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TP .....CUSA Player Of The Year......Kai.....Newcomer Of The Year


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DENTON — UNT men’s basketball senior guard Tylor Perry was voted the 2023 Conference USA Player of the Year, announced by the league Tuesday.

The 5-foot-11 guard from Fort Coffee, Oklahoma, is just the fourth ever North Texas men’s basketball student-athlete to earn a conference player of the year honor. He’s the second in the Grant McCasland era and the second since the Mean Green joined C-USA in 2013.

Perry enters the 2023 Conference USA Men’s Basketball Championship averaging 17.0 points per game and shooting just south of 45 percent from the floor and 3-point range as he's led the Mean Green to a second straight season with a program record 25 wins and 16 league wins.

“It’s a tremendous honor and something I’m very proud of but could not be possible without my teammates and coaches,” Perry said. “I’m thankful for all the people who believe in me and have helped me, but the job isn’t done yet.”

The Mean Green’s second-year guard has been one of the most clutch players in the league over the last two seasons. A first team all-league honoree last year, he made five shots in the final four seconds of regulation to win it or tie games.

This season he’s proven it’s not just luck, as he’s shooting nearly 60 percent from 3-point range late in games.

Perry this year ranks in the top five of Conference USA in 17 different offensive categories including first in win shares (6.1), 3-point field goal percentage (42.6) and free throw percentage (86.5) to just name a couple.

Perry who graduated from Spiro High School in 2019, held no DI offers coming out of high school. He spent two seasons at Coffeyville Community College where he led them to the 2021 NJCAA DI National Championship and was named the 2021 NJCAA DI National Tournament MVP and was a NJCAA Second Team All-American.

He joins UNT graduates Javion Hamlet (2020 C-USA), Deon Hunter (1989 Southland) and Tony Worrell (1988 Southland) to earn conference player of the year honors.

In addition to being named C-USA Player of the Year, Perry was voted first team all-conference for a second consecutive season.

The league’s head coaches and 22 select media members were involved in voting.

Joining Perry with all-league honors is his fellow backcourt mate, Kai Huntsberry, who was named the 2023 C-USA Newcomer of the Year on Tuesday.

Huntsberry, who joined North Texas this summer from DII University of Mary, enters the Conference USA Championship averaging 12.1 points per game and leads the Mean Green with 89 total assists.

His growth over the season has been crucial to the Mean Green’s success this year. In the final 11 conference games of the season, Huntsberry improved his scoring by 4.5 points per game and is shooting nearly 20 percent better from the floor than in the first half of the conference schedule.

 

Huntsberry, who like Perry had no DI offers coming out of high school, is the first North Texas men’s basketball student-athlete since Javion Hamlet in 2020 to be named C-USA Newcomer of the Year and is just the fifth player in program history to earn a conference newcomer of the year honor. In addition to Hamlet, he joins Collin Dennis (2008 Sun Belt), Kendrick Davis (2006 Sun Belt) and Donnell Hayden (1991 Southland) to earn the honor.

 

Also taking home an all-conference accolade Tuesday was North Texas junior big man Abou Ousmane who was voted third team all-conference. It’s the Brooklyn native’s first ever C-USA all-league honor. Ousmane heads into the conference tournament averaging 11.5 points per game and grabbing a team-leading 6.1 rebounds per game. Ousmane is shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor.

Ousmane opened his conference campaign with a bang as he scored 37 points on 15-of-19 field goals in UNT’s league opening 78-54 win at UTSA on Dec. 22. Up until this week, it was the most points scored by a C-USA player in a league game this year. 

Lastly, North Texas junior Rubin Jones was named to the 2023 Conference USA All-Defensive team. The 2021 C-USA All-Freshman Team honoree is the best on-ball defender for the Mean Green who feature the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense and are giving up just 55.4 points per game this season. Jones, who graduated high school from a historic offensive program in Houston — Jack Yates High School — is just the third Mean Green men’s basketball student-athlete to be named to a conference’s all-defensive team honor.

Synergy Basketball ranks Jones in the 90th percentile in the nation as a defender. UNT opponents are only scoring 0.6 points per possession when guarded by Jones and shooting just 32 percent from the floor and 20 percent from 3-point range against the 6-foot-5 guard.

 The 2023 Conference USA Basketball Championships presented by TotalCare begins Thursday March 9 at the Ford Center Star in Frisco for the Mean Green.

 All Session passes to the men and women’s basketball 11-team, four-day single elimination league tournament can be purchased here.

The Mean Green men’s basketball team (25-6, 16-4) earned the No. 2 seed in the men’s bracket and received a first round bye. They will face the winner of Louisiana Tech and FIU on Thursday at 8 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the Mean Green Sports Network, presented by Learfield.

The men also reached the semifinals of the 2022 conference tournament and won the championship in 2021.

UNT fans are encouraged before and after the games to meet at Concrete Cowboy across Cowboy Way from the Ford Center for the UNT Fan Fest.

Thanks to the generosity of Mean Green Scholarship Fund donors and UNT Athletics, North Texas students can attend the tournament for free.

Students looking to go to the tournament Thursday can pay $10 to take a student only bus from campus to the Star in Frisco. The $10 includes food, giveaway items and the ticket to the game. UNT students can purchase the bus ticket at www.UNTTix.com.

For more information on tickets, contact the Mean Green Ticket Office at 940-565-2527.

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On 3/7/2023 at 10:07 PM, Dannymacfan said:

I got this same article in my email box as probably 1000 others.  I doubt the AD will be mad he is providing their phone number and website to sell tickets.

1) I get that it's the internet and there are a million kinda-valid excuses to be lazy not do stuff.. I mean, gosh! Lots of people are already being lazy not doing the stuff.
2) As chaotic as it all is, I think #1 above provides even more reason to do us a courtesy, and provide a link that tells the rest of us where something comes from.
3) I do not get this in my inbox.  I thought I was signed up for everything, but apparently not.
4) @cousin oliver did it again, in a new thread.  So, either he read my OCD-fueled request and doesn't give a shit, or he has me blocked and doesn't see my tags.

I'll go back to yelling at clouds now 😉

season 13 GIF

Edited by greenminer
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