Summer Chats: Men's Basketball Attendance

The summer is always the roughest part of the athletic sports season at the collegiate level. There's no active events, at least at UT Arlington, schedules for upcoming sports aren't released for a while and, specific to UTA, upcoming excitement for the arriving year is muted by the lack of fall sports on campus. With that said, I generally post the more random or non-calendar-specific items in June, July or August. I will now officially give it a title: Summer Chats.

Recently on Twitter, I and a couple other UTA fans engaged in a discussion about men's basketball attendance. It started off with WAC Hoops Digest showing a picture of a full College Park Center in its debut against the University of Texas-San Antonio. The text read that if new head coach K.T. Turner can pack the place, UTA would become one of the best home teams in the country. 

Of course, that point is entirely true. We have seen it before, both in big games and a couple of seasons that saw near 3,000 average fans in the seats. In addition to the high-talent teams, those crowds helped propel the team even further. 

Historical Information Made Available

Recently, the Official Twitter account for the UT Arlington Mavericks volleyball team post the following tweet:

Fun news for UTA volleyball history fans. 😀

Now on our website:
➡️ Complete match results (1973-present)
➡️ Box scores (1987-present)
➡️ Season stats (1984-present)
➡️ Media guides (1977-2015)
➡️ Rosters (1973-present)

Check it out ➡️ https://t.co/wswbwwAMTD#BuckEm 🐎 pic.twitter.com/RF377fK3JS

— UTA Volleyball (@UTAMavsVB) June 27, 2023

Well let's just say, for a guy like me, this is Christmas. I've received media guides from the 1970's and '80's as yuletide gifts. I was not disappointed. What they've added has been a treasure trove of historical information. It has shattered some beliefs I thought I knew about the program. 

Limping into the Tourney

 I followed the seeding race to end the Western Athletic Conference baseball season and it didn't disappoint, if you weren't rooting for a particular team or outcome.

Sam Houston and Grand Canyon had a great race for the championship. Sam came in with a 1.5 game lead. They played a team that was in the bottom three in the standings. GCU, meanwhile, was playing one of the five teams in a virtual tie for third in CBU. Yet, GCU swept the Lancers and Tarleton won two of three to give the Lopes the regular season crown.

Utah Valley beat the UT Arlington squad two to one, same as Seattle's margin over ACU. The Wolverines, by virtue of game cancelations, get the third seed ahead of the Redhawks by percentage points. ACU, thanks to their 2-1 series win over UTA, gets the five seed. The Mavs get the sixth.

The Final Day

 I'll add another short entry here in following the end of the Western Athletic Conference baseball season. Friday answered some questions, but not a lot. 

What we learned was UTRGV's 15-1 victory gives them the eighth spot in the standings, and the last ticket to the conference tournament.

With Seattle's 16=6 win over Abilene Christian, they've secured a top four berth and a first round bye.

Sam Houston won over Tarleton and Grand Canyon beat California Baptist. That means a Sam win or a Lope loss gives the Bearkats a regular season title. A Sam loss and a GCU sweep will give it to GCU.

Updated Seeding Scenarios

 There's no surprise after Thursday's games that the Western Athletic Conference standings look a little more settled. We will know even more after today, but given yesterday's results, here's what we know:

GCU beat California Baptist and Tarleton upset Sam Houston, in a shutout no less. The Bearkats lead is now down to half a game with two to play.

Utah Valley's win over the UT Arlington squad puts them percentage points ahead for third place.

Seattle beat Abilene Christian, giving them the fourth spot currently.

Crunch Time in the WAC

 I wanted to get this post up a bit earlier but hit crunch time at work. Dang need for regular income...

But the Western Athletic Conference baseball season has come down to the last week and the standings are as tight as my jeans from college on me now. There's a somewhat close race for the conference crown, a five-way tie for third, of which the UT Arlington baseball team is a part of, and a two-team race for eighth place and the last invitation to the conference tournament.

I'll start with top, transition to the bottom, then move to the middle. But first, here's the standings:

Softball's Rollercoaster Return to the WAC

With UT Arlington's doubleheader sweep of Sam Houston this past Saturday in softball, the Mavericks concluded the 2023 season, the first in the Western Athletic Conference since 2013. There were some highs and some equally rough lows.

I'll start with this: I don't know what I expected from this team. They lost a lot of offense from last year, but the two main starting pitchers returned. Softball arms don't tire as easily as their baseball counterparts and the pitching really is dominated by a select few players. They were picked ninth in the preseason poll. They finished seventh.

I don't put stock in the polls, especially in this era of roster turnover (admittedly less than football or the two basketball sports) as well as the constant conference changes. However, the Mavericks were not far off, finishing with the seventh seed. However, due to some of those aforementioned low, there were some real head scratching moments, it could have been much, much better.