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I'm debating with Vito on Twitter about this and I know some people may disagree, but to me, Houston is our biggest OOC game. -They are the marquee G5 program in the state and have been one of the best in the nation for a decade. -Even though they're not the rival SMU is, they're still an in-state rival that we're trying to catch in terms of facilities and on-field success. -We directly compete against them for lots of recruits every season. -The game itself is going to be a bigger event than the SMU game. Houston always brings a ton of fans and I can easily see this game being a sellout if both teams get off to a good start.

Reposting from a Facebook group... https://thinline.us/mason-fine-chasing-history/

Just a heads up, nothing finalized. I'm sure they'll increase his pay as well as his buyout. (P.S. LET'S GO DALLAS STARS!)

Exactly! Which is why it is important to the program’s future to increase his buyout for another program to pay.

I see 7 or 8 wins. Sure wins: ACU, Rice, UTEP Probable wins: UTSA, Charlotte, UAB, MUTS Toss ups—SMU, USM Probable Losses—Cal, UH, La Tech

9/10/2022 in Denton.

Time for a look back at last basketball season. The season was both encouraging and extremely disappointing at the same time. The three major factors of the season: Early success with very easy oc schedule. The problematic year for NT's best returning player. Injury plague that ruined both the conference and total season. NT started the season 12-1 with a much criticized oc schedule. The only loss to a good OU squad away. Notable wins included away at New Mexico, away at Indiana State, and a tournament championship in Hawaii. Much criticized slate and I think to some degree unfairly. Add a couple of ranked teams and assume losses in the pre-season and NT would still have had the best oc in the conference and at that point one of the hardest schedules. Roosevelt Smart was a returning all conference player who averaged 19.5 pts. and 4.2 rbs in that year. He had a pre-season injury that he was slow recovering from and never regains the shooting touch he had in his first year with the Green. His number dropped to 10.7 pts and 3.6 rbs per game. He went from setting the NT records for threes and 3 shooting of .378 to a .274 percentage. NT went 8-10 in conference including a losing streak of 7 games to end the conference season. Then went 1-1 in the tournament. Injuries are out of anyone's control and all teams deal with them. However, out of all NT conference loses, only 2 were played with a full roster by NT. Woolridge, who most agree was NT's best player this season, was out or limited in 6 of those lost games. Duffy and J. Simmons were also out for multiple loss games. NT was not a deep team as late season exposed. NT was a balanced scoring group with an almost unbelievable 6 players averaging double digit scoring. McCasland almost exclusively played a 4 guard offense and defensive intensity was required. On the positive side, most surprising was the play of Gibson and prior walk-on Draper. Gibson was the leading scorer as a freshman at 12.6 pts a game and shot threes at a .393 pace. Also did a good job taking over the point for an injured Woolridge. Draper who was pressed into a lot more minutes than anticipated because of injures, shot the highest 3% of .415 and played decent defense at 5'10". Biggest disappointment has been discussed, Smart's off year. Jahmiah Simmons was also somewhat disappointing based on the fact, McCasland brought him with him from Arkansas State and he had a redshirt year to improve. In his defense, he was forced to play basically the 5 spot in McCasland's defense. J. Simmons' numbers actually declined from his freshman year at ASU were he scored at 6.4 and had 5 rbs a game compared to the past year's 3.5 points and 4 rbs. Woolridge when not injured, was the best player on the team and one of the best in the league. Zack Simmons continues to improve and should be a bigger part of the offense. Duffy and Miller, both were good shooters and rebounders for NT despite a year of playing primarily much bigger players. Outside of Zack, NT's other bigs remain a mystery. Alcindor playing little and showing little in a few games to lose his redshirt. Tikhonenko a 6'10 supposed shooter injured and maybe gets another redshirt year. Muhammed who was redshirted, although at 6'7 listed as a guard. In summary, this could not be rated a stellar year despite 21 wins. This team did not come close to challenging in CUSA, but that couldn't happen with the injury situation. Even without the injuries, West Kentucky and ODU would probably have been significantly better teams. NT with less injuries could and should have been capable of competing with the rest of CUSA.

This is great to hear... After a 2018 off-season that saw great staff retention, we've experienced a 2019 off-season with much turnover. Once the dust settled, though, I think most feel there's reason to think the staff may be improved overall and the united front of Baker & Littrell is a huge reason those openings were appealing. We enjoyed an incredible and potentially transformative 2019 recruiting class. Stack a similarly (or better) 2020 class behind them and the future of the program looks amazing. An extension for Littrell will only bolster the recruiting pitch.

I wouldn’t pull for Texas Tech to win a seed spitting contest. Glad they lost. Second sorriest-behaving group of people I’ve ever experienced in my 33 years of traveling to college athletic events, and an embarrassment to the great state of Texas. Rick

In the last year of the old Big 12, before the original 4 left, a survey was held amongst the players to ask which fans were the best and worst in the conference in football. Not surprisingly, Nebraska finished as the best...and not surprisingly, by more than double that of second place Colorado, was our very own wasteland of manners and civility, Texas Tech. Worst fanbase I’ve ever been around. BTW, even though no one asked this question in the survey, it is still well known that the dumbest fanbase in America is Baylor—by a lot.

Nice article from 247 on the battle to replace Hall and Brooks. https://247sports.com/college/north-texas/Article/North-Texas-Mean-Green-football-cornerbacks-promise-to-continue-standard-set-131004291/ Brune still delivering the goods.

If history is any indication, we only lose to UTSA when we are absolutely confident in a W. Don't count your eggs, friends.

I'm not a big fan of our band looking like Vacation Dad.

The dog days of Summer are upon us.

I think I am done with the NBA. Loved Dirk, how he played the game and how he never acted like the superstar he was/is. I have said for years that when he retired I would be done with the NBA and I think I am going through with that. The end of a era for a first ballot HOF'er.

DRC: https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/a-way-too-early-look-at-north-texas-football-schedule/article_3845d7c7-3eac-5204-9320-4e0ce8e36d0b.html

DRC: https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/wednesday-practice-notes----backups-benefiting-from-extra/article_9d472cd4-dd62-5deb-b46c-6578f74bfe46.html

After seeing Texas Tech lose the National Championship last night, I got curious about the number of National Championships every Texas school has across varsity sports. Team sports only as some schools have various individual championships like Baylor with 39 in track. Here's what I found: UT: 46 UTEP: 21 University of Houston: 17 Texas A&M: 13 North Texas: 4 Baylor: 4 SMU: 4 TCU: 4 Texas Tech: 4 Texas State: 2 (Div II) Rice: 0 UTSA: 0

I like our schedule, and am optimistic about beating Berkeley. Some school in their conference pops up occasionally, but for the most part, I don't have much respect for their conference as far as big boys go. Hope to make that game.

Other than glancing up at the screen the rare occasions I eat at Applebee's or some place like that, I've been done with the NBA a long time. The attitude of so many of the players these days is a complete turnoff, and the NCAA Tournament is a million times more exciting than the NBA playoffs.

Well like I said..for me they rank 2nd,...behind Oklahoma. Been to both places multiple times as a student and as an alumn and wouldn’t support either against China in a rock chunking contest. Rick

Among other department news in this update. https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/unt-notebook-fine-sees-progress-offensively-as-spring-nears-close/article_3a0022f9-a1e9-5769-b909-639dbef4cc86.html I am excited about what Reeder brings to the team.

Agreed. My sister is a Tech grad and they are honestly some of the most pompous group of fans for no reason at all. It should also be noted that their National Championships include 1 Women's basketball title and 3 Cheerleading/ Pep Squad "National Championship" titles amongst some other rodeo, etc titles that the NCAA doesn't recognize. I was extremely happy to share this bit of information with her.

NT seems to have a hard time winning games they should in the oc schedule. WKU series shapes up to be the biggest thus far of the season.

My way too early prediction? Undefeated. There isn’t a game on our schedule we should not win, not one. Will we? I don’t think so, but it is way too early so I will be way too optimistic. There isn’t a conference game we should not win. Cal worries me as does Houston. I really want to beat smuT and Houston, Cal would be icing on the cake and I expect us to sweep conference.

Size size size! Need to get some 6’6” , 6’7” athletes! Zach in the second half of the season looked like he digressed. Might be because he had very little support and no one to rest him off the bench. We are going to miss Miller.

What about Texas Weslyan and Ping Ping? I thought they had 14 or some such number.

I’ll be in Berkeley hoping UNT pulls that one out.....#STORMTHEFIELD That would be an EPIC WIN!!

I don't think UTSA should be a close game. I might be wrong but I think they are going to be down even further than last season. The quarterback that frustrated us last season is gone.

In football, men’s hoops, women’s hoops, and baseball, these schools have national championships in the last 50 years: Texas—football, baseball, and women’s hoops Tech—women’s hoops A&M—women’s hoops Baylor—women’s hoops UTEP—basketball Rice—baseball

Maybe Barr's 4 pages sums up Mueller's 400. Maybe it does not. I will say that I was not surprised in the least how this finally played out. What I do wonder is how simple a person must be to look at the following list of indictments and plea deals and come away with the conclusion that the special counsel was a political witch hunt. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/list-of-mueller-indictments-783405/ We as Americans, be it left or right, should be deeply concerned about the transgressions uncovered in the Mueller investigation. If you are not I seriously wonder where your priorities lay.

It’s the jets. Everything they do is straight garbage

If we are banking on any version of a broadcast tv deal, we’re betting on the wrong horse. ESPN+ may not be the answer, but we’d be smart to lean into streaming platform deals. Like it or not, the cord is already cut for the largest, and only growing, segment of sports watchers. If we get the infrastructure in place early, get the right promotion tools figured out, and start thinking “digital-first” — meaning get clever with all the tools streaming viewers have to interact with us during the game and after — we’ll be in a great position when the old system comes crashing down. IM-very biased-O.

I think the number of offers going out to guys who don't have any other offers yet is indicative of the relationships Littrell's staff are building with high school coaches across the state. The other offers will usually come later. "Hey Coach XYZ, we're having a Junior Day. You got any players to send up? ...." And those coaches will send their best players up because he recognizes we have legit coaches & a program on the rise. Whereas during the McCarney days, we may have a Jr Day, and the dudes those same coaches sent (if any) would be dudes that were not his top players (more like FCS caliber guys), because of the lack of relationship-building, perception, and losing a lot. And during the Dodge days, we got some players early due to his relationships, but once they saw the lack of success, they stopped sending their best guys.

I really really hope every fan who is interested gets a chance to meet the guy. I spent two minutes with Harry talking to him at the banquet, and you get a sense for the gravity of the man. And the crazy thing is, the whole staff exudes that. Gaines might be near the top, but I imagine any of them could probably sell ice to an eskimo. If Dodge's staff was largely aloof, guys like Gaines personify the feeling of willing to sit down with any person, any time of any day, and just shoot the bull. Even if they really don't have time to do that, that's the feeling that they give you, and I imagine that has something to do with our recruiting success so far. TLDR: Agreed, he's a great get for UNT.

I just took a glance at the commits. Have to say Im getting excited for next season. It seems like we are pulling in some guys with talent and getting commits from ids of have offers at bigger schools. Is it August yet? Holy shit, did someone really just go back to a post from 8 years ago to vote up/down?! Wow. Really?

Love this. We are continually trending up. Go Stars! Thank you, Dirk

That picture is appropriate considering they played the Mickey Mouse theme.

Agree. I think the game we should win but might lose is actually SMU.

DRC: https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/unt-spring-depth-chart-with-thoughts/article_a41848ae-72cf-5df4-93bd-2b9cf47063c0.html

DRC: https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/don-january-event-draws-record-crowd/article_dc6284c7-30b1-5fbb-ab1b-49eb95ea71d2.html

They can take the jackets and hats off while they are sitting in the stands. Wear the uniform.

What about just team championships

OK...weather watch is on! Current forecast calling for 90-100% chance of rain and high temp between 55-60 degrees. We will make the call tomorrow morning (Wednesday, April 10th) and let you know. If we do have to scrub Saturday (13th) due to potential bad weather, our make-up day is the next day, Sunday April 14th. We will play at the same place and time...11am at Loveless Stadium (UNT Softball Field). Will update everyone tomorrow morning. Keeping fingers and toes all crossed. 🤷‍♂️

sounds good! hope to get to play either day...will be fun!

I would agree. Honestly, I get tired of the articles about our series with smuT and how they have dominated it over the years. Since 1990, smuT leads the series 4-5, but I feel like we are passing them by as a program. They keep throwing money at a losing proposition. Dallas doesn't care about them and based upon their attendance, their students and local alumni don't either, but the money behind the program keeps them afloat so they have something to brag about. They are a program on its deathbed. UH, on the other hand, is very similar to us as an institution and we are right behind them as a program. The above is 100% accurate.

coached unlv for 19 days, until something better came along...what a class act...

Yep, right there with you.