North Texas Head Basketball Coach Johnny Jones will lead his team into Maverick territory as it is a Sun Belt versus Western Athletic Conference battle, well, the Southland soon to be WAC conference member.  Don’t think this is nothing to the WAC members or soon to be WAC member. Face it, North Texas Athletic Director Rick Villarreal has turned down the WAC at least twice to join their conference. Don’t think UTA doesn’t know about it. If you will, he was telling the WAC, the Sun Belt was a better conference and UTA is out to prove that decision was a mistake. To UTA, Southland is below the Sun Belt Conference and to become a member of the WAC puts them ahead of any team in the Sun Belt and they are determined to prove it on the floor.

UTA is looking to gun down North Texas and go 3-0 this season while the Jones crew is out to improve to 2-1. Even though North Texas has won the last two meetings, both were anything but easy victories. Last year, North Texas won by four points and two years ago, the Jones crew took two overtimes to win. UTA kicked North Texas in the first three meetings and hold a 3-2 overall advantage.

This is one of those games North Texas fans have trouble understanding. UTA views its self as the red-headed step child and they view North Texas as the big brother with a silver spoon in its mouth.

Every time these two teams meet UTA has a chip on its shoulder. They consider North Texas a “cross town rival” while most North Texas fans consider this a game against a team in Dallas. In other words, UTA will play above their heads to win this game and North Texas down to UTA’s level. With an overall height advantage, UTA might play above the North Texas heads too. While everything is in North Texas advantage, the intangibles go to UTA.

Last year UTA went 13-15 but had a nice 9-3 home winning average and 45-13 home advantage since the 2007-2008 season. Everything does not bode well for North Texas when it comes to putting pencil to paper.

How good is UTA? Collegesportsmadness.com named their head coach, Scott Cross, as the preseason Coach of the Year in the Southland Conference. After all, the only time the Mavs have been to the NCAA Tournament is under tutelage.

Their leading scorer is senior #1 Bo Ingram, 6-5, 195, F, Kinston, NC, a Southland Conference preseason second team pick and named last year’s Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year. He is a junior college transfer from South Plains College and is the first UTA player to become a newcomer of the year. Last year he scored in double figures 17 times. In two games this year, he is averaging 15 points a game.

Ingram is also the main three point shooter hitting six of ten shots so far this season.

Right behind him is #24 Kevin Butler, 6-5, 210, F, Duncanville a transfer from TCU. Butler is a third team all Southland selection. He was no slouch with the Horned Frogs. So for this season he is adding in 13 points a game.

Third leading scorer on the team is LaMarcus Reed III, 6-5, 185, F, Skyline, Dallas who is averaging 10.5 points a game. He is a third team Southland selection.

Following in fourth is #35 Brandon Edwards, 6-6, 210, F, So, South Hills, Ft. Worth with 9.5 points a game average. Nipping at his heels is #25 Cameron Catlett, 6-3, 185, G, Jr. Madison, San Antonio with nine points a game.

UTA is doing a good job in scoring putting in 83.5 points a game while limiting opponents to 62.5 points a game for a nice + 21 points a game average. So far this season they are stopping their opponents in the second half, so they are making very good halftime defensive adjustments.

They are offensively scoring the same points in the first half as the second half.

UTA is one of the top rebounding teams in the nation.

UTA has a strong defense and are very effective getting rebounds on both ends of the court. If North Texas has a chance to win, their defense is going have to block out Butler who is grabbing 4.5 offensive rebounds a game. If they control Butler they still have to keep an eye on both Edwards and Jordan Reves who are averaging three offensive rebounds a game.

On the other end of the floor Reves is grabbing seven defensive rebounds a game, Catlett gets 5.5, Reed with five with Edwards and Butler snaring four each. North Texas simply has to be effective on second chance points in the paint by outrebounding these five players on their side of the court.

UTA’s big man is Stuart Lagerson, 7-0, 210, C, So., Judson, Converse, Texas. He is rejecting three shots a game.  

There are some areas for North Texas to exploit. UTA is not a very good free throw shooting team so far this season. Butler is their best hitting 10 of 14, White-Miller, G, 5-9, 165, So., Port Arthur, Texas is 6 of 8 and everyone else is slightly above the .500 mark.

Number four, Jorge Redmon, G, 5-9, 160, Arlington, Tex, Lon Morris is good but it does point to a weakness at the guard position. Both main guards are athletic but small. North Texas has better guards and forwards who should counter the playing ability of the UTA guards. If not, North Texas will have a challenging game.

Another area they could exploit is putting pressure on LaMarcus Reed III, 6-5, 185, F, Sr., Dallas could result in turnovers because he is giving up the ball four times a game this season.

Even though North Texas is young, they have the advantage of a longer tenured coach. UTA has the overall height advantage, North Texas better players, UTA has the upper classmen and the intangibles this game should go to North Texas.