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Hi guys, just wanted to give you some thoughts on your new HC, Tony Benford. First of all, let me say that I think this is a fantastic hire. Benford has been ready for this for the past couple years and was Buzz's top assistant at Marquette. He's a great recruiter and has helped turn Marquette into a recruiting force on a nationwide stage, drawing top-100 recruits from Texas (Erik Williams), California (Juan Anderson), Chicago (Steve Taylor), Milwaukee (Duane Wilson), as well as last year's Big East Player of the Year Jae Crowder from Georgia. Seeing that it looks like Mitchell will be staying, it's safe to say Benford has some respect down there already. Also, I'm really hoping Coach Benford extends an offer to Aaron Durley. He originally signed a LOI with Marquette, but after a disappointing senior season, MU told Durley that they would prefer he go to prep school because if he came here, he likely wouldn't play until his junior year because fellow Fort Bend Bush alum Chris Otule will be staying for a sixth season, putting Durley 3rd on the center depth chart behind CO and Davante Gardner. Durley is a fantastic kid and a good athlete that needs some time to develop into a D1-level player, and I think Benford could get a lot out of him. Either way, rest assured that with the hire of Benford, you gained a lot of fans up in Milwaukee. While we're sad to see TB go, we know this was an opportunity he deserved and have every hope and confidence that he can succeed down there. I guarantee I'll be cheering for the Mean Green against everyone other than Marquette. Go Mean Green!

This Houston Cougar is just checking in to tell you guys congrats on your all-but-certain invite to CUSA. As thrilled as I am with our move to the Big East, I've always enjoyed the rivalries we have established with our CUSA brethren, and will miss playing teams like Tulsa, Southern Miss, and UTEP. I'm glad CUSA picked up a quality program and I wish you all the success in the future!

"No idea what kind of coach he'll be, but that mustache is the shiznit."

I consider whatever Vito says as gold. In today's world of unsubstantiated twitter rumors, he still reports in the old school way of using concrete sources. Glad he is ours.

There will be no FBS start ups added to CUSA/MWC alliance. I'll bet anyone a $10 spot donated to the board who believes otherwise.

Formalities...formalities, folks. It's a DONE DEAL...CONFERENCE USA here we come! When a very high placed source...VERY HIGH placed...tells you..."we will not be in that conference long (SunBelt) and that we will soon be playing the likes of Rice and Tulsa...then the next day the BOR authorizes our president to "review" conference membership and authorizes him to seek a change...should he desire to do so...IT'S OVER! The fat lady is warming up in the next room for her debut signature event....BUT, the formalities must take place...no way this vote happens without the cards being in place for the move. BOOK IT DANNO! Done, over, finished, complete...let the announcements start flowing! It's a great time to be GREEN! One has to thanks RV, Dr. Rawlins and the BOR for all their hard work in getting so many positive things going for UNT in recent times...it is definitely TIME and the Mean Green is ready! THE TIME IS NOW! Just sitting around doing nothing while all the other universities get into better conferences...I THINK NOT! Thanks RV, thanks Dr. Rawlins and thanks to all who helped make this all happen. GREATNESS for the Mean green nation. The time is NOW!

I agree. He does a good job, and reports the way he's SUPPOSED TO.

Just saw a tweet from the NT Daily that said the BOR just approved realignment from the Sun Belt to Conference USA. You may now delete this post.

I refuse to analyze this statement unless RV actually tweeted it

This is great news. I watched Larry Brown's press conference and it was full of retirement home recruiters and funeral directors.

here are some clips from last years tailgates

Yes, without Flyer and his crew, there would be no Apogee. Without Apogee, there would be no CUSA invite. Flyer=CUSA. Makes his avatar very fitting.

You left out the most important thanks of all. RV didn't get the students to vote for a increase in their student fees......UNTFLYER and his SGA colleagues did! It's as simple as this...no student vote...no stadium. So, thanks Flyer! (and colleagues) for the new stadium and all the future income stream to hire the staff and coaches to move the athletic program forward. CUSA has obviously taken notice.

When you're the best coach in the history of a school you don't write the fans a letter. We should all be disgusted with ourselves for not writing her.

Who's girlfriend wrote this?

Here is some footage of the celebration at Moody afterwards.

This is from a Marquette fan who just became a UNT fan. Coach Benford and Coach Lundy are an amazing foundation to continue to build on the success of your program. What a wealth of knowledge in these two coaches. Keep in mind that even with his background Lundy is 7 years younger than Coach Benford. If this doesn't start an incredible run for UNT basketball I will be very surprised. Great hires!

Look, Hispanic is not minority enough. We've already been through this. A black kid died, and a non-black person killed him. The media was in no way going to let facts stand in the way of cultivating another race riot. It's good for TV, and TV is what the media does. It trickles out that the 911 tapes were spliced, the shooter grew up in Hispanic household, had injuries consistent to what he told police the night of the shooting, etc. All that mattered last month was that the media had a full on Racism Package to sell and flame and sell and sell and sell. Only now are they actually digging into the story to flesh out the backgrounds and circumstances.

The NT Daily is a learning lab for students.

On this we should all be able to agree.

I don't understand why they wouldn't add MTSU instead. They're down in football right now but have had recent success, their basketball is really good and their other sports are always strong. They're also a good geographic fit and have a good media market. What does Charlotte add that MTSU does not?

Whether the headline was done as a slap at NT or not, it definitely was. A few comments on SMU, they are not going away. They are still a conference or two ahead of NT and have resources that NT cannot touch. Their bb program as been bad for years, but just like football at some point they are going to be able to buy their way out of it. Their biggest program is that they have moved way up in competition and are going to find it more than a challenge. They haven't been embraced by the metroplex since the Doak Walker days and I think the folks on the hilltop are always going to find it difficult to appeal to most sports fans. North Texas mission is to stay better than SMU in basketball and it is not going to be easy. SMU will get much stronger if nothing else by conference affiliation, Brown is a big gamble which may pay off. NT has been king of metroplex basketball for a long time but it was mostly by vitrue of SMU and TCU being bad more than NT being good. NT is going to have to excel to stay atop the metroplex because there is a good chance; SMU, TCU and UTA , which had the best team last year, all get much better.

How is the tailgating situation at North Texas? I can't wait for Tech & UNT to start playing again

If you guys get the move to C-USA, I'd love to see a home-and-home, but I have a feeling Broeker will hold off at least until then. As far as Mitchell...you aren't kidding. I'm guessing he'd be the best player on Marquette if he were here. I think he could very well have an Isaiah Canaan, Kenneth Faried, Stephen Curry type impact this year and end up making some All-American teams. I think Benford has a great chance to make the NCAAs with Mitchell leading the team, and hopefully that will only help get you guys into C-USA, and while it will be near-impossible to replace him, hopefully open some eyes and get consistently good recruits coming to UNT.

Don't you dare question my acumen.

Where will the c USA bball tourneys be held is what I wanna know!

Good. I never wanted him to be the Sun Belt comissioner.

30 years? Bad idea. 11 Conference Champions + 5 Wildcards = 16 Team Playoff. TV market would destroy the current system and give way to the occasional Cinderella story while being fair to more teams. I think the first thing out of a Congressman I have heard in a while is the current system creates a monopoly on the market and violates the law. Spin? Surely, but the point is to get people talking. A playoff solves all discussions. A 4 game playoff is still bs.

Nice troll post...anyway, I will say that your post is full of sour grapes. Don't worry, more than anyone else in the state, we get it about your current position in the Texas pecking order of college programs. We hated getting blackballed by SMU and the other Texas privates, but there was literally nothing we could do about it, since we weren't located in the heart of the DFW market like SMU and TCU were. Of course, there were even more Longhorns, Aggies, Sooners, Red Raiders, Razorbacks, Bears, etc...in the DFW area, too. It took everyone moving upward for us to get a chance to move up to replace them, but it finally appears to be happening. UTSA will get the benefit of San Antonio's TV sets, just as UH did back in the 70s to get into the SWC and UTEP has done for El Paso's TV sets to get into CUSA. It sucks for you guys because you will see how it truly feels to get blackballed by another "peer" university when you want to move up in conference affiliation. Being in a college town that is "near" Austin/San Antonio like Denton is near DFW will tear your heart out when the SAEN writes stories about UTSA's game against South Alabama while y'all are playing in a big WAC game against Idaho that could vault you into first place. It will crush you that your story is at the bottom of page 12 of the Sunday edition of the Austin American Statesman, when you beat Idaho to be in 1st place in the WAC, but Texas' non-conference win over Louisiana-Monroe gets the rest of the paper's coverage on pages 1-11 and the top of page 12. Trust me when I say this, no one else can understand your plight more than UNT can. I am going to be real honest here--its gonna suck real bad for a long, long time for you. Good luck--your gonna need it for decades to come.

Let's be honest. No one here really spends much time worrying about losing to Texas State.

There seem to be a lot of questions about the basketball program, as well as its players and coaches, these days.

I finally have to vent... During RV's recent pressers he expressed the accomplishments of Tennis and Golf, (well deserved),but he always seems to exclude our Sunbelt Champion soccer team and the long time accomplishments of UNT's most successful coach JH. The latest article from the NT Daily was the latest snub that blew steam out my ears! Link: UNT Daily Conference USA The latest article states, " In 2004, UNT’s combined record in the four major sports (football, men’s and women’s basketball, and softball) was 55-93. This past year, the combined record is 58-61-1. The men’s basketball team has been in the Sun Belt Championship game each of the last three seasons, the women’s team completed a 10-game turnaround last season, and the football team won as many games last season (five) as it did the two years before combined. Throw in the recent Sun Belt championships for the tennis and men’s golf teams, along with three straight years in the top-three finishes for swimming and diving, and you could argue that UNT is having the greatest athletic success in the university’s history." Let us not forget that over the years when "every sport" was loosing Hedlund has put together 17 consecutive winning season!! It's a good bet the first UNT team vying for a C-USA championship will be women's soccer. Winning a conference championship is no easy feet...how bout a little love?! GMG

Then dont read it. Its not like the thread title was misleading.

LET ME SAY ... THIS WOULD SUCK!!!!! As I said before, I think this move only happens if UTEP get's "cross-over" games with the Texas teams as part of the Alliance/Merger. Strog UTEP support in Dallas and Houston areas.

I must share this with all of you. A while back I was talking with RV via the phone and thanked him for getting the new stadium built. He never took credit for it! Not once during our converstation. He was humble and thankful but he made it perfectly clear that there were others who made it happen. He didn't mention names. But honestly, if RV had not shown the fortitude, determination, desire, and love for UNT more than likely the student vote would never have happened must less passed. He paved the way. So yes, RV played a major role in getting the stadium built. And yes we should all thank Flyer and the past SGA for both recognizing and seizing the opportunity. Thanks guys!

Yes, I never meant to imply otherwise. I believe Rick did the work of identifing the candidates, interviewing, and recommending the choice. I believe Rawlins has provided the support that RV needs to hire that person. I don't believe Shanice RV's was his first choice at the time. I don't believe he would have hired Todd Dodge if he had the money and new stadium in progress that he had when he hired McCarney. RV has done so much during his time to make this a more attractive university for coaches and Rawlings is adding onto and reinforcing that.

Just please continue to kick the crap out of SMU

So, Rawlins tagged along with RV to Florida just to get out of the office? Ah...........ok.

IA, I mentioned on the CUSA message board that it's probably better to add Middle Tennesse before Charlotte

Notice that last line: "If Marshall were competing for a berth in C-USA against these schools right now, the Herd would struggle." From a reporter at a Huntington WV newspaper. Ouch.

It's the first time donors, alumni, and administrators started caring about basketball since the 80s, I'll go out on a crazy limb here and say you're wrong on that (but right about Larry Brown). And yeah, I don't get why SMU was mentioned, but I don't think it really was a dig at UNT at all. Perhaps just illustrating how these schools in such close proximity had something in common in their coaching searches? It could lead to interesting analyses going forward depending on how the programs develop from here.

People need to go back and look at his offers his senior year. This kid will play major college ball, hopefully here. Last year, he lacked confidence and a mean streak. Understandable, coming from a small high school. This would be a huge loss for UNT. Green P1, if you are seriously comparing him to Ben (can't catch, can't shoot) Knox, I have lost some respect for your basketball acumen.

USC as in Southern Cal? Really? Can't fit it here, but is heading to the West Coast. Who's assisting this young man in making decisions?

How in the hell am I supposed to administer the STAAR test with all this news? I'm going to write C-USA all over the white board when I walk in....they are going to think I've lost it.

Think you read that wrong (actually, you read it right, Vito wrote it wrong). It should have said "Wednesday night, the BOR authorized Lane Rawlins to move quickly if new conference membership comes available (paraphrasing, but you get the gist).

We wouldn't call a BOR meeting and approve the move if the innvuhhh- taaayy- shuuuuuunn hadn't been extended. This is the real deal fellas.

And in mentor Buzz Williams tradition immediately pulled Clarke's scholarship offer after the presser...

I believe that he will, in time. Assistant coaches are in far less demand as public speakers and are not usually silver-tongued. There were two things that I looked for in what he said...content and sincerity. I believe that he said the right things convincingly. Tony Benford was my third choice but after hearing him and seeing the support from other coaches and friends, I believe that RV picked the right man for this job.

I love the "we are going to take over the Metroplex" quote.

I don't know why those guys are such condescending a-holes. Seriously worse than LA Tech fans. I wish their asses would schedule us so we could put them in their place.