Left with a few minutes left so I'm not sure on the final score , but we were up about 20. Josh White,Dominique Johnson,Tristian Thompson,George Odufawa (sp?) and Howerton started. Collin Dennis didn't play so I'm guessing he is nursing a injury. Hogans started in place of Howerton to start the 2nd half.
White,Thompson and Stewart I thought were all really bright spots.

How'd the defense look? Did White play the point, or off guard? How did we shoot from the new arc? Free throws?

Everyone plays real tough DEFENSE and gets after it , that's the most impressive thing about JJ's team. White ran the point more than Johnson when both were on the floor.It might be because he knows this team more , but he seemed to see the floor much better than Johnson at this point. Not sure on the final stats , but we were 3-5 behind the arc and 11-18 from the free throw line at the half.

Stats

Looks like Johnson and Thompson really filled it up. 6-11 behind the Arc is not too shabby. The 9-25 assist to turnover ratio is unsettling. Thompson was leading assist man with 3. We are going to better ball movement and less turnovers to compete in the belt.

Wow...9-25 is terrible....

Our biggest concerns right now should be working on breaking a full court press and ball movement. Neither of our 2 points are what you would call passers , both seem to be shoot 1st and pass 2nd

That's a major concern. Especially since both are so short AND they are both shoot first kinda guys. It's a long season, but some of this early info is quite troubling.

What was the turnout like?

Id be a terrible guess , but it wasn't too bad for a "warm up" game versus a team most people have probably never heard of. The Maniacs were in mid season form.T he 2 students behind their bench were really giving that coach some fits and they even had their players laughing.

Odufuwa is a stud... he nailed long distance shots, had 1 dunk, and looks set to play a dominate role. Tramiel is ready to play big minutes. We played horrible in the first half... flat footed, unsure... toward the end of the first half we started to step it up and in the second half we dominated them. I wouldn't worry about the turn overs just yet. We did play the press horrible. White needs stop being so timid... he stops dribbling and looks to pass if someone just moves in front of him... he might want to consider dribbling around them....I am super busy tonight and will try to post more tomorrow.

Why Dennis didn't play....according to the Vito blog:


http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/archives...-on-dennis.html

maybe he was out getting his younger brother to be our next commit

I noticed Vito was saying the Ben "Fort" Knox looked pretty good out there.... I'm not so sure about that... we'll have to see in future games if JJ doesn't redshirt him. When Knox entered the game, he wasn't so great (being kind)... he was a few steps slower than the speed of the game and dropped 4 or 5 passes sent to him directly under the basket...reminded me of Howerton in his first 2 seasons.... Knox does seem to be a better defender than offensive player at this point, though I suspect he will foul out quickly in early season games.... I hope it was just nerves tonight for Knox, but something tells me he is better served to sit a year....

I like the fact that Knox had 5 rebounds in about 7 minutes of play.. I was kind of wondering what happened to Horne from last year.. I liked his game when he would come in at the end of blowouts last year.. I was kind of excited to see what he would develop into after coming here as a walk on. I guess he left the team though

Oh and attendance was good.. it was by far the best attendance I've seen for an exhibition game here.. It looked like about as many people as you would expect to see in a mid-december game

i got thier with about 3 minutes left in the first half after leaving my class half way through! i was surprized that TAMIU was within 6 pts...but the guys really turned it up in the second half....Knox missed his first 4 passes that were all right on his hand....but then he caught one and dunked...and the place ( probaly a couple hundred, not bad for an exibhition) went NUTS! it was fun...the team looked good on D, the offense needs work and it looked like they never really had plays set up, they just seemed to force up alot of shots...but overall they pulled away and won by 30 or more...im ready for the snake pit!

Observations and opinions...

For anyone (like me) who was wondering, the announcer's pronunciation of Odufuwa was "uh-DEW-fwah" and Tramiel was "truh-MEAL".

Quincy Williams looked very dapper in a light grey (almost off-white) suit.

Josh White still does that thing where he gnaws on his mouthpiece whenever he's exceptionally focused (handling the ball or guarding someone). Hopefully he doesn't crack a tooth or bite off a chunk of his tongue.

The starting five was Howerton, Odufuwa, Thompson, Johnson, and White. My observation was that Josh White was usually the one bringing the ball up the floor when both he and Johnson were in the game (at least in the first half... I stopped looking for it after halftime).

The order of substitution for the forwards was Hogans (in for Howerton when he got knocked in the head, with Odufuwa sliding over to the 5), then Tramiel, then Stewart as the 5th option.

It seems funny to call anything featuring Josh White a "big" lineup, but for one stretch we had Hogans, Stewart, McCoy, Thompson, and White on the floor together. It was an interesting configuration, to say the least.

Emmitt will be pleased to know that Tristan Thompson looked really, really good.

Justin Howerton has finally found his game. He looked intense and solid in the WKU SBC Tournament game last year, and it has carried over. He looks confident and in control of his position... Anyone who's ever watched him in years past probably remembers that he often played tentative or seemed confused, probably because he frequently had an anxious (or baffled) look on his face. He looked very confident tonight, and while he used to look like he was expecting to make a mistake, now he's got a satisfied grin that (aside from when we all thought he had a concussion) never left his face. He looks like he's having fun, he looks like he believes in himself, and it's encouraging. I know this was inferior competition, and I don't expect the guy to be the second coming of Shaq or anything... But this was not the same Howitzer that people may be expecting. Howerton has a smirk now, and hopefully he keeps picking up momentum.

On the flip side, the little Howitzer (Ben Knox) got off to a very rough start. He couldn't figure out where to position himself on defense, he kept fumbling passes thrown his way, and he threw up at least one airball. He came in with something like 11 minutes left in the game and stayed on the floor through the end. I don't like the word "project" because it makes it sound like a guy doesn't have the talent to succeed yet, but I definitely agree that redshirting Knox might be a very good idea. Once he got past the initial nerves (it took a while), he had some quality moments, including a dunk and a block that got some of the biggest cheers of the night. Knox really does look like a younger Howerton that might develop a little quicker.

Size be damned, Hogans is still crazy intense and hasn't lost his knack for blocking shots; I think he had four on the night. Looking at the box score, it says he had 3... It also says he only played 11 minutes, which is odd because it seemed like he played a lot more. He certainly makes his presence known when he's on the court.

This was the first time I'd seen Odufuwa and Tramiel in uniform. The one thing that worries me is that neither of them looks "big". I don't mean that they're not tall or that they're not muscular... I mean that for the past two years, I've gotten used to seeing Wooden on the floor, and Wooden looked physically imposing. Quincy Williams always looked strong, but Wooden looked like a mountain. Odufuwa and Tramiel are both built like Quincy. Howerton is the closest thing we have to a player that looks "big" next to the rest of the big guys on the court.

Johnson looks better than I'd let myself hope. I don't think he's going to make CBL forget about Ben Bell, but he does look very smooth with the ball. And he didn't have any problem bringing the ball downcourt against a press, which we did struggle with some last year. He may not be an assist-oriented point guard to the same degree Ben Bell was, but he can handle the ball and beat the press. White looks better against it than he did last year, but Johnson still looked better at it than White.

Two years ago, if you had said Howerton would be playing a reliable role in 2008, I would have chuckled.

Good for him. Glad to hear he has come around.

Thought the same thing about Know. Seemed like once he settled down, he did alright. Just couldn't get over the fumbled passes, but I'm sure he will get better.

Johnson is a stud. White looked a lot better in the second half than the first, drove to the basket a lot more. Odufuwa has a good outside shot.

I thought they did better in a full court press than last year. We didn't seem to turn it over or have a problem making it across mid-court (unlike last year). It wasn't pretty sometimes, but they got the job done.

Looking forward to Friday!!!

Questions, Comments, Concerns:

White-Johnson backcourt - 2 assists, 22 shots, 4 turnovers. Yes, they shot well...50% from the field, just over 50% from 3...but that stat line concerns me greatly. Even with Ben last season UNT had a negative assist to turnover ratio (336 assists, 466 turnovers; Ben and Dez were the only two players with a positive ratio). Perhaps this will sort of peformance will improve once Collin returns, but two shoot first point guards...especially two shoot first point guards on the floor at the same time, really worries me. You can't be terribly successful when you have five guys trying to create their own shots.

Adam McCoy - He logged 18 minutes and only took 3 shots. Was it a matter of him playing too passive or was he not getting touches?

Tristan Thompson - What was the main cause of his 6 turnovers?

Ben Knox - I would love to be wrong on this kid. Does anyone see his ceiling exceeding Justin Howerton? If not, I don't see the purpose of red-shirting him. Throw him into the fire now, even if it is only in garbage minutes or situations of severe foul trouble and get him a bit more college game speed experience heading into 09 and give us an additional big tall body this season. If he looks like he could possibly develop into a go-to guy by the time he's a junior or senior, then perhaps use the red-shirt, but it doesn't make sense to me to tie up a scholarship for 5 years on another Howerton

Howerton - I'll take 3 offensive boards in 11 minutes from him any day...if he understands his role as garbage man he has the strength and athleticism to finally be a factor. How serious was his injury?

I'm very pleased with the play of the rest of the frontcourt...excited about the increase in athleticism and if Howerton can provide the bulk/garbage man/enforcer role, this frontcourt could be great.

Other random things I like - Held them to 33.3% field goal shooting, 29.4% from 3...it seems from reading your first hand reports that the defensive intensity is up...and I think that will be really important with a smaller line-up. 18 offensive rebounds...if you're going to take a bunch of jumpers, there will be times when you're going to miss...and having people who can buy you second and third shots is such a great luxury. I hope that continues.


Any feed back from people who were there would be greatly appreciated

Oh...and any word on why the other Collin didn't play? Figured after more than a year between games he'd be itching to get back out there and JJ would reward him for his commitment. Is he still struggling with the shoulder?

Once you got past his initial fumbling of passes, he looked ok. So yes, I think he can be better than Justin. He didn't seem to mind mixing it up under the basket. Also seemed to have more confidence and swagger than Howerton did the last two years. My gut says we need another big guy under the basket and if he can get better throughout the year, burn the shirt and get him minutes now. It's not like he's a transfer, we have him for four years and I think we'll need him up to speed sooner rather than later.

Howerton stayed down for a while when he got knocked. Didn't see him move at all for a couple minutes, so I was worried that it was something serious. Finally sat him up, but he sat like that for a minute or two. Then when he finally stood up, it looked like he was about to topple over. They took him straight back to the locker room. Second half he was back out there and seemed to be fine.

I was surprised to see Howerton again last night. He lay under the basket for a long time. When he finally did sit up, he had that "where in the world am I" look on his face. He went right off the floor to the dressing room.

We can't handle a full court press. The TAMUI guards were all over our guys. If this doesn't improve, we're going to give up some major points or turnovers getting the ball in.

The reason the crowd (under 1,000) cheered when Ben Knox (I hope he becomes the Fort) finally slammed the ball was that he kept getting the ball, in the hands, and turned it over 3 times before finally scoring. He got that very polite thing going that tall freshmen have. "No no you go first. No really. I'll wait and go behind you. I beg your pardon." I say the same thing with Justin Howerton.

Johnny Jones without a tie. I never thought I'd see the day. His shirt didn't even have a top button. One of the best Scrappy guys in a couple of years. And new for '08, kid's tricycle races. Two 3 year olds racing about 2/3 of the court and back. The crowd enjoyed it.

Ken Bahnsen was there last night (Ken Bahnsen Gym AKA Snake Pit) watching form the tunnel. I hope he's introduced Friday night. He made the first touchdown at Fouts Field.

Do season ticket holders have a reserved section for the game at the Snake Pit? I understand about the general admissioin, but if 3,500 students showed up ( I wish) there wuldn't be room for those that purchased season tickets.

See everyone Friday night.

GO MEAN GREEN

Won't be a problem if you get there a little early.

Come by the Chilton Hall parking lot and I'll make you a Harvey Wallbanger.

I forgot to mention Scrappy... Whoever has been in the suit lately has really been fantastic.

Hopefully we'll never see the likes of emo/Prozac Scrappy again. When was that, 2005 or 2006?

from what i have heard, this game is being talked about all over campus and has big hype to accually see some winning for north texas! i will be dissipointed if their are less the 2,000 students thier....the CRAZED EAGLES will be in the house ( crazed eagles are a seprate group but part of victory pound)

1991

I'm talking about the one from the start of basketball season a few years ago who would just sort of stand around or sit and mope. Seemed like someone was being forced to wear the suit.

The 1991 Scrappy is a little before my time... What's the story there?

Not sure if that was the year, but I was in the tunnel one year back then coming out of the MGC room when Scrappy, without Scrappy head, came in thru the outside door wearing a U.Miami ballcap. I gave him a very dirty look.

No reserved seats in the Snake Pit, come early!

No Scrappy will ever top the Scrappy that was Tyler Richardson.

He was forced to wear the suit ....it was good times. Except for him. And us. Well, I enjoyed it.

The current Scrappy is awesome and is good enough to mascot for other area teams.