TIP-OFF

The ULM men's basketball team (3-6) is set to contine a three-game homestand with the first of two matchups of the season versus UT Arlington (3-5) on Monday (Dec. 2) night inside Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

SERIES HISTORY –

Former Sun Belt Conference foes ULM and UT Arlington will meet for the 80th time and ULM leads the series 53-26. ULM has won the last two matchups, but UTA has claimed three of the previous five meetings.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS –

The Mavs went 1-2 at the Jacksonville Classic over the Thanksgiving holiday. UTA defeated Autin Peay while falling to Murray State and Rhode Island. 

Former D-2 All-American Jaden Wells paces the Mavs in scoring and has averaged 15.1 points per game in his first eight games at UT Arlington. Wellsis shooting 40.6% from beyond-the-arc and also enters Monday's game with a team-high 12 steals. Villanova graduate transfer Lance Ware leads the Mavs in rebounding (6.7 rebounds/game) and blocks (6).

KT Turner is in his second season leading UTA men's basketball. Turner previously served as an assistant coach at Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, SMU, Wichita State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before holding assistant coaching positions at various junior colleges.

RICHARD IN CHARGE–

The 2024-25 season marks the 15th year of Keith Richard leading ULM men's basketball and his 24th season overall as a head coach. Richard inherited a program saddled with APR sanctions and guided the Warhawks to four postseason appearances in five years. Richard's historic turnaround of the ULM program began in 2014-15, which was his first season without APR sanctions. Richard previously served as the head coach of Louisiana Tech from 1998-2007 and was an assistant at LSU from 2008-10 before being named ULM's head coach.

FAMILIAR FACES –

The Warhawks welcome back 10 players from the 2023-24 roster including starters Tyreese Watson, Jalen Bolden and Jerry Ngopot. Key role players including Jacob Wilson, Makai Willis, AD Diedhiou and P.D. McCraney are also back after playing in more than 10 games last season.

KEY ADDITIONS –

The 2024 ULM men's basketball signing class featured four new Warhawks to the 2024-25 roster. ULM signed two high school prospects (Micah Caster & Renars Sondors), one four-year transfer  (Coltie Young) and one junior college transfer (Ta'Zir Smith) in the 2024 class. Additionaly, Phil Cunningham was introduced as an assistant head coach during the offseason. Cunningham brings over 25 years of collegiate coaching experience at the Division I level.

BOLDEN'S CAREER NIGHT –

Junior guard Jalen Bolden shined for ULM on Wednesday night at LSU after dropping a career-high 25 points. Playing 30 minutes away from his hometown of Zachary, Louisiana, Bolden scored 14 points in the first half and 11 down the stretch in his career performance. Bolden's three-point shot at the buzzer in the first half was also featured on Sportscenter's Top 10 plays.

DIAPER DANDY –

True freshman Renars Sondors is the first ULM men's basketball player since 2015 to reach double figures in three of his first five games. The last Warhawk to do so was Travis Munnings when he netted double figures in four consecutive games.

LOOKING AHEAD –

ULM will conclude its homestand in one week from Wednesday on Dec. 11 to face Arkansas Pine-Bluff at 6:30 p.m. before traveling on the road to take on UT Arlington Dec. 14.