March 11, 2009

UTA TOURNAMENT PREVIEW

ARLINGTON, Tex. - MAVERICKS BEING DEFENSE SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE TITLE DEFENSE UT Arlington begins its defense of the Southland Conference Tournament title they won last year when they play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday, March 12 in the final quarterfinal of the day...the Mavericks finished the regular season 16-13 overall and 9-7 in the Southland's West Division...UTA is the tournament's 5th seed (won the tournament as the 7th seed last year)...this matchup is one between the winners of the last 2 conference tournaments...the Mavs have lost 3 of their last 4 games which comes after winning a season-high 5 consecutive games...the winner of the game will play the winner of the Stephen F. Austin-Southeastern Louisiana contest.

COVERAGE The game can heard throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on KHYI - 95.3 The Range with Pete Tenney calling the action...it will also be available on the internet at khyi.com and radio.uta.edu...Gametracker is also available via utamavs.com... the first six games will also be streamed live on the Internet on SLC NOW, the subscription-based video and audio streaming channel on Southland.org...streaming for the entire tournament, including all seven women's games, is available for 12.95. The quarterfinal games are available for $5.95 each, while fans can purchase both semifinal games for a combined $7.95.

UTA AND THE STATE FARM SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT UTA is making its 24th appearance in the State Farm Southland Conference Tournament...this is the Mavericks 7th consecutive appearance in the tournament which is a school record...the Mavs have a career record in SLC Tournament play of 12-22...last year UTA defeated Lamar (81-75), Sam Houston State (72-66) and Northwestern State (82-79) to win the title and earn the school's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid...UTA is 7-14 all-time in quarterfinal games and are just 2-6 in its last 8 tournament-opening contests.

MAVERICKS HEAD COACH Scott Cross Scott Cross is in his 3rd season as the head coach at UT Arlington...he has a career coaching record of 50-42 (.543)...he has a career SLC regular season record of 24-24 and 3-1 in the conference tournament...he has a career record of 2-4 vs. TAMUCC...Cross led the Mavericks to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2008 after winning the Southland Conference Tournament...in 2008 he led his team to a school-record 21 victories and his team completed a school record 17-game home winning streak (3 games in `07 and the first 14 of `08)...a 1998 graduate of UT Arlington, Cross was a 2-time Academic All-American at his alma mater where he lettered 3 times from 1995-98.

CROSS NETS 50TH WIN FASTER THAN ANY OTHER UTA COACH Mavericks head coach Scott Cross earned his 50th career victory with the win over Sam Houston on 2/28...it took Cross 90 games to earn his 50 wins and that is the fastest any UTA coach in history has reached this milestone...other UTA coaches to win at least 50 games won their 50th in the following game number - Eddie McCarter (121), Bob LeGrand (123), Barry Dowd (135), Mark Nixon (106) and Tom Tinker (154).

UTA - TAMUCC SERIES Tonight's game is the 11th meeting between the schools...TAMU-CC leads the series 7-3 after winning both games this season - 82-75 in Corpus Christi on Feb. 4 and 79-66 on Saturday in Arlington...since the Islanders joined the conference 2 years ago, TAMU-CC leads the series 4-2...this is the first time the Mavericks have played in TAMUCC in postseason play.

THIS YEAR'S PREVIOUS GAMES TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 82, UT ARLINGTON 75 - FEB. 4 - CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX. Kevin Palmer scored 17 points and Justin Reynolds added 16 to help lead Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to an 82-75 victory over UTA. Horace Bond and Tim Green each had 14 points for the Islanders (11-10, 5-1 Southland). Anthony Vereen led UTA (10-10, 3-4) with a career-high 29 points. Roge'r Guignard added 14 and Marquez Haynes had 11. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi used a 28-7 run to start the second half. Texas-Arlington went on a 13-0 run to cut the lead to 62-55. After Vereen missed two free throws that would have cut the Islander lead to five, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi controlled the game the rest of the way, scoring 17 of their final 19 points off free throws.

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 79, UT ARLINGTON 66 - MAR. 7 - ARLINGTON, TEX. Kevin Palmer had 19 points and seven rebounds to lead Texas A&M-Corpus Christi past cold-shooting UT Arlington 79-66. Palmer was 11-of-12 on free throws for the Islanders (17-14, 11-5 Southland) and had two steals. Jawan Nelson had 17 points, and Shamar Coombs chipped in 11 points and four assists. Anthony Vereen led the Mavericks (16-13, 9-7) with 24 points, including 13-of-16 shooting on free throws. He also led his team with eight rebounds. UTA was just 3-of-29 from 3-point range and shot 33 percent from the field. Brandon Long had 15 points but was 1-of-10 from 3-point range. Marquez Haynes had 15 points and five assists. Leading by two, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi opened the second half with a 15-6 run for a 44-33 lead. UTA didn't get closer than seven after that.

NEW HOME FOR MAVERICKS The UT System Board of Regents approved funding for UTA's Special Events Center on Feb. 12...the new home of the Mavericks men's, women's basketball and volleyball teams is expected to open for the 2012-13 season...the new arena is expected to seat 6,650 for basketball.

FINAL FOUR COMING TO MAVERICKS HOMETOWN The NCAA announced on Nov. 19 the 2014 Men's Final Four will be played at the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington...the stadium, which is about a mile from UTA's campus, opens in 2009 for the Cowboys and will also host the 2010 NBA All-Star game...the Dallas/Ft. Worth area last hosted the Final Four in 1986 at Reunion Arena.

TRYING TO DEFEND THE CROWN NOT AN EASY TASK The Mavericks are seeking to become the first Southland team to win the conference tournament in consecutive years since 1990-1993 when Louisiana-Monroe won 4 straight times...there has been only one instance in tournament history in which a team won in consecutive years and that was in 1984 and 1985 Louisiana Tech.

NIFTY 50 The 2008-09 season is the 50th of Mavericks basketball...the first season was 1959-60 and the first coach was Tom Tinker and the team went 6-18 in that season.

VEREEN 2ND ALL-TIME ON THE UTA SCORING LIST Anthony Vereen finished the regular season (and will finish his career) in 2nd place on the UTA all-time scoring list...he enters the tournament with 1,459 career points after scoring 24 Saturday (Willie Brand is 1st at 1,907)...Vereen is one of 18 UTA players to have at least 500 rebounds and has 589 career boards (9th)...he is the 9th player in school history to have 1000 points and 500 rebounds.

VEREEN AND PALMER SCORING BATTLE GOES DOWN TO END Tonight's game features the top 2 scorers in the Southland Conference in UTA's Anthony Vereen and TAMUCC's Kevin Palmer...Palmer finished first with an average of 17.8 and Vereen was at 17.7...toward the end of Saturday's game, Vereen had the scoring title but he was forced to foul Palmer as time was winding down and Palmer made two free throws which gave him the scoring title.

GUIGNARD ON THE ALL-TIME LISTS AS WELL Roge'r Guignard has 1,105 career points which is 12th on the all-time list (Mack Callier is 11th at 1,111)...Guignard has 290 career assists, 8th on the all-time list...he is just the 4th player in school history to have 1,000 points and 270 assists.

ROAD WORK Tonight's game is the 19th game away from home for the Mavericks...the Mavs are 7-10 in road games (7-11 overall away from home)...the 7 road wins tied for the most in the Southland Conference this season with Sam Houston State and Nicholls...UTA's 18 games away from home tied for the most in the conference with TAMUCC and Northwestern State...the Mavericks won 4 non-conference road games this season against Division I opponents which is the first time in school history this has happened...UTA won 5 non-conference road games in 1965-66 and 1966-67 but some of the opponents were not D-I...the Mavs also won 4 in 1980-81 but one of the wins was a non D-I victory.

THE 10-GAME TRIP UTA's stretch of 10 consecutive games away from home finished last week...UTA played 9 road games and one neutral site game during the stretch which included games in Missoula, Mt., Huntington, Wv., Waco, Tx. and Orem, Ut. to name a few...this was the longest such stretch in program history which is in its 50th season...last year the Mavs were 7-9 away from Texas Hall (4-8 on the road and 3-1 in neutral games) and are 4-7 this season...the 10-game stretch took the Mavericks on a journey of 4,428 miles...the trip to Missoula was the longest at 1,319 miles while the shortest was 33 miles to Denton, Texas to play North Texas...UTA also played at Eastern Washington in November which was a 1,476-mile trip.

FOUR ON THE FLOOR UTA finished the regular season as the only team in the Southland to have four players in the top 16 in scoring...Anthony Vereen was 2nd, Marquez Haynes 4th, Brandon Long 13th and Roge'r Guignard finished in a tie for 16th...the Mavs were also the only team to have 2 players in the top 10 in rebounding as Vereen and Tommy Moffitt finished in a tie for 10th.

SECOND BEST SHOWING The Mavericks came close to winning their first-ever game against a nationally-ranked team as they lost 79-76 at Baylor on Dec. 20...the closest the Mavs have come to beating a ranked opponent was on 11/23/91 when they lost 58-57 at Utah (#14)...the loss did drop the Mavs to 0-16 against nationally-ranked opponents.

HALFTIME LEADS ARE IMPORTANT The Mavericks held a 37-31 halftime lead at Nicholls last week before losing...that was the first conference game the team has lost when leading at the half...on the season the Mavs are 14-4 overall and 8-1 in SLC play when leading at the half.

ONLY ONE IN THESE THREE The Mavericks are the only team in the Southland Conference to be ranked in the top 3 in scoring (78.2, 2nd), field goal percentage (47.4%, 2nd) and free throw percentage (74.6%, 1st).

WINS BY LARGE MARGINS; LOSSES BY SMALL MARGINS The Mavericks have posted double-digit wins in 8 of the last 11 wins (only exception were the 2 wins vs. UTSA and at SELA)...11 of the Mavericks 16 wins were by at least 10 points...UTA average winning margin is 12.9 ppg...7 of UTA's 13 losses this season have come by 4 points or less...7 of the last 14 games have been decided by 7 points or less.

WINS AND LOSSES There are some notable differences in the Mavericks wins and losses...the opponents are shooting 39.9% from the field and 30.6% from 3-point range in UTA wins but those numbers increase to 49.2% and 38.6% in the Mavs losses...rebounding also tells the story as the Mavs average 39.6 pg in the victories but just 31.9 in the losses...in the wins the Mavs are averaging 83.5 points per game but in the losses that average drops to 71.8 a contest.

HOME AND AWAY Much has been said about the Mavericks playing so many games away from home this season but the team has been a consistent performer at home and on the road (and the one neutral site game)...however, there is one area where there are some differences - field goal percentage...the Mavs shot 49.4% from the field at home and 46.1% away from Texas Hall...the opponents numbers also standout as they shot just 40.9% at Texas Hall but 45.5% in UTA road games.

ALL-AROUND PERFORMANCES Marquez Haynes was the ONLY player in the Southland Conference to appear in the list of leaders in scoring (4th, 15.9), rebounding (24th, 5.1) and assists (8th, 3.5)...the Mavericks were the only team in the conference to have 3 players among the top 10 in assists with Roge'r Guignard at 7th, Haynes 8th and Jeremy Smith 9th.

TEAM NOTES The Mavericks scored at least 74 points in 17 of the last 21 contests...UTA is 10-0 when scoring 80 or more points and 18-3 when doing so dating back to last year...UTA's conference scoring average of 79.4 was first the Southland and its overall scoring average of 78.2 ppg was 2nd...the Mavericks led the Southland in scoring in conference games and were second in the league in all games...UTA's total of 2,269 points this year is 7th on the school's all-time list...the Mavs posted a scoring margin of +4.3 which is the 5th best in school history.

The Mavs came into the final game of the season shooting 51.4% (200-389) in its previous 7 games before recording a season-low 32.8% (20-61) vs. TAMUCC...in the last 6 games UTA has been all of nothing from the floor as they have shot better than 50% 4 times and 33% or less in the other 2...the Mavericks still shot at least 50% 12 times this season and were 11-1 in those games (only loss was at Nicholls last week)...UTA is now 15-2 when accomplishing this including last season...UTA has outshot its opponent in 14 of the last 19 games and have lost the 5 in which they did not.

UTA shot a season-low 3-29 (10.3%) vs. TAMUCC from 3-point range...the 29 attempts was a season-high...over the last 4 games, UTA has made just 22-80 (27.5%) from long range...Mavs were just 6-5 when making more 3-pointers than their opponents...Mavs are 2-4 when shooting less than 30% from 3-point range...the team is 3-2 when they make at least 10 3's and 7-3 dating back to last year when doing so...the Mavericks averaged 6.8 3's per game which was 5th in the Southland...UTA's 198 3-pointers as a team is the 5th most in school history...the 581 attempts are 4th on the all-time list.

The Mavericks have made the most of opportunities at the foul line as they have made 82-102 (80.3%) in the last 4 games (have gone to the foul line at least 20 times in each of these games)...UTA was 9-6 when going to the line at least 20 times...the Mavericks have shot at least 75% in 10 of the last 12 games...last year UTA shot just 65.5 from the line but led the Southland this season at 74.6%.

The Mavs finished the regular season being outrebounded by 11 (43-32) vs. TAMUCC...UTA was 14-5 when outrebounding their opponent this season...their final rebounding margin was a +1.5 which is 9th on the school's all-time list.

The Mavericks ranked 3rd in all (15.2) and 2nd in conference (15.1) games in assists...the Mavericks were 0-8 this season when they had fewer assists than their opponents...during this recent 1-3 stretch the team has only 47 assists for an average of 11.8 which is far below their season's average of 15.2...the Mavs had 443 assists on the season and that is 11th on the school's all-time list.

After having a conference season-high 19 turnovers at Nicholls, the Mavs had just 9 vs. TAMUCC...UTA was 4th in fewest turnovers in the Southland at 13.8...UTA finished the regular season with 400 turnovers which ties for the 3rd-lowest single season total in school history...the Mavericks finished 9th in the conference in steals at 6.7 a game...the Mavs had just 9 blocks in the final 3 games after registering 20 in the previous 4 games...the Mavericks were 8-2 when holding opponents to less than 70 points...last year the team was 17-1 when doing so...UTA played 8 games decided by 3 points or less (3-5)...last year UTA was 2-2 in games decided by 3 points or less and 7-1 in games decided by 20 or more.

MAVS MISCELLANEOUS The Mavericks had 9 SLC wins this season which is the most in the Scott Cross era and the first time they have won that many since the 2004 team won 11...UTA played 7 day games this season and went 4-3...the Mavs had won 4 consecutive day starts before losing Saturday to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi...the Mavericks went 9-2 at Texas Hall this season...over the last 2 seasons the Mavs are 23-5 at home...the Mavericks finished 5-1 against teams from the SLC East Division...the only loss was the game at Nicholls.