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. 

WAC Basketball Facilities Ranking

I wrote the following post on the WAC message boards on CSNBBS.com. I had pondered it for a while, and after rediscovering an article where the Sun Belt Conference coaches ranked College Park Center the best in the conference, I had a renewed vigor to do the same for UTA's current home. After a robust conversation on Twitter, there is no better home for this than here on the Maverick Rambler.

I ranked all 13 current members in the conference. New Mexico State and Sam Houston State will depart, but since there are no new members on the horizon, I say the more the merrier.

The list includes on-campus venues only. All schools played three-quarters of their games on-campus and as such, I believed that ranking was best. 

With out further ado, ranked worst to first, here's the list of best on-campus basketball venues.

The Grass is Decidedly NOT Greener

 I came across some interesting tidbits due in part to the UT Arlington men's basketball coaching change. I briefly mentioned it in the last post, but one of my main concerns is losing the High School pipeline that was temporarily halted when Scott Cross was fired.

Some of that was mended when Royce "Snoop' Johnson was added to the staff of failed head coach Chris Ogden. That still didn't help as many of the local coaches had a loyalty of some kind or another to Cross. Some of the coaches were his former players and highly looked down on the way the school and Athletic Director departed with Cross.

When Greg Young was promoted and Johnson stayed on, the pipeline started re-opening, as freshmen Brandon Walker and Chendall Weaver have shown this year and Montez Young, Jr last year, that is paying dividends. One reason Mavs fans were frustrated with the coaching change, at least those I talked to or observed, was that Greg Young compiled a talented, young team and then tried to fill the gaps with older, experienced transfers. There was no doubt they were getting better as the year progressed. There's also no doubt the inconsistent play exhibited is a trademark of young teams. 

But let me get to the point of this post. A large fear is that some of the talented youngsters may depart at the end of the year. Obviously nothing can be done now except let it play out. But in the meantime, I wanted to take a look at a few recent Mavericks who utilized the transfer portal and may be regretting that decision. 

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. 

Basketball School?

 I got the idea for this post the day before the most recent slate of games played by both UT Arlington basketball teams. As evidenced by the January 14th games, this will be a little outdated, but a couple of wins doesn't negate the poor start to Western Athletic Conference play for both teams. 

Prior to Saturday, the men's team was 0-5 to start WAC play. You have to go back all the way to the 1988/89 season, when the team started 0-7 in the Southland Conference. to find a worse start. That team ultimately won four of the final seven conference games. They were a young squad then and ultimately built the second-best run in program history (to that point) in the following years. 

In 89/90, they improved to 13-16 overall and 6-8 in conference, 20-9 and 11-3 the next year with two more winning seasons to follow, both in conference and overall. I'll go more in depth on the hopeful parallels that exist between these two teams.

On the women's side, at 1-4, they were off to their worst start since 2013/14 when Krista Gerlich began her first season of rebuilding the women's team that won less than ten games and lost more than 20 the previous three years. The 13/14 squad completed the season at 4-25, 3-15. It was the last major losing season. The only other losing season was a 15-16 mark in 2015/16. There have been four 20-win seasons since, the most successful period in program history.

A Nice Slate of Games

Like I mentioned in the baseball companion entry, the Christmas season took priority over my hobbies. Like the baseball team, the UT Arlington softball team released their schedule for the upcoming season. Unlike their baseball counterparts, the Mav softballers have some local teams and big names coming to Arlington.

The season starts with four games, two each against Texas Tech and Tulsa in Arlington. Two good tests against two good teams to start the season. 

The next week, they go north to Denton. The UTA site shows three games. The North Texas website shows the Green playing six games and when I check the Tracy Beard Classic website, there are six teams. No official schedule, but the teams include UTA, North Texas, Kentucky, McNeese State, Sam Houston State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Interesting that the six teams represent four conferences. I wonder if they will play each other or if there's scheduling agreements to avoid it.

2023 on Deck

The holidays are never a good time for a fan blog who posts in spare time, as this entry shows. The UT Arlington baseball team had announced their upcoming schedule a few weeks ago, but I'm just now getting to it. Having to pick between my college or my kids isn't a fair choice.

This is the first season under new coach Clay Van Hook, so I was expecting something different. There are some newer teams coming in 2023 but was somewhat disappointed by what's coming to Arlington this year.

My understanding of scheduling in baseball is that schedules can vary widely year-to-year and aren't made far advance, unlike football where the non-conference slate is done five years or more down the line. So, a new coach can make a wild difference from the prior one. 

The season opens like many recently have with a three-game trip to Corpus Christi to play Texas A&M-CC. This will be the sixth year in a row these two teams play each other to open the season. UTA also plays the Islanders in a mid-week game in Arlington in late April.