Mixed Results with an Upward Trend

It's been roughly a month since the Maverick Rambler checked in on the UT Arlington women's basketball team, much too long by any metric. They last appeared here with a 3-5 record in non-conference, closing in on the start of the regular season.

After getting a quality 61-57 win at home against the Houston Cougars, the Mavs sat 2-5 against Division I competition and the Florida International Panthers sitting on the horizon to complete the WAC/CUSA scheduling agreement.

UTA would close the remaining three conference games with a couple of wins and a loss to UT San Antonio on the road. On of the wins was to the NAIA's Wiley College. UTA closed out the non-conference schedule with a 5-6 record, 3-6 against DI.

This will likely get repetitive, but graduate transfer forward Koi Love and fellow graduate student forward Avery Brittingham led the charge, got a combined 84 points and 50 rebounds in the three games.

Conference Eve

The non-conference portion of the schedule has concluded for both UT Arlington basketball teams, as well as all of the Western Athletic Conference teams, and for both genders the results are mixed. The good news, except for a couple of outliers either way, UTA's fortunes were the same as their conference brethren. I'll get a separate post about the women soon.

On the men's side, they last appeared in The Maverick Rambler right before their Thanksgiving event in Florida. In what I thought would be a good measuring stick on where the Mavs stood, Murray State defeated UTA in a neutral game, 79-66. The Mavericks trailed 14 at the half and won the second by a point. In what will be a trend in losses, they shot poorly behind the arc, four of 17. Transfer Graduate Student forward Lance Ware kept them in it as best he could with 26 points and nine rebounds. 

UTA rebounded in the next game, 68-58 against the Atlantic Sun Conference's Austin Peay. The Mavs made five more three's with the same number of attempts. Junior transfer guard Brody Robinson led the way with 16, of which only six points came from three-point land. UTA trailed by as much as five in the second half, got a brief lead after five minutes gone then traded leads for about five minutes. The final portion of the second half was all UTA.

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. 

What a Season

While I wanted this up sooner, this will likely be my last post about the 2024 UT Arlington volleyball team this year. The fact it comes in December is remarkable and a long time coming. A season to remember has finally ended in the 2024 NCAA volleyball tournament.

After completing an amazing run in the Western Athletic Conference tournament that culminated in an instant classic in the championship match between UTA and GCU, UTA took its WAC championship title to the NCAA Tournament Selection committee for an automatic berth.

Coming into Selection Sunday, UTA had a 29-2 record and a 43 RPI ranking. I have no memory of a higher ranking for either category. The Mavs won 26 in 2002 when I was a student broadcaster. There were 25 wins in 2006 and 2014. Ironically, both those teams lost in the tournament to the eventual champion, meaning a 26th win in either season would have been against the eventual winner. Also of note, both those years, the eventual tourney champ won a match in the NCAA tourney. Since the turn of the century, UTA's conference has won a match in the NCAA tourney three times. Two of those times were in 2006 and 2014. Undoubtedly, UTA played a role in getting those teams a favorable seed.

The Mavericks were sent down to Austin as the equivalent of the third seed like in what would occur in the baseball and softball tournaments. If it was similar to the basketball tournament, it would have been an 11 seed.

The UT Austin Longhorns were seeded third in their 16-team section of the bracket. There are four main sections in the bracket with 16 teams each. and only the top eight teams are seeded within the region. The University of Southern California was also sent to Austin as a six seed and that would be UTA's opponent.

Shooting Woes

I mentioned in the last basketball post that I was slowly starting to dislike the way I was covering some UT Arlington athletic events. I don't want this to be a source straight game recaps, but rather a place for opinions to be expressed regarding the UTA Intercollegiate Athletic Department. So I'm gonna try a different approach with my first women's basketball entry.

I had something typed up prior to Thanksgiving, but an outage caused the post to be deleted. I had a self-imposed deadline because of the holidays and really don't like it took this long for the first women's basketball blog entry to be posted. But it did change the tone of the entry somewhat as my first take has adjusted slightly after the Houston game, where some of the concerns and observations I had were challenged or disputed. 

At an overall record of 3-5, with only two of those wins against Division I, my initial impression is the Mavericks are underperforming compared to the preseason expectations. However, the schedule is definitely tiered. There are four losses to teams in the top half of DI and the fifth is to one that's seven spots from the top half.

The losses include a 73-54 setback at Arizona, 71-60 at Louisiana Tech, 93-65 at Arkansas, 73-55 at Purdue and a 71-46 drugging in Dallas by SMU. Arizona was a return trip in a home and home. La Tech was a part of the Western Athletic Conference / Conference USA scheduling alliance. I'm not certain of the rest, but it would appear they are guarantee games where that school writes a check for a one-and-done series at their place. 

The wins include a 105-35 home win against the National Christian Collegiate Athletic Association's Arlington Baptist, a too-close 73-71 road win at East Texas A&M (I love their name change to reflect their historic roots, BTW) and now a 61-57 home win at College Park Center, the fourth straight in the series for UTA.

Instant Classic

The UT Arlington Mavericks volleyball team is not only the Western Athletic Conference regular seasons champs, but the Tournament champs after Saturday's win against Grand Canyon University in the championship game.

It was a memorable weekend, one that would likely have an impact on the top ten moments entry, UTA competed in an instant classic in the championship match. It culminated three days of intense volleyball at College Park Center, and not just in matches involving UTA. 

The Mavericks opened the weekend against Abilene Christian in the one/eight seed match. Continuing the sweeps from the prior two matches of the year, UTA swept the Wildcats, winning 25-17, 25-18, 25-14. It was the exact dominant performance the average fan would expect from the first game or match of any sports tournament featuring the same seeds. It showed to me UTA was ready and came on a mission. 

However, after the first round was complete, I became very apprehensive.

Hoops at the Start Line

 It has been an interesting start to the 2024/25 basketball season for both the men and women. As it stands, basketball for either gender may be the hardest sports to determine how they will fare when evaluating the team in the offseason as well as the early portion of the non-conference season. The transfer portal just decimates rosters and creates a turnover unprecedented in the history of the NCAA.

I have been watching the games, wondering how to evaluate both of them. I don't want the appearance of ignoring either squad, so I'll just dive into the UT Arlington men's basketball team and follow one for the women soon. I'm going to try a different style with them and see which I like.

The men have faced two non-Division I teams at home, easily one of the ten best teams not in a Power 5 conference and two DI road games. I challenge anyone to look at those factors and come to a conclusion about a team.