MootPoint

Baseball is not coming anytime soon, unless we get one heck of a check written for us. Another problem with Title IX is that the percentage of opportunities in sports needs to be proportionate to the percentage of males/females at the school. So for a school that has a large percentage of females, for example, UNT has like 55% females I believe, we need to offer 55% of the opportunities to females. So for every 45 male scholarships we add, we need to add 55 female scholarships.

Who is Bill Brasky?

We'll have baseball long before hockey and baseball doesn't look like its coming anytime soon.

I think the paladin gets shredded in the first Maybe

I'm still waiting to become the Unknown Eagle or maybe 00Eagle or Is s/he an Eagle or Who is this Eagle? or

Uh, calm down people. It's ok, deep breaths, count to 10, etc. Ready? Go MEAN GREEN! Woo!

Web posted Tuesday, July 22, 2003 8:16 a.m. CT Other Opinion: UNT athletic director makes a gaffe and a half By Greg Sagan Opinion Some people ought to stay away from a microphone. One of the first to whom I might suggest this is the athletic director at the University of North Texas. My wife, my stepdaughter and I spent three days on the UNT campus in Denton two weeks ago for freshman orientation. This was a whirlwind of information, tours, food and entertainment during which we were able to soak up the philosophy of this institution and to gain firsthand knowledge of the activities and resources available to students. They did a really great job of it, too. The incoming freshmen were grouped with upper-class student guides who were thoroughly trained to answer questions and get the new students integrated into the Screaming Eagle community. We heard the word "community" a lot over those three days. UNT goes to extraordinary lengths to make students and parents feel a strong bond to the school. The idea is simple: If everyone is here for the same thing (i.e., getting these students to graduate on time and go on to successful careers), we stand a much higher probability of success than if we work as though we're all in this alone. As it happens, I agree with this philosophy. Part of the method for this orientation involved having parents hear from a wide assortment of UNT faculty and staff in both small and large sessions. We were encouraged to ask questions and to make comments, and the staff fielded them all with respect, dignity and good information. Heck, on the evening of the first day, there was a mixer outdoors where we could meet university staff members over a beer while music students put on a great jazz show. My wife and I spoke with a young woman, Katie Lee Gossett (who runs the university's Learning Resource Center), for almost an hour during which she patiently went over all the different programs they could apply to help students succeed. We were thoroughly impressed. Right up until the end. The evening of the second day was supposed to be the climax of the orientation. All the parents and children attended a dinner together, after which we heard from the president of the university and some of his senior staff members. There must have been about a thousand of us in the stands of the coliseum ready to hear the senior leadership put the cherry on the sundae. And so it did. Right up until the athletic director took the mike. And we got a face full of what's wrong with our heavy emphasis on football in this state. In a nutshell, this coach raved about sports at UNT ("When I got here two years ago, our football team sucked! Nobody even knew who UNT was until we started winning football games!") OK, just some bombastic hype. He is, after all, a coach. Then he started in on his version of community - that on Fridays everyone should wear UNT shirts and hats. No problem there. Then he made his gaffe. "If I'm walking around campus and see you wearing one of those Texas Tech or Longhorn shirts, I'm going to make you take it off right there and I'll give you a UNT shirt to wear. . . . Uh . . . unless you're a girl. If you're a girl, you'll have to come to my office and change." The crowd was stunned. Then we laughed. Not in fun, either. In derision. The AD, still holding the hot mike, turned to the university president and other staff members and asked, "What did I say?" Here, my friends, is a working example of clueless. Naturally the boys in the audience started thinking of ways to get on the AD's staff. But the girls in the audience sat in shock, and the parents reacted with muttered comments to the effect that if this clown got our daughters in his office and forced them to change their tops, we'd sue that sporty s.o.b. until his hair bleached white. So much for community. I have a serious suggestion to all the coaches in our state who may, from time to time, address the people who pay their salaries. When you're talking to the booster club, it's perfectly acceptable to don the persona of Gen. Patton and to talk in blunt terms about kicking butt. But when the audience is made up of complete strangers, many of whom may have absolutely no interest in sports, it's time for some tact and refinement. Not all communities will make pets of their sexist pigs.

That was the most ugly game I have seen in quite some time. Still, I thought the team played well and played hard. They just need to learn how to shoot. Sheesh. If they could make half their shots someday, they would be just tearing up some of these teams they're playing. Yes, some of the shots they take are just plain bad, but they take a lot of good shots too that just aren't falling for them.

Nah, not happening.

Men's game was brutal to watch. They completely fell apart down the stretch, bad shots, quick shots, missed open shots. Definitely a lack of poise and they just could not finish the game. They got ahead toward the end and the crowd was cheering, etc. (something it didn't do much of most of the game because it was so sloppy), but the team just did not respond to the crowd.

Athletics Department is offering two free tickets to all faculty/staff who come by the ticket office by Friday.

Hopefully, he can make a real impact on Houston recruiting. That's a great area to get into for talent and UNT needs to be able to scoop into all areas of the state for players.

Mean Green rehires Bell OL coach Leftwich leaves for similar job at Tulsa 12/28/2002 By TIM MACMAHON / Denton Record-Chronicle North Texas head coach Darrell Dickey is welcoming back one assistant while waving goodbye to another. Bruce Bell, who was UNT's running backs coach from 1998-2000, will rejoin the staff. He will probably coach the receivers, but Dickey said that could change depending on other movement in the staff. Offensive line coach Spencer Leftwich, who spent the last nine seasons at UNT, has resigned to accept the same position at Tulsa. Leftwich will work under new Tulsa head coach Steve Kragthorpe, who was the offensive coordinator at UNT in 1994-'95. Though he will receive a significant pay raise, Leftwich said the decision to leave Denton was difficult. "I have nothing but great things to say about North Texas," said Leftwich, who had at least one lineman named to the all-conference team in eight of nine seasons with the Mean Green. "Coach Dickey treated me and my family with the greatest respect and care. This move is hard because I've been here so long and been treated so well, but sometimes in coaching you have a chance to move on. Sometimes those opportunities don't come back around, and I made a decision to go work with a friend and financially better myself." Said Dickey: "We appreciate the great work he's done at North Texas. We're certainly going to miss him." Dickey has already begun the interviewing process to find Leftwich's replacement. However, Dickey said there is not a specific timetable to make a hire. The addition of Bell eliminates any concerns about the effect Leftwich's departure may have had on recruiting, Dickey said. Bell was responsible for signing several players who played key roles on UNT's Sun Belt title teams the last two seasons, including defensive end Adrian Awasom, cornerback Walter Priestley, receivers George Marshall and Ja'Mel Branch and safeties Jonas Buckles and Craig Jones. "He was the first person from outside the staff that I hired when I originally got here, and he did a great job in every aspect," Dickey said. "The only area of concern because he was coming from high schools was recruiting, and that's the area he most excelled in." Bell, a letterman as a defensive back at UNT in 1975 and '76, left in the summer of 2001 for an administrative position in the Houston Independent School District. He spent a year in that position before returning to coaching as offensive coordinator at The Colony High School. Bell, who was a head coach at Houston Forest Brook and Sugar Land Willowridge for seven seasons prior to his first stint as a UNT assistant, said he is willing and able to coach any position. His immediate focus, however, is on recruiting. "The big thing is I know every coach within the Houston ISD, because they all worked for me for a year and I coached in the district," Bell said. "I have a great working relationship with those guys, and they have a lot of talented athletes down there. I'm somewhat behind right now, so I have to really hustle."

I believe it will be three stories high too.

Great win for the team. Hopefully they can step up to the plate against TCU.

Duh, maybe I should check the board before I post articles.

UNT regents pursue property acquisitions 11/22/2002 By Matthew Zabel / Staff Writer FORT WORTH — University of North Texas officials will begin the process of buying seven properties to help the university address its housing and parking shortages. On Thursday, the UNT Board of Regents’ facilities committee gave its approval for officials to move forward with negotiations on the properties, most of them on the campus’ western edge. The full Board of Regents, at its regular quarterly meeting Friday at the UNT Health Science Center, is expected to discuss and consider purchase of those seven plus one other property on South Bonnie Brae Street, after a presentation in executive session. The committee gave its approval for UNT to negotiate and buy four properties along the north side of West Prairie Street between North Texas Boulevard and Avenue F where university officials would like to build a dormitory with space for about 400 students. Several small businesses, including a gas station and convenience store, tattoo parlor, television store, storage facility, a barbershop and a used-car dealership, are located on those properties. These buildings would be torn down. A four-unit apartment complex is also among the properties UNT wants to buy. Dr. Richard Rafes, UNT’s interim vice president of administrative affairs, told the committee UNT and the owners have agreed to a price of $115,000 for that property. UNT President Dr. Norval Pohl said after the meeting that UNT’s housing department turned away an estimated 1,500 students who inquired about housing for the current semester, and about 500 of those students were freshmen. UNT dorms can accommodate about 4,500 students. Dr. Pohl said that because of UNT’s housing shortage, officials have had to make many exceptions to its policy that requires freshmen to live on campus or with a relative. "We don’t mind that, but a lot of parents say, ‘Wait a minute. We don’t want our son or daughter living off campus,’" Dr. Pohl said. Coupled with the 350-bed dorm expected to open in fall 2003 on the southwest corner of North Texas Boulevard and West Prairie Street, a 400-bed dorm across the street would help a great deal to solve that problem, he said. That dorm, if UNT officials go forward with it, probably would open in fall 2004, he said. Another piece of property UNT regents are considering is Eagle Ridge Apartments, a complex on the southwest corner of North Texas Boulevard and West Hickory Street. Dr. Rafes told the facilities committee that the apartment complex’s owner has agreed to sell the property to UNT for $900,000. Eight units of that 56-unit complex sustained fire damage in July. "The owner came to us at that time and wanted to know if we were interested in buying it before he fixed it up," Dr. Rafes told the board. "If he would have gone ahead and fixed it up, it would cost us a whole lot more." Dr. Pohl said that property is next to the construction site for a new science building at Hickory and Avenue C, and that the area could be designated for construction supplies and a construction headquarters. Or, that area could serve as a parking area. UNT’s board also will consider allowing UNT to buy the Sierra Apartments on Maple Street. This property is surrounded by university property, and if UNT buys it, it will be demolished to allow UNT to build a walking path from the Gateway Center, at the corner of North Texas Boulevard and Eagle Drive, to the campus’s center. A fourth area UNT officials want to buy is a 10- to 12-acre tract north of Liberty Christian School, which UNT agreed to buy earlier this year to use for athletics. UNT officials now want the additional area, on Bonnie Brae, for remote parking, Dr. Rafes told the board. Dr. Rafes asked the facilities committee to not vote on this item until after he could make a presentation to the full board in executive session on Friday. If UNT buys this property and develops remote parking on it, the university would expand its campus shuttle bus service to there, he said. As a state agency, UNT could exercise eminent domain to acquire property if they can’t reach an agreement with the property owners, or if property owners refuse to sell. "We have talked about that a couple of times, but we hope we don’t have to use that," Dr. Pohl said.

Hopkins, Davis Spark 98-93 Exhibition Victory Sophomore guard Leonard Hopkins and senior guard Chris Davis poured in 22 and 20 points, respectively, to lead the North Texas Mean Green past the Texas Blue Chips, 98-93, in a men's exhibition basketball game Friday. In North Texas' first action of the 2002-03 season, Hopkins connected on two three-pointers and hit 12 of 13 free throws to lead four Mean Green players in double figures. Davis hit eight of 20 field goals and went four of five at the free throw line to finish with 20 points. Also in double digits for the Mean Green were senior forward Jermaine Green with 13 points and freshman forward Ron Harris, who came in off the bench to contribute 10 points. "I thought we did an excellent job in the first half," said North Texas head coach Johnny Jones. "We played with energy, defended well and penetrated offensively. I was a little disappointed in the second half. We gave up too many points and weren't patient on offense." The Mean Green forced the Blue Chips into 13 first-half turnovers and raced to a 50-32 halftime lead. Eleven different Mean Green players scored with Davis' 10 points leading the way in the first period. The Blue Chips hit six of their 10 three-pointers in the second half and out-scored North Texas by a 61-48 margin to put a scare in the Mean Green. In the first 12 minutes of the final half, the Blue Chips out-scored NT by a 31-12 margin to pull to within a point at 64-63 with 8:11 left. That was as close as the Blue Chips would get, as North Texas connected on seven of eight free throws in the game's final minute to secure the win. North Texas will play its second and final exhibition game at the Super Pit against the Texas-Louisiana All-Stars on Monday, Nov. 15.