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If you're like me and try to read between the lines, you consider maybe - just maybe - they flat out were not good enough.

Whoever in Michigan called in just now to get Mel’s take on Darden...props to you! Mel has him as a 3, but thinks he will be a steal in 4 or 5 because of so many receivers.

Like it (and I do) or not, in the collegiate athletics business, success means a raise. Grant should be the highest paid coach in CUSA. He has won 2 conference titles and 1 CBI championship in 3 years. Other than soccer, no other NT coach has been as successful and no revenue producing sport coach can come close. Pay the man. GO MEAN GREEN

looks like the backup position is officially open. https://www.ckom.com/2021/04/09/roughriders-backup-qb-franklin-announces-retirement/

This is a very unusual year: with well over 1,000 kids currently looking for new homes. I actually think it would be a mistake to quickly fill vacant spots. Over the next few weeks and months, some very good basketball players will absolutely get their hearts broken. UNT needs to be there to comfort them. I certainly wouldn't lose any sleep over going into the summer with openings. I think its fair to say that most programs have been impacted. This program is not good enough to recruit guys for the bench or garbage minutes. Not sure we have anyone on the roster that would be in Baylor's rotation coming back. Unless a kid like Micah Peavey (Texas Tech) returns our phone call, I'd just hold off.

*You’re. And without speaking for Miner, Robinson definitely wasn’t a poor recruit but we also got him before we won a tournament game. Winning a tournament game should open up the door to even more highly regarded recruits than we were able to then. It’s Ousmane. Ousmane. Come on, not that hard. Keep seeing Osume or something else really not all that close. And yes, JJ Murray did announce he’s coming back.

Well, this is good news. Bench needs to be much better.

No, I love those. I’m talking about these. The SOW is way too big. It’s awkward looking because the SOW is placed so low and wraps around the back of the helmet. When viewing from the front it looks like we have blank helmets.

RV would have veto'd these since they don't say North Texas.... how will people ever know who we are?

I am very torn. I know the Pit would still be there for graduations and whatnot, but like the OP said, it doesn't sit with me well downgrading capacity by 30% for a school with 40k students. And I know we don't fill the current building, I know it looks even worse for women's games, I know live attendance is going down across most sports at both the collegiate and professional levels. I've never been a collegiate athlete, but if I could imagine putting myself in their shoes, I would think if the locker rooms and training facilities are above par, and there's a good fanbase, then the arena shouldn't matter as much. Especially considering all of the historic (in terms of memories and age) gyms that host your Dukes, and so forth. I'm not opposed to a new arena if the money's there -- although I do find it kind of funny making a fuss about having private suites to watch unpaid athletes -- but do fear it creating just another excuse for an on-campus student not to go to the game if they have to go across the highway. Of course for football, there's 10 fewer home games creating more urgency, every game's on the same day of the week, and there's tailgating. I know I say all this like they are turning dirt tomorrow morning, but I'd like to see some fuller houses at the Pit as the program continues its success before putting too much energy into a new building.

How often were they actually paired together? I can respect your decision, but don't make things up to make your point.

I guess we will have to see, won't we. Robinson had one great dunk during the season, he was not played for a reason. NT had basically no bench once Jones was injured. I think if McCasland had better options, he would not have played Murray most of the year as the sixth man. Personally I think that this could be a very good sign. McCasland is thinning the ranks because he is going to bring any better players. By the way, the ship limit is 13, with as many walk ons as you want.

The demise of the Pit Crew, for whatever reason it happened, was really what seemed to coincide with the decline in attendance. The Pit Crew was student run (SGA helped a lot with the organizing) and had major buy in from the Athletic Department. Bringing that back would be worth a try, but have no idea what appetite any of the above groups would have for it these days.

Tough to see this one because he really seemed like a good fit for what Mccasland wants out of that stretch 4. Always worry a little about true freshman transferring when they don’t play much. Good news is he probably isn’t all that difficult to replace with a better player, especially next season. Also probably a sign Jahmiah Simmons is staying.

We basically had 5 guys play the whole game. If you were a freshman on the bench that is ok, a higher classmate should look for another opportunity. We have to have at least 3 -4 quality guys that can come off the bench.

I would keep his current salary but put in huge incentives that would pay him for accomplishing bigger goals. Round of 32, 16, Elite 8 Final 4, ect.

I would temper that and say, "not yet." Let's achieve the prolonged success of these programs and then talk money.

And don't forget about Drez. The guy was key in getting the NCAA win. We have some talent coming back.

I’m assuming this is true as he and Bell are both set to return to huge minutes and be our go to guys.

Please don’t confuse the G5/P5 labels with basketball. They were originally used for football, i believe to differentiate between those conferences with BCS contracts and those without. Could be wrong about that, but I know they were never meant to be for basketball. the media has been pretty lazy about that and compounding the problem. It kinda sucks to see it make its way into casual convo on our forum.

This.

I just felt like your OP that I responded to was a backhanded way of criticizing the way Mac handles the roster. I agree that you should try and put kids in. But there are legitimate reasons, like rest and experience, and there are extremely bad ones...like giving minutes just because you don't want a kid to transfer. Do. you really want a starter to find out that he is losing minutes in favor of a bench guy because your coach is afraid they'll transfer? With COVID and how uniquely easy it is for players to switch schools, I don't think now is a good time to play this card, what with so many kids choosing to leave...even potentially good ones like Robinson, as Billy said. Lots of athletes are moving around, yet we are in the best position we have ever been to replace them. I have my concerns, but prefer to let things shake out.

Doing a little copycatting from Scott Drew, eh? Hopefully it takes Mac less than 18 years to fulfill that potential... 😈

There is no such thing as G5 pr P5 in basketball. It is beyond foolish to suggest that teams like Gonzaga, Villanova and Virginia Commonwealth are not in the highest level of basketball. NT is stuck in CUSA, probably a better basketball than football conference. Western Kentucky is the best most consistent program in the league. They get four and five star recruits even though it may take hiring their guardian for a good salary a la Charles Bassey. I believe NT is in a prime position to battle for the CUSA championship next year. A few things need to happen for NT to continue to climb up the basketball ranks. Keeping McCasland is the most important now. The home attendance has to improve to an average of at least 5k. Baker has to pump money into the program. I strongly question any public financial numbers, but that is all that is available. Based on 2018 numbers, UTEP has the highest basketball budget in the league at $4.2m. NT comes in at ninth with a budget of $2.8m. For comparison, Duke's budget is $22.1m. A lot of these budgets are funny money, university allocations, debt service and cost of scholarships. I mention cost of scholarships because there are big differences in tuition, room and board expenses that really don't exist. A high tuition private school actually on a cash basis doesn't spend any more than a relatively cheap state school. NT doesn't have to substantially increase basketball funding, but a steady increase to at least get in the top 4 of CUSA should be manageable.

The road to basketball continued greatness is a long term coach. Hopefully, we can do this for a few years more with Mac.

It also makes me appreciate JJ even more. He didn't complain about playing time or his role. He just worked his butt off until he found a role. I wish more players had his attitude and guts.

I am particularly fond of this design I thought up. Could really revolutionize us as a team.

The attendance limit made it tough. While I probably wouldn’t have been able to make it because of work, I definitely wasn’t going to drive 2 hours if there was a chance that I was going to be turned away. Students should have packed the place...15% full of course.

In general I agree with this sentiment, but let's consider a few things. First, Butler is no longer a midmajor, as they now play in the Big East. Also, Gonzaga is just about the most anomalous example of a program from a midmajor conference as one could find. VCU is a more apt comparison, but even then, if you look at what their program has done in relation to ours over the course of the past 40 years, it's not even close. We finally broke through and made it to the Round of 32, which is awesome, but VCU has done it 9 times. And, regardless, I don't think there's any chance in hell that we could be competitive with Mike Rhoades's $1.7 million salary, which would mean tripling McCasland's pay. I think a realistic starting point would be to bring him up to the top of CUSA (he's already close) HC salaries and also try to get him to the median point of pay in conferences like the Mountain West and AAC.

Look on the bright side, 3.5 months until fall practice starts and 2 weeks away from a great NT player being drafted.

I think I heard that Emmit and Rudy and other of the Talons were helping build that group up for a time. Since they have moved on it hasn't really been the same organization.

Yeah I know what you’re talking about. Next to the ear hole

We’ve traditionally been able to have lower recruiting budgets than many of our conference peers in most sports because of how much talent is close to us and within short driving distances. Mccasland has not been very successful recruiting DFW. I would say even Benford was more successful recruiting locally, and Jones definitely was. Hoping this recent success can give us some momentum with local recruits and allow us to land local recruits on the same tier as guys like Chris Jones, Jordan Williams, Jeremy Combs, etc.

He was responding to "Gonzaga, Butler, and VCU", right? We have a long way to go before we are anywhere near those programs.

Really wanted to see this young man develop. Sorry to see him go, but wish him the best. Final question, his decisions or the staff's?

May explain why he was not at the event last night.

Let em in...

Three years, three championships.

Since Gonzaga is private I don’t think we actually know what Few makes.

Jay Wright makes $6.14 million. Surprisingly, Mark Few's salary is listed as $1 million

How much does the Gonzaga and Villanova coach make ?

No

We were way ahead of the game on social distancing at sporting events.

My guess there would be plenty, the average USA salary for this position is 133K. I know you are joking, but in general high level administrative jobs in university athletics come with good salaries and great benefits.

Let's do this then!

I was freshman in 1961 when we were in the Missouri Valley Conference. The original men's gymnasium [aka The Pit ] could barely hold 2,500 to 3,000 fans, but when it was full the venue really rocked. The Super Pit is too big with too few fans to replicate that experience so I certainly see the value in a smaller venue but not the cost.

One could make the argument basketball is more important to the success of the Univ. I don’t see UNT taking away FB recruits from Texas, Aggy, TCU Baylor TTECH Houston even SMU maybe...I just don’t see it. How long have we recruited against these Texas schools and when will we see results? Same struggle year after year after year...but bball however...too bad we had some success overshadowed by Houston and Baylor and Oral Robert’s...if we can make the tournament more consistently is more important than playing in a bowl and getting beat.

Can someone please enumerate what exactly is so bad about the SuperPit as it currently exists? I'll grant you that it has a larger seating capacity than is needed for basketball only, but there are cheaper and more efficient ways of dealing with that than building a new facility. Other than the lack of luxury suites or boxes, I don't see the big deficiencies. And really, how much more $$ would luxury suites bring in anyway?

Just an old man's opinion but it is hard to justify either a new arena or baseball program. The Super Pit may not be new, but we are not the Texas Rangers who tear down a good venue and replace it with a great one. Also, why would we spend millions to add a non revenue sport such as baseball, which would require the addition of a women's non revenue program. There are only a very few college baseball programs who break even, and with a $7 to $10 stadium cost it just doesn't make sense to me.

I would argue putting a little skin in the game enhances the sporting experience! GMG