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Cannot believe all of the changes in the last year in the status of our program. It's been a really tough two weeks but trying to look at this like I would if I was say an OU fan or better yet OU T-shirt fan. I think if I was that guy, I'd wonder what the heck is going on in Denton, and think it's something really good. We have a great new stadium that got lots of positive buzz. And both our basketball coaches left. Not because they were fired, but because they went to Texas and LSU. While LSU isn't a basketball power, it is one of the biggest boys on the block in college athletics. These are two huge schools and they wanted NT people. Plus, there are many rumors that we are moving up in conference. This is the kind of attention that is never paid to NT, at least not in a long, long, time. It sux, but it's good. You want to be good, because other people then want your people. It sure beats being lousy and nobody cares. It also makes it so other coaches can see, that we are not some place you go to have your career die. You can get a dream job. Hell we had two people land their's recently. Now we have to hope RV and team can keep it up. That random fan of OU or wherever cannot help but think better of us. That also applies to the 100K alums or whatever in the area that we here about that fluff off their university. This will make them take notice too. We just have too keep doing it. While it's painful, this is the kind of stuff that gets the stink off the program that has been here for decades. Back to wallowing in the pain.

With your final talking point...the ridiculous claim that those oitside your wrongheaded miopic worldview would never see JJ's accomplishments and come to hire him away...laid to rest I guess you'll be closing up shop. Don't worry, much like the pet rock and Zima you'll have a fond place in the museum for things once popular bit ultimately useless. (Insert Taps here)

North Texas Athletics is cleaning out its closets and will host a surplus equipment and apparel garage sale at Apogee stadium prior to and during the April 21st Spring Game. Old jerseys, relatively new jerseys, sweat tops & pants, shoes, cleats, polos, warm ups, T-shirts, socks, limited edition New Orleans Bowl footballs and much more will be in a garage sale style display for picking and purchasing. All items will be set up just inside of Gate 2 adjacent to the Athletic Ticket Office and Mean Green Gear Stadium Store . Sales will start at 12:30 and run at least through halftime of the spring game. Pricing will range from $1 to $30 depending on item.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F59I9acMhfE&context=C42bac2aADvjVQa1PpcFOypdIF3THULw4HrUKOqEztWl7ZsnQ_9nM= What a terrible day this has been.

Still happening but they changed it to a Coaches Carousel.

Big Rog needs to hold a team meeting !!

I'd be willing to bet Johnny at least had to loosen the tie and ditch the jacket when making this decision.

Reached my quota for the day, otherwise +1. This board isn't as candy-heaven and sweet as some on other boards make it out to be. No one was happy losing 18 point leads, or to some terrible RPI teams. But, I think in totality, we understood there is always a chance with the teams he put together and with this program that he has built. I've liked some of the guys that post over there that used to post here, but I guess they couldn't express their true opinions here for fear of getting banned? Or perhaps, they just needed like-minded individuals only, and heads would explode if someone liked something. It just seems like a perpetuating spiral of depression over there, dwelling on the same things people have always had issues with. Doesn't mean they aren't issues, just some people tend to move past negatives and look at positives and it seems they support each others negativity. It might be a half-empty, half-full mindset, but some on other boards seem to be truly spiteful and venomous of some over here, and I just don't understand it. I thought we were trying to support and get to the same place as a fan-base. I will say tho, I am happy to hear some of the guys that slowed their posting here are still posting somewhere, because if they weren't, I'd be concerned that they stopped supporting, and that's not good for anyone, especially the athletes.

Uh, he will be a senior with zero eligibilty if he transfers. His only optopns is a second tier european league. These same 20 year olds may be singing the praises of the new coach in 2 weeks. They are 20 and are impulsive. No one is going anywhere till the end of the semester. Everyone should take a pill.

So if our players disagree, if they follow the men that brought them here, is the next guy still the "best coach available?" I think people suffer under the delusion that the next guy will just pull in talent comparable to what we have on this roster right now. That the next guy will have those AAU ties in the Dallas market. That Tony, who needs only improve his game for a year SOMEWHERE, will choose to do so at NT still...especially if the other kids jump ship. Anyone think a team in France, China, the Netherlands, etc wouldn't take on a potential lottery pick for a year? I get that we want someone with "coaching skins". And I get that the Shanice Stephense and ESPECIALLY the Dodge debacle have caused NT to be weary of the unproven coach. But if the nucleus of this roster leaves then just how attractive is this job now? The old adage "be careful what you wish for" couldn't be truer right now. NT fans loved to disparage what Johnny brought to the table. Let's just hope change suits us as well as some assumed.

Coach Mac is going to be incredibly lonely at these events given our current rate of coach attrition.

Very well said. This ridiculous Aston vs. Jones faux rivalry where both coaches just came to represent two groups of people is one of the stupidest things to ever happen in a community that has seen a tremendous amount of stupid. It's like Twilight, but with blown double digit leads, a pair of crushing tournament losses and lots of weird, misplaced anger. I wish Johnny the best in the general sense, but am not really worried about how he does at LSU - and the same goes for Aston. Mainly, I hope both new hires make us look back a few years from now and laugh at how far we've come.

You took over an absolute dumpster fire of a situation and established a competitive, NCAA tournament level program. It's hard to say goodbye, but nothing but the best of luck at LSU. I'll be hoping you prove all your doubters wrong in Tigerland.

I've heard the Strength of Schedule argument for a while from Coach Jones detractors. Even LSU JJ haters brought it up on their board when pointing to our records. The response was this from one of their fans: 2012: LSU #236 (11-6); North Texas #281 (9-7) 2011: LSU #336 (out of 345) (8-8); North Texas #300 (14-3) 2010: LSU #242 (9-6); North Texas #189 (11-4) 2009: LSU #252 (14-4); North Texas #204 (9-5) Now, I'm not going to debate that our strength of schedule has been bad, but if we were to make up for the in conference schedule with our out of conference schedule, we'd have gotten murdered. As it was, we held our own when compared to LSU. This shows how LSU schedules and what being in a decent basketball conference does for you. You can play real good RPI teams on our home floor, and they can't dodge it. It also shows just how far LSU had fallen, and how our success, JJ's success, however you want to diminish it wasn't a mirage. It also runs contrary to the belief that JJ only cared about Hot Springs. And, it certainly isn't meant to be an excuse for being just above .500 in conference many seasons. We've all been disappointed with conference stretches the past couple of years, simply because we know these athletes are better and can do better than the records indicated. We've set fairly high expectations on this program going forward that weren't there before, and it's because of JJ, not in spite of him. Our next coach needs to be a person that can continue and push past where we're at now.

I didn't think Jones would get the job, so I am two for two wrong; thought the same thing about Aston. I also don't think losing Jones or Aston is the end of world or definitely not something to applaud. Jones turned this program around from the depths of bad, he has also been the only coach that has had success with multiple teams at NT in forty plus years. Blakeley had a very good team but with primarily players he did not recruit and once they left could not recover. Way back, Spika who I think was the best coach NT has had in my times, only real success was when Joe Hamilton and Crest Whitaker were on the team. Gales only won in a couple of consecutive years. The negative on Jones is that he did not ever take that one step up that would put NT in the upper echelon of non power conference teams. The reason I was surprised that Jones was in such demand, is in my view his last two year were not all that good. Two years ago he had assembled a team that should have killed the Belt, didn't happen. Injuries were critical but JJ did for whatever reason go into the season two players short and overall failed to recruit the help that particular team needed. Last year many think he did very well, not me: a team with Mitchell should have been better than 9-7 in the Belt. I don't want to get in another debate over it, but I was not happy at all with the way he handled the J. Williams and C. Jones situation. The great positives of Jones in my view was that he was always a great representative of the school and his teams in general did not have the issues of many other teams. Most coaches in the Belt recruit numbers of players every year, lose or run off a bunch of them and then start again next year. Jones provided relatively great stability with his team, I think he really cared about the players. Another given with Johnny, is that the team was always going to peak in time for the Belt tournament. Jones also obviously has an eye for talent, frankly before Forrest he didn't get the headliners but he got kids that could play. My point with this rambling is that those that think that JJ can be easily replaced are obviously wrong. However, there are people out there to be hired that are better coaches than Jones, it is going to be far from easy but we have to hope RV finds one that can build on what Jones has accomplished.

I know I am going to get blasted for posting this but with all the talent NT has had the last 7-9 years, shouldn't JJ have done much better in conference play than he did? I'm not a basketball guru but it seems he was always calling timeouts at a bad time, not calling them when he should, bad clock management, playing players out of position etc. I know he greatly improved the team and was a great ambassador for the university but I really think it's time we elevated the program and with the players we have coming back, now is the perfect time to get that coach needed to achieve that. Blast away:)

I think I might just donate $1000 for the smart/Stevens paycheck.... I know there coming here, just a matter of time

I honestly don't care how the YAC board is reacting. It's a total snark board. UNTBowler/Tennis Hack hasn't liked JJ for several years. While Roadrunner/phoenix hasn't been around that long from what I remember - he defeinitely wasn't a fan of Coach Jones from the time he has been posting. Some of the other guys (like Caws, I respect him too much to call out his GMG identity, though itis pretty obvious too) have a more nuanced view of JJ. LSU is not set up very well for JJ, so he very well could be out of a job after a few years. They are definitely a rebuilding project, and while not as big as the one here 11 years ago, he also isn't gonna work wih a patient fanbase. If he's fired from there it's not gonna invalidate at all what he did here, and if some of those clowns celebrate if he is fired down the road, then they're just petty jerks (like, why would you celebrate someone getting canned from their dream job when that person doesn't even coach your school anymore). You think the former Boise State football coaches that failed elsewhere prove they somehow weren't good a BSU? Hardly.

Well, bases on what Tony's mom had to say, he's not going anywhere. Sorry, but I like to think our program is bigger than a couple of people. I love what Coach Jones did for us, but the right hire will keep us on the right track.

Please no one from UT. Helwig, Trilli and Dodge damn near distroyed our program.

Jacob Holmen, God bless him, posted something along the lines of "He wasn't on the court winning those games, it's all good." Love his moxie. Hope all the underclassmen share it and don't scatter.

My days go back to Trilli and maybe 100 people in the stands. I have always thought JJ was a great ambassador for the university. Thank you Coach Jones. Back to drinking my bottle of drano.

"I did speak today with a non-administration source at one of the prime candidates who is hearing that North Texas, Utah State and Florida International are pretty much done deals in terms of membership, regardless of league affiliation." (Another source from outside either league said members are starting to pressure commissioners Craig Thompson and Britton Banowsky to pick up the pace and get things figured out sooner rather than later. Which would be a huge relief to everyone involved, including yours truly.) http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2012/04/your-daily-realignment-speculation-2/

If we want him to stay, we can let RV know that by emailing him, just sayin.

I can add to this as I received word last night from a source associated with the athletic department that that C-USA was on campus last week and UNT & FIU (No word on Utah State), are a done deal for 2013. My guess is there will be an official announcement well before June.

We will probably announce on Dec 20th , would only be fitting

"I did speak today with a non-administration source at one of the prime candidates who is hearing that..." That is a lot of weasel words.

Do I think we could have had better records? Yes - especially the 2011 team with TT, White, DJ, etc.. Do I read basically every fanbase voice these same complaints about their coach? Yes. Coach Jones wasn't Wooden, or Dean Smith, or Krzyzewski. I am not sure even his biggest fans would say he didn't have his problems. Every coach has doubters. Go to a Carolina board right and some people complain about Roy Williams not capitalizing on talent like he should. But I think JJ was pretty dang good, and turned us into a solid program.

So this is our big plan to afford a new basketball coach?

No. Raise expectations. Maybe the new coach could bring him in as an assistant.

Just like when Dunbar tweeted his out if chico isnt the HC hes out.... You have to take these tweets with a grain of salt... Everyone just needs to calm down and let RV do his job.... His most recent hires have been pretty good

Living in Las Vegas I was devastated when OU took coach Kruger. I fell in love with Running Rebel basketball under Kruger and was sad when he moved to the Big 12. I am glad for Johnny and know he will do well. It is not the end of the world. We have a setup and just like UNLV was loaded with talent they lured Coach Rice from BYU to lead the Rebels into the top 15 this year. The #11 ranking at one point this season was their highest since the championship year and Final Four runs. So it can be done. We have a lot of talent coming back and are on the cusp of moving to an elevated league. We need to shoot high and sell the promise that is UNT 2012. Our future is bright and I am excited that I will see the New Mean Green continue to soar. Can we get the Butler Coach? The Witchita State Coach? Rick Majerus? Go to a basketball factory like Memphis, Kansas, UCONN, Arizona, Duke, Michigan State, Gonzaga and get a high powered assistant who wants to live in one of the most dynamic metro areas in the country. The goal is simple: bring UNT its first big dance win! You have first round pick to take you into next season - tell me this isn't a delicious opportunity for someone. Good luck Rick - go get us our next big team leader and outfit them in Mean Green!!!!! GMG

Forest Theus Kaspar Still shocked nobody mentions him. He loves UNT, and only wins.

Johnny was a good coach but not irreplaceable. He left this program better off than when he found it whimpering in the dumpster next to the Food Lion. So thank you JJ for all that you have done the next guy will take us on to our first NCAA Tournament win.

Boy, that is some swift investigative reporting. They have probably less of an idea of what Mitchell will do than the average poster on this board.

+1, or howevermany. When universities are being called out as places that don't prepare people for work, we have a university that prepares people for living their dream.

I hope to shake both of our new coaches hands at the Denton Coaches Caravan.

It would be REALLY nice if we got a conference invite in the next few days

this is the most important peice of news today...i love jj but losing tony would do more harm to this program then anything else.

Congrats JJ... The fact that this news is so hard to take is a tribute of how great of a coach you were...

Once I'm done writing it I'll be autographing copies of "North Texas Basketball 2013: The untold story of how a top 25 team was reduced to rubble in 48 hours"

We've come a long way with you Coach Jones. I know the decision was probably tough, but we all knew you were gone when LSU came calling... it was just a matter of when. Thanks for all the blood, sweat & tears you put into our school's basketball program. You will be sorely missed. Please, if you love us at all, leave a note on RV's desk to interview coach Forrest. A new LSU basketball fan, -MeanGreenTexan

Do it now.

Apples and oranges.

Danny Kaspar. Played for the Mean Green under Blakley. Wants to coach the Mean Green. Would not leave the Mean Green. Has won at every level he has coached. In his years at SFA, Rick Barnes is the only coach at a Texas Universiy with a better record.

Sounds like Vic Trilli. I'm not saying Coach Forrest would be a Vic Trilli at HC, but recruiting is only part of the package.

This is a really simple decision for those in charge. Just do it. And freaking hire Matt Daniel to coach the women.

We should have fired him when we had the chance!