I think I'm just about to finish playing catch-up with the next couple of posts. In this one, both basketball teams released their schedules last week and both have some really good highlights in the march to conference play. There should be a challenging yet winnable games along the way.
I'll posts the schedules and after each off, provide my take.
The women's schedule is as follows:
Thur. Jan 1 - @ California Baptist
Sat. Jan. 3 - SOUTHERN UTAH
Sat. Jan.10 - @ Abilene Christian
Thur. Jan. 15 - UTAH TECH
Sat. Jan. 17 - UTAH VALLEY
Wed. Jan. 21 - @ Tarleton State
Thur. Jan. 29 - @ Southern Utah
Sat. Jan 31 - @ California Baptist
Thur. Feb. 5 - UTAH TECH
Sat. Feb. 7 UTAH VALLEY
Thur. Feb. 12 - ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Sat. Feb. 14 - @ Southern Utah
Thur. Feb. 19 - @ Utah Tech
Sat. Feb. 21 - @ Utah Valley
Thur. Feb. 26 - CALIFORNIA BAPTIST
Thur. Mar. 5 - TARLETON STATE
Sat. Mar. 7 - ABILENE CHRISTIAN
This is a good-looking schedule. There are five true road games and four home games. November seems to be the month for basketball at UTA. You'll see something similar for the men. There is one home game for the month of December, however. As a whole, I'm alright with that. If there is just one home game in that particular month, I'd rather it be on the front end of finals, but some things are outside of control.
LSU is certainly a guarantee game. Houston is the completion of a home-and-home series. UTA won the game in Arlington last year, 61-57. Every other game appears to be a home-and-home. That's pretty incredible.
Also pretty incredible, no non-Division I teams appear on the schedule. Head Coach Sherika Wright seems to do that every other year or so. I'm not saying UTA will draw more playing Tennessee State than Midwestern State, but as far as rankings and metrics go, they mean more for seedings and rankings. Getting a balanced home/away schedule with Division I schools is very well done.
I'm glad to see Rice on the schedule. The City of Houston isn't that far of a trip, but the two institutions don't seem to meet very often in most sports. Only 11 times in volleyball, six in men's basketball and nine times in baseball (two came in the 2001 NCAA Tournament). Rice doesn't sponsor softball. December 12 will be the seventh meeting in women's basketball.
I'm also happy to see Lamar. Based on our shared history, there will always be a soft spot with me for them. It also helps that the Lady Cardinals have been very competitive of late. It will be a challenging game for UTA.
I don't have as much to say about the conference schedule. I don't know how the Western Athletic Conference will fare this year, who will be good, who won't or who did what in the portal. What I do know is Tarleton was second last year and UTA plays in Stephenville twice.
I expect California Baptist to be competitive year in and out. UTA plays there twice. I don't know how valid this word is, but I'm hearing Southern Utah will be much improved and UTA goes there twice. UTA does land Abilene Christian twice in Arlington. Games between the two teams have been split in two of the three years in UTA's WAC tenure, with the other year being a one-game series that ended in a UTA win.
Utah Valley was much improved last year compared to the previous year and UTA hosts them twice. Utah Tech, which has been both good and bad also make two visits to College Park Center.
As for the men:
Mon. Nov. 10 - ARLINGTON BAPTIST
Sat. Nov. 15 - MISSOURI STATE
Tue. Nov. 18 - @ Evansville
Thur.-Sat. Nov. 20-22 - @Weber St, Campbell (Weber State MTE)
Sat. Nov. 29 - STEPHEN F. AUSTIN
Tue. Dec. 2 - @ Arkansas St
Thur. Dec. 11 - @ UT Rio Grande Valley
Wed. Dec. 17 - @ Stanford
Mon. Dec. 22 - @ Oral Roberts
Mon. Dec. 29 - TARLETON ST
Thur. Jan 1 - CALIFORNIA BAPTIST
Sat. Jan. 3 - @ Southern Utah
Sat. Jan.10 - ABILENE CHRISTIAN
Thur. Jan. 15 - @ Utah Tech
Sat. 17 - @ Utah Valley
Wed. Jan. 21 - TARLETON STATE
Thur. 29 - SOUTHERN UTAH
Sat. Jan 31 - CALIFORNIA BAPTIST
Thur. Feb. 5 - @ Utah Tech
Sat. Feb. 7 @ Utah Valley
Thur. Feb. 12 - @ Abilene Christian
Sat. Feb. 14 - SOUTHERN UTAH
Thur. Feb. 19 - UTAH TECH
Sat. Feb. 21 - UTAH VALLEY
Thur. Feb. 26 - @ California Baptist
Thur. Mar. 5 - @ Tarleton State
Sat. Mar. 7 - @ Abilene Chrisitan
I'm less enthused about the men's schedule and it has nothing to do with UTA as a whole. Scheduling has become really difficult in the NCAA for men's basketball and that was apparent with this schedule. Given the constraints of what Head Coach K.T. Turner was dealing with to piece a schedule year after year, I don't know that it gets much better than this, though.
I was happy to see twice-conference rival Stephen F. Austin back on the listing. They were our biggest rival from my days as a student. Judging by the above average crowd they attracted as a whole in the two shared WAC years, even playing over the holidays, there's obviously some interest there outside of fans like me.
On the other side, I was very disappointed when Texas State released their schedule and UTA wasn't on it. It's a competitive series with good geographic proximity. I'm interested in why Texas State isn't on the schedule and plan to follow-up there.
I see two guarantee games, New Mexico and Stanford. UTA went toe-to-toe with the Lobos in the Pit, losing on a bucket as time expired two years ago. Stanford had their first winning season last year with 20 wins since a 14-13 mark in 2020/21. Both are tough games, but winnable. I'm actually surprised after the comeback win that UNM scheduled the game. Kudos to them for not ducking out.
Arkansas State was a guarantee game last year. I don't know whether it is again. It is another one I'd like to follow up on later.
The two non-DI games do little for me. Heck, they aren't even NCAA games. I don't know that UNT-Dallas brings many fans and UTA fans, especially on the fair-weather side won't turn out for an NAIA or an NCCAA school. At least neither have far to go and the check helps them.
I'm happy to see Missouri State, Evansville and Oral Roberts on the back ends of their respective home-and-home contracts. Those are teams that can really gauge where UTA is.
Then there is UTRGV. They were a school that might have been in over their head in the WAC. I wasn't terribly excited to share a home with them initially. Back when I was a student, they desperately wanted in the Southland. The SLC didn't want them however as their athletic programs just weren't competitive. But they grew on me. Good, reasonable fan base that supported their school. After UTA's first two years back in the WAC, I ended up being an UTRGV fan and hope the best for them, except on December 11.
Like the women, there is only one December home game. It frustrates me that it will be Tarleton State. Please, please put geographically close teams after the start of the semester. Please. Anyway.
The WAC's rankings as a whole conference will certainly fall with the loss of Grand Canyon and Seattle. Both were competitive and in the top half of the WAC. Coupled with the high roster turnover now in the sport, I don't know how to rank the teams. Undoubtedly, there will be one team that will have played two or three teams in the top half of the conference at their place. Conversely, there will be a team in the top two or three that will have a couple of harder teams at their home twice. I just can't guess who that will be at this point in time.
So therefore, the only thing that interests me is what rivals we get. Tarleton comes to CPC twice. UTA goes to Abilene Christian twice. The defending regular season champs, UVU, come to Arlington twice. California Baptist and the very likely preseason Player of the Year Dom Daniels come to Texas to play UTA twice as well. Using the power of deduction, the Mavericks will go to the south end of Utah twice to play Utah Tech and Southern Utah twice.
All things considered and given the constraints, this was a pretty good schedule. I wish the guarantee road games were local as less travel means more money for the budget. As it is, the only teams within a couple of hours are the two other WAC Texas squads.
I wish the home guarantee games were against higher profile school, maybe what you'd see in Division II. I want more traditional rivals than just SFA. But I also know the challenges and hurdles needed to fill a schedule in this era and have seen much more challenging or ho-hum schedules.
With the schedule releases out of the way, the next step is practices, then exhibition games. I'm not sure about the men, but New Mexico comes to Arlington on October 28th. Then the season, which is two and a half months from now, starts. Based on what I'm hearing, including my published one-on-one with Athletic Director Jon Fagg, the teams will be competitive.
Will either UTA team have enough to get to the postseason in the last season of the Conference under the WAC banner? The ride should be entertaining either way based on these released schedules.
No comments:
Post a Comment