UTRGV MBB details spark behind longest conference winning streak since 2020
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On January 12, UTRGV men's basketball hit one of their lowest points of the season.
The team was up by five with 30 seconds to go against a Northwestern State team with a 5-11 record at the time.
That's when things went bad, as they had for the Vaqueros consistently up to that point.
After a second chance off an offensive rebound, costly late-game turnover, and brutal foul with under two seconds remaining, the Vaqueros walked off the court with another loss. It was their third loss by four points or less in just a two-week span.
"Any number of things," Vaqueros head coach Kahil Fennell said when asked where things went wrong down the stretch. "Really just some breakdowns of discipline and focus. A little bit of a rushed feel, a little bit of a panic and then that causes us to lose focus and lose sight of the moment and just doing our jobs."
It wasn't getting any easier for the Vaqueros from that point forward. Their next game came against McNeese, a team that had won the conference for two consecutive seasons. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, the Cowboys had only lost three conference games. A record of 41-3 against Southland Conference opponents.
"Remaining disciplined and doing what the situation dictates," Coach Fennell said regarding what the team needed to improve on. "If we can do that and just continue to execute at a high level, which we did for the majority of that game [against Northwestern State], we should be able to see against McNeese."
Things would change in that game against the Cowboys.
The Vaqueros took the court with new life. UTRGV didn't only go toe-to-toe with the reigning conference champions. The Vaqueros were dominating.
UTRGV held a 16-point halftime lead. Shooting over 60% from the field and 50% from three, over double what they held the Cowboys to. The second half wasn't quite as strong, but it was good enough to hold on and hand McNeese just its fourth conference loss in three seasons.
"There's been frustration, there's been adversity and I'm just so happy for each individual player, for the collective of our team to be rewarded for their hard work to be rewarded for their resiliency," Coach Fennell said after the win.
The victory seemed like it could be a turning point for UTRGV. Although less than two weeks have passed since that game, the results suggest just that.
UTRGV is playing some of their best basketball in years, now riding a four-game winning streak in conference play for the first time since 2020 when they resided in the Western Athletic Conference.
During their winning streak, UTRGV is playing particularly well on the defensive end. Over these four games, they've held opponents to under 27% from three. Over the course of the entire season, that number would rank fourth in all of Division I.
"When you live the preparation process and win the preparation process, we put ourselves in a position to be successful on a game night because we're confident," Fennell said of what's led to this winning streak. "We're prepared and we're together. I think when you continue to do that, it doesn't matter what it looks like moving forward. We're not getting ahead of ourselves, it's just about winning the prep. It's about winning the process. When that ball does go up, we're the best version of ourselves and I just think our guys have done a better job of adhering to that plan."
UTRGV now sits in a tie for fifth place in the Southland Conference and is only one game behind two teams tied for third place (Nicholls and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi).
With 10 conference games remaining, the Vaqueros have a chance to earn a spot in the Southland Conference tournament for the first time. Not only that, but they're also currently on the brink of earning a bye for the first round of the tournament.
In his second year at the helm, it seems Coach Fennell finally has the Vaqueros playing the brand of basketball he envisioned they could play when he took the job as head coach. If they continue to play at the level they have over the last two weeks, they'll certainly be a tough out for any team in the Southland Conference once March rolls around.
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