GrandGreen

Kimball (35-2) walked overBastrop 79-49, Jordan Williams with12 Eastland's playoffs ended with a 42-46 loss to Muleshoe

Some good points FFR, I have always wondered why NT didn't empathize more their record of diversity. I would have a prominent picture of Mr. King and Mr. Haynes with a plague stating the date and historically nature of that picture. I would place this in such a location that every recruit could not miss it. The amount of publicity that SMU has gotten for Jerry Levias and the almost total lack of such for Abner Haynes as always gotten me. As far as RV's statement it is just bluster. He is as aware as anyone of NT's past. NT was not only multiple national champion in golf but was also a track power for many years. In addition to having ranked basketball and football teams in the mid seventies. As far as the best basketball player, I would give that to Joe Hamilton. He was a great player in the best conference in the land at the time. However, he was a juco transfer and only had two years, so on a NT career basis: I will go with Lyons. Not to discount Chris too much but there are a lot others I would rate close or equal besides Lyons and Hamilton: Leroy Winfield, Crest Whitaker, Al Shumate, Fred Mitchell, Melvin Davis, Bobby Iverson, Jessie Ratliff, etc.

Touche

Only problem with team in my view is that Chris Davis is obviously the MVP of the decade. Only knock is he did not ever play on even a descent team. I am a big White fan but IMO there is no comparison. Davis was all Belt first team twice both on Jones' teams. White though often playing with injuires has never been above second team all conference his freshman year. An obvious counter is that White has all the intangibles, but I would parry that with so did Davis. Davis was the best player from the Trilli era and unlike most of the others chose to stay at NT. Davis was a better player on both ends of the court. Chris was not recruited by Jones but he was the best player that ever played for him at NT. Vito IMO has a tendency to discount things pre-Vito. How do you state that Chris was arguably the best player ever at NT than pick White as the most valuable? By the way, Chris was not the best player ever at NT either. IMO that would be ether Joe Hamilton or Kenneth Lyons. People with even longer memories will throw out Mudd and Savage.

Of the bold names, only Sashington and Kokjohn have announced ships. You may be right, but either way there are a lot of ships open unless there are transfers that have not been announced. I do not understand the only one left comment at all However, having greyshirts would seem to indicate that there are no more ships. We will way and see, but I wouldn't be surprised that there are transfers comming in that have not been finalized but NT is holding places for.

I hope not, nothing looks worse than cov ered seating. Besides there are a few people that sit up there, probably more this year than I can remember.

Geez, no way TCU has a better arena unless they have done massive changes since NT last played there.

Well Hopeful, each has their own taste and opinions; but the Super Pit is one of the last things at NT athletes that I would complain about. It was close to the best arena in the state when build in the early seventies and while showing some age, it is far from second rate. Have you been to SMU or TCU or the late UTA arenas? A lot of it is personal taste, I for example like it better than USA or ULL's arenas which are offen cited as two of the best in the Belt. But I dislike the bright "McDonald's looking new designs", A lot of the darkness you complain about is do to to the dark green seating, no one complained about lighting when they were the hideous bright orange. Another factor is that unfortunately, most of the time the majority of those seats are in full view. I like the fact that the SP seats over 10k but it does not add to the atmosphere when most of those seats are unoccupied. The scoreboard situation has been discussed many times and is something most would liked changed. By the way, you must have a hell of a living room. Alas, thirty five years ago; they didn't envision hanging massive video boards in the center of the court. As far as the student spirit organizations, I would match them with most collegian teams. I really hope that the pep band is not dressed up in matching outfits a la SMU. I like the casual look. I think the central scoreboard issue will eventually be addressed and probably at some point the SP will be renovated with suites and other "modern" enhancements. However, right now: NT has another small construction project to focus on.

Better late than never. Kimball (34-2) 62 Woodrow Wilson (27-7) 57. Jordan Williams was held to 4 Garland Lakeview Centennial (34-1) 84 Killeen Harker Heights 62, Leading scorer Chris Jones with 22 Eastland in OT victory over Wall, Forrest Robinson with 23 Eastland Report Abeline News

You have the right answer. I think it will be an advantage against Troy, and may offset some of the disadvantage of playing the second game in two days if NT advances. However, if NT wins those; it will be a tremendous obstacle in any following games.

Yes, the hoopman is a great source of good information. If SMU was so opposed to NT, why would they schedule a multiple year football series. Yes, SMU views UNT as local competition and in general doesn't want to aid in anyway to the development of NT's athletic program that was very obvious with their endorsement of La Tech over UNT for CUSA. A very difficult position to defend for SMU, as there was absolutely no rationale behind that decision other then they didn't want to enhance a competitive local program. However, that was a different day and circumstances change. I don't have a big problem with SMU because they are going to do whatever they think best for their program. At some point they may decide that a local rivalry maybe to their benefit. This could easily happen provided that NT continues to grow their program. The facts are that NT has far more important objectives then to worry about SMU. NT's current peers academically and athletically are the large state school sans A&M and UT and that should be NT's athletic focus. I think NT is already about even with UTEP and catching Houston is possible. Tech with their AQ membership is a leap. CUSA would be nice but I think in the short run; NT can be just as successful if they just don't compete but dominate the Belt. In reality, NT's main competitors for recruits are Western CUSA and lower tier AQ schools. Even recruiting retarded DD had some level of success against that group when he was winning titles.

Gutsy win, great game by Shorter. Hopefully, White will be ready for the tournament as they can go in with a little momentum.

Not sure, are the teams playing to win or lose? Actually, NT has plenty of excuses, I don't know about UALR.

Basketball doesn't remotely pay for itself, just like every other sport at NT. Unfortunately, JJ salary unless a miracle happens is not a big issue this year. Obviously, there is a lot of factors that go into a coach's salary. With a seasoned coach at the same school for multiple contracts, the factors are the revenue produced, conference affiliation, success and the competition for his services. My guess is that JJ is payed in line with the other conference coaches. Based on his success, he certainly would be at the top of NT hc's. What it comes down to, other than fairness which is often disregarded, is NT's compensation enough to keep him at NT. I think it is fairly obvious that NT is not going to compete with a team in a power conference on a salary basis. A SEC or Big Twelve team is always going to be able to outbid NT for coaches. There is just too much difference in the revenue produced. Therefore, it seems to me that NT has to just keep his salary competitive with other like programs and hope that JJ is happy here until the big offer.

Just a guess, but I bet NJ does not have anywhere close to the number of non-English speaking students as Texas. There are many things that Texas and the US in general could do a lot better in education. It is obvious that just spending more money is not the answer. However, I did not know that public employee unions were that big an issue in Texas. Somewhere over the years, the school system focus has been altered from primarily providing education to one of being one of the largest providers of social services to the masses. For example, eliminating non-citizens from the state school system would probably eliminate the state overall budget deficiency in education. There would obviously be many negative effects of such a move both morally and otherwise; but recognition of the tremondous stress on the school system is warranted. Eliminating non-teachers from the payroll sounds great until you consider that a lot of what schools are currently tasked with, including the education and care of special needs children, primary food source for far too many, endless government mandated paperwork, police and security to provide a semblance of safety at some campuses, and the detainment of students that have no interest in education. The bar in average education has been lowered so far to accommodate everyone that a whole system of alternate schools have been generated to insure that at least the most promising or in some cases the most privileged can still get a good public education. Add to these issues, that there are far too many incompetents both in teaching and administration and you get complete futility. Trying to balance education, social justice, with the funds available is a daunting mission made almost impossible by the politics concerned. Funny, you didn't hear a lot about this impending education funding crisis before the elections.

Friday night playoff Lakeview Centennial (33-1) 78 Bryan 70 Chris Jones scored 27 to lead LVC but lost game scoring battle to Bryan's junior point guard J-Mychel Reese who tallied 40 Reese is one of the top junior players in nation with a 95 rating Earlier in Week, Eastland (28-4) lost a playoff warm up game to 3a Abeline Wylie 43-51, Forrest Robinson scored 22

Craig is typical of many NT alums, although some what of an anonymity because he is in the sports broadcasting business. My guess that Craig and an army of other NT alums who have switched allegiance to "name pro like universities" would embrace NT if it is successful in a move up in the athletic world a la TCU, Boise, and others. My problem with Miller is that being close to collegian sports, he should know the obstacles a program like NT faces and be supportive, not the typical ignoramus who picks programs based on resources, wins or even who he grow up supporting. My favorite school growing up was TCU, but I didn't go there and frankly care little about their program now. It is interesting with the large number of NT alums in broadcasting, the vast majority are still some of the biggest NT fans. As far as the stadium for the spring game, I would much prefer it to be on campus, but you can blame that on the AD department. Frankly, if teams wanted to put interest back into spring games, they would threat them as actual games as they did in the past. I don't understand how teams have hard hitting drills all spring, then conclude with a watered down scrimmage. Dodge's were the worst, with some kind of incomprehensible scoring system and hands off the QB's and returners.

As I understand the rules, Spencer could not get a sixth year medical hardship exemption because he has already had a voluntary redshirt year. i would assume that a redshirt year necessitated by a transfer would be voluntary.

Actually I thought the team played hard and overall had one of their better defensive games. I thought Odufuwa and Thompson despite not hitting had good games. ASU defense was just too much for this team who is just hanging on now. I look for a good game against Denver, Saturday but little else out of this team this year. I do hope everyone shows up Saturday, these players despite a horrible finish have been part of one of the most consistent and successful periods in NT basketball history. The seniors deserve the fans gratitude particularly White, Thompson and Odufawa who have been here the longest.

Knew I would leave someone out. Does this change the message to you? Still going to have to see a lot more from the players left to turn this around and odds are getting worse not better. JJ always has his team playing the best this time of year, and they can still put out a good starting five; so there is hope albeit small.

It will be a major surprise to me if this game is even close. We can always hope, but odds are that ASU wins big. Remember Denver beat ASU by a huge amount and got beat by about 30 at Jonesboro. Add to that NT has exactly one away win in conference and that to the team who had one win until they beat NT at Denton in the last game. The lost of Holmen apparently gives NT, five healthy players Johnson, Knox, Thompson, Odufuwa and Shorter. Two playing at less than 100% in Hogans and White plus Edwards who appears barely able to play. Add two seldom used walkons and NT is playing handicapped as bad as I can remember. Winning this game who be a giant statement but highly doubtful. Edited per below:

Tuesday Night HS Playoffs Lakeview Centennial (32-1) 98 Lake Highlands 75, Chris Jones led with 23 pts. South Grand Prairie lost first round game in OT to Colleyville Heritage 63-70, Trey Norris had 17 Monday Night Kimbell (32-2) 73 Conrad 35, Jordan Williams with 10 Last Weekend Casper CC over Sheridan CC 74-56, Walton with 17 pts, 4 rbs, 1 ast with 7-14 shooting Casper CC over Northwest College 84-59, Walton with 13 pts, 4 rbs, 1ast with 5-9 shooting

SS is not going anywhere soon, I don't believe NT is going to buy out a WBB hc coache's contract for one year much less two. Also per Vito blog, Godbolt missed the ULM game because she was sick. Strange that the reason given was personal not just illness.

Surprised no more comments. It is a great sign that Chris Jones is rated so high, I have thought for some time that he was at least on par with Jordan Williams. Both players should be something special. Their stats are somewhat tempered although excellent because they effectively play on high school all star teams. I haven't gave up completely on this years team, but the future should be bright.

Hail the armadillos. "Unnecessary Roughness" was far from great and if it been filmed anywhere else would be a lot less dear to NT fans. Rudy was hailed as a much better firm but frankly I thought it was overrated. Like most supposedly true stories they were a lot of liberties taken as the recent and I think better "Blind Side". Unnecessary Roughness was a great example of a fun B movie with just about ever sport stereotype used and no pretensions.