meangreenJW

One other thought. It would have been in everyone's interest to get to the bottom of all issues which is why I presume Smatresk and Baker had review done. Biggest concern would have been something resurfacing and causing problems once McCasland had program going. I just can't see any upside here to trying to protect anyone.

I get what you're saying but IMO dismissing Tony midseason would have done nothing to prevent this. One coulrd argue, there might have been more of this stuff with instability in the staff. Baker started in August. Next to impossible to do a coaching search when school has started and coaches are committed to their players at other institutions. Dismissing Tony midseason so that what Anwar could coach them? Rob Evans who looked about 5 years past ready to retire. The team finished the season on Saturday. WB dismissed Tony on Sunday. The evaluation was done weeks/months before. But what purpose would be served by firing Tony midseason. At the time people argued to show losing wasn't acceptable. That would do nothing to prevent this.

Exactly. Why would anyone that Smatresk, the police chief, Title IX, etc. would risk their jobs to protect players/manager who were gone, a new coach and a pretty much new AD. No one had anything to gain. Am I missing something?

Makes a lot of sense now. One of the bigger boosters at UNT told me UNT initially referred the crime to the Denton PD sex crimes unit. Denton indicated they would get to it but had more pressing issues and would just as soon prefer UNT keep the case. My guess is UNT PD didn't want to risk it being delayed or falling through the cracks. In all reality, I have no issue with UNT PD investigating based upon what you said. However, I still see how the appearance isn't great to the general public.

It was published at the time but it was Rickey Brice and Derail Green and a manager named Brian Johnson. Derail was finished at the conclusion of the season. McCasland had not retained Brice or Johnson.

I reread the report. It's posted on the WFAA website. It was really clear why the review didn't talk to victims or the accused. Methodology: The findings and observations described in this report are based primarily upon information reported during interviews of approximately 50 individuals (current and former student-athletes and coaches, current and former athletics department staff members, and University staff from various campus departments) and a review of those University, athletics department and/or basketball team policies in place to promote and enforce the University’s expectations of student conduct. Additional documentation, including men’s basketball rosters, University disciplinary files, and athletics compliance records, also was examined and relied upon during the review. It should be noted that after consulting with UNTPD at the outset of the external review, we did not pursue interviews of the two former student-athletes and the former student manager so as not to interfere or be perceived to interfere with the ongoing law enforcement investigation. Findings: At the conclusion of the external review, two important findings were clear: 1. The external review did not identify any “red flags” or other indicators that individuals outside of those involved in the alleged criminal events were aware of the activity; and 2.The men’s basketball program under the prior coaching regime did not create, encourage, condone, nor appear to tolerate the type of behavior that was the subject of the recent arrests. Seems self explanatory. The reporter just chose to ignore it. Report can be read at https://www.scribd.com/document/393320868/UNT-Men-s-Basketball-Program-External-Review-Report-00238953xC146B

I tend to kind of agree. My guess is UNT PD has full autonomy to investigate but just the fact that it's the University's police department will create concern.

This would have clearly been Denton PD jurisdiction if they wanted it. Something must have happened there. The University response said they two chiefs discussed and agreed UNT should take the lead.

The WFAA report was misleading (intentionally IMO). If you got the emails and communications from the University when they launched and completed the law firm review, the law firm the University retained was only to review the climate and culture of the men's basketball program. Basically to make sure that the MBB staff and University personnel weren't creating a climate where this was common. They had nothing to do with the criminal investigation. The law firm would have interviewed student-athletes, general students, coaches and staff to assess the day to day climate. In fact, it would have been inappropriate for them to get involved in the criminal investigation. The police did the criminal investigation and according to the response tweeted from the University they spoke to all cooperating witnesses and followed up on all leads. So the girl in the WFAA report either didn't cooperate or the police/DA/grand jury didn't have any evidence to charge them. Unfortunate deal all the way around but this feels like sensational reporting to create website hits. Even to the fact that the WFAA report is very careful to not point out things like all the players had been dismissed before they were charged, all the coaches were gone, etc. If you just glance at the report, it's made to seem like this is recent involving current employees and student-athletes.

Huh? The division is caused by one thing TV contracts. Not bowls or anything else. Four of the G5s bring in $2 million or less annually. AAC is only slightly more. All the P5s bring in $30 million plus. There's your division. Period.

And you'll have that option. But the 100 plus players at the 14 CUSA institutions feel differently, I guarantee. I bet the kids at UTSA would have loved one more bowl tie when they were left out last year.

Agreed but I'd rather have a coach who is honest than one that says I'm leaving in a pine box and then leaves for the next job

I agree with you. But I think our OL is bottom half of CUSA. Same with RBs since we lost Easley. And the inability to consistently get 2-4 yards when we are 3rd or 4th and short is the #1 reason we aren't undefeated IMO. With even an average OL and RB, I think we have some close calls but win all 3 of the games we lost.

LOL. Certainly didn't help. Posted 65 wins in RV's 15 years. 4.33 average.

I should have offered more detail. I'm basing that comment on this site https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/schools/north-texas/index.html. We won 235 games in the 51 seasons prior to Seth Littrell. That's an average of 4.6 wins per year.

Agree. If we could have a coach who over 5-10 years averaged 8-4 regular season I'd take it, especially given our 50 year history of 4-8. I thought the loss to ODU was really bad. Our worst under Seth but the overreaction on this board is a bit much. I stayed away for a couple days.

They definitely haven't perfected everything but how do you see this as an error on the staff? They aren't telepathic. How would the AD staff be expected to know a Hawaii broadcast would spend half time talking about the history of the Mean Green name? I'd blame Hawaii who is doing the broadcast and couldn't perform a simple google search.

A worse team...yes but still UNT was still widely considered one of the best jobs in CUSA. Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas are the worst jobs in the Big 12. SL has done an unreal job. I give him credit on being a year ahead of schedule every step of the way in the turnaround of this program. But UNT football had been mismanaged on so many fronts. We have the best stadium in the league, we spend the most money on football in the league, we have the highest HC salary and the highest assistant pool. We probably have the best recruiting area in the league and we have an AD, President and Board that get what it takes to win. The lift at Kansas or Kansas State will be significantly harder as they don't enjoy any of those advantages relative to other Big 12 teams. IMO, the Big 12 breaks down like this OU and Texas - best two jobs by far TCU, Ok State - next best jobs based on facilities, location, etc. Baylor, Texas Tech, West Virginia - if not for the Briles scandal, I think Baylor might deserve to be in the group above Iowa State, Kansas State Kansas

Regardless, rankings have no impact. MTSU was top 25 in coaches poll last year in hoops and didn't make the tournament. I get the criticism if someone at UNT failed to register for the poll (although I think it's bush league to have to pay a membership to be ranked. I can't think of a single reputable poll in another sport that is pay to play). But I believe a missed 24th or 25th ranking would have had zero impact. It isn't a part of the selection process. Most NCAA selection committees are heavy on admin types (ADs, commissioners and associate ADs).

There are two polls released in football and basketball. Media and coaches poll. None of them in any sport has any impact on tournament seedings.

I don't agree. Coaches don't care about top 25. They care about analytics which is the RPI. Your argument holds true that A&M is prolly just as pissed as we are but not because anything to do with a top 25 poll that's only for fans. Coaches care much more about RPI which is an objective measure that quantifies the best teams. The reality is the committee makes this clear, beyond the seeded teams they don't take metrics into account. It's geographic. Besides all that, this is the same story we've lived for the life of the program. We've always been placed against a power 5 team in Texas.

That ranking has nothing to do with the seedings or the committee. Just like in bball, the rankings have nothing to do with the selection process. I have no idea what happened on the rankings and whose fault it was. But a coaches association ranking isn't at all a factor in the selection process.

Uh, I guess one could argue your point on Clark or Holtz (although Skip 58-27 in CUSA games and has won 4 straight bowl games and Clark has done almost unbelievable things at UAB). But respectfully, there is a 0.0% chance we would hire someone who's experience includes only D2 experience. That's virtually unheard of. If Carthel wants to be a head coach in FBS, he's at least 2 moves away. He might be able to get and FCS job but that wouldn't be guaranteed. I think ACU hired a D2 coach. But ACU had just become FCS and hired a coach who won 3 straight D2 national championships. Incarnate Word is hardly a premier FCS program and they hired a Big 12 coordinator. D2 to FBS probably wouldn't happen anywhere. But I doubt UNT would ever do something like that after how badly the Todd Dodge experiment went.

No way Smatresk allows a Briles to coach. The whole staff/family failed Baylor (along with many others). It's a reputation hit we don't need to take when everything is going so positive on the academic and athletic front. With what we are doing on the field and with facilities and budgets, we can get a really great coach without this kind of reputation hit. I don't know how Wren would handle but it's doubtful a President would hire a Briles as HC. With what we are paying, we could probably hire Skip Holtz or Bill Clark who have both proven to be highly successful in CUSA.

But also just in time for our CUSA #1 recruiting class to be sophomores and ready to contribute.