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Tony Mitchell under an inspiring coach and quality nucleus.

Recent Past With all the excitement over Tylor Perry we quickly forgot about the best player from our recent past. The stats and awards bear it out. In my mind the answer is Javion Hamlet. No other player has accomplished what he has. https://meangreensports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/javion-hamlet/4731 Imagine what he would have accomplished if the 2020 NCAA Tournament had not been cancelled. We won the Conference in 2020 and arguably that was the best team we have ever had.

But I don't see this a move down....more of a "not moving up" For this to take shape, you have to assume that the "highest official classification" is going to change. It's gonna be 30-40 teams. This isn't like going FCS in the '80s. It's not even close....the entire landscape has changed. NIL, transfer portal, ESPN, media.....nothing today resembles 1988. The "highest official classification" is just a label. It's unofficially the SEC/Big 10 now...even the Big 12 is not stable...P5 is going to P2. We have to stop thinking that because an Oregon State has "always been a Power conference school" that they will continue to be one. Boston College? SMU? LOL. The math has changed. Alabama, Ohio State and Texas are so far removed from the lower P5s and G5s that snow ball is moving at warp speed down the mountain. Them along with ESPN run college football now and what they want, they will get. I don't think Ohio State really cares about Washington St.... We (current G5 plus the P5 "hanger ons") aren't going to be able to keep up with this new world... I think this proposal is a new classification...not moving down to an existing one. Just my humble opinion....

word. missed that. then I hope it's Johnell Davis

That's right they'll shuffle them "DOWN" In this new world, who is SMU more aligned with? Rutgers, Vandy, NW and a few others? or Ohio St, Bama, Texas, USC (I didn't want to turn this into an SMU topic but you just can't seem to accept reality...)

Yes, I am aware of all that, and remember when they were very good back in the 80's or so. But, as you said, they haven't been very great lately, and had pretty much fallen off the radar until a long-past-his-prime Pitino went there.

play in MSG v. Villanova or a 1/3rd full Super Pit v. Tulsa. tough call.

returning (so far) 1. Rondel Walker - 6'5" 180 Sr., wing 2. Matt Stone - 6'4" 200 Sr., wing 3. Moulaye Sissoko - 6'10" 250 Sr., post 4. Terrance Dixon - 6'8" 235 Jr/Soph?, post (scholarship?) 5. Alex Cotton - 6'5" 195, Fr., wing transfers 6. Johnathan Massie (Longwood) - 6'6" 190 Sr., wing ... 11.3ppg, 5.2rpg, 35% 3pt% 7. Jasper Floyd (Fairfield) - 6'3" 195 Sr., guard ... 9.5ppg, 5.9rpg, 4.1apg, 2.4 steals/game (9th in nation) 8. Latrell Jossel (SFA) - 6'1" 185 Sr., guard ...12.9ppg, 2.3apg, 37% 3pt% 9. Brock Vice (Creighton) - 6'10" 245 Fr., post ...redshirted '23-24 season freshmen 10. Tyron Mason (Plano) - 6'6" 185 Fr., wing if we assume Dixon is on scholarship. there should be three more to play with. apparently 2 D1 transfers are on campus this week. there's not a ton of size, but a lot of length on the wings which could make up for not having a legit 4. Floyd's numbers present him as a true PG...no clue on Jossel, but looks more like a scorer...I think either way, we need bare-minimum one more ball-handler. Vice/Dixon are both pure wild-cards...I'd say at least one more 6'8"-6'10" player no matter what...if either/both can contribute next season, then my last ship goes to another scoring guard...if not, go big

Ain’t nobody leaving the Big 12 for a bizarrely configured ACC. You’ll get American squads but not Big 12 peeps. GMG

Would like to see an association with the MWC. This could give us some separation from the C-USA and MAC they can form their own group. Both could have playoffs and a championship.

Forget it, if NT moves down from D1. Competitive or not; being in the highest official classification has benefits. NT was in a league like this in the old 1aa days, and it was a nightmare in terms of coverage, support, and financially. I don't see any rationale why an official separation between P and G teams should happen. The P's already get most of the money and coverage. What do they have to gain?

St. John's is a top 5 Big East team (a "High Major" conference). They play big home games in MSG. It's a great landing spot for him. He'll get a ton of eyeballs on him there.

Some musings. First, G5 realignment for efficiency? HAHAHAHA yeah that's been bandied around and ain't no one ever bit on it. I'm very happy with what Sun Belt West looks like, odds are a shuffle gives me something I don't like especially since every let's draw a pretty conference on map nerd out there is convinced Arkansas State belongs in a Texas alignment when its basically same distance to Atlanta as Denton and there's a LOT of schools closer than UNT, the closest G5 in Texas. Now as to a playoff. To quote former Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters when someone asked him if the flavor of the day G5 consortium idea would work, "You only need one network to love you." If you can get CBS, Fox, NBC, or even ABC/ESPN on board to go all-in and carry the bulk of this tournament on over-the-air TV on Saturdays, then it's going to deliver better audiences than virtually every G5 v G5 bowl game that ever existed. Bundling a 7 game or 11 game or even 15 game tournament is going to be more efficient and more marketable than TV rights to a bunch of single game bowls and same for sponsorships. Financially it is more cost effective to send Toledo to Jonesboro on Friday to play Saturday than to send A-State and Toledo both to Montgomery and make them both spend four nights there. You will sell more tickets presumably to UNT hosting Utah State in Denton than you likely sell for the same game in Tucson or Albuquerque. The finances start making sense fairly easily. Here's the critical element to me. Third Saturday in December has long been G5 Bowl-a-Palooza on TV, that's now first weekend of the CFP with one game Friday and three on Saturday. If ESPN bothers to put any bowls that day, they get swamped and they are probably on ESPN2 or ESPNU. Fourth Saturday is likely to be flooded with games like the Liberty Bowl and Alamo Bowl P4 vs P4 games. Again if G5 get that slot, it's probably ESPN2 or ESPNU. Maybe get to play bowl games the Saturday after New Years but the competition isn't just NFL, it's NFL playoff football. The likely outcome is the Texas Twister Tyler Texas Bowl pitting AAC #6 and MAC #3 is going to be played a 2pm on Tuesday before Christmas or such. G5 is likely getting shifted to more weeknight bowl games and maybe more weekday games during work hours. If that's what's coming down the pike, then fine. Find me a network that will commit to Saturday over-the-air broadcasts in addition to cable channel broadcasts during the four Saturdays that CFP isn't playing. Probably best scenario is play one week, take a week off then play the next two in consecutive weeks in a 7 game format. No rocket science involved, top team from each G5 (so four champs plus whomever from the league getting a CFP berth) and three at-large based on whatever arbitrary and senseless ranking one cooks up or if 12 then 7 at-large. Bowls pretty much fade out and coaches getting laurels for 6-6 and 7-5 not so much any more.

My initial reaction is “Please let this happen.”

From the looks of things....maybe a PWO?

I'm hoping we at least reached out https://247sports.com/player/carlton-linguard-46098057/college-288895/

Eventually, one of those four teams will be in the top group. The other three will be down with SMU and UNT

For now….. But why would the P2 want to share the playoff with the non P2? they don’t have to. There’s nothing in it for them. Who do they want in, an 8-4 big brand like Penn St or an 11-1 non brand like SMU.

Oh there's no question SMU (along with several others) are not going to be in the Power 2. The point I'm making is there will still be access to a playoff system for the Big 12 and ACC "leftovers". Same will not be true for the G5.

Javion was my pick as well followed closely by Mitchel, just to see what he could accomplish under a good coach.

The ACC will be picked apart just like the PAC was. Big12 will help in the raiding, just as they did with the PAC.

When you have 4-5 billionaires footing the bill you don't care about the ROI.

Damn, we should have a separate forum for these conference realignment discussions.

Won’t work, the “Pac12” is no longer a “power” conference

I am fascinated that May will take the chance.

As noted in the quote you selected, one is an AAC Starter and the other was a starter on a NCAA Tourney team.

This new proposed contingency ACC sure walks and quacks like a non power conference. Why would anyone allow them to stay a Power conference without the teams that make them a power conference? I have an idea: when the PAC 12 goes away, let’s change the name of the AAC to the PAC 12: Boom, now we’re in a power conference.

You seem to think clickbait is a derogative, I would assume everything posted is meant for someone to read.

Jossell is only 5-11, but yes to more guard size overall. Now we need to add some 6-7 or 6-8 PF/wing types.

6'3" guard who gets you 6 boards a game, a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio, 87 steals last season (Rubin, our best on-ball defender, had 127...for his career). yes please.

The 1AA playoffs only work because there are home games involved for higher seeds in each round. Using minor Bowls or neutral sites would add huge costs plus more travel and kill attendance.

As it stands now, I think it’s a valid question. What needs to happen is that the top 30 form their own league. That leaves the G5 with a lot of really good teams that would draw lots of interest. For example, if aTm and UT are the only “big boys” in Texas, there will be plenty of interest from Tech, Baylor, TCU, etc. Now, will my scenario ever happen? I doubt it as it’s too good to be true.

It’s a no brainer. In the old days I knew Dickey’s Sun Belt champion teams weren’t realistically going to get a shot at a national title, but we were at least playing in the same league…a home run recruiting class and a friendly schedule and we had a chance to have a Boise State type string of seasons. With this new system, there is ZERO chance of building a competitive squad…the second we show potential with all-conference type players, they’re gone. A Brandon Kennedy would be a one year player in today’s landscape. So, why wouldn’t the G5 schools try to form their own system? And, I would jack the price for a visit to a P4 stadium up to a $3M minimum that ALL G5 schools hold firm on. If Texas wants to go 12-0 they either have to play the other “big boys” or pay the piper💰

I think you are vastly underappreciating what A-Scott brought to the table

Denton is not a stand alone city, it's part of DFW. More people come to DFW than ABQ for tourism. But this is not about tourism and not about UNM. For Nolan it's only about the $. That's what it's about for all of them. Most came to UNT from another college, which tells me we can draw other players again after they leave. There's always more players wanting opportunity.

This is click bait. Congrats on it working. Got my TL talking for a bit. I am not unemployed or 22 years old anymore so I have had a hard time caring very hard.

Oh, listen, I cannot believe yall haven't sued the NCAA of billions of dollars. For back pay for killing your program. Yall just laid the groundwork for how painful a Death Penalty is to a program, so fine upstanding programs like Baylor, who saw players rape and kill people, as well as Penn State. who looked the other way at pedophilia in their own facilities by coaches, never got a deserved death penalty. But I will also say that nobody else had a payroll that involved the governor of a state to keep this all under wraps. Yall made it an artform...

I just don't see how the general consensus is that UNT cannot compete at a high level under the current system. Who in the AAC has a better combination of location, facilities, financial infrastructure, etc.? You could maybe argue Tulane and Memphis. That's it. UNT should be cleaning up in the portal with guys from DFW looking to finish out their career and/or get more PT. That's how you build a competitive advantage over schools like UTSA, Rice, Tulsa, UAB, FAU, etc. And as Denton aptly stated you've got hundreds of thousands of living alums in DFW. You can't find a few thousand to donate $100? Maybe one less trip to Applebee's or Olive Garden and you'd have a roster than can compete at the top of the G5.

Recent Records/Success: 22-23 Season UNM: L 1st round of NIT NT: Won the NIT 21-22 Season UNM: 13-19 NT: 25-7; L 2nd round of NIT 20-21 Season UNM: 6-16 NT: 18-10; Beat #3 Purdue in opening round of NCAA before falling to VIllanova 19-20 Season UNM: 19-14 NT: 20-11 Post seasons cancelled.

Did Morris lie to the kid about us having a baseball program?

We get you are a closet New Mexico fan but noone l know cares that much about them. Sure they have more fans at games but there is frankly nothing else to do there. We have fielded a much more competitive program than they have recently.

After much thought, I have decided to enter the fan transfer portal. I have already been approached by universities that offered money, as well as lots of comp tickets...the one in Dallas is the chief bidder, but I have not made up my mind to commit.

Also, attendance at games is not required, in fact it's discouraged.

Once they move on, we need to as well. Let's focus on the guys that WILL be here not the guys that choose to leave. That is the new college landscape. I don't care about what they do at whatever school they choose to go to. I care about the guys that are here. Again, it is going to be a year-to-year situation with most of these guys.

just making sure @Andrew knows this option exists

Good luck to Rubin @ Michigan. Thanks for the memories. Just curious why he just didn't walk on at Michigan from Yates HS if he loved the history and family feel so much. Had a very good career at Yates but Michigan wasn't around when only UTEP, UNT and Nichols State came calling.

Yes. But not that that means anything any more.

That's the attitude of someone resigned to defeat. UNT is in a better location and I'm certain has deeper pockets than UTSA. You don't see UTSA using excuses of why they can't be successful despite some pretty clear limitations. Allowing the past to determine your future is silly to me. Find the right mix of people who capitalize on the strengths and mitigate the weaknesses. UTSA did it. Don't tell me UNT can't.