{"id":479565,"date":"2026-10-28T18:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479565\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T18:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T18:40:11","slug":"uta-mens-basketball-picked-to-finish-fifth-in-uac-preseason-poll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/479565\/","title":{"rendered":"UTA Men\u2019s Basketball Picked to Finish Fifth in UAC Preseason Poll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ARLINGTON, Texas \u2013 UT Arlington men&#8217;s basketball was picked to finish fifth by the league&#8217;s coaches in the United Athletic Conference (UAC) Preseason poll, as announced today by the conference.<\/p>\n<p>UTA was picked to finish fifth in the UAC&#8217;s inaugural preseason coaches poll. The Mavericks enter the season following an 18-win campaign in their final year in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), looking to carry that momentum into a new conference and a revamped roster.<\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks return two players from last season in <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/stoney-hadnot\/14648\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14648\" target=\"_blank\">Stoney Hadnot<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/miles-goodman\/14744\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14744\" target=\"_blank\">Miles Goodman<\/a>, with Goodman the only returning player who saw action last season. Goodman averaged 3.4 points and 2.7 rebounds per game while shooting 45.2% from the field.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/coaches\/kt-turner\/7151\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"7151\" target=\"_blank\">KT Turner<\/a> welcomes an influx of transfers from programs across the country. Senior guard <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/mier-panoam\/14980\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14980\" target=\"_blank\">Mier Panoam<\/a> brings experience from Xavier, while sophomore forward <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/niko-bundalo\/15011\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"15011\" target=\"_blank\">Niko Bundalo<\/a> joins the Mavericks after transferring from Ole Miss. UTA also added international talent in junior forward <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/teodor-simic\/14984\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14984\" target=\"_blank\">Teodor Simic<\/a> and freshman guard <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/kajus-mikalauskas\/14979\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"14979\" target=\"_blank\">Kajus Mikalauskas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Mavericks feature five players standing 6-foot-8 or taller, providing added size and versatility. Defensively, UTA will look to build on a strong performance from last season, when it limited opponents to 66.7 points per game, ranking 23rd nationally.<\/p>\n<p>Preseason UAC Coaches Poll<br \/>\n1. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Central Arkansas (4)<br \/>\n2. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Austin Peay (2)<br \/>\n3. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Little Rock (3)<br \/>\n4. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tarleton State<br \/>\n5. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 UT Arlington<br \/>\n6. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 EKU<br \/>\n7. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Abilene Christian<br \/>\nT8. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 North Alabama<br \/>\nT8. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 West Georgia<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nNEXT UP\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Mavericks open the 2026-27 season at home against UNT Dallas on Monday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. inside College Park Center.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; #BuckEm &#8212;\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SINGLE-GAME TICKETS ON SALE<br \/>\nSingle-game tickets for the 2026-27 UT Arlington men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s basketball seasons are now on sale. Fans can purchase tickets online through <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/2026\/8\/21\/general-untitled-sportfile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">UTA Tickets<\/a> or by calling the UTA Athletics Box Office at 817-272-9595. Single-game ticket options begin at $10 for baseline seating, while reserved seating starts at $15 for women&#8217;s basketball and $20 for men&#8217;s basketball. Premium seating and floor seat options are also available.<\/p>\n<p>GROUP TICKET EXPERIENCES<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nLooking for a fun and affordable entertainment experience for your next group outing? UTA Athletics has the answer! Group ticket packages are available for volleyball, men&#8217;s basketball, women&#8217;s basketball, baseball, softball and flag football. Groups of 10 or more can receive special group ticket pricing and can add a game-day experience to their visit. Find more information <a href=\"https:\/\/utamavs.com\/sports\/2026\/9\/24\/general-groupticketsexperiences-sportfile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a>.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2013 UT Arlington men&#8217;s basketball was picked to finish fifth by the league&#8217;s coaches in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-479565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}