WBB: UT Arlington Mavericks 2024-25 Season Preview
WBB: UT Arlington Mavericks 2024-25 Season Preview
With key core back for 2024-25, plus a few key transfers, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the UT Arlington Lady Mavs
A slow start for the UT Arlington women’s basketball team to the 2023-24 season turned into something a little more respectable as the season went on.
The Lady Mavs started the season losing eight of their first nine games, A new group of players, finding chemistry, and adjusting to roles played a part in the early season struggles.
However, a seven-game winning streak, fifth place regular season finish, and WAC semifinals appearance helped the Lady Mavs finish with a winning record at 17-16 overall. The Lady Mavs also finished 11-9 in WAC play.
With several key returners back along with a pair of transfers from within the WAC, UT Arlington looks to make a big jump up the standings and contend for a regular season title.
Let’s take a look at the upcoming season for UT Arlington.
Head Coach:
Shereka Wright (64-48 overall, 41-27 WAC/SBC play)
Last Year:
17-16 Overall, 11-9 WAC (5th place, WAC Tournament Semifinalist, WBI Qualifier-tournament cancelled due to lack of interest)
Key Losses: Gia Adams (portal-North Texas) and Adela Valkova (Eligibility Completed)
Key Returners: Avery Brittingham, Taliyah Clark, and Nya Threatt
Notable Portal Additions: Aspen Thornton (ACU), Zoe Nelson (SFA) and Laura Bello (Idaho State)
UT Arlington returns three of their top-five scorers from a season ago in Brittingham, Clark, and Threatt. That alone is impressive enough. But, when you take a look at the Lady Mavs portal additions, they have what it takes to be a title contender in 2024-25.
After a year and a half at ACU, Aspen Thornton entered the portal and found her way to College Park Center.
Thornton started 40 of the 43 games she appeared in at ACU, averaging 12.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game for the Wildcats.
Thornton and Clark are expected to form one of the more proficient 3-point shooting tandems in the WAC, as the duo combined to hit 81 of 242 shots from beyond the arc last season (33.5%).
“Aspen’s ability to not only be a three-level scorer but handle the ball will be a huge asset for us,” Wright said.
Wright also added some size with Zoe Nelson coming over from SFA along with Laura Bello, a 6’3” forward from Idaho State.
Bello appeared in 46 games as a Bengal over two seasons and made 44 starts. She averaged 9.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in 27 minutes per contest while in Pocatello and was an all-Big Sky Honorable Mention pick in 2022-23.
Nelson is the second WAC transfer to join UT Arlington this year after spending three years at SFA. She appeared in 71 games, made 26 starts, and averaged 4.9 points and 4.7 rebounds per game in 15 minutes of action. Nelson is a career 42 percent field goal shooter.
“It started hitting me that she was coming to UT Arlington on her visit when she put her jersey on,” Avery Brittingham said about her best friend Nelson coming to the Lady Mavs. “She’s my best friend and it means a lot to spend our final year of eligibility together.”
Scheduling Tidbits:
If last year’s non-conference schedule for the Lady Mavs wasn’t the toughest mid-major schedule ever assembled for a women’s basketball team, it had to be up there. It’s a trend that UT Arlington will continue in 2024-25 with the announcement of a game at Purdue, Shereka Wright’s alma mater, on November 24th.
As part of the second annual WAC/CUSA scheduling initiative, the Lady Mavs will also visit Louisiana Tech on November 9 and host FIU on December 16.
UT Arlington will play CBU and GCU, two other programs expected to contend for a regular season title, as part of a three-game Valentine’s Day road trip which concludes at Tarleton on February 22nd.
The Lady Mavs are 0-5 against CBU with an average losing margin of 11.6 points per game while against GCU they are 1-3 with a 16 point-win in 2023 and average losing margin of 22.
GCU and the Lady Mavs will play their season series out over a 12-day span with the Lopes visiting College Park Center on February 27th.
UT Arlington finishes with two of their final three games at home, hosting defending champion CBU on March 8th preceded by a trip to Moody Coliseum to face ACU a week earlier.
Outlook:
According to Shereka Wright, the big emphasis in the offseason was two-fold: keep the core returners together and become a more versatile team.
Mission accomplished.
After a big WAC Tournament, Avery Brittingham is back along with Nya Threatt and Taliyah Clark. Three starters.
And with Aspen Thornton, Zoe Nelson, Laura Bello, and others, Shereka Wright and her staff accomplished exactly what they wanted to in the offseason.
That is where the excitement stems from. The Lady Mavs are versatile, can play different styles of basketball, which is vital in the WAC where the playing styles vary from team-to-team.
If Avery Brittingham can ride the momentum she had in the WAC Tournament, and the chemistry gels quickly rather than taking nine games to get going, the Lady Mavs could be in for a special season.
“We want to be competitive,” Shereka Wright said. “My team is going to go out and compete. And that is all I ask of them. But, we play to win.”