OOC:
11/14 vs Cameron W
11/17 @ OK State L
11/20 @ SHSU L
11/23 @ Indiana St L
11/26 vs Jackson St W
11/29 @ Houston W
12/03 vs SHSU W
12/06 vs NMSU W
12/15 vs Houston Baptist W
12/29 vs UTA W
01/03 @ Arkansas L

7 - 4

SBC:
12/18 @ ULL L
12/22 @ UNO W
12/31 vs MTSU L
01/08 @ UALR L
01/10 vs ARK St W
01/15 vs Denver W
01/17 vs FAU W
01/22 @ FIU W
01/29 vs Troy W
01/31 @ WKU L
02/05 @ USA L
02/07 vs ULL W
02/12 vs UNO W
02/14 @ MTSU L
02/19 vs ULM W
02/21 vs UALR W
02/26 @ ARK St W
03/01 @ Denver L

11 -7

18-11 going into the SBC Tourny

I have a feeling we are going to be living by the motto " Live by the 3 , die by the 3 ". We should have a few games where we get HOT and just light people up , but there will also be a few games where it's just not falling and we won't have a chance.

Not a bad set of predictions...

I think we'll take the finale at Denver, and I think that the game at Houston might get away from us. I also wouldn't be surprised to see us take down Oklahoma State again. Indiana State... I don't know enough about whether they've improved significantly since last season. Unless they're notably improved, I think we can still beat them on the road. I also think we ought to be able to split against MTSU.

Sucks that we get WKU and USA on the road... Didn't we play at Western last year?

Looking through the conference schedule, I think you have Denver as a slip-up game against an inferior opponent. It's almost certain to happen against someone, so I can't knock you for picking Denver rather than ULM or UNO.

A fair and, unless something goes terribly wrong, probably pretty accurate set of picks. I think you're right that we'll go into the tournament with 17-19 wins and hopefully get on a run once we're in there.

I'm really looking forward to the season starting.

And I hope to see a lot of folks in green when we head up to Hot Springs!

OOC:
11/14 vs Cameron W
11/17 @ OK State L
11/20 @ SHSU W
11/23 @ Indiana St W
11/26 vs Jackson St W
11/29 @ Houston L
12/03 vs SHSU W
12/06 vs NMSU W
12/15 vs Houston Baptist W
12/29 vs UTA W
01/03 @ Arkansas L

8-3

SBC:
12/18 @ ULL L
12/22 @ UNO L
12/31 vs MTSU W
01/08 @ UALR W
01/10 vs ARK St W
01/15 vs Denver W
01/17 vs FAU W
01/22 @ FIU W
01/29 vs Troy W
01/31 @ WKU L
02/05 @ USA L
02/07 vs ULL W
02/12 vs UNO W
02/14 @ MTSU L
02/19 vs ULM W
02/21 vs UALR W
02/26 @ ARK St L
03/01 @ Denver W

12 -6

20-9 going into the SBC Tourney

I thought Arkansas was not a very good team..... I say we beat their @#$@

They made the Big Dance last year?

According to Pomeroy Basketball, last season NT was ranked #278 out of 341 D-1 teams in the category of most likely to put up a three. This was not someone's opinion. The ranking was based on 3Pt Fg Attempts divided by total FG attemts. Shooting 3's did not hurt NT last season. The Mean Green were ranked #20 in 3Pt FG %.

There are two other often repeated myths about NT basketball.

North Texas plays one of the weakest out-of-conference schedules year-after-year. The 2008 rating was #86.

North Texas is consistently one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the nation. The 2008 ranking was #77.

My predictions are more in line with you CMJ. I'd probably put UNO in the win column though so I have them 21-8. Historically, at least since I began watching, JJ's teams have started very fast out of the gate and done quite well in OOC games early in the season - even on the road. It seems the mid season lull around January or February is where we get into trouble. I look for us to do quite well in early OOC play.

I think that Mean Green basketball has come a long way in that the fans can make predictions of 17-20+ win seasons and it still be considered reasonable and a real possibility.

I could see us losing up to 4 or 5 games that I have us down as W's for. And I could see us stealing some that I predict us to lose. We have a big range this year as far as wins and losses IMHO. I'm eager to see how it plays out.

If we can get Mangrum back and it Collin Dennis and Josh White do there thing theres no reason why we shouldnt exspect a SBC championship we have got the athletes to make it happen.

I just wanna beat UTA....... and win 21 other games as well

Undefeated.

I second that.

I had this wierd dream the other night that I was at the game against UTA last year. I was sitting in what appeared to be middle school bleachers watching two division 1 schools play basketball on a stage. You know, the kind of stage you would watch a play being performed on. Anyways, in the background there were all these people sitting in what looked like movie theater seats. It was like there was some sort of wild collision between a middle school gym, a performing arts stage, a movie theater and a college basketball game. It was the strangest dream I have ever had.

Same...and we will.

29 - 0

I don't have any statistics in front of me to back this up, but it seems like the free-throw shooting showed considerable improvement last year in comparison to previous seasons.

I just want to make sure I'm reading this right:

A stat that is used to determine how likely you are to make a 3 was used to rank how likely we are to attempt one?

19-10

Yes, Last year was a good year. In order to put the Jones era into perspective some records of recent and most notable coaches are posted below:

North Texas All-Time best FT-shooting Teams:

1. 71-72 ___ .740 (This Gene Robbins' team went 8-18)
2. 63-64 ___ .737 (Charles Johnson was coach for a 7-17 team)
3. 75-76 ___ .731 ( Bill Blakely 22-4)
4. 07-08 ___ .7189 (J. Jones 20-11)
5. 68-69 ___ .7186 (D. Spika 15-10)
6. 78-79 ___ .710 (B. Blakely 11-16)
7. 01-02 ___ .708 (J. Jones 15-14)
8. 04-05 ___ .7021 (J. Jones 14-14)
9. 02-03 ___ .7198 (J. Jones 7-21)
10.65-66___ .701 (D. Spika 5-20)

Jones era free throw percentage:

01-02___ .708
02-03___ .702
03-04 ___.640
04-05 ___.702
05-06 ___.662
06-07 ___.657
07-08 ___.719

Jankovich era free throw percentage:

94-95___ .663
95-96___ .689
96-97___ .666

Trilli era

97-98 ___ .701
98-99 ___ .658
99-00 ___ .665
00-01 ___ .673

Gales era

86-87 ___.693
87-88 ___ .649
88-89 ___ .658
89-90 ___ .652
90-91 ___ .685
91-92 ___ .681
92-93 ___ .657
93-94 ___ .669
94-95 ___ .663
95-96 ___ .689
96-97 ___ .666


Blakely era

75-76 ___ .731
76-77 ___ .659
77-78 ___ .680
78-79 ___ .710
79-80 ___ .695
80-81 ___ .665
81-82 ___ .691
82-83 ___ .662

Spika era

65-66 ___ .701
66-67 ___ .675
67-68 ___ .644
68-69 ___ .719
69-70 ___ .668
70-71 ___ .700

Thanks to Media Guide and Official Web Site.

I apologize for not being clear enough.

The purpose of the stat is to see the percentage of attempted 3's out of total field goal attempts. Making or missing the shot has nothing to do with it. Divide 3-point attempts by total field goal attempts. In 2008 UNT attempted 29.9% of all the shots it took from outside the 3-point arc. UNT attempted 70.1% of all the shots it took from inside the arc.

53.6% of Samford's shots were 3-pointers. Samford was ranked #1 in propensity to shoot 3's. 22.1 of Southern Mississippi's shots were three pointers. Southern Mississippi was ranked #341 in the likelihood that they would attempt a three.

North Texas was ranked #278 in this study. In previous years:
2006-07 ___ #259
2005-06 ___ #169
2004-05 ___ #236
2003-04 ___ #209 (This is as far back as Pomeroy goes)

The point I am trying to make is that North Texas is far less likely to attempt a 3-pointer compared to other D-1 teams. It has been said more than five times that all NT does on offense is jack up threes, but it is not true.