Transfer News

 It was a big news week for the UT Arlington Men's Basketball team, about as big as the off-season will allow. Several players for this past year's team have put their name in the transfer portal.

Chendall Weaver, the reigning Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year put his name in the portal. That news came out Monday. Shortly after Weaver's name went in, Kyron Gibson, last year's leading scorer at 11.2 points per game, put his name in as well. 

Then Friday, Shemar Wilson, the player I consider the most important piece to the team, announced he would return for the upcoming season. It's been the best offseason news so far this year.

First WAC Titles since Rejoining

 April 16 was a milestone for the UT Arlington Athletic Department as both tennis teams won their final regular season matches to claim a conference championship, the first of any team in the UTA Athletic Department this year. As this was the first year the Mavericks were back in the WAC, it marks two important championships.

The women's team is no stranger to winning titles. They are now back-to-back-to-back champs, with the prior two coming in their last two years in the Sun Belt Conference. But for the men, it's the first regular season title since 2010. Now, in 2016, they were near the top of the SBC, but the seedings weren't based on conference matches as the SBC didn't play a round-robin schedule. But outside of that, their tenure in the SBC wasn't one of winning. Only three of nine seasons saw them finish in the top half. 

The WAC (re)tenure started with a bang for both teams.

More First Steps

Football is a topic of never-ending speculation, gossip and desire in the UT Arlington community. Football was again on the ballot of a two-day election that was held on campus this past week. The results were announced on Tuesday and unsurprisingly, students voted for it in a large number, 1,004 in favor to 625 against.

Now, before I proceed, let me be clear that this is a non-binding referendum that asked if students supported increasing the athletics fee from $8.50 a credit hour for a maximum of $115 per semester to $18.50 an hour for a maximum of $250 per semester. The funds would go to the Athletic Department and be used to fund a football team and women's sports programs, presumably beach volleyball and a soccer team. It's non-binding, meaning the University has no requirement to follow through with the vote.

But it does fulfill the requirement the administrators and power-brokers have said for decades, the students have to care.

Certainly Improved

 After a little less than two months into the 2023 baseball season, one thing has certainly emerged from the UT Arlington squad. After one of the worst seasons in program history, pretty much everything that is measurable needed to be improved. To paraphrase a popular manager, they couldn't hit, they couldn't pitch and fielding was suspect. Other than that, they were doing all right. 

Before I get to this year, I want to look back at certain stats from last year. Discounting the COVID shortened year, the 15 wins earned last year was the lowest since 2007. Same for last year's 37 losses. The .289 winning percentage was the worst since .245 in 2007. Prior to that, you have to go back to 1977's 14-39 record with a .264 winning percentage to find the worst year.

The .248 batting average by the team actually looks good when compared against the .235 average in Sun Belt play, which only beat perennial doormat Arkansas State. It's the lowest cumulative average on UTAMavs.com, though that only goes back to 2018.