound all bad.
-MEN'S BASKETBALL-
Since, my last post roughly a month ago (yikes), the men's basketball team has gone from first in the WAC to fourth, with a record of 1-6 in that time frame. UTA played most every other WAC team in that span: Utah Tech (@ UT 84-87 OT & vs. 63-50), Utah Valley (@UVU 60-81 & vs 54-66), Abilene Christian (@ACU 63-67, nationally televised), Southern Utah (vs 73-78) and California Baptist (@ CBU 56-68).
A brief overview of the games shows a common thread; they generally play well in the second half. Obviously, that is a good thing. However, the team has at least one cold stretch offensively that either closes the gap of a lead, or the deficit becomes too big a hole to climb out of by the end of 40 minutes.
The team struggles offensively, scoring 70.6 points a game, good for last in the seven team WAC. On the plus side, they are second in points allowed at 67.4 ppg. There are three teams with a plus five or better rebounding margin. UTA is third. Ironically, CBU is first at +7.3. In the three games UTA played versus the Lancers, UTA's margin against the best team in the WAC was a plus three, plus four and net zero. In short, UTA generally controls the boards in games.
That's an odd combo for a team that is below .500 in conference play at 7-9. A team that plays defense well and outrebounds their opponents tends to win. It just hasn't happened for the men's team. Going back to January 31st, UTA is 1-7. There have been losses by ten points (in overtime), three (in double OT), 21, four, five, 22 and 12. The two losses by 20 came in games against WAC leader Utah Valley. UTA has wins against everyone else in the conference.
UTA owns the season series to Utah Tech and Southern Utah, both at 2-1. CBU has the advantage versus UTA at 1-2. The only team that has swept UTA is UVU while the Mavs have no sweeps.
UTA plays tonight at Tarleton State and return to Abilene on Saturday. Those are winnable games and UTA has split the series with both teams to this point. However, they are road games and nothing has come easy in conference play to this point. The Mavericks have just as much ability to win these games as they do to lose them. There's so much parity in the WAC this year.
UTA cannot do better than their current fourth place finish in conference play. Utah Tech is in third, a half game back of California Baptist at 11-6. CBU has five losses. A win in either game for UTA will lock in fourth place as they are a game up on SUU and have the tiebreaker. Meanwhile, the Mavs are two games up on both TSU and ACU, meaning a win will put UTA out of their reach.
However, there's a real possibility UTA could finish as low as sixth. SUU plays the top two teams in the WAC and two Thunderbird wins catapults them ahead of UTA if they drop both games. ACU plays UTA and CBU. If the Wildcats win both and UTA loses to TSU, ACU vaults over the Mavs.
Two Mav wins would set a great foundation for the WAC tournament starting in roughly a week. Two losses keeps the current 1-7 slide going and is cause for concern. A split locks in fourth-place and keeps a question mark over the team.
Note: the Utah Valley versus WAC feud is in unknown territory right now. The Wolverines got a win in court for a temporary ability to participate in WAC championships. That meant the indoor track team was able to compete and the men did win a WAC title. However, the time period doesn't extend to the basketball tournaments. A longer term judgement will be made shortly before the tournament starts.
This effects UTA in two ways. UVU will be no worse that third, but odds are good they will be regular season champs, either shared or outright if they beat fifth-place SUU. If they do win against the Thunderbirds, UVU will be the one-seed. If UTA is fourth or fifth, they will be on the UVU side of the bracket. They are the only team I think that just is better in a head-to-head matchup.
Bottomline, we will know a lot more after today's games.
-WOMEN'S BASKETBALL-
On the women's side, they've struggled all year in conference play after a .500 non-conference mark against good teams. I haven't reference them since mid-January, but they are sitting in sixth place with a 4-12 WAC mark.
This may be the most maddening team of all of them. They are in many of their games. Seven losses have come in single digits. CBU and ACU are on that list, who are first and second respectively in the WAC. But so is Utah Tech, who is last and a half game back of UTA.
Like the men, they have a formula. It seems every game, even wins, they get behind early, usually by double digits, then make a furious comeback in the fourth quarter. Most times, the comeback isn't enough and they lose a close game.
Also like the men, offense is at a premium. UTA is last in points per game at 61.1, more the two behind sixth-place Utah Valley. Defensively, they are sixth at 67.1. They are only percentage points better than seventh place. A single digit negative scoring margin, seems right for the season they are having. Factor out a more than 50-point loss to Louisiana State and the margin gets closer.
Another factor is the turnover rate. The Mavs turn it over more than any other WAC school and it isn't close. At 20.68, they are way behind sixth-place Utah Valley's 17.96. It just seems like both genders have suffered from the TO bug recently. When the offense sits where they do statistically, TO's hurt even worse.
Freshman of the year candidate Kira Reynolds has been a force at the froward/center position. Senior forward Laura Bello and junior Jadyn Atchison, who is listed at guard, but has played in the paint well, have done well inside in addition to Reynolds. While senior point guard Nya Threatt has played very well at point, there is little, consistent guard play offensively has been lacking. There is no guard in the top 20 in conference scoring. There's only seven teams in the WAC. Only UTA has one-player in the top 20. ACU (3), CBU (5), SUU (3), TSU (3), UT (3) and UVU (2) all have at least one on the list. UTA is also the only one lacking a guard.
Despite being last in points allowed per game, UTA does have a few defensive bright spots. They are tied for third in defensive field goal percentage and first in defensive three-point percentage. The block more shots than all but one team in the WAC and get steals better than all but two teams.
Unlike the men, the parity in conference is not there. It will take a major upset for a team fourth or below to win in Las Vegas. Based on the work to this point, the WAC is a three-horse race and the best UTA can do is play spoiler. UTA's best hope is to ride their defense and not turn it over.
The last two home games occur this week. Today the Texans of Tarleton come, then ACU makes a trip Saturday for Senior day. UTA cannot do better than sixth place. They sit three games behind fourth-place UVU and mathematically cannot catch the Wolverines.
The Mavericks are 1.5 games behind Tarleton. The Texans play once this week and if UTA wins both, including versus TSU, they will be tied. But Tarleton has won both the previous games in Stephenville and owns the tiebreaker.
UTA can fall to seventh. Right now, the Mavs have a half game lead on Utah Tech. The Trailblazers go to Utah Valley for UT's only game this week. A 'Blazer win and two UTA losses put the Mavs in last place. That hasn't happened in over a decade. UTA also hasn't been second to last in over a decade either, so it was just an underwhelming year. Like the men, the season prospects can be improved this week and next.
And just an opinion I want to express, I really despise the three-game series the basketball teams have experienced in WAC play this year. A double-round robin is the gold standard to me. Hoping to draw certain teams at home twice or avoiding the top team at home while another school doesn't is highly unfair. I could give examples, as it likely played a factor in UVU beating CBU on the men's side or UTA possibly losing a spot in the standings on the women's side because they went to Tarleton twice, but it has other effects. I feel more mentally fatigued trying to sort out a third game, then seeing if where the previous games in the series were. I know why it was done, but I'm glad it isn't happening next year.
-INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD-
The WAC's indoor track and field meet was this past weekend. Both UTA teams were picked third in the preseason tally made by the coaches. In the five-team men's field and six-team women's lineup, that is exactly where they ended up.
There were some highlights, but like the note I put up in the paragraph, a seven-team meet is rife with competitive problems. In one event, the 3000 meter run, the UVU men took the top six spots. There was not a lot of other participants. For those unfamiliar with track meet scoring, a first-place finish nets ten points. Second nets eight while the bronze position earns six. Fourth through eighth get five through one point respectively. UVU got 36 points in one event. That's almost a fifth of their total score. In fact, four events scored 52 percent of UVU's points. There are 14 total events.
On the men's side, UTA scored 114.5, behind UVU's 197.5 and Tarleton State's 174. The tally for the women was 153.5, behind TSU's 180.5 and UVU's 159.
Freshman Arieanna McPeak earned co-performer of year in the field, garnering 16 points for the women. Her second place finishes in long and triple jump accounted for all 16 points.
The men's last conference championship was earned in 2019 while the women's previous title came in 2001. It was the second straight third for the men. The women finished fourth last year.
-SOFTBALL-
The Mav softballers have been playing for roughly a month now and the results are mixed. They are 8-12 on the young year and have shown tremendous offense. The have scored an average of one run an inning nine times in the 20 games.
Unfortunately, they are 3-6 in those games because the pitching has been suspect. The Mavs are second in the WAC in runs scored per game, but are second to last in runs allowed per game. The Mavericks have used four pitchers so far this year. None have an earned run average below five. Only one is below six and a half.
There have been very odd scores of 6-11, 15-16, 8-9, 20-12, 11-15, 7-15, 6-14, etc. This has occurred in a schedule that doesn't appear very daunting after the month. UTA was picked third in the preseason poll of seven teams. It appears that will come on the strength of an improved offense.
UTA is doing this on a relatively young roster. Of the 13 position players who have played in at least half of the games played, only four are seniors or above. Three are juniors, two are sophomores and three are freshmen.
One freshman, infielder Valeria Feeney, was named the WAC's player of the week on Monday. On the year, she is hitting .352, tallying 19 hits, 16 runs batted in, ten runs scored, five doubles, two triples and one home run.
UTA plays Southeastern Louisiana at Allan Saxe Field today, is off this weekend, travels to Prairie View A&M on Wednesday, then hosts the Maverick Invitational next weekend. Conference play starts the weekend after that.
-BASEBALL-
To say it has been a rough start to the season for the UTA baseball team would be an understatement. The team sits at 3-9 on the young season. They were swept by former Southland Conference foe Northwestern State at their place to start the year. They got their first win in a mid-week match-up against ranked TCU at Globe Life Field. They lost their first home series to Lamar, winning the first game before dropping the last two. Dallas Baptist won at Clay Gould. A masterful pitching job won the first game against ranked Arkansas before they dropped the next two. In the most recent game, another mid-week contest at Clay Gould, UTA lost to Air Force. They host Louisiana-Monroe this coming weekend.
Oddly enough, UTA seems to better against teams with better records. I'll let the ranked wins speak for themselves as UTA sports a 2-2 there. They are 1-7 against unranked teams with the lone win against a team that has won roughly two-thirds of their games so far. NWST is 7-6 on the year. Lamar is 8-5, as is DBU. Air Force sports a 3-8 mark.
Now obviously records can be very skewed at this point, but it does show an oddity early on. Outside of two losses to sixth-ranked Arkansas 9-0 and 11-1, the 7-1 loss to Air Force looks to be really bad.
Now much of that oddity is due to junior all-everything Caylon Dygert. He went 8.2 innings against the Razorbacks, giving up two runs, none earned, to go with two walks and 11 strikeouts. He gave up as many hits, two, as the reliever who got the final out.
And while I don't give a lot of credence to of-the-week honors, they are highly subjective, I'm still fuming that the WAC gave the pitcher of the week to Utah Tech's sophomore righthander Talan Kelly. He earned a win in relief, going 2.1 innings in one outing, no hits allowed, no runs and five strikeouts against a Northern Colorado team that has one win in 14 tries. There's no question the only right answer was a vote for Dygert. What a joke!
Back to UTA, the offense has been inconsistent. They scored 11, 10 and four in the three wins. They have losses of 3-2, 5-4 and 5-3. A little more offense, an extra hit here and there, and those are wins. There have also been losses of 8-3, 10-3, 6-1 and 7-1. I'm not listing the two losses to top-ten Arkansas. as they are just a dominant team. Those bigger losses have one-thing in common, low run production.
An extra kick to the crotch is what is happening in Baylor. I've reference former Mav Ryan Black transferring to Georgia. Black put up a lot of numbers here, goes there and didn't play in more than half the games. Well, former first baseman Tyce Armstrong and second baseman Cade Dodson transferred to Baylor this offseason.
In his first game, Armstrong hit three home runs, all grand slams. For a while, he had more RBI than his former team. Currently, he has 21 while UTA has 40 total.
Meanwhile, Dodson is the more cautionary tale. Last year, he hit .324 last year, 69 hits with 16 doubles, five home runs, 20 walks, three hit by pitches, 45 runs and 28 RBI for UTA. This year, in Baylor's 12 games, he has started six and played in an additional three more. His batting average is .083, two hits, no extra bases, three walks, three HBP, five runs scored and four RBI. He is just a sophomore this year, but I suspect both he and UTA would have better production if he stayed in Arlington.
Senior Xavier Melendez is playing second now, but Dodson does play third and UTA's production at the hot corner has been limited this year.
Unfortunately, that is just the reality in the portal era.
UTA was picked last in the preseason poll. Early returns seem to indicate that isn't far off. However, If Dygert keeps doing what he has done, that could really alter the race. However, the offense has to find a higher gear more consistently.
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