Report

Liking our bigs!!

DENTON – The UNT men's basketball team has signed forward Brenen Lorient who is coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances at Florida Atlantic. The 6-foot-9 transfer comes to the Mean Green after playing two seasons with the Owls where he played in 52 total games and was a member of their 2023 Final Four team that also won the Conference USA regular season and tournament championship. He will have two years of eligibility remaining. The Ocala, Florida, native is joining a North Texas team he’s played against three times in his career. In those three games, Lorient averaged 3.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. In his most recent matchup against the Mean Green in the quarterfinals of the 2024 American Athletic Conference tournament, Lorient scored four points, had two rebounds and a block. This past season in a win versus Eastern Michigan, Lorient scored a career-high 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting in just 15 minutes of action. He has scored five or more points six times, including six points in 10 minutes off the bench versus Illinois. Lorient’s single-game career high for rebounds is five, which he’s done twice — last season against Memphis and North Texas. He had a single-game career high three blocks versus Temple in the 2024 AAC Tournament semifinals. The athletic rising junior scores predominately around the rim. Last year he shot 52 percent in the paint but did show some range as he knocked down three 3-pointers. Lorient is a 2022 graduate of Calvary Christian Academy, a perennial prep powerhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was a three-star prospect and was rated as the nation’s No. 130 overall prospect, No. 25 power forward in the country and the No. 22 player from the state of Florida. He chose FAU out of high school over Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia State, Murray State and Stetson among others. While at Calvary Christian, Lorient helped lead his team to the 2022 Florida High School Athletic Association 4A state championship, a No. 3 end of season national ranking and a 26-2 overall record. CCA also won the National Federation of State High School Associations State Champions Invitational title, which is a national tournament between state champions. Calvary Christian won by an average margin of 24 points in Lorient's senior season. He played alongside four other players who would earn DI scholarships: Greg Glenn (Tulane), Marvel Allen (Dayton), Carl Cherenfant (Memphis) and Taylor Hendricks who after one season at UCF would be the No. 9 overall pick by the Utah Jazz in the 2023 NBA Draft. Prior to his time at CCA, Lorient led Forest High School in Ocala, Florida, to a 2021 region title and the school’s first state semifinal appearance since 1973. He led the Wildcats that year in points per game (17.5), rebounds per game (9.0), assists per game (2.8), steals per game (1.4) and blocks per game (1.4). Forest finished with an 18-8 record in 2021 and the 6A region 1 championship. He was named the Boys Basketball Player of the Year in Marion County by the Ocala Star-Banner. Lorient joins a UNT incoming class that includes freshman Tyran Mason (Plano HS) and so far six other D1 transfers: Jasper Floyd (Fairfield), Latrell Jossell (Stephen F. Austin), Johnathan Massie (Longwood), Grant Newell (California), Brock Vice (Creighton) and Atin Wright (Drake). The Mean Green are coming off a 19-win season last year under first-year head coach Ross Hodge. UNT reached the second round of the National Invitation Tournament for a third straight year and won a NCAA national postseason tournament game for a fourth straight year. They are just one of seven schools in the country who have an active streak of four or more consecutive years. For more information on UNT men's basketball tickets, contact the Mean Green Ticket Office at 940-565-2527 or at ticketoffice@unt.edu. Fans can visit the UNT Athletics Ticket Office located at Gate 2 of DATCU Stadium between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Sounds like he’s already better than AScott. I thought AScott underperformed from all the hype he got. Soft when finishing.