College basketball’s road warriors struck again Saturday night.
By now there should be no surprise to it anymore, but that doesn’t make it any less notable just what a job Texas-Arlington has done in becoming one of the sport’s most impressive road teams. If there’s been a demonstrably more mentally tough team playing on the road in the sport the last couple years than the Mavericks, we’d like to meet them.
With wins over the likes of Memphis, Ohio State, Saint Mary’s, Texas and UTEP and a list of 25 road/neutral wins in 2+ years and growing, Scott Cross’s UT Arlington program has become one unfazed by tough environments and just racking up victories to become one of the sport’s coolest success stories over the last couple years. The Mavericks did it again last night, flat-out taking it to BYU, an 89-75 victory at the notoriously tough Marriott Center not indicative of how dominant UTA was.
The Mavericks led by 15 at halftime and by 25 on a number of occasions in the second half before the Cougars made it more respectable late. Kevin Hervey is one of the best players in the country-period-and he had 23 points and nine rebounds in the romp. Teammate Erick Neal also is one of the best point guards in the nation, and he had 21 points and 10 assists in this one.
All five starters scored in double figures, and collectively UTA shot 54.1%, including 12-for-20 from three-point range. Even as the Cougars seem to have slipped a notch from their perennial NCAA at-large contender status, this was a statement win on the road in a tough environment, something the Mavericks have become awfully good at.
In fact, this was UTA’s second win in the Marriott Center in just over eight months. The Mavs also dropped BYU on the road in the NIT first round in March in another convincing start-to-finish showing on the way to the tourney quarterfinals.
Last year also included a win on the road at a Saint Mary’s team that won 28 games and made the NCAA second round, plus a victory over in-state behemoth Texas. The year before there were back-to-back wins at Ohio State and Memphis. This season already had a charity exhibition win over an Oklahoma team that has looked good early, and the Mavericks have trips to Alabama, Northern Iowa and Creighton coming up in the next month.
UT Arlington’s story has a slight Gonzaga tinge to it in that, to the outside observer, its success has come seemingly out of nowhere. This is a program with one NCAA Tournament appearance all-time-in 2008-and that was in the Southland Conference until 2013, a longtime home where it had limited success with just two championships over 50 years of membership.
Cross has built a program on solid footing that is now excelling in an improved Sun Belt Conference, and UTA has been knocking on the door of the NCAA tourney for a couple years now. Hervey’s midseason injury two years ago torpedoed a promising season that may well have ended up with at-large candidacy, and the Mavericks deserved consideration for an at-large spot last year, with a Sun Belt regular season title plus wins at Saint Mary’s and Texas among 12 wins away from home.
Between the dynamite duo of Hervey and Neal and the fact that UT Arlington has been so close the last two years, there may be no more of a sentimental favorite to make the Big Dance this year than the Mavs. And if they do, there’s no question it’s a team capable of sticking around for a while.
Side Dishes:
- You’re going to hear a lot about Bucknell being the best 0-4 team in the country right now, and that’s all nice. Undoubtedly, it won’t take away much of the Bison’s pain after another close shave Saturday night. Bucknell led Maryland by 15 at halftime on the road, but the Terrapins rallied back for an 80-78 win. Freshman Darryl Morsell helped save the Terps with 15 points off the bench. Losing at Maryland is hardly a disastrous result for any team, but the Bison now have lost to Monmouth by a point in the final seconds, a dogfight at defending national champion North Carolina and now by two on the road to a very likely NCAA Tournament team. Bucknell also played without a starter with Avi Toomer sidelined by a leg injury.
- The most dramatic finish of the day came in Ohio as Bowling Green’s Dylan Frye beat the buzzer with a cold-blooded pull-up 25-footer to give the Falcons a surprising 83-80 win over Florida Gulf Coast.
- Purdue made 13 three-pointers against Fairfield-in the first half. Not surprisingly, the Boilermakers rolled at home, 106-64 over the Stags.
- A good matchup on paper never quite materialized as Butler took care of Furman at home 82-65. The Bulldogs shot 57.4% led by Sean McDermott (17 points, 6 of 8 shooting) and Paul Jorgensen (16 points, 7 of 10). Tyler Wideman and Kamar Baldwin also contributed 19 and 18 points, respectively.
- Nevada is now 4-0 after an 89-74 win at Pacific, a second straight road win over a WCC team for the Wolf Pack. Yet another team setting three-point records (who doesn’t these days?), Nevada hit a school-best 17 triples in this one.
- Belmont won again, though it received a surprising challenge from Houston Baptist before prevailing 93-88. The Bruins shot a school-record 43 three-pointers, making 15, but the Huskies’ 21-0 run in the second half made them sweat before holding on.
- Texas drilled Lipscomb 80-57. The Longhorns’ shooting struggles are well-documented, though they used their interior advantage to hit 50.9% from the field despite going just 3-for-16 from 3-point range. Lipscomb was even an icier version of cold in this one, though, hitting 29.3% from the floor, including just 2 of 23 from deep.
- Canisius guard Isaiah Reese notched the first triple-double in school history with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a 104-84 win over Youngstown State.
- Harvard had a second straight mildly surprising loss of the week, falling at Manhattan 73-69. The Crimson rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to take a six-point lead late, only to see the Jaspers rally back.
- Another Ivy team off to a slow start is Princeton, which lost to Saint Joseph’s 71-58. Get to know the name of Hawks freshman Taylor Funk, who scored 23 and hit five three-pointers.
- Utah Valley has responded well after its two-day gauntlet to start the season, winning twice including an 80-71 win over defending Big West tourney champion UC Davis Sunday. Kenneth Ogbe scored 21 points.
- Toledo is now 3-0 after topping Oakland 87-74. Jaelan Sanford is off to a very nice start to the season for the Rockets and had 26 here.
Today’s Menu:
- Most notable about the Sunday slate are a number of tournaments wrapping up. The ESPN events wrap up after a day off for college football, with Boise State against Iowa State for the Puerto Rico Tip-Off title (7:30 p.m. Eastern, ESPN2) and Temple meeting Clemson in the Charleston Classic final (9:30 p.m., ESPN2). Also, the Paradise Jam closes with upstart Mercer-the most impressive team in the tourney so far, by far-against Colorado, and the Island of the Bahamas Showcase has a pair of NCAA tourney teams last year with Northern Kentucky against Vermont in the final.
- Besides the championship games in those events, the best matchup very well could be the fifth-place game in Charleston between Old Dominion and Dayton.
Outside of tournaments, the game that will get the most attention is top-10 USC on the road at Vanderbilt. Memorial Gym should be fun for this one. - Monmouth gets another shot at a top-notch opponent-on the road, as usual-when it goes to Virginia, which should still be on a high after its big win at VCU Friday.
- Holy Cross, coming off a win against Harvard, now gets to take on Rhode Island in the Rams first game since finding out E.C. Matthews will be sidelined by injury for a while.
- Nebraska should be on alert for its annual non-conference loss at home when it hosts North Dakota (2 p.m., Big Ten Network), which has Geno Crandall and enough offense to be a nuisance.
- The Hall of Fame Classic wraps up with Northwestern against Texas Tech in the title game, a contest that should give us a little bit better read on where the seemingly underwhelming Wildcats are right now.
Ball State was not close in a blowout loss at Oklahoma on Wednesday, but the Cardinals weren’t physically nearly as much as simply badly outshot and not good defensively. If they can clean some of that up they’ll have a shot at Oregon.
Enjoy your Sunday.
