Coaching Carousel

I had wondered what would happen in the offseason regarding the UT Arlington volleyball team in more than one regard. The loss of five graduate seniors, four of whom were regular starters, casts a lot of question marks coming into next season. Now another question is added.

Announced on Friday, J.T. Wenger, the head coach for the past eight years, will become the next head coach for the Gonzaga Bulldogs of the West Coast Conference. He leaves the Mavs after a career 140-92 record, good for a .603 winning percentage.

I wondered if he would catapult the 29-3 2024 season with the regular season and Western Athletic Conference tournament championship that resulted in an NCAA tournament appearance into a higher profile, higher resourced or more nationally-known job. I wasn't sure either way if he would for one main reason. 

There's a New Sheriff in Town

I'm in California for spring break, so this commentary is delayed more than I would have liked, given its magnitude. The UT Arlington Athletic Department is in the process of finalizing the hiring of current University of Kentucky assistant coach K.T. Turner as the 11th head coach in the program's University history (10th if you remove interim coaches).

Social media is showing a lot of excitement over the hire. In his history, Turner hasn't stayed anywhere very long (more on that later in the post). He was with the Wildcat program for one season. In 2021/2022, Turner was an assistant with the Oklahoma Sooners men's team. He was there for only one season as he was an assistant with the University of Texas-Austin for the 2020/21 basketball season. 

The longest stretch of his career at one place was a seven-season stop as an assistant at SMU. Interestingly, he was an assistant with the Mustangs under two different head coaches from 2013/14 to 19/20. That period was an anomaly as he was at Wichita State for one season, 2012/13, the year prior. In what is more the trend than an outlier, He was an assistant at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for just one season in 2011/12. 

A Coaching Change Hold my Beer

This one won't be a long one. Maybe there's too much deja vu from the last time the UT Arlington men's basketball team made a coaching change. It was announced on Friday that Greg Young has essentially been fired mid-season. I'm just in a WTF frame of mind. 

It's not like the Mavericks were underperforming. The currently sit in 10th in the WAC, right where the media pre-season poll had them and one spot better than the coaches. There's a young roster full of potential talent. In the current NCAA era, that doesn't mean much for the long run as the transfer portal has made some non-power schools a farm system for the "bigger" universities. There are only two seniors on the team. Had G.Y. stayed, next year could have been a big year. Now, maybe not. Roster turnover is common in coaching changes. I see no reason that won't be the case here too.

A young team will struggle, as evidenced by close games against good teams and inexplicable losses to teams at or below the Mavericks. But there have been upsets this year too. At this point, the only reason I'd see you firing a coach would be due to that young talent not being developed. That's now not the case. UTA has won four of seven. Of the three losses in that time frame, only Abilene Christian was lopsided. Yes, letting Tarleton slip away hurt, but again, that's what young teams in Division I do the vast majority of the time. 

Another Coach Leaves

 On this week, in As the UTA Coaches Carrousel Turns, another sport is looking to replace a head coach. At the beginning of the month, the UT Arlington Athletic Department announced that PeeJay Brun was resigning after five seasons of running the program. 

Unlike Coach Darrin Thomas' resignation, this one doesn't move the needle as much for me. Coach Thomas was at UTA when I was a student broadcaster and I built a casual relationship with him. He was in the department for over 20 years. He had a decent run a little less than midway through his career. Conversely, he also was facing a growing call of Maverick fans wanting a change at the helm. There's not much of the latter that I was aware of with Coach Brun.

Some similarities do exist however. Both are spring sports where UTA has traditionally done well. Both led programs that have all-time winning records. Both replaced a head coach who finished sub-.500, but whose predecessor prior won less than they lost. Both ended their time in Arlington with two, full losing seasons in a row after the NCAA shut down 2020 play in the spring. And finally, both play in the toughest mid-major conference, if not the toughest, in the NCAA. The Sun Belt top-to-bottom can compete with any team in the NCAA.

But Thomas also made an NCAA tournament (though one in 15 years isn't a resume builder), won a conference title (again, just one), and a Sun Belt Division championship. While SBC softball hasn't split into divisional play while UTA was a member, the rest of the softball accolades are pretty bare, with one exception.

Baseball Skipper Resigns

 Big news out of Arlington on Monday for the baseball team as Head Coach Darin Thomas announced he was resigning after a 15-39 season, which saw the worst winning percentage and the highest number of losses since 2007. Overall, 2022 ranks as the second worst in losses, tied with 1977 (2007 saw 40) and is the fourth worst winning percentage.

I detailed earlier how young the team was, but UTA has had young teams before. I'm not sure what happened, but this was the second losing season in a row. I'm not sure how much of a factor that played in Coach Thomas' decision.

What I'm also not sure of is what was in play in the background. I know a lot of fans were ready for a change. Given how Athletic Director Jim Baker canned Men's Basketball Coach Scott Cross for not making the NCAA's, it seemed odd how baseball was allowed to stay in a field of mediocrity.

Consider the following two trends.

He Deserved Better

My plan is to go over this painful topic and be done with it. It's certainly old news by now. However, for most Mav faithful, it still burns. A lot of the historical what-ifs surround the football program, with a smattering for other programs (such as a new basketball venue in the 1970's). Yet there is a big one for recent memory.

The firing of Scott Cross.

Change at the Top

So much to write about right now in regards to the UT Arlington athletic program. After I put up the last men's basketball post, I started on an entry for the women's basketball team. Then came word about Coach Diane Seymour stepping down as head volleyball coach. Then, I don't know if you heard, but UTA beat UT Austin on Tuesday. Then there's some fallout from that. All of which are deserving of its own commentary. So just bear with me as I navigate the flood of topics coming out of Mav land.

On Monday, it was announced that Coach Seymour was retiring. She spent 13 years at the head of the program, amassing a 211-195 mark. She spent the previous eight seasons as an assistant coach under Janine Smith and was a player during the late 1980's, which is the period of the program's greatest achievements.

There's no question she is dedicated to the University and the community, as she was also an Arlington ISD product before starting at UTA. I knew her as a student broadcaster in the early 2000's traveling with the team broadcasting events for UTA Radio. So I don't take it lightly when I say that I believe the change was overdue.