UT Arlington 89, UNT Dallas 56: The Mavericks Open a New Conference Era by Winning the Metroplex Opener They Always Win
For the fourth straight year, UT Arlington opened its season across the net from UNT Dallas, and for the fourth straight year it was not close: an 89-56 win at College Park Center started the Mavericks' first season in the United Athletic Conference the way this fixture always starts it.
UT Arlington's season is open, and so is its new era. The Mavericks beat the UNT Dallas Trailblazers 89-56 on Monday night at College Park Center in Arlington, in the season opener for both Metroplex programs.
The fixture has become a local ritual with a lopsided script. This was the third straight season the two schools have opened against each other and the fourth straight year they have played; UTA's own game notes had the Mavericks 3-0 all-time in the series entering Monday, with last year's meeting a 91-40 win in the same building and an average margin of victory of 41 points across the series, UTA's student paper, The Shorthorn, reported. Monday's 33-point margin ran a little under that average — which, for UNT Dallas, counts as the series' direction of travel.
The context is what made the night more than a ritual for the home side. UTA is playing its first season in the United Athletic Conference, with a roster rebuilt almost from the studs: 12 players departed from last season's 18-14 team, and junior center Miles Goodman is one of just two returners. An opener against a familiar NAIA opponent is exactly the soft launch a rebuilt rotation needs — minutes for everyone, systems on film, and a win in the book before the schedule turns serious.
For UNT Dallas, the night was the annual measuring stick, and the program it measures is building, too: the Trailblazers are in their second season in the Red River Athletic Conference under head coach Josh Howard, coming off an 11-16 season whose 10 conference wins tied a program best, and playing their home games at Trinity Leadership Public School in Cedar Hill. A 33-point loss in Arlington does not change that trajectory — but closing nine points on last year's margin, in the same building, is the kind of line a young program underlines.
Both teams leave 1-0 and 0-1 respectively in the only column November openers really keep. The Mavericks' new-conference season is under way in Arlington; the Trailblazers' conference season in the RRAC is the one their year will be judged on. The ritual is complete for another year.
