Rise of the D

I mentioned last post that after UT Arlington dropped games against teams at the top of the Sun Belt Conference standings, they really needed to pick up wins against Louisiana-Monroe on the road and Texas State at home. While not every minute of the two games were great, the outcomes of the two games were what they needed to be for the Mavs, UTA wins.

Against the Warhawks in Monroe on Thursday, the Mavericks played one of the best all-around games of the season. It was reminiscent of the Troy game where UTA never gave up big runs, never let up the intensity and did what this team is capable of, beating any team in the Sun Belt conference.

With the win, UTA did something not often done. All-time, UTA was 4-28 in Monroe entering Thursday. Fant-Ewing Coliseum has never been friendly to the Mavs. Even with Thursday's win, UTA has just won 15% of the time there But for this season, they are undefeated in Monroe, and that is all that matters.

UTA has played ULM more than once quite often in their history, most as conference mates, some being just single-season home-and-home's. ULM had swept UTA during the regular season 17 times. The teams have split five times. With Thursday win, UTA has now swept Monroe for the fourth time.

Now understand these are two different teams then from now. ULM was a regional power, especially in the 80's and 90's. But due to various reasons, they just aren't what they once were. They haven't had a winning record at home for the last three full seasons. So far this year, though they are 5-5 with winnable games against the eighth and tenth (last) place teams left at Fant-Ewing.

Conversely, UTA is no longer the pushover it once was either. ULM's first season in the Southland Conference was UTA's first losing season after three winning years under Coach Bob "Snake" LeGrand. UTA would then embark on a streak of 14 losing seasons out of 17. Things would get better around the turn of the century and ULM would start a small decline, but they would leave the SLC before Coach Scott Cross andd his five winning seasons in seven years. In short, ULM is worse than they have been historically and UTA is better.

Nevertheless, UTA's win in Monroe was a rarity and kept the hopes of the Mavericks season alive at least until Saturday when UTA played rival Texas State.

There has always been something between UTA fans and Danny Kaspar, primarily because he was the coach at SFA, which was UTA's primary rival during the mid '90's and '00's. But with Texas State now being the Mavericks most continuous opponent as conference realignment moved the Mavs and Bobcats into two new conferences since their departure from the SLC two years ago, the SFA rivalry has cooled. Kaspar was a good hire for his basketball acumen for Texas State, but it will help the UTA-Texas State rivalry too.

Moving to Saturday's game, UTA's offense looked very flat to start the half, but luckily their defense was playing well. Going into the half, UTA scored just 25 points and trailed by eight.

The offense finally found their groove after the break. UTA hit 59% of their field goals in the second, compared to 30% in the previous half. In addition, the Mavs were hitting shots from behind the arc, 70% in the second after a 1-5 performance in the initial half.

Despite brief lapses periodically, the D won the game for UTA. They kept the score close in the first, despite the lack of offensive output. In the second, the pressure during the early part of the period was a key in the run that would give UTA the lead permanently. If UTA can keep the defensive intensity they showed this past week up, they will be poised to make a good run to end the season.

That run starts with a very big road trip this week. Thursday is a visit to Jonesboro to take on the fourth-place Red Wolves. The team is geared up for this one after a close first half at CPC turned into a laugher as Arkansas State embarrassed UTA.

After that is the fifth-place and slumping Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans. They beat UTA at CPC on a buzzer beater and were poised to be an upper level SBC team. However, they have lost four in a row, three to the current top three teams in the league. They will also have a week off before they see UTA on their home floor.

These games are crucial to seeding in the tournament. Two wins and UTA is guaranteed to move up a slot to fifth, and possibly a tie for fourth. When it comes to the conference tournament, the top two seeds get a double bye, meaning they only have to win two games for the NCAA auto-bid. The next two get a bye, while the fifth through eighth teams have to win four games against increasingly tougher competition.

After that, road games at Troy and South Alabama and home contests against Georgia State and Western Kentucky close out the season. Nothing is guaranteed, but I sure would like to have some positioning secured before the top two teams in the conference come to College Park Center.

Talent but not Team

Before I get back to it, I need to get a disclaimer out. I just started a new career at the end of January that will require extensive training both during work ours and after. I will still attempt to crank out a weekly synopsis, but can't guarantee anything.

That said, wow, what a tough couple of weeks for the UT Arlington men's basketball team. They lost a game at Western Kentucky after having a large second half lead. Then at Georgia State, same story. GSU hit a wide-open three just before the buzzer to send it to OT. There the Panthers just put UTA to the wood chipper.

Then, back at College Park Center, you'd think UTA, which was so close to beating the top two teams of the conference on the road, would put up a better performance against a middle of the pack team in Louisiana-Lafayette. Nope. UL-L turned a 13-13 game into a 40-15 affair. UTA would get it close at nine in the second half, before the Cajuns put two three's and a layup on the board. Don't be fooled by the 92-89 score. It was a furious rally late, helped in large part by many missed free throws from UL-L, UTA was blown out.

This has been the most confusing of seasons. How can UTA come up just short against numerous types of teams. Single digit losses to Oklahoma and Texas, both recently ranked, Robert Morris, Eastern Michigan, Arkansas-Little Rock, WKU, GSU and now UL-L. The only common factor is what I have mentioned before. The Mavs will play solid for 30 minutes, but the missing ten are so poor that it leaves them just out of range of a comeback. The last minute three that Reger Dowell hit was in a tie game and one where they never trailed by a large margin.

Meanwhile UTA's opponent has trailed by large margins many times this year and completed a comeback. I think part of the issue is that UTA doesn't have a large presence underneath. 7'0" Stuart Lagerson is no longer on the team. Even when he was, he was ineffective. Junior Anthony Walker (6'9", 210) and Brandon Williams (6'10", 200) don't have the mass to effectively battle underneath consistently. Each has shown flashes of talent, but not enough to sustain it over the course of a full game. Brandon Edwards  is effective, but at 6'6" he has to hustle for everything. Without help, I believe his potential is lessened.

UTA is talent heavy at the guard positions. However, I see a lot of individuality at times, especially when the other team makes a run. Instead of staying in team mode, they try to shoulder the load themselves.

Bottom line, this is a group full of good to great talent, but this is not a good team.

Up next is the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks in Monroe on Thursday. Saturday is the getting warmer rivalry between the Mavs and the Texas State Bobcats. With Danny Kaspar, already a favorite target of the UTA students, moving to Texas State, it seems that both geography and history will keep this one going.

These are needed wins for UTA. The Mavs are sitting at 4-6, ties with Monroe at 4-6. They played at CPC earlier and UTA won it in OT. However, UTA is only 2-9 on the road this year. A game back in the standings is Texas State at 3-7. UTA won in San Marcos, and have had the 'Cats number in recent years. Kaspar has the team playing much better of late, but he is still lacking players to fit his system and depth.

A loss to these two will not only hurt UTA in the standings, it will give a win to teams beside them and at their heels. Losses could put a berth in the conference tournament in danger.

That's what rivals are for

UT-Arlington men's and women's basketball teams played one game last week, but if you are going to have a week with one game, pick your rival. The Mavericks traveled to San Marcos to play Texas State and the outcomes for both games were expected, even if how they got there wasn't.

The men played to a 56-48 win over Texas State. Reger Dowell returned to action after missing a couple of weeks, but it was actually the defensive play that set the tone for the Mavericks. In giving up 48 points to the Bobcats, UTA gave up a season low while also scoring a season low. It was also a season low offensive output for TXST. That's very encouraging to see the defense rise to the occasion and win a game, rather than engaging in a shootout. I don't want this to seem like I am proclaiming this the second coming of last years UTA defense, the Bobcats rank 334 in points per game out of 351 DI teams, it sure was nice to see something from them.

Make no mistake, in scoring 56 points, UTA won this game on the defensive end. UTA allowed the Bobcats to shoot 32.1% from the floor and 25% from three-point land. UTA had 30 defensive rebounds and 36 overall. I do have a slight concern with giving up nine offensive rebounds to the 'cats, but that is it for me when critiquing Saturday's defensive performance.

UTA's offense was struggling, hitting only 39% of their shots and 31.6% of their three's. Three players did score in double figures with Dowell leading the way with 16. By the way, he's scored in double figures every game he has played this season.

My big problem still comes from the lack of consistent play. I didn't get to see or hear the game, as I had family obligations, but when I kept checking the status, UTA would build a six-eight point lead, then Texas State would match. UTA still hasn't played 40 solid minutes of basketball against DI competition. If UTA is to beat the upper echelon teams in the Belt, they'll have to figure it out. I don't know that the defense can shoulder the load when a team like Georgia State with their big three comes to College Park Center.

Under normal circumstances, I would say this team lives or dies by the three, but at least for this one game, they only made 6 of 19. I can say they weren't hitting all that well, but still won. That is the power of defense.

Up next for the men is the Alabama twosome, Troy on Thursday, South Alabama on Saturday. Troy comes in with a 2-4 SBC record and is 7-11 overall. They lost at home to Western Kentucky and Georgia State, two of the favorites before the season, then went to Arkansas and beat both UALR and stAte. They dropped homes games this weekend to the two Louisiana schools, Lafayette and Monroe.

So that means...I have no idea what this game will bring. I don't know which UTA or Troy team will show up. Troy nailed 14 of 27 three's in their upset of Arkansas State. They do that against UTA, which has traditionally struggled in defending the three and it will be a long day. However, if it is the team that lost to Central Arkansas, UTA will have it easier. I do know the game will be available on ESPN3, if you can't make it to CPC.

As for South Alabama, they are really struggling with a new coach. 1-5 in SBC play. Losses to Western Kentucky, Georgia State, UALR, stAte and ULM with the lone win against UL-L. That doesn't really tell me a lot. The five losses are to the teams in the top six. UTA has lost to two of those same teams, lost to the one that USA beat and beat a team USA lost to. Of course, in a ten-team conference, what does that mean. Nothing. Augustine Rubit is their star, who is .1 rebounds away from averaging a double-double. Otherwise, USA is an average team.

If UTA is to improve on its 7th place n the SBC standings, these two at home are the best chance in a while as both occupy spots lower than where the Mavs are.

As for the women, I just don't have much to say, another close loss on paper, 68-60, their fourth conference loss by single digits. The game wasn't as close as the score indicated, as the Mavs had to rally to get it to that point. I just don't think experience or depth are there right now.

At 0-5, they reside squarely in the cellar of the SBC. Troy comes in with a 5-12 record and is 1-5 in SBC play. They are in ninth place. South Alabama is one spot ahead of them and sport a 5-11, 3-3 record. Like the men, if the women's team is to make a move in the standings, now is the time. With UTA in clear rebuilding mode, it will be interesting to see how they do.

UNT in the clear

So forget the first half of the previous post. The NCAA is granting a blanket waiver to all of DI who had issues with the DI-transitional schools counting as non-DI games. A large part of it was due to conferences like the Southland and America East who have these transitional members in their ranks.

While I disagree with them taking on these members day one - there used to be a time when these schools would sit in independent status until the transition was over - I can at least see the reason for conferences getting the waiver. But UNT?

Here's a school that had a DI school scheduled, dropped the DI school in favor of a non-DI school, ran afoul of the rules and then gets a waiver for something they did to themselves. On the one hand, the NCAA took criticism for its apparent over-zealousness in looking for rule breakers, now they have done a 180 in the other direction. Ignorance of the rules shouldn't be an excuse to break them.

Bummer Green, but...

For those that know me, you know what I am trying for with this blog. While I am shooting for some level of professional, journalistic integrity, I make no bones that I am a UTA alum and fan. While I aim for standards that apply when I worked in media, I am still a fan first. With that said,I give you this targeted toward the University of North Texas:

There's a crisis brewing in Denton with their men's basketball team and it has me feeling there is justice in this world. Their basketball team has run afoul of one of the NCAA's myriad and obscure rules (ever tried to read the NCAA guidelines?).

The women's team should pick up horseshoes or hand grenades

As disappointed as I am in the UT Arlington men's basketball team, you'd think I'd be done with the women's squad, who is 1-14 on the year and 0-4 in Sun belt play. Yet I think it is the women's team that has given me some sense of competitiveness.

It also helps that the expectations were low. In the underwhelming Maverick Rambler pre-conference poll, I picked the team to finish last. Yes, that is where they are in the standings, but look closer at the results gives me some hope that new coach Krista Gerlich is on the right course.

In the 14 losses the Mavericks have on their ledger, the average margin of defeat is just under 16 points. While that is a high number, if you exclude the Power 5 Conference schools, a 39-point loss to Oklahoma State and the 53-point loss to Oklahoma, the average margin of defeat is not quite 11. Anytime you can be within 3-4 possessions, the game was close.

The merits of team play

I have a confession to make. I may have drank the Kool-aid of the UTA Men's basketball team. After a tough non-conference slate that saw numerous close losses to progressively better teams, I thought UTA would be a force in Sun Belt play.

That hasn't happened. Last week I was very disappointed in their 0-2 start. This past week, they picked up their first win in conference, 83-79 in OT to Louisiana-Monroe, but are now 1-3 overall, good for 9th place. Remember, they have played 3 games at home to one on the road and only the top eight make the conference tournament.

I think I have finally figured it out. This years team has a lot of talent, but they don't seem to play well as a team. They have good-to-great individual players, but aren't integrating their skills into team play.