Starting Strong

If you asked the average UT Arlington fan about their expectations for the 2025/26 men's basketball season, I'm not sure there would have been a consistent consensus. I know some eternally optimistic fans who believe every year is UTA's year. Conversely, I've seen the opposite end of the spectrum where some are of the opinion this will be a disaster.

For those in the middle or those like me who give it an honest attempt at as close to an unbiased look as possible, it is difficult. In the portal era where UTA has seen over 80 percent roster turnover in consecutive seasons, having any kind of expectation either way is increasingly less certain than a Las Vegas roulette table. 

This summer, Athletic Director Jon Fagg told me he thought the team had a high ceiling and would get some wins. Well, the early returns show he may have had the best take. To be fair, I don't get to watch practice and see how the new team looks. 

End of November Quick Hits

I wanted to touch on a number of sports for this week, so instead of doing half a dozen separate blog entries of varying lengths, I'm going to wrap all of them into this is one single entry. I don't normally do that, but I suspect that will prevent a post overload that I feel would have happened with six in a short period of time. I'll go in chronological order to avoid confusion.

-THE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL season ended a week ago. Prior to the start of the Western Athletic Conference tournament, the All-WAC teams and postseason accolades were given. Even though there were two Maverick players leading the conference in their respective stat categories, I wasn't expecting a player of the year honor for the team, given its fifth of seven finish in conference. Junior setter Mira Ledermueller was first in the WAC in assists with 896 and assists per set at 9.05 to conclude the regular season. Second place had 860 and 7.89 respectively. Junior libero Samantha Glenn had 422 total digs in the regular season, good for second in the conference and had 4.18 digs a set, good for first. 

What irked me is neither made an all-conference team. Senior outside hitter Jalie Tritt was a second-team member. There were two freshmen on the All-Freshman team: middle blocker Sophia Krichev and middle blocker Camryn McMinn.

Early Hoops Return

While the early 2-4 record for the UT Arlington women's basketball team isn't appealing on the surface, there's certainly things about this team that should build excitement for the part of the schedule that matters most, conference play.

Looking over the Western Athletic Conference, scores have not indicated a true favorite like there was last year. UTA's schedule was known to be challenging prior to the start of the season. Given the Mavericks recent conference performances the last few years, it seems something is working. The hope is this translates to a success WAC performance.

The Mavs opened the season with two straight losses at Houston (59-76) and at home to Missouri State (53-69). The first win was in College Park Center to Wyoming (64-44) and a second in a row to Tennessee State (78-58). In the one-that-got-away category, UTA suffered a 55-66 loss at Lamar. There, they led the Cardinals 38-26 with less than a minute gone in the 3rd quarter and it ended with the Mavs down 44-45. Most recently in the Hawaii North Shore Showcase, UTA slugged it out with Colorado, dropping another 60-71. In that game, UTA had a lead late in the first quarter before it ended in a tie. UTA was trailing by a point before a basket as time expired gave the Buffaloes a three-point lead at the half. The game was tied again halfway through the third before Colorado went on a spurt to keep the lead for good. UTA trimmed the lead to one with two minutes gone in the fourth, but gave up an 8-0 that was integral to the 11-point defeat.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 12 - End with a High Note

I flip through dozens of games on Saturday afternoon nights during the college football season. I don't remember which broadcaster, but one last week or one prior said they couldn't believe how fast the season had progressed. I echo that as today is the final entry of the 2025 This Day in UTA Football History.

The Maverick Rambler ends with the 1980 season. It's been well established that '80 was a season of promise that came up very short. Maverick Stadium opened and UTA got its first win in their new home last week, a 36-14 win over Arkansas State. With that win, UTA was 1-5 at home for the 1980 season.

Certainly a mark that low was not on anyone's hopes or dreams to start the year. Losses of 17, ten, 12, 20 and 17 didn't give UTA fans much excitement either. The Mavs beat themselves, just as much as the opponent did.

Start Looks Good but ...

The 3-1 start to the 2025/26 looks good for the UT Arlington men's basketball team. And it is certainly better than 2-2 or, heaven forbid, 1-3. But this part of the season makes judging where the basketball team is or what they can be very difficult. 

The mark was attained by beating two non-NCAA schools, not just non-Division I. They opened the season against North Texas-Dallas, which seems to be a regular occurrence of late. They were on the Mavs schedule last year as well as the prior year. The relatively new National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school has gone 0-3 in those games. UTA won 91-40. A general rule of thumb for me is UTA needs to win these games by double.

Most recently, they played Arlington Baptist, a National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) school that has an enrollment in the low hundreds. UTA played them for the first time and won 117-61.

But I have a thought after looking at those two games.

Disappointing Conclusion

It was a rough end to the 2025 volleyball season for the UT Arlington Mavericks as the team dropped the last three matches of the schedule, losing on senior day to the Utah Valley Wolverines, 0-3, to the last-place Southern Utah Thunderbirds 1-3 and to the Utah Tech Trailblazers, 0-3.

To briefly recap, the Mavs scored 20 or more in each set loss to UVU. I was really impressed with the way they hung in there to the more imposing front line of UVU. They found ways to make their offense work, but were just overpowered in the end. 

They scored 21 and 20 in the first two sets against SUU, before claiming a 25-18 set three win. In the fourth, they only notched 19. That was the most disappointing loss of the three, and was the first all-time to the Thunderbirds. It almost appeared like they were looking ahead.

Against UT, it looked like the Trailblazers clearly remembered UTA won in Arlington (which cost them an outright conference title), as they allowed the Mavericks only 16, 18 and 19 in the three sets. It was less of what UTA did or didn't do, but more that UT was not going to let senior day slip away.

UTA FB History: Vol. 9 Gm. 11 - Bowl Conception

This is not something I do very often, but in this week's edition of This Day in UTA Football History, I want to highlight a specific opponent. It is a noteworthy one that has left a lasting impact to even this day for one primary reason.

At last check in with the 1975 team in this year's edition, the Mavericks lost their third Southland Conference game in three tries to the Southwestern Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, 35-32. The following week, the team won their first conference game against Lamar, 37-24. That win snapped a two-game losing streak to the Cardinals and was the first of 11 straight wins in the series. The win also snapped a season-high four-game losing streak for the year, a losing streak that derailed an optimistic 2-2 start.

Sitting at 3-6 overall and 1-3 in the Southland, the Mavericks were an improving bunch, but still a few pieces short. With just one win the prior year, the first of an eventual ten season for head coach Harold "Bud" Elliott, it was clear 1975 was a better year.

The bad news? Longtime conference foe Arkansas State was on the schedule today. After going 3-0-1 to start their series as SLC rivals, the Rebels/Mavs had won once in seven tries versus the then Indians, now Red Wolves, since that start prior to 1975. Starting with the slugfest of 1968, UTA had lost four straight. A one-point win in 1972 temporarily stopped the slide before two more losses were added in the subsequent two seasons. The average score was 24 to 10 in favor of the Indians. And that average includes the one-point win in '72 and the one-point loss in '68. And it still was that lopsided.

It was about to get worse.