Buford_Julep

According to the latest NCAA stats Josh White is #7 and Domo Johnson is #25 in free throw shooting out of about 4,000 D-1 players.

Cameron Spencer was recruited by Tubbs and later signed by coach Doh. That, plus the fact that he was also recruited by UNT out of high school, caused me to follow his SMU career closely. Players often transfer when the coach that recruited them leaves. The following Cameron Spencer story was in the DMN when he was a freshman. I looked but can't find the story on the net anywhere, but this was too good to forget. Coach Doh's Mustangs were off to a 9-1 start before losing on the road to Oklahoma by 69-42. This was unacceptable to coach Doh. He decided his players weren't tough enough and so he conducted a two and a half hour loose ball practice. The players went after the loose balls with no fouls called. The idea was he would find out who the tough players were. One player suffered a broken nose and another had to have stitches near his eye after the brutal practice. Cameron Spencer was elevated to the starting line-up for the first time after that practice and scored 4 points and had 10 rebounds in the next game. Coach Doh did not give Spencer another start that season.

On the post game radio show JJ praised Vereen and Moffitt and criticized our post defense for allowing them to get the ball so deep in the low post. He said we will be in for a long night against MTSU unless we play better.

It is a worry to me that the schedule has two such important games back to back. UTA (recruiting bragging rights) and MTSU (Anoited Sun Belt Champ) are both very important games. Sometimes in scheduling you have to make the square peg fit in the round hole. At least they are both at home. The main purpose of the out-of-conference schedule is to get the team ready for the conference schedule. NT has usually scheduled a D-2 between conference games during the break. Many of our fans don't like that. I would suggest they come to the UTA game. If there is a small crowd, look for NT to bring in a D-2 next season.

Starting line-up in last game vs Arkansas St according to official web site: 5 Srs, 9 Jrs, 4 Sophs and 4 Frs Offense: T Gill..............So G Hollivay.......Jr C J Johnson.....Fr T Feeley..........Fr T Santiago......So WR R Johnson.Sr WR Fitzgerald..Sr WR Stickler.....Sr WR Dickerson..Jr RB Montgomery.Jr QB Vizza........So Defense: DE Davenport.Sr DT Ross.........Jr DT Thomas....Sr DE Gilmore....Jr LB Penson.....So LB Nwigwe.....Jr LB Robertson..Fr CB Adams .....Jr CB Bush.........Jr S K Hill...........Jr S Williams......Fr

According to my media guide Spika was 58-69. Blakely was the first coach with a winning career record since Terrance Myracle went 38-36 in 1929-33.

MTSU has a long history of mediocre production from very good talent. There is still a good chance they will be contenders in the belt this year. They are loaded with talent and most likely will be ready on new year's eve. My belief is that it is next to impossible for college BB teams to play at maximum intensity for 30+ games. One of my favorite quotes from ex Phi Slamma Jamma announcer Reid Gettys is "You play over your head for five games, you have five stinkers and you have 20 games that reflect who you really are."

Why NT plays D-2's Originally posted December 22, 2006: Why not play a low-major instead of an NAIA or Div II? 1. Money. The American answer to almost everything. It is cheaper to bring in an NAIA or a Div II than a low Div I. 2. Availability. Low Div I teams such as Savannah State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Prairie View A&M are snapped up by The Baylors and Texas A&M's of the Div I world. NT can't compete with the guarantees those teams pay. Why pay for contract games? Why not play home and away games with local teams like we used to. MG 61, Scottie on the other board, and one other poster whose name I can't remember all posted excellent articles about scheduling and how difficult it is for mid-majors to schedule in today's enviroment. Most of this post is based on what was in those articles. Former coach Rike said forget about playing Texas Texas, Baylor or SMU. They won't even talk about playing. It is hard to schedule nearby teams of comparable ability to home and away games because of the fear of losing to a recruiting competitor. My guess is Tulsa, a team that consistently gets players NT wants, will never play us again after losing both ends of a home and away series.. That leaves the possibility of home and away games or pre-conference tournaments with far away teams. In the past NT under coach Jones has played games with strong mid-majors Missouri State (two wins) , NC-Wilmington (1 win one loss), Weber State (win) and Winthrop (win). The dark side is these games incur expensive travel costs. Rather than schedule, and possibly lose to NT, many teams would rather try to schedule a lucrative road game with a major conference team. There is more money in it, and the coach will not be held to the fire for losing such a game to a team his fans have never heard of. Will playing NAIA and Div II teams hurt our RPI? In the first place , having a good RPI is not a free pass to the NCAA Tournament. Ask Missouri State. A game with a D-2 or NAIA game does not count for or against an RPI rating. However, winning against a low rated D-1 opponent like Grambling CAN BRING DOWN your RPI. Are NAIA teams so bad that playing them does not help a team to help keep it's competitive edge? Why not play a high school team or a YMCA team? NAIA teams are not much worse than low D-1 teams. LINK There is nothing new about NT playing NAIA or D-2 teams. What is new is now NT is thrashing these teams instead of struggling to beat them. I am sure Jarvis Christian will be a well-conditioned, well-coached team of fine, highly skilled athletes that are just too small or lack the strength or speed to play at the D-1 level. See you at the game.

Once there was an NCAA Tournament Selection Committee person on the old Dan Patrick ESPN radio show. He said the rpi was completely meaningless as a selection aid and that he paid absolutely no attention to it. He said it is a terrible way to rate teams, and that the Sagarin Ratings were much more accurate. I agree. Does anyone really think WKU is near #26 or that MTSU is near #304?

Coach Doh is now 3-3 at home vs the SWAC.

Gordan Watt Started 33 games for Purdue in 2006-07. But, he was kicked off the team after his second DUI arrest.

Link to other MUTS message board: Topic Title: "So Frustrating" Link

MUTS fans are unhappy after losing at home to Ohio Valley Conference bottom feeder. Below is a link to MUTS message board. The topic title is "Here we go again." Link

The band did a great job of heckling Purdue transfer #21 Gordon Scott, and #11 Justin Wilson. We were setting on the opposite end of the pit from the band, but we could clearly hear "Gordon, Everyone remembers what happened (Botched dunk)." The band also chanted Gordon's name and even cheered him after a successful dunk. "Gordon, we are proud of you." Gordon was a good sport about it and even tried to fake out the student's left-right chant after he fouled out. The band mimicked the Smurf's theme when the 5'6 Wilson had the ball. Great heckling that was based on humor and was not crude or mean-spirited. At least what we could hear was.

WKU does have a young team. So does North Texas. Distribution of minutes played by class: Western Kentucky......North Texas Seniors----377...............Seniors----444 Juniors----607................Juniors----361 Sophs-----536................Sophs-----793 Freshman--80................Freshman----2

Old news, but it hasn't been posted yet. Wright State (2-6) defeated UALR 62-55 in Little Rock Friday night. One of Wright State's previous losses was to Sam Houston by 84-65.

You guys are way behind on your RNC talking points. Even Rush Limbaugh now says global warming is real. The current debate is whether the warming is caused by man or is it a natural weather cycle beyond man's control.

She certainly did. "We gave it away" said Stephens. She wasn't about to accept congratulations for a moral victory.

Thanks for posting. Good story.

63-63 1:09 to play

How can Stephen F. Austin be ranked #11? SFA has wins over Howard Payne, Texas College, Texas Wesleyan and Jackson State. The losses are to Texas A&M and La Monroe.

I remember when the lights were turned off, and the starting lineup was spot-lighted amid a musical fanfare. It was impressive. Maybe the cheerleaders should throw T-Shirts into the stands while the game clock is running. That is the loudest part of the night by far. The team might think the crowd was yelling for them. I don't think billboards, TV and newspaper ads do much to help attendance. Has anyone ever gone to a ball-game because of some ad? I never have. More people go to games because of what they learn from the sports media. North Texas gets very little sports media attention. IMO word-of-mouth and/or being invited to or taken by parents to a game is how most North Texas fans got started. That is certainly true for me and my friends that go to games. One had never seen a basketball game in his life before he was invited to a game at the old pit.

We certainly caught a bad Conference schedule this year. Middle Tennessee (the pre-season favorite) is the Eastern team we have to play twice. La Monroe (one of the weakest) is the Western team we get to play just once. We play both Western Kentucky and South Alabama on the road.

Canada has produced some good country-folk singers- Joni Mitchell, Anne Murray and one of my favorites from Nova Scotia.

Other foreign players come in through prep schools. An alumnus makes a big secret contribution to the prep school and the prep school delivers him.