Search the Community

The recruiting process in college athletics is much like pursuing a love interest. In the end, what will be will be. But with the future's great unknowns you can never exactly say never. And that's how first-year North Texas basketball coach Tony Benford must have felt when he was reacquainted with Tony Mitchell, one of the nation's best basketball talents, whom he had courted aggressively as an assistant at Marquette, only to lose out to a rival. "It came down to us and Missouri," said Benford, a former assistant at Marquette and lead recruiter on Mitchell, then a 6-foot-8 high school senior at Dallas Pinkston and now a 235-pound sophomore forward for the Mean Green. "Tony is a great kid, a really hard worker, and he's got a lot of ability." As it turned out, Mitchell's future wasn't at Missouri. He landed at North Texas after eligibility issues interrupted his career in Columbia before it even began. He showed glimpses of stardom in playing half of last season after becoming eligible. Mitchell's next stop will likely be the NBA, possibly as soon as June, depending on if he chooses to forgo his last two years of college eligibility. He appears to be in a win-win situation. Mitchell loves his home and his teammates at North Texas and the NBA scouts love his ability. UT Arlington (2-1), which lost to Oklahoma by only four points, will get a view up close of that ability at 7:30 tonight when the two regional rivals meet at the Super Pit in Denton. Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/27/4443331/north-texas-star-tony-mitc Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/11/27/4443331/north-texas-star-tony-mitchells.html#storylink=cpy

We all love to talk about how deep our team is, how much we have returning, etc, but let's take a moment to reflect on our super trio of Jordan Williams, Tony Mitchell, and Chris Jones. The great basketball teams usually have 3 players that are looked at as "All Star" types who can carry a team in different phases of the game. Look at NBA Championship trios like Ginobili-Parker-Duncan, Bosh-Wade-James, Jordan-Pippen-Rodman, and even on the college level like 02-03 Syracuse with Anthony-McNamara-Warrick, 01-02 Maryland with Dixon-Baxter-Wilcox, and of course 05-07 Florida Gators with Noah-Brewer-Horford. Although it's a bummer that Patton is out and TJ Taylor is out for the whole season but the close games were and are going to be won with the ball in the hands of our trio. It's going to be fun to see how our other players on our stacked team such as Coleman, Alzee, and Franklin match up against another, possibly even more, stacked team but as long as they play solid basketball this year our big 3 should lead us to many, many wins. Can't wait for tonight, really looking forward to the game. Not expecting a win, but not expecting a loss either. We couldn't have asked for much better to open up the year. GMG!

3. Who wins the matchup between Doug McDermott and Tony Mitchell? One is college basketball's leading returning scorer and a popular national player of the year candidate. The other is one of the best defenders and rebounders in the sport and a potential lottery pick in next year's NBA Draft. Creighton's Doug McDermott and North Texas' Tony Mitchell meet Friday at 8 p.m. EST in Omaha in an under-the-radar matchup that should be one of the most intriguing of opening weekend. Creighton returns four starters and a handful of key reserves from a team that won the Valley tournament and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament last season. North Texas has Mitchell, promising sophomore point guard Chris Jones and high-scoring perimeter shooter Jordan Williams, more than enough talent to win the Sun Belt and pull some surprises too. Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/watch-opening-weekend-three-games-ships-kentucky-freshmen-173649775--ncaab.html

North Texas star sophomore forward Tony Mitchell was named one of the top 5 best non-major conference basektball players in the courntry! Check out the article here and see what they think about Tony Mitchell! http://thefarmclub.net/top-five-mens-mid-major-basketball-players/ Go Mean Green!!

Starting 5 1. Center, Cody Zeller, So.; 6, feet, 11 inches; Indiana: Best player on what looks to be the country’s best team. Then there’s: Tony Mitchell, North Texas; Jeff Withey, Kansas; Mason Plumlee, Duke; Jake Cohen, Davidson. 2. Power Forward, Deshaun Thomas, Jr., 6-7, Ohio State: Skilled offensive player who had a breakout NCAA tournament last season. Then there’s: C.J. Leslie, N.C. State, James Michael McAdoo, North Carolina; Chane Behanan, Louisville; Otto Porter, Georgetown. 3. Small Forward, Doug McDermott, Jr., 6-7, Creighton: Tough around the basket, but also made 49 percent of his 3-pointers last season. Then there’s: Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan; Solomon Hill, Arizona; Jamaal Franklin, San Diego State; Branden Dawson, Michigan State. 4. Shooting Guard, Isaiah Canaan, Sr., 6-1, Murray State: Preseason All-American averaged 19.9 points per game last season. Then there’s: P.J. Hairston, North Carolina; Allen Crabbe, California; Rotnei Clark, Butler; Michael Snaer, Florida State; C.J. McCollum, Lehigh. 5. Point Guard, Trey Burke, So., 6-0, Michigan: His leadership abilities are just as important as his basketball skills. He averaged 4.6 assists per game last season. Then there’s: Lorenzo Brown, N.C. State; Aaron Craft, Ohio State; Pierre Jackson, Baylor; Peyton Siva, Louisville; Matthew Dellavedova, St. Mary’s. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/03/3642646/national-outlook-ncaa-basketba Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/03/3642646/national-outlook-ncaa-basketball.html#storylink=cpy Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/03/3642646/national-outlook-ncaa-basketball.html#storylink=cpy

WEST DIVISION: NORTH TEXAS: Tony Mitchell is coming off a stellar campaign in which he averaged 14.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. Those numbers are staggering for any player, but Mitchell posted them in just his freshman season and had many thinking he might declare for the NBA Draft. Mean Green fans were relieved though as Mitchell is set to return to Denton. Not returning with him will be head coach Johnny Jones who took the head gig at his alma mater LSU. Former Marquette assistant Tony Benford takes over for Jones, and with Mitchell, has a ready-made player to build around. How far North Texas will go is going to depend on the play of those around Mitchell. Other starters will be back from last season's 18-14 squad, including Alzee Williams (10.5 ppg. 3.4 rpg) and Chris Jones (14.1 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.3 apg. Jones is a versatile player in the backcourt with his ability to score, rebound and pass the ball. He is an able second option to Mitchell and will keep teams from focusing the entirety of their defensive gameplan on Mitchell. Jordan Williams will make his return after being academically ineligible last January. In 19 games before that, Williams scored 10.9 points per game. read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-tsn-aen-sunbelt-outlook-20121029,0,6296149.story

FAU is in CBSsports.com's backyard — their main office is a 15-minute, luxury-lined car ride away from Boca Raton. So you would think that CBSsports would have a better grip on FAU men's basketball. After all, it's their hometown team. That doesn't seem to be the case. The general consensus of punditry has decided that FAU is the darkhorse to win the Sun Belt. North Texas is the odds on favorite, mainly because of their kidnapped Mizzou Tiger (No, I will not let it go...) Tony Mitchell; Middle Tennessee, who is returning 10 players from last year's 27-7 team is poised to take the regular-season title again; and FAU has a chance to put it all together after last year's disappointing finish. Read more: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-10-16/sports/sfl-cbs-sports-slights-fau-in-basketball-preview-20121016_1_fau-cbs-sports-tony-mitchell

What awaits the Sun Belt over the next four and a half months should amount to a special year in this conference. Yeah, you see small leagues get lucky every now and then and have a star with NBA potential. Sometimes the player is good enough to be a lottery pick, like Damian Lillard in the Big Sky last season. But it is ridiculously rare that a talent like Tony Mitchell is playing college hoops at the Sun Belt level. He is No. 7 on our Top 100, and many think he's the best combination of talent and athleticism playing in college basketball today -- better than anyone at Kentucky, Carolina, UCLA or Kansas. And he's living life at North Texas. Huh? Well, Mitchell initially committed to Missouri but was ultimately ruled academically ineligible and landed at North Texas, where he eventually started his career last December. North Texas will be an interesting team to watch this season beyond Mitchell (14.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last season), who is a near-guarantee to win Player of the Year in the league and earn a spot on national All-American teams. The school lost its coach, Johnny Jones, to LSU. So Mitchell and new coach Tony Benford (former Marquette assistant) will be league favorites thanks to help from Chris Jones, a solid fellow sophomore. He'll run the 1. Oklahoma State transfer Roger Franklin Jr., academically cleared forward Justin Patton and long-bomber Jordan Williams fill out what is one of the most formidable favorites of any mid-major league. Read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/blog/eye-on-college-basketball/20573576/college-basketball-previews-with-nba-prospect-tony-mitchell-north-texas-is-favored-in-sun-belt

NBADraft.net has Tony Mitchell going No. 5 to the Sacramento Kings http://www.nbadraft.net/2013mock_draft http://www.nbadraft.net/players/tony-mitchell http://www.nbadraft.net/ranking/bigboard

It was a summer of change for the University of North Texas men’s basketball team. Johnny Jones, UNT’s head coach for the last 11 years, left the program to take the reins at his alma mater, LSU. Jones spent his tenure turning the basketball program around, leading the Mean Green to five consecutive 20 win seasons from 2007-11 and four Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship games, including each of the last three, and two NCAA Tournament berths. Jones leaves behind big shoes to fill, but the program intends to pick up right where it left off. Replacing Jones is Tony Benford, who comes to Denton by way of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was the associate head coach for Marquette. Under head coach Buzz Williams, Benford helped Marquette reach the Sweet 16 each of the previous two seasons. In his many years in coaching, Benford has seen plenty of talent. Last season, Jae Crowder, the 34th pick in this summer’s NBA Draft, won the 2012 Big East Player of the Year under his tutelage. Crowder, now a member of the Dallas Mavericks, is the ninth NBA draft pick that Benford has coached in his career. The tenth could potentially already be playing for North Texas, but more on that later. Benford will have his hands full this season as the Mean Green are slated to face some of the nation’s top programs while also competing in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament for the first time in school history. Kansas State, who eliminated UNT from March Madness in 2007 on the shoulders of Michael Beasley, will be in North Texas’ bracket in that tournament. The two will meet if they both advance to the second round. Read more: http://www.wfaa.com/sports/basketball/In-Tony-we-trust-North-Texas-basketball-preview-173724821.html

F - Tony Mitchell, 6-8, 235, Soph., North Texas Was supposed to go to Missouri, but didn't qualify and that's why he's in the mid-major ranks. But Mitchell can play anywhere. He's super-athletic, goes hard and is more skilled than people realize. He averaged 14.7 points and 10.3 boards for the Mean Green after missing the first nine games of the season. Read more: http://www.cbssports...ller-tops-list" Click here to view the article

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/sun-belt-preview-likely-final-north-texas-tony-134430399--ncaab.html;_ylt=AjNLUVB7cELdDrlx1HpkzH_evbYF;_ylu=X3oDMTQwc2wyYWFpBG1pdANGRUFUVVJFRCBNZWdhdHJvbiBOQ0FBQgRwa2cDYzMzZjQwZTEtZGZlNS0zYTUxLTg3ODAtZmM1Njc3MmUwZjQ5BHBvcwMxBHNlYwNtZWdhdHJvbgR2ZXIDNmJkZTdjMDAtMGUzMy0xMWUyLWJmYWYtZjI0OTUxYTdiNTJk;_ylg=X3oDMTFqcGhkc2djBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANuY2FhYgRwdANzZWN0aW9ucw--;_ylv=3 "Eager to show Tony Mitchell what he's capable of accomplishing before he leaves college, North Texas coach Tony Benford set up a meeting last month between the sophomore forward and the best athlete the school has ever produced."

You know, the more I see Tony Mitchell's name come up in the media, it is starting to be tagged with something like "Potential All-American", or "Sleeper for All-American honors". I hope this thread doesn't delve into the depths of the perpetual Athletic-Department-isn't-doing-enough argument, but I would love to know what is being done to help get Tony on the All-American voters' radars more than he already is. I know that it mostly boils down to how he plays, but I'm really confident in what he does on the court... Off the court, he seems like an awesome dude as well. No character issues, humble, overall great guy. I know the fans have a small part in pumping him up (maybe some signs from our favorite signmaker ladies), and I certainly hope that the AD has earmarked some funds to Tony's All-American campaign. But, since Tony made the best decision of his career coming to little ol' North Texas, he waved his chances at playing on national TV all the time, so the media won't really get a chance to see him. I think his best chances of making an All-American squad would be for UNT to make it to at least the finals of the preseason NIT, beat at least 1 out of the 3 big non-conference matchups outside of the preseason NIT tourney (Lehigh, St Louis, Creighton), and finally, win a regular-season SBC championship (plus the SBC tourney) with a nice seed in the NCAA tourney to possibly upset someone and make noise (else win, or at least quarterfinal/semifinal in the postseason NIT). I think he can do it, because I think this TEAM can do it!

MMM: According to Ken Pomeroy, based on your offensive and defensive production last season your team wound up finishing 4-5 wins above where you were projected (.369 win pct.); do you feel like your squad overachieved this past season? CM: I definitely think that we overachieved at times, but when you look at the end of last season in the (conference) tournament, we wound up losing our last three. Credit to Louisiana-Monroe for playing hard, but we led that one at the half and probably should have won. Then we had the lead with a couple minutes left against North Texas and lost by three, and then came back home in the CIT and fell to Rice in another close one. Add in the loss (Feb 9th in OT) to Little Rock and we may wind up finishing with 19 or 20 wins. There is such parity in our league, and coaches like Kermit (Davis at MTSU) have a very strong history built up, but I expect us to be up at the top as well. MMM: Speaking of that North Texas game, is there anything in particular that made the difference between beating them twice and then losing the third time? CM: Well, I think it's difficult to defeat any team three times, but we had the lead (62-60) with a couple minutes left and Brandan Walton just made a great shot to win it. North Texas is a very strong team, and you know what a great player Tony Mitchell is - we did a great job with him when you consider that in the three games they played against us, he totaled eleven, seven and five points. Things like that happen largely because the staff does a great job scouting and adjusting in game. You have to have some things go your way, but it has always made sense to me to try and limit a team's star player and make somebody else beat you. I followed Hubie Brown back when he was coaching the (Atlanta) Hawks and I believe in his star system - he always said that if you try and "let the star get theirs" and have them score 30, you never know when they get on a roll and before you know it, they have 60. Read more: http://www.midmajormadness.com/features/2012/10/2/3439752/full-time-out-louisiana-lafayette-head-coach-bob-marlin

http://www.sbnation.com/college-basketball/2012/9/25/3404496/college-basketball-player-rankings-top-100

Mid-Major All Tournament Team There will be some serious mid-major talent featured in the early rounds of the NIT Season Tip-Off including a pair of projected 2013 lottery picks in Tony Mitchell and CJ McCollum. Tony Mitchell, North Texas – Mitchell is unlike anything you’d expect to find in the Sun Belt. He’s 6-foot-8, 235 pounds with a 41-inch vertical and a 7-foot-4 wingspan. Measurables more than good enough to make NBA scouts drool. Mitchell was a top-20 recruit out of high school and attended four schools in three states. He was ruled an academic non-qualifier at Missouri before paying his own way to North Texas. After playing one semester, or 22 games, last season, Mitchell opted to forgo the NBA draft and return for his sophomore season in North Texas. Read more: http://www.umhoops.com/2012/09/24/first-look-2012-nit-season-tip-off/

- Tony Mitchell is making quite the impression on first-year North Texas head coach Tony Benford. “He’s by far the most athletic person I’ve ever been around in basketball,” Benford said of the 6-8 Mitchell, who will likely be picked as the Sun Belt’s Preseason Player of the Year. “He’s does things that just make you shake your head and say wow.” Mitchell, who averaged 14.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last season is the main cog for the Mean Green but don’t discount two sophomore guards, Chris Jones and Jordan Williams that both averaged in double figures last season. “They’re top 100 caliber players coming out of high school,” Benford said of Jones and Williams. Benford also said he is waiting to hear from the NCAA on whether or not former Marquette commit T.J. Taylor will be eligible for the Mean Green during the upcoming season. The 6-4 guard originally committed to the Golden Eagles when Benford was an assistant under Buzz Williams before he became the head coach at North Texas. Read more: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/09/14/rothstein-files-challenges-ahead-for-uconns-ollie-and-more-college-basketball-notes/

*Who does Kentucky coach John Calipari pick as the teams to beat this season? Who else? Indiana and Louisville. Calipari inhaled and exhaled with mammoth expectations all winter last season. Why not let Tom Crean and Rick Pitino experience the same joys this winter? "If I had a (pre-season) vote, I'd probably say 1-2 would be Indiana, Louisville," Calipari told Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com. "Their key guys are all back, and they were championship-level teams last year who happened to play Kentucky, maybe the best team in the last 10 years – and both had a chance to win their games against us." *What did the Lindy's editors say about Calipari's selections? I'd already shared the news that U of L was ranked first, Indiana second and Kentucky fifth. But there's another local program with reason to schedule a Selection Sunday party: Murray State is ranked 25th. *How highly are local players ranked at their positions? Point guard – Peyton Siva of Louisville is third, behind Aaron Craft of Ohio State and Matthew Dellavedova of St. Mary's; Ryan Harrow of UK is 20th; Jordan Hulls of Indiana is unranked. Shooting guard – Isaiah Canaan of Murray State is Number One; Wayne Blackshear of Louisville is ranked fifth; Archie Goodwin of Kentucky is mentioned as a freshman of note. Alex Poythress of UK, strangely, is not mentioned. Small forward – Victor Oladipo of Indiana is ranked 19th, although Oladipo played more guard and ball-handler for IU last season; Luke Hancock of U of L is No. 24. The nation's top small forward? Doug McDermott of Creighton. Power forward – Chane Behanan of U of L is ranked fourth, behind C.J. Leslie of North Carolina State; James Michael McAdoo of North Carolina and DeShaun Thomas of Ohio State. Indiana senior Christian Watford is ranked 11th. Wiltjer is three spots behind Watford. Center – Cody Zeller of Indiana is ranked first, ahead of Tony Mitchell of North Texas and Jeff Withey of Kansas. Dieng sits fifth, one spot behind Mason Plumlee of Duke. Kentucky's Nerlens Noel is named as a freshman of note. Read more: http://www.wdrb.com/story/19537023/bozich-calipari-likes-indiana-louisville-1-2