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North Texas qualified for the Conference USA title game a season ago, but the real danger for California is that its season opener against UNT occurs on the road. The Golden Bears have a ton of transfers, and with this being their first game with several new faces, a less-than-ideal situation could present itself. Breakdown: California has one of the Pac-12's toughest tests when facing Auburn, which has been rejuvenated following the hiring of Hugh Freeze. The Golden Bears' clash with the Tigers comes during Week 2 and falls between dates with North Texas and Idaho, which could lead to some assuming the Golden Bears would have one of the most manageable schedules in the conference. But California faces Washington, Utah and Oregon with each of those games coming on the road in venues often described as among the loudest in the Pac-12. LINK: https://247sports.com/longformarticle/pac-12-football-biggest-trap-games-in-2023-for-every-team-in-lea-209762327/#2164922

DALLAS – UNT softball placed a league-high seven players on All-Conference USA teams including three first-team selections, the league announced on Tuesday. Junior infielder Kailey Gamble collected her second consecutive first-team award and third all-league honor of her career. She was joined on the first team by senior pitcher Ashley Peters and sophomore infielder Cierra Simon, both of whom appeared on all-conference teams last season. Junior catcher Kalei Christensen, junior infielder Mikayla Smith and junior pitcher McKenzie Wagoner picked up second-team honors after each received C-USA player of the week awards this season. Redshirt-Freshman infielder Tatum Sparks was recognized as a member of the All-Freshman Team. The group is the second-most players named to postseason all-conference teams after UNT placed nine players in 2021. The Mean Green are set to open its C-USA Championship in Ruston, La. North Texas will face the winner between Middle Tennessee and Louisiana Tech on Wednesday at 5 p.m. on ESPN+.

Oklahoma offensive analyst Seth Littrell during an NCAA college football spring practice, Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Norman, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Texas Tech: Grant McCasland Scott Drew’s coaching tree has gotten a lot of love lately after Jerome Tang’s sterling first season at Kansas State. Texas Tech hopes McCasland, who built a dominant mid-major program at North Texas, can continue to add to the Drew tree’s legend. McCasland’s North Texas teams played a grind-it-out style that consistently ranked among the slowest paces in the country, but the results didn’t lie: The only season North Texas won fewer than 20 games under McCasland was the shortened 2021 season, and the Mean Green beat Purdue in the NCAA tournament that year. He’s fresh off a 31-win season in ’22–23 capped by an NIT title. McCasland isn’t the larger-than-life personality Chris Beard was in marketing the Texas Tech program, but there’s no doubt he’s a high-level coach. If he can properly harness the power of the Tech fan base both in terms of home court advantage and NIL resources in recruiting, the ceiling for this hire is incredibly high. Grade: A-

HOUSTON – The University of Houston women's basketball program received freshly signed paperwork from N'yah Boyd on Tuesday inking her commitment to play for the Cougars in 2023-24. A 5-6 guard, Boyd joins Houston after most recently playing at UTEP in 2022-23. Boyd is a career 8.9 points per game scorer that has averaged 2.9 assists per game in 105 career Division-I appearances. The Mesquite, Texas, native averaged 11.6 points per game for the Miners in 2022-23, starting 25 of the 28 games she played in. Boyd scored in double figures 20 different times this past season, including a season-high 20-point game on 8 of 15 shooting against UAB. Before playing in San Antonio, Boyd played the 2021-22 season for Oklahoma State where she started 11 games. The guard scored in double figures twice for the Cowboys but played a career-low 406 minutes. The guard started her collegiate career at North Texas, spending two seasons in Denton where she led the Mean Green in assists her freshman campaign in 2019-20. In 20 games as a sophomore, Boyd averaged 11.7 points a game, 2.8 rebounds a game and a career-high 3.6 assists per game. Head Coach Ronald Hughey has now signed three transfers this spring after he signed Maliyah Johnson from Pittsburg in March and signed Djessira Diawara in April. read more: https://uhcougars.com/news/2023/4/18/womens-basketball-cougars-get-boyds-signature-of-approval.aspx

Fresno State head coach Justin Hutson has added his fourth commitment for the 2023 recruiting class. North Texas bounce-back recruit Mykell Robinson announced his commitment to the Bulldogs on Tuesday. Robinson is a 6-foot-7 wing who spent the past two years at the junior college level. He comes off of a double-digit scoring season with two years of eligibility. Robinson chose Fresno State over reported offers from Alabama State, Charleston Southern, Hampton, Louisiana-Monroe, UW-Milwaukee and Northwestern State. Originally out of Missouri City (Texas) Sunrise Christian, Robinson signed with North Texas over reported offers from Tulsa, Minnesota, Wyoming, Austin Peay, UMass, Mississippi Valley State, Mount St. Mary’s and San Diego. He spent one season with the Mean Green, appearing briefly in 13 games as a true freshman during the pandemic-impacted 2020-21 season. read more: https://247sports.com/college/fresno-state/Article/Fresno-State-basketball-Mykell-Robinson-commits-commitment-North-Texas-Ranger-College-Dodge-City-forward--208587195/

Pretty impressive hire imho

With Turgeon off the board, it’s unclear which direction Saal is turning in the Wichita State basketball coaching search. National analysts peg WSU as one of the more intriguing open positions in the country, which should drum up interest from the crop of up-and-coming mid-major coaches who have led their teams to the Big Dance this week. Furman’s Bob Richey and Oral Roberts’ Paul Mills are two potential targets, according to sources, while other potential candidates who are sitting head coaches in the tournament include Florida Atlantic’s Dusty May, North Texas’ Grant McCasland, College of Charleston’s Pat Kelsey, Drake’s Darian DeVries and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Steve Lutz. May, McCasland, Kelsey and DeVries have all been rumored to be candidates for power-conference openings. WSU would face stiff competition to land any one of them, but it’s a battle the Shockers very well could win, given what the program has to offer in tradition, fan base, resources and proven track record of winning. Read more at: https://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article273178050.html#storylink=cpy

LINK: https://www.katfans.com/katsforum/showthread.php?24269-NIT-Round-2

"We're thrilled," Jones told NSN. "We got off to a little rocky start in conference play and ended up being the last team (at the conference tournament). We have 12 teams, and we were the eighth seed. They only take eight teams. We were the last one to qualify for our conference tournament, but our guys did a tremendous job of playing well over three days and put us in position to be at the greatest show on Earth, and that's March Madness." You can watch our full interviews with Jones and his assistant coach, Brandon Chambers, who spent three seasons at Nevada from 2016-19, below. read more: https://nevadasportsnet.com/sports/mens-basketball/ex-nevada-assistant-johnny-jones-aims-for-third-straight-season-with-ncaa-tournament-win

Know the foe: North Texas Mean Green What is now the University of North Texas began as Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute in 1890. The name changed to North Texas Normal College in 1894. From 1901 to 1923, the institution was known as North Texas State Normal College. The campus in Denton, TX, was called North Texas State Teachers College from 1923 to 1949. The name was shortened to North Texas State College in 1949. The transition to university status took place in 1961. The name was North Texas State University until 1988, when State was dropped. North Texas system The North Texas University system also has locations in Dallas, Fort Worth and Frisco. Frisco, coincidentally, is where James Madison won the Football Championship Subdivision title in 2017 with a 28-14 victory over Youngstown State when Pirates coach Mike Houston was directing the Dukes. There were 32,596 undergraduates in the fall of 2021 and 9,776 postgraduates. Location Denton is located about 40 miles northwest of Dallas. The driving distance from Greenville, NC, to Denton is 1,300 miles. Driving time is 18 hours, five minutes. Mascot, colors North Texas has had an eagle for a mascot since 1922. The mascot’s nickname is Scrappy. School colors are green and white. Nickname North Texas teams are nicknamed Mean Green. The nickname developed when the 1966 football team was second nationally in rush defense. Defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene, a four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers, was a sophomore on the 1966 team. read more: https://bonesville.net/2023/02/03/the-new-american-part4-north-texas/

You’re going to hear me talk (or see me type I suppose) about North Texas when it comes to Coach Harrell. I know that was two stops ago, but I think it’s the best example of his offense. At USC, he coached under Clay Helton, a guy with a heavy background on the offensive side of the ball. The offense you saw from Graham with the Trojans was clearly a collaboration between Harrell and Helton. At West Virginia, Neal Brown was another head coach with a background in offensive play calling, and it’s rumored he would unplug Coach Harrell’s controller on occasion and call plays, or at the very least, give strong recommendations. It’s no coincidence Neal Brown is expected to call plays for the Mountaineers in 2023 in an effort to save his job (based on a limited sample size that has worked exactly 0 times). At North Texas, while Seth Littrell also had a back ground on offense, the precipitous decline of the Mean Green after Harrell dipped for SoCa, leads me to believe what happened at North Texas was the pure, unadulterated Harrell offense. I’m sure he’s picked things up since then, but I have a hunch that Purdue offense is going to look more like the Harrell’s North Texas offense, and less like “his” USC or West Virginia offenses. To give you a taste of what I expect, his 2017 North Texas offense averaged 37.1 passing attempts and 36.8 rushing attempts. His 2018 Mean Green offense averaged 38.8 passing attempts and 35.5 rushing attempts. To put that in perspective, Purdue’s offense averaged 41.6 passing attempts and 33.3 rushing attempts (that’s with 2 Austin Burton games skewing the numbers). Brohm’s 2021 offense averaged 44.3 passing attempts and 29.7 rushing attempts. Harrell throws the ball a little less and runs the ball a little more than Brohm, and I’m good with that. This is a unique opportunity for Coach Harrell. He’s the man in charge of the offense. I’m sure Coach Walter’s will have basic game plan input, but this is Harrell’s show. In his first 3 stops as a coordinator, he had a former play caller looking over his shoulder, now he’s on his own. Purdue’s offensive success (or failure) will be on him. I can 100% promise their won’t be rumors of Coach Walters taking over the play calling mid-game. I’m excited to see how things work out. read more: https://www.hammerandrails.com/2023/1/27/23571723/purdue-football-coaching-staff-graham-harrell

North Shore safety Jayven Anderson knows what a winning football culture looks like. He’s been an integral part of the Mustangs’ success during his time on Castlegory Drive. Now he’ll try to bring that experience to a North Texas program aiming for its first winning campaign since 2018. The senior ballhawk verbally committed to the Mean Green on Monday morning, choosing them over Houston, Colorado, Ole Miss and Texas, among others. Anderson is a three-star recruit and is listed as a linebacker on most of the primary football recruiting websites, even though he played safety at North Shore. He ranks as the No. 184 overall player in Texas for the 2023 class, according to 247Sports. Anderson was an All-Greater Houston selection as a junior and senior, helping North Shore reach two Class 6A Division I championship games and bring home the 2021 state title. He recorded 64 tackles, four interceptions, 16 pass breakups and four defensive touchdowns as a senior this past fall. Read more: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/hs-sports/football/article/jayven-anderson-north-shore-commits-north-texas-17751962.php