Leaderboard

And wearing championship rings.

to the Mean Green Nation.

You can usually count on 6 highly abnormal games in a basketball season: 3 games won that you shouldn't have, and 3 games lost that you should have won. I think the Creighton win is definitely one of them; however, to be honest, I'm not certain this loss falls under this umbrella.

As a Mavs fan I have nothing but respect for the Spurs. I think Carisle and Pop are easily the two best coaches in the league and they both have the most unselfish players in Nowitzki and Duncan who both took pay cuts for their teams. Now Houston is another story.

What happens if we make all new hires (football, both basketball teams, and athletic director) and we still lose? Will throwing money at the issue still be the solution? To me at some point you have to ride things out and adjust without money being the solution. Throwing money at everything is not the answer. You do not want to have to pay off four or five coaches over and over again just in hopes of having a wining season. Of course if you know some donor who are just sitting in tens of millions of dollars and would love to take chances then by all means hit them up and donate. It's still a roll of the dice either way.

I have a few extra tickets for the Heart of Dallas Bowl. It's tomorrow (26th) at noon. PM if you are interested...would need to meet up with me to get them.

All of the rating services have various methodologies they follow on how they assign a ranking to a recruit. They will look at measurable attributes such as height, weight, speed, strength, HS production, college recruiting interest, and other variables and compare against historical numbers. Regardless of the attributes that they use to rank a player, one thing that seems fairly consistent across the services is the breakdown of the numbers. There has been a bit of discussion regarding the rating services and ranking of recruits. Based on looking at historical information, the services attempt to rank approximately 3,000 HS/JUCO players (some years more, some years less). As you look at historical rankings from the services, you will see that they follow a similar distribution: 1% - 5 stars (30-50 players) 10% - 4 stars (300-350 players) 40% - 3 stars (1,000-1,500 players) 50% - 2 stars (remaining ranked players) You won't see anything less than 2 stars, you will see players that have been evaluated, but not ranked, lumped in with players that have not be evaluated and see them listed as NR, or not ranked. The numbers won't always be precise, and some services may have a slightly different distribution (i.e. maybe 50% in 3 star category and less in 2 star category, and you will also see that they typically squeeze a few more players in the 5 star/4 star categories, no doubt in an effort to draw more eyeballs. Money talks and fans that buy subscriptions want to see 5 star/4 stars signed by their schools so over the years, the numbers have increased in the highest categories. In terms of why to rank 3,000 players, keep in mind that there are 128 Division 1 football programs and each is able to sign up to 25 players per year (128 * 25 = 3,200). Each team will not be able to sign 25 each year due to 85 maximum scholarship limit. Also, keep in mind that there are plenty of players that receive offers that are not ranked, or are not ranked at the time. This is one of the reasons that the services hold off on doing the full rankings up front and often will go back and rank/re-rank a recruit after receiving offers. Since all services do not necessarily rank the same players, you will occasionally see a player ranked by one service and not ranked at all by another service. There are 65 P5 teams. Each year they sign roughly 1,500 players.

Rice is going to be very tough next year. Highly unusual, their coach already talking about conference championship.

Sure it can, depending upon what sort of advertising package they've purchased. But that's not anywhere near the same thing. You seeing a well-placed ad (if they decide to pay for one) isn't the same as them getting your email/phone number/address/whatever in order to contact you personally. He was bemoaning the fact that we can't get Ticketmaster to share information on customers. Intelligent browser ads have nothing to do with someone sharing your contact or consumer information.

I agree that the AD office will not put these goals on themselves unless required to do so. It is the president's responsibility to define the requirements/goals for the AD. The AD is provided with a staff to help him meets his goals.

Umm..

...and a Happy and SAFE New Year!

I say what they are doing is excusing making, not that they are excuse makers and apologists. That implies a character flaw, that they know what they are doing, and are doing it intentionally, which they aren't. But, again, that doesn't fit your rah rah narrative. But I do hope you have a Merry rah rah Christmas. ;-)

This is actually the only realistic one of all. Ticketmaster is a business and is legally required to keep their customers' information private unless authorized to do so with their "partners." So UNT would have to become an affinity partner or something with Ticketmaster, and then each given customer who purchased UNT tickets from Ticketmaster would have to opt in to receive special offers and such from UNT. Not impossible when you think about it, but not something very likely to happen any time soon.

You call people apologists, excuse makers, etc... when they don't agree with you, so stating you don't is laughable. I like differing viewpoints, but you have been performing the same song and dance for years and it has grown tiresome.

I didn't trust rice because of their performance last year.... I knew I shouldn't trust Fresno More than Rice. Dang double dang. Bowl pick em took a hit with this L

GCU takes their BB very serious. Got rid of their coach after he had won 20+ games the year before This is what GCU looks like for a exhibition game The Lopes take the court for the first time! pic.twitter.com/jBWMt3cn5x — Lopes Up (@LopesUp) November 7, 2014

Dude... I'm as big a UNT and TM homer as the next guy, but as a Mavs fan this is insane. I'd take a proven veteran over someone who will be in the D-Leagues most of this year...

I agree there is a problem with talent evaluation, but these posts are just another shot at our DT, and their size. There is an obsession on this board with DTs being in the 300+ range. Marshall, who just smashed a better NIU team, won CUSA, and has been a consistient program has two "undersized" DTs. Rouse 268, Samuel 276. How did they ever manage to go 13-1? Surely those DTs got blown off the ball... In 14 games Rouse 43 tackles, 10.5 tfl, 2.5sacks, 3ff Samuel 30 tackles, 5tfl, 1 sack its about TALENT.

I don't know... There is one Christmas present we're all hoping for that I think could make it all better!

Day-after thoughts: 1. Magic number is 70 PVAMU scored 70 points last night. We're now 0-4 this year when an opposing team scores 70 points. Again, we don't have the firepower to keep up. We're going to really struggle to win games when the opposing team scores 70 points this year. 2. No firepower Off of my last point, one of the things I've been clamoring about in between last season and this one is Benford has not brought us many scorers. After another big game against a non-D1 opponent (Langston), Jeremy Combs raised his scoring average above double digits. It has now fallen below and, I believe, will stay there with Tech and CUSA competition ahead. The only double digit scorers during the Benford era have been JJ guys (Jordan Williams, Tony Mitchell, Roger Franklin, and Alzee Williams). Only Jordan remains, and he's our only player averaging in double figures. 3. Guards we brought in Another thing I was highly skeptical of was bringing in 4 guards last recruiting class who, combined, only had 1 other D1 offer. Greg White-Pittman had a New Orleans offer, while JUCO guards DeAndre Harris, Carrington Ward, and Todd Eaglin all had 0 other D1 offers. Looks like we've hit on 1 of 4, which is about the rate you'd expect. Harris has shown plenty of ability and had some good games. GWP is still young, but he hasn't done much of anything against D1 competition. Ward was basically the last guy off the bench, before suffering a season-ending injury. Last night GWP and Eaglin each stuffed the stat sheets with goose eggs across the board, as each player was 0-1 shooting with no other stats accumulated. GWP's scoring average now dips to 2.75 ppg against D1 competition and Eaglin 2.5 against D1 competition. 4. Sometimes teams just suck And I'm not just referring to us. 2 teams we played this year who won tournament games and were among the last 32 teams standing in college basketball a year ago both heaved up bricks all game against us (SFA and Creighton). As Travis said, we live and die by whether or not the other team is hitting their open jumpers, with the zone we play. We may be D1, in a pretty good conference in CUSA, but it's still college basketball. We're not playing the teams who will have players drafted in the first round of the draft this year. Even the teams that are "good" are still not great. The SFA and Creighton games proved to me that this strategy of giving the other team open jumpers and hoping their shot is broke all night can pay off more than a fair share of times over a 30+ game schedule. I just don't expect us to win any significant games in the CUSA tournament.

Correct. The person who hired both coaches should FINALLY be held accountable for something.

Yes. It's impossible for bad basketball to exist. I enjoy basketball and nothing is wrong with that. Personally I rather watch us lose to a d2 school then watch any football game. I like football as well but not even a quarter as much as I like basketball. I grew up going to every UNT game and watching the mavs every night. I watch as much basketball as my wife will allow still.

so...basketball? that's some top-notch analysis.

Was there a booth selling, offering info, taking info, promoting MGC memberships and season tickets at the Bowl Game last year? Rick

Smastrek is the Man and I know he will make great things happen for North Texas. We didn't deserve to bowl. Not this team this year. We would have gotten waxed. Still a productive fun year. Here is to 2015 GMG!!!!!

Hearing Jub try and justify how good this 2 win pAm team really is was just sad.

Can't help but feel we should be bowling this season.

Time will tell, but I agree with Harry here. Hopefully he is allowed to make the moves he wants to make.

Unbelievable. Only at UNT.

Agree. Congratulations for your part in the Memphis win over BYU! With the new stadium and athletic facilities in place at UNT I will always wonder what Coach Dickey could have done at UNT, how far he could have taken us. I met Coach Dickey and Coach Mills, and another coach(can't remember his name) when they came to visit me at my office in the old hometown. He was in Southeast Texas recruiting. Mills came down several times and had pretty decent results.

Brett, what is the one common thread through all that losing? And yes, we should be a be able to out-recruit ULL and La. Tech. ULL is in the Belt and La. Tech is in Ruston. I was at La. Tech last year. I saw their stadium. It isn't much better than Fouts. People like Hudspeth get it done at ULL, which was terrible when he got there, or Todd Berry at ULM with the smallest budget in FBS and is in the godforsaken location of Monroe, La. Please, for the love of God, stop making excuses just because you like DMac. His recruiting has not been good. Hopefully he and his staff perform miracles in the development department before next season.

All of giving (Advancement, Alumni, MGC, College-specific) is now stored in a new Raiser's Edge database in which all various giving profiles are attributed to a single user. I asked your very question while I was previewing the database last week. Every department is going to start sharing... except for the AD. Until the silo-removal that Pres. Smatresk desires takes place across the highway, this is how it will remain.

Pretty terrible for an AD that has been here 14 years. Assuming we started at zero when RV arrived, that would mean he and the people he manages have managed to recruit a whopping 79 new members each year. 79. I doubt there are any consequences for failure to meet goals within the AD. I mean, it is our culture, after all.

If goals aren't publicly made, goals will never be reached. If a public plan was put in place it would do nothing but help season ticket numbers. Why we have to be the ones to point that out to these folks is beyond me.

Do they have adult onesies?

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hCeuNUWJzmk A true leader in dark times.

All late summer and early fall they uploaded video clips of their practices to their YouTube account..... Obviously they are not going to show on video what they are doing on defense and offense but they still showed drill after drill after drill and it's no different than what any other team does. The lose is unacceptable but to insinuate that the team does not practice is ludicrous. Not sure how we bounce back from a terrible loss but beating Tech and UTEP might just do that.

I met the father of our 7ft recruit last night at the PVAM game. He was with Ken Lyons and Ken actually introduced me to him. Seems like a nice guy and had some very interesting things to say regarding his son's recruiting by some pretty decent schools including Okie State, George Mason, etc. and why he commuted to play for the Mean Green. His comment about the PVAM game was "we need more people in here". I started to tell him not to worry as we have a lot of folks supporting the players from afar and how much that means to the program and players. But, decided not to go there...just said I definitely agreed. PM me if you want to know what he said about the decision to go with UNT. No need to expand upon that here. I am looking forward to seeing his son play with Jeremy Combs and J'Mycel.

Really, talent? Why didnt I think of that first? It's about a lot of things. Scheme, blitzing, coverages, all of that. Not once have I ever claimed Talent wasn't a factor. But the majority of the top DL's are not lightweights and end up around their weight and above. And those two you listed aren't 6'0"....276. They're 6'4" and 6'5".... 276. They are big, fast, agile people that are quick off the ball with reach who can draw the double team. For whatever reason our guy isn't finding players like them to replace those that Todd Dodge did find. Argue it all you want. Pick at every word I point out to you all you want.. Giggle and drool over stars and who offered who, all you want. Bottom line is, we're 4-8 and looking at worse. Rick

See what happens when you dispute UNT90. The same talking points for the last few years, and oh, he is never wrong, nor will he ever consider another's opinion without calling it excuse making. Such a tired act. Yell that we need to hire a coach with head coaching experience, we do that and hire a coach with more D1 experience than we have ever had, but it still isn't enough. Tout the accomplishments of Hudspeth at ULaLa, a coach you would have criticized had RV hired him, now that he has experienced success. You should work for a political party, and not the one you claim to follow.

--- I was basically referring to American involvement... True the Middle East aka. Ottoman Empire was a big deal to some countries but I don't remember us being there at all. In WWII we were "everywhere" on the globe which includes north Africa.. . The bombing from Zeppelins in WWI was nothing compared to what happened in WWII.... The air war (Battle of Britain.. knew some that flew in it) or the rockets damage done later by V-I's and V-II's. (Ever been to London..?. damage still exists in places and some building look strange with mismatched brick repair after WWII, been there several times) Faster is relative ... we lost over 10,000 in one day at Gettysburg (almost all Southern.. Pickett's charge alone)... The worst battle ever probably was Stalingrad in WWII... about 1.5 million Russians deaths and about half of that Germans. ... about zero Americans. As for the cemetery mentioned... a lot were illness deaths... not combat.. Also unlike WWII ... the armies did not move much in WWI so were deaths and burials were concentrated close together .. In WWII they usually moved rapidly and many smaller cemeteries existed. . Partly the reason memory of WWI is fading here is that there are no WWI veterans left ... and even most of their children are gone.. Unlike our Civil war, there are no battlefields or WWI cemeteries here either.

They always sucked. Creighton was a meh win at best. Anyone who thought that was a big deal was blind optimist. Creighton had already lost 4 games, and did anyone watch that game? Mean green basketball is awful. They didn't have a prayer in the tournament when they were somewhat solid.

Yeah, it's called TALENT EVALUATION. Something very few of the rubes some of you recruit experts keep referencing to ever do, if ever? The coaches, you know guys who actually played, go see these guys play, study the game film and evaluate if they have what it takes or not. They don't make their decisions based off of how many offers they have form XYZ school. And some coaches are better at this than others. Rick

I don't know other than we're 4-8 and headed for worse. Maybe you should respond to yourself with this over on the 5 Millionth Recruiting thread we have here, and see if you get the answer your looking for? Rick

"Fly Like An......Owl" Rick

Fresno has a FANTASTIC commercial by the way.. Just saying. Rick

You don't have to cite examples of conflicts overseas where the citizenry remained forever defiant of us. We have a pretty good example here in America. The civil war ended in 1865. And with it all vestiges of the "rebellion" should have gone away. Slavery was eliminated, but what did the defiant South put in it's place...Jim Crow laws. Which in most cases made life just as bad for people of color. The confederate battle flag, the main symbol of the southern rebellion, should have been relegated to museums long ago. And yet........... And our planners and thinkers of foreign policy, which include people who strongly advocate military "solutions" to conflicts in foreign countries, completely ignore our own home grown lesson in never being able to completely crush a rebellion.

Actually, the Athletic Dept. has set a public goal of 2500 Mean Green Club members. It has been sent out through email and I have heard John Nitardy speak publicly regarding the goal. Edit: Well, I see, as usual, there are those here who just can't stand the truth. Typical. If you are a Mean Green Club member you received the email announcing the "Get 15" campaign along with the publicly stated goal of 2500 members. If you are not a MGC member and are spouting off here about what should or should not be done, then perhaps you should think about that. Memberships start at $25. John Nitardy has spoken in public about this goal as well. I was there to hear him talk about it and the reasons behind the new minimum $25 level. But, to those who find some fault in letting folks know, well....only at North Texas. Still don't believe it? PM me with your email address and I will forward the email to you...then you can sign on the link and join the MGC, right?

Please no Spurs! I would happily take mitchell over jermaine O'niel with our open roster spot! Mitchell is more like Wright than O'niel.