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I suppose it could have Benford worse.

At any school that actually took athletics seriously, a 47% drop in attendance over the course of two and a half years would have the AD and coach both gone. Not at UNT. Forget current and potential fan support, what matters is making a cheap/bad hire and then riding it out as long as possible. Your thought process here is very entitled. I will (hopefully) always be a Mean Green fan, but I'm not going to lay down my money for tickets and gas, and an hour roundtrip to support this crap. If I still lived in Denton, I might make a game or two out of boredom, but I don't blame anyone for not showing up. This is a terrible product, and does not deserve support. Maybe that's offensive in the era of participation awards, but it's the truth. If you like going to watch this stuff, and feel good about supporting the team, that's great. Do you. I will vote with my wallet and stay home. The AD can count on a season ticket purchase from me as soon as Benford is toast 4.5 years into his 5 year contract.

43% from the field. 13% from three. 19 turnovers to only 9 assists. that's the kind of stat line that gets you a 15 point win against a Benford-coached team.

2500 as a goal for MGC membership seems like two poor realities are the real options: 1.) It is a number that should be reasonable to attain because it just won't take much effort or thought, which is easy to show to a BOR that just wants to tell the flyonthewall's of the UNT world that we are trying to use his money for something. 2.) It is a number that we cannot attain--that it is our shoot for the moon, wild-ass goal. This is the more depressing one--if this is true, out of the 200k supposed local alumni, the 36k student body that has a decent sized faculty, all surrounded by millions of other people in the DFW area, if the absolute pie-in-the-sky goal of 2500 people to the MGC is the best you could ever hope to attain (and I don't doubt it, by the way), why do you even try to have a FBS level program? Either you cannot win this war or you aren't winning this war--either way, what you are doing is just not working--at all. If I was our AD, today, I'd do the following: Tell the BOR I am going public with every single number we deal with--attendance, season ticket holders, MGC contributors, and total budget. This is to show the world what we have, what we don't have, and what we want to improve upon. I also make it known which sources of donors we are given by the university and which ones we need to be given. Second thing I do is I call every single MWC team and every single AAC team besides SMU and tell them I want to schedule home-and-home series right now for as long out as I can. Then I tell our fans that we are going to have 6 games a year at home as soon as possible. I focus on New Mexico, Colorado State, AFA, BYU, Boise State, and Fresno State out west, as well as Tulsa, UH, Tulane, Memphis, USF, UCF, and Cincy as my targets in that conference. With Army and our bodybag game, we should be able to have 6 games a year at Apogee. Third thing I do is make sure that all bodybag games we play in the future DO NOT involve any of the T-shirt schools anywhere near here. No more games in Austin, College Station, Lubbock, Norman, Fayetteville, Baton Rouge, or Tuscaloosa. When we lose these games, everyone in the local press and those that attend UNT but really grew up loving those schools as "their" team get to feel like they have a valid reason not to have UNT as their team. So, going forward, games against Big ten teams, Pac-12 teams, and ACC teams are the only bodybag games we play. The last thing I do is go to any media outlet that will have me and acknowledge that our school has done a really poor job of connecting to the alumni and general sports fans in the DFW area and that by doing everything I just mentioned above, it is to show everyone that we aren't following the same path we always have. We realize that actions speak louder than words, but these three things are going to be ways that will allow us to get rid of coachse who aren't winning before there is one year left on their contract, that we want our fans to know that 6 home games is what to always expect and those OOC games are no longer going to be against FCS or SBC schools ever again. Finally, I'll go back to my AD office and wait to hear the BOR call that fires me for having the audacity to think athletics should ever have that kind of visibility to this university....and then collect my buyout and my severance package that precludes me from ever talking about UNT sports publically ever again...profit!!

A few thoughts on the TT game. UNT's zone defense is actually pretty good. UNT still can't handle the half court trap but amazingly handles the full court press quite well. We just simply cannot score points and I don't know why. The jumbotron at TT illuminates the court and is distracting. What the heck is up with the old men playing in TT pep band. West Texas prairie life really ages these kids? The local Lubbock commercials made me feel weird and kind of sad. Must be mind numbing boredom and isolation out there. Columbus, OH looked fun though.

I think he chose to where red because of wear he's at. It wouldn't make cents not two.

not even sure pulling a few rails off the urinal could make this brand of basketball exciting

Bring flask. Buy coke. Excuse yourself to go to bathroom . Problem solved.

Who wants to go watch a streetball team with poor fundamentals? How about the players use better judgement in their game to perform better. Maybe then they would win some games causing fans to actually go watch. The message that is being sent by students and fans is we don't want to see a crappy streetball product on the court.

19 TO's for Tech.... against us. Gonna be a poor conference season for Tech, which will make me smile. Rick

1. Combs will probably be better next year and could be a double digit scorer. 2. What about Reese? I know he hasn't played for us yet, but couldn't he be the top scorer next year? Those were the only little things I could come up with...

See, it's stories like this that keep me in my seats.

How many suits are we talking?

For almost 10 years our efficiency and points per possession has outpaced our opponents. Our points per game has always been in the upper echelon of the NCAA. These last 2 years has seen a shift back to what happened previous to 2001-2002. I think it best if we all just ended this failed experiment as soon as possible to give the next guy a head start.

Pot, meet kettle.

The super pit ?

We lose by 20-25 to UTEP. Rick

Lost by 15. Shot 44% from the free throw line. Shot 35% from the field. Only scored 45 points. Up next is UTEP and I expect more of the same.

What progress are you referring to?!

CUSA play begins with UTEP at home. Thanks for pointing out my mistake NT03...for some reason I read it as at El Paso.

Only one other game, besides ours, on opening night of conference play. UTSA @ Rice

MGB: Could this end up being the worst combined offensive season for UNT basketball ever? http://t.co/NVuI90kAQt pic.twitter.com/SRDYOo7Do2 — Brett Vito (@brettvito) December 30, 2014

Except that he took over a program coming off an 18 win season with every starter returning, a program picked as a mid major to watch by multiple publications, a team with a future NBA draft pick returning, a program with a point guard that "could start on any Big East team" according to Benford, AND HE RAN IT INTO THE GROUND. Nose first, hard, leaving few survivors. But ya, he's a terrific freakiing hire...

Huh? Is this message board Inception? You tell me. Don't argue with yourself. "Last season alone Benford had 16 wins. It took Trilli 3 years to get there. Benford is a lot better than Trilli. Jankovich never had a 16 win season and Jimmy Gales only had two 16 win seasons in 7 seasons. Tommy Newman had 21 wins in 3 seasons. Benford has also done better. If you look back at our history there is nothing to suggest Benford is a bad hire. Only if you compare him to Jones does he look like a poor hire. If he stays for 5 or 6 years he could easily be the second best coach in UNT history."

Offensive isn't season. Unless we lose out, I doubt this beats several I can remember as far as just BAD seasons.

Let's start where things always need to start around here - the will of the Catholic Church (thanks RV - Rick Vitae? Brett Vitae? Brett Vita? BRETT VITO!?) Cardinal Seán O'Malley of Boston, (probably a LB from the 1977 Incarnate World team and now chairman of the US bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities), has declared that human cloning is inconsistent with our responsibility to "treat each member of the human family as a unique gift of God, as a person with his or her own inherent dignity." Well, there you have it folks -no dice... Unless... We don't make the clones ourselves. What about aliens? I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but maybe not according to Pope Francis. In fact, he'd baptize Gleepnorp Bazadoo from Generon 6 right now! So, if Gleepnorp comes to us with a pre-existing clone set of players and Jesus in his/her heart, we really would be doing the Lord's will here by letting this game happen. Yes, Benford might not appreciate the scenario, but I think we cane once again look at the word's of Jesus when He talked to HIS Athletic Director: "Coach, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but your scheduling be done."

the last game you went to was in 1963???? and I thought I was making a statement by not going the past two years..

Wow....just saw none of my picks were locked in. Better luck next year I guess haha

Or even worse, when he's gone next year for good. It's just an absolute train wreck waiting to happen, once Benford can't rely on our last prized JJ recruit. Combs is our second-leading scorer at 9.2 points/game, but that's inflated by his 25 point and 17 point performances against our two non-D1 opponents (Langston and Ark-Monticello). Combs' scoring average in D1 games is just 6.8 points/game. And then our third leading scorer (TJ Taylor) is only averaging 8.3 points/game, and he's gone after this year. Next year has all the makings of just being an absolute disaster offensively, and as a team. But, just like everything else, we'll just ignore it until it actually happens and then start spewing crap about how we had no idea how this could happen, or that there's no way anyone could've seen that coming. I hate watching this unfold knowing nothing will be done.

i dont go to the games because i have more exciting things to do... like... anything... tonight, UNT made 18 baskets, in 40 minutes... less than a bucket every two minutes...UNT committed more fouls than made shots... Billy already articulated what i was going to say about JW... can Benford at least make the game exciting if we are going to lose half the time? let's just push the ball every possession...15 seconds to shoot... at least we would have a reason for missing so many shots at that point

And blindly going to the games to watch a poor product sends the wrong message to the decision makers. Sending nasty tweets and FB posts does nothing so what do I do then? Boo the team? That's always classy. Poor ticket sales do get noticed. At some point the lost sales over time do get to a point where keeping a coach actually costs the school more money than to keep him/her. The team doesn't get better with more fan support; it gets better with player and coach dedication ... Like putting in extra practice time indidviudally outside of organized team practice. Our poor free throw shooting has a direct link to poor effort being put into practice, both individual and team practices.

Uh, that is an excellent question.

Jordan scored 20 on 17 shots. The rest of the team scored 23 on 35 shots. Jordan shot 41% from the floor and the rest of the team shot 31% from the floor. Jordan was 5/6 from the line (83%) and the rest of the team was 2/10 (20%). Jordan is our only consistent scoring threat and I'm almost certain will be our only player to average in double figures this year. Benford has still yet to bring in a player to score in double figures. Scary thought: could our team not have a single double-digit scorer next year, once the last JJ holdover is gone? I know it's highly unlikely, since there will be more shots to go around. But I just can't see anything other than our offense being absolutely terrible next year. And it's pretty darn bad right now with Jordan Williams.

winner

I always enjoy their failure...terrible fanbase, given everything because of politics and their location...they got everything we never got.

That was just a all around horrible game

It gets worse from here on out.

Loss to PV at home and follow it up with a loss on the road where you don't score more than 45 and that's progress?

Probably from the snow...

2 things about this game. 1. This game is a great example of why many people like the NBA but won't watch college basketball until maybe March. Sloppy basketball from a bunch of tall and athletic kids who can't shoot the ball. 2. Still struggling to get offense going from players not named Jordan Williams. That has to start happening, not just for this year but definitely going forward into next year.

Tech doesnt impress me at all. They are going to get their asses kicked in conference. Rick

Buying out a contract and choosing to not renew/extend a contract are two different things. The team will need to do better than .500 the next couple years just to get to .500 ball for the Benford era. I think it would be silly to extend a coach if he has a losing record, which Benford currently does. It certainly doesn't send a good message to the fans if you were to extend his contract out.

Very distracting/annoying.

The fact that they are getting absolutely drummed is completely irrelevant to the point. He's getting reps and playing as a redshirt freshman for an 8-4 bowl team out of the BIG12. Go back and read the previous posts in this thread and you'll see posts like this. Or implying he'll transfer because who won't crack the rotation, etc. It's a very common statement on here by various posters on the board anytime a kid commits to a P5 over us or is even considering or being recruited by a P5. I'm just trying to show people that when our targets choose a bigger school they aren't submitting themselves to an automatic career on the bench.

You would not have offered Dickey and Jones an extension? Man, that's tough. I really doubt you are going to have to worry about Benford, but time will tell.

Why the school would extend Benford's contract when season ticket sales and attendance are down is beyond me. So far he has had one losing season and one .500 season. I have doubts we can make it to .500 this year given how bad the offense is and how suspect our defense can be.

Johnny was actually winning at the end of his tenure and left for a more prestigious and higher paid position.

Game is on channels 577/77 on Verizon FiOS.

Personally I have never agreed with the sanctions put on Penn St. The players did nothing wrong, the fans did nothing wrong. Why punish them. It was a criminal matter that should be left solely to the justice system.

Yeah your right.... Beating a Texas Tech team that went 13-19 that season is far superior than beating a Creighton team that just a few weeks ago was a top 25 team and will go dancing this season. Did you go to the NT90 school of logic?