Buford_Julep

It sure as hell beats taking 4 seasons to win a total of 20 games. That is the situation NT was in when JJ took over.

If that is the total cost, that is not bad. After reading all the posted articles about the price of guaranteed games over the years...50-60K sounds like about the going rate to bring in a good mid-major for a guaranteed home game. If the whole 50-60K goes to CBI, surely the home team would have to at least pay the expenses of the visiting team and probably a guarantee also. That could be expensive. Where is Ark State fan? He probably knows all the pros and cons.

Give me a dominant Center. Since UNT has been in the Sun Belt, the only Centers I would describe as truly dominant were Yemi Nicholson of Denver and Shawnston Johnson. Wooden without injuries and health problems might have been dominant. Michael Southall of Louisiana would get an honorable mention. Outside of Johnson has NT ever had a scary Center? I only saw Willy Davis maybe twice. He was about 6-8, but that was monster size back then.

Earlier WKU was a 4 1/2 point favorite. Strike Point Sports gives away one free pick a day. Today's pick: Strike Point Sports will offer a free pick every day of the season. North Texas +4.5 over Western Kentucky (7:30 pm) [6:30 pm CST] The Mean Green came through in their quarterfinal match-up yesterday, and we go right back to the well with them here against WKU. North Texas has played closer to the top of the conference than the bottom for most the of the year, so I think they stand a good chance to knockout the Hilltoppers and advance to the Sun Belt title game. We take the points and look for an outright victory. Doc's Sports Service

Depth is what won for NT in 2007. Kendrick Davis scored 24 points in the first tournament game in Denton, but caught the flu and was 1-20 from the field at Lafayette. Michael Sturns was healthy but ice cold from the field. He hit on 12 of 38 shots in the tournament. Keith Wooden was suffering from various injuries and was only able to play a total of 85 minutes in the tournament. Several players took up the slack. Harold Stewart led the team with 33 rebounds and scored 35 points. Rich Young played his best at the tournament. Ben Bell was already a starter, but he had to take on a much larger offensive role to compensate for Davis and Sturns. Everyone is healthy in 2009 and no one is in a deep slump. IMO we have as good a chance as anybody to win it, but everyone else has a chance too.

Is Minnesota planning on making special loans to Christians as specified in the sermon on the mount? Luke 6:35 (ESV) But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Having seen the first game, IMO Brett Royster of Arlington Martin was just as good as Tramiel and Odufua. Now they have Sun Belt pre-season Player of the Year Carlos Monroe to play with Royster. Fortunately, FAU appears to not have good depth at post and NT has better guards and more depth everywhere.

You are right. They beat Troy on Dec 11. So, if we lose we are the #7 and play La-Monroe in Denton. If we win that game, then we play UALR in Hot Springs. Correct?

Yes. In my losing scenario, Denver is #4, USA #5, UNT #6 and MTSU #7. I agree with the seeds we know for certain that you posted earlier.

My calculations have us playing, if we win, FAU. If we win against FAU we would play the Denver-Arkansas St winner in Hot Springs. If we lose, we play New Orleans. If we win that game, we would play Troy in Hot Springs. Calculations are not guaranteed, but winning in Denver is the better option for sure.

Coach Jones on why McCoy is now playing from today's DRC: “What I am excited about for Adam is that he is a senior who came to North Texas with a reputation as a great shooter, but he didn’t play as hard or play as good defensively as we needed him to,” UNT head coach Johnny Jones said. “The light has come on for him the last couple of weeks. He has played both ends of the floor and is taking care of the basketball. He is playing within himself and made huge strides.”

The more this is publicized, the better it is for the new stadium. Any Texas legislator would think twice about siding with SDS on any issue.

More on X. Alexander

Are you sure? NT BB schedule Home Sam Houston...14-9 NM St.............13-12 UTA................16-10 Jackson St......11-13 (Will soon have a winning record) Indiana State...7-19 (Have wins over Illinois St (home and away) and Northern Iowa) Houston Baptist.3-22 Cameron D-2 Road Oklahoma State...15-9 Arkansas.............13-10 (wins over Texas and Oklahoma) Houston...............16-7 Sam Houston...... 14-9 I don't see anything wrong with this schedule. We just haven't won enough games

Denver plays with at least 3, more often 4 and sometimes all 5 players beyond three-point line. After they take a shot, everyone turns and runs back to the defensive end to set up their defense. It is almost impossible to get a transition basket against Denver. The price they pay is they get few offensive rebounds and second chance field goals. Color commentator Jimmy Dykes once described the Mean Green as crawling all over each other to get offensive rebounds. During the 2007 Sun Belt championship game he said, "Another North Texas offensive weapon, the missed shot." Of course we have to pay a price for that style of play. Sometimes we won't get back in time to get set on defense.

He injured his thumb in the first Sam Houston game. It was doubtful that he would play the next game, but of course he played through the injury just like he did last season's hamstring pull. After that, he played with tape around his left wrist and thumb, and probably with a splint for his thumb. The thumb was reinjured the first game the tape was taken off, and had to be re-taped during the game. I am not sure what game that was. The first complete game I saw White play with out a taped thumb and wrist was Jan 17 vs FAU.

Congrats on making it to the game. Congrats also to Collin Mangrum's family for driving from Howe to Denton for the last two years, even when they know their son won't be playing.

One of the weakest in the nation. It has been posted many times by many people. I know at least four different posters have said so in the last month. But, is it true? I disagree. I don't even think the NT schedule is one of the weakest in the conference. Pomeroy is the only rating service I have found that rates out of conference schedules. It has NT at #119 out of 344 D-1 schedules, and #5 in the Sun Belt. Several others rank strength of schedule for the season, but don't break it down into OOC. Sagarin has NT at #228 nationally and #5 in the Belt. Real Time Sports has NT at #227 Nationally and #6 in the Belt. NCAA RPI has NT at #227 Nationally and #7 in the Belt. Pomeroy used to give OOC RPI ratings but quit showing any RPI ratings and wiped out the archives this season. Here are the OOC RPI ratings for previous seasons based on one of my previous posts: Out of conference strength of schedule rankings according to RPI during J Jones era: Year...National Rank ....Sun Belt Rank 2001: 40....................1 2002: 234..................7 2003: 32....................1 2004: 310..................11 2005: 132..................6 2006: 167..................7 2007: 286..................12 2008: 86....................5

The Sun Belt does have a basketball package with Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast in co-operation with Cox Sports Television. Where the Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast Wiki article says "some of the smaller and less heralded colleges of the region." It is talking about the Sun Belt. Here is a link that shows there really is a Sun Belt Basketball TV package. The problem for NT fans is that the previously named media giants have no Texas outlets. The Southland and the SWAC get more TV time in Texas than NT does.

Pratt, Kansas is in the middle of the state. They play in the well-respected Jayhawk Conference.

Can someone please post a video of The Dunk. Hank said it was the most impressive he has ever seen. Coach Jones said it fired up the whole team. Eric said it demoralized FIU. Was it on the podcast, or were they showing a replay, shaky period, etc., etc.

The offense looked very good last night to my eyes. Just 8 turnovers and two of those were very questionable offensive foul calls. The Mean Green guards had no trouble getting the ball into the post, they were able to take wide-open threes and were able to drive to the basket. Josh White made four major league passes without getting credit for an assist: 1. A perfect alley oop pass that resulted in a missed dunk. 2. A long lob in transition that ended with a shooting foul on FAU. 3. A bounce pass in the lane to a wide open player that was fumbled out of bounds. 4. A hook pass after penetrating the lane to a wide-open guard who missed the jumper. Josh seems to be playing with his old confidence after getting rid of that splint on his thumb.

Link to story When do season tickets go on sale? Photos

Tramiel is showing why he was a JUCO All-American. George had 13 rebounds against A-State. Several of the rebounds were taken right out of the hands of the A-State players. He made a great effort to get a high loose ball while surrounded by A-Staters. What he got was an unjust foul that lit up coach Jones. The rust from setting out a year is almost off, and some day soon he is going to start hitting that jump hook and take his place as one of the best big men in the conference. Stewart fouled just twice in 26 minutes without giving up any intensity. Hogans gets an A+ for effort for chasing an A-State breakaway down the court and getting there in time to block the follow up after the lay-up was missed. As Charlie Leonard says, "Good things happen when big men run the court."

The NCAA site was just now updated. Josh is now #15 and Johnson #43