Rice (12/5/09)

[chrisfisher]

ULL pulling ahead in their game too... hopefully they can pull that one out....

[meanrob]

good win although we got sloppy when we got the lead. not sure why we can never pull away.

their 80% ft shooter missed two late. white was big down the stretch.

next game a toughie.

[NT03]

UNT WINS!!

Edited December 5, 2009 by NT03

[GrandGreen]

Good win, great closing by White. Hope Johnson's injury is not bad, he saved this game. Time for Mangrum to start?

[untlynchka]

Nice road win. We go into Aggieland with some confidence.

That would be a huge win. I think they are ranked now.

[Pen Yan Fan]

Nice!! Finally a win over a decent team!

Didn't Rice lose to Harvard by 20?

[BonfireBrian]

That would be a huge win. I think they are ranked now.

They are #22.

[CMJ]

Didn't Rice lose to Harvard by 20?

This is true....

It's also true with 5 minutes to go against #2 Texas, the Owls were staying with the Horns. No one really knows how good anyone is this time of year.

Edited December 5, 2009 by CMJ

[filmerj]

Nice job men.

[bstnsportsfan3]

good win....on to aggieland for a big game on monday!

[Rudy]

Didn't Rice lose to Harvard by 20?

Don't kill the confidence, Buzz Killington.

[cwb]

Just got back from game. A few thoughts.

25 needs to make at least a couple of free throws before jacking up threes.

Magrum is money on both ends. More minutes please JJ if he can handle them physically.

Not that I don't appreciate him, but why did White wait until so late to get going? Having said that, thanks for getting it going when you did.

Can't wait for Holman to get more experience. He will be good.

MVPs of the game: The two dudes in the cheap seats that made 33 miss those free throws at the end.

Kudos to Rice's facilities improvements. That used to be the Fouts of basketball, complete with piss walls. By the way, those of you who did not see it before, the student section used to be of all things, a stage.

[TheTastyGreek]

MVPs of the game: The two dudes in the cheap seats that made 33 miss those free throws at the end.

That was actually just one guy- Me. I can be pretty loud.

Someone came up and called me the Most Valuable Heckler.

Off to watch some MUSICAL THEATER!! Payback for an afternoon of basketball.

[NT03]

That was actually just one guy- Me. I can be pretty loud.

Someone came up and called me the Most Valuable Heckler.

Off to watch some MUSICAL THEATER!! Payback for an afternoon of basketball.

I like your style.

I think you should heckle some people @ the musical

[Keith7]

That was actually just one guy- Me. I can be pretty loud.

Someone came up and called me the Most Valuable Heckler.

Off to watch some MUSICAL THEATER!! Payback for an afternoon of basketball.

Hey I was up there too with my patented "aye-aye-aye-aye-aye" yell.. It gets them everytime

Edited December 6, 2009 by Keith7

[eulessismore]

I like your style.

I think you should heckle some people @ the musical

Don't try that at programs of classical music. Of course, in their day, what we now call classical composers were rock stars.

[cwb]

Hey I was up there too with my pattened patented "aye-aye-aye-aye-aye" yell.. It gets them everytime

You two are co-mvps. I really think you got in his head. By the way, I am giving honorable mention to my 11 year old who joined you two on the second free throw and was very proud of himself.

[TheTastyGreek]

Hey I was up there too with my patented "aye-aye-aye-aye-aye" yell.. It gets them everytime

Sorry... Didn't realize there was someone else working on the distraction, too. Maybe you were on the other side of the baseline upper deck? My side only had about 5 people in it... Me and my girlfriend, a woman named Ellen who says she's a good friend of Jacob Holmen's mom, two NT fans (I'm pretty sure I've met one of them before... A guy in a 3-peat SBC Champions sweatshirt from the 2003 season), and two younger NT folks in the next level above us.

I didn't really notice much more noise coming from our corner. I only really made serious nose twice: Once when I was trying to distract their Persian forward on free throws by just making noise on his release, and once at the end when I started talking to #33 when he was shooting those critical foul shots.

If you were making noise from the other corner, I probably couldn't hear you. The acoustics in that place SUCK, at least for where we were sitting. I couldn't understand the PA, and I didn't even realize that they were doing pregame introductions until after ours were finished.

One thing I'll say about our slow start is that nobody should worry too much about it. We just got home from Houston (up at 5:45, in the car by 7:15, drove all day, saw the game, watched the damn musical/ballet deal, drove home) and I'm pretty exhausted. But I'll try to post a picture tomorrow of the goal that visitors start shooting towards. It's not as bizarre a stadium as UTA's stage, but I think that the layout actually gives Rice more of a home court advantage than UTA gets, because Rice has a weird situation behind one of the baskets. UTA's theater seating setup along the side of the court isn't disorienting to someone taking a shot, but Rice's definitely could be to a visitor. It's like playing basketball in a church or a zoo cage, with the fishbowl glass, reflections, sunlight coming in from outside at court level, and the people milling around in the entryway.

It's bizarre. Never seen anything like it before. Between the strange visual situation and the VERY loose officiating on Rice in the 1st half... I wasn't surprised or concerned by our poor shooting.

[edcollopy]

went to the game as well. We were very well represented in the stands...made me really proud. Tristan doesn't look like the same player as last year. Mangrum can make things happen off the dribble and that suprised me. He's ver aggressive and active. The team looked so much better w/ him on the court. We didn't pound the ball low enough...too much stagnant dribbling out front. When we do get it into the post, it seems George and Eric don't have a signature move yet...they need to get one.

No way johnson plays this next week. He had to be helped off the bench after the game and put no pressure on it. Tough to see. He looked like the best player on the floor today.

[kingwoodgreen]

I was there also and thought this was a very tough game for us. But I will Rice some credit. They had three ver big (tall) guys (15,14, and 4). They took the inside away with some good defense. The only time we started to pull away was when Johnson was on fire from the 3 line. If they would have changed their d then we might have been able to go inside. We never panicked and looked very poised. But honestly they do not look as good to me as our tourney year against Memphis. We were the real deal then and getting better. Maybe it is just early in the season and again Rice was tall, agressive and played smart (not many turnovers to me).

For those there what about all those traveling calls that were missed. I have never seen anything like that. It went both ways. There was a rugby game that we went over to watch as we parked. It was UNT vs Rice. Fun to watch but I have no clue. The red bull girls were there giving away free drink. Also there was a high school playgame game at the staduim. Great to see a campus in perfect fall weather with alot of sports venues.

[Keith7]

Sorry... Didn't realize there was someone else working on the distraction, too. Maybe you were on the other side of the baseline upper deck? My side only had about 5 people in it... Me and my girlfriend, a woman named Ellen who says she's a good friend of Jacob Holmen's mom, two NT fans (I'm pretty sure I've met one of them before... A guy in a 3-peat SBC Champions sweatshirt from the 2003 season), and two younger NT folks in the next level above us.

I'm pretty sure I was about 10 rows behind you.. I was in row J with my girlfriend (I wasn't allowed to start yelling until you did first).. I think you probably couldn't hear me over your heckling

Here is a picture from where we were at:

Edited December 6, 2009 by Keith7

[KRAM1]

Hey, tasty, did Quoner buy you that beer he promised????? Or........

Excellent win for the Mean Green. They did make it a bit tougher on themselves than they needed to do, but White did help a bunch down the stretch. I am just wondering if White is the guy UNT needs to run the point as a starter or not. Maybe he should be the two. I know this has been discussed before, but I just don't think point guards should be looking to shoot first and have as many turn overs as Josh seems to be committing these days. He's a player for certain...just not sure he would be my point guard.

GO MEAN GREEN...nice win...BEAT THE AGGIES!!!!!

[TheTastyGreek]

I'm pretty sure I was about 10 rows behind you.. I was in row J with my girlfriend (I wasn't allowed to start yelling until you did first).. I think you probably couldn't hear me over your heckling

Here is a picture from where we were at:

Yep, that was us. We were in the same section... You and your girlfriend were the younger couple.

I don't think anyone in attendance was "heckling" the way I usually think of the word... Just couldn't think of a better way of saying "Yelling towards a guy shooting free throws in a non-profane, non-derogatory fashion meant to distract and hopefully unnerve him without being socially inappropriate".

It was funny... She actually yelled at a guy way before I ever did. She did a timing yell at one of their bigs when he was shooting a free throw, and he wound up missing. So between the lot of us, our almost empty section shouted down at least 3 free throw shots in what wound up being a two point game. The five of us should get statues or something.

We were sitting behind some kids one row and dividing walkway below us, so I pretty much just kept quiet because I didn't want to inadvertently say something inappropriate for 5 year olds. Had I known your yelling depended on me, I would have gotten vocal much sooner

Were the acoustics terrible for you, or was it just our row?

[UNT90]

Back from Houston with a few observations. Surprised at the smallness of the Rice venue and was shocked to see that they played UT at home in this venue (so why the hell can't we get quality opponents at home? I know, but I don't wanna wait till next year). Paid $18 bucks for an upper level seat at midcourt, but effortlessly moved down to center court, 5 rows from the court. A really good vebue to watch a game.

Refereeing sucked. 2 guys swallowed their whistle while the 3rd guy (the oldest one) made about 3/4 of all calls.

This is the first time I have seen UNT play in person this year. I think this team will do really well in conference because they play very good defense. Watching this team just confirmed the concerns about the point guard position. Josh is a turnover waiting to happen when he runs the point. Holman is very athletic, but very, very raw. Tramiel was good, but do we really need him shooting 3's?

I was so frustrated when a simple double team coming from the weak side on our post player whenever he received the ball seemed to befuddle the players. It took them until the 2nd half before they began to cut the lane from the weakside whenever there was a double team on the post. That is basic basketball 101 and had me pulling my hair out watching the player that was left unguarded just stand around and watch the double team. This should have been corrected during the first TV timeout.

I was also impressed with Alzee Williams when he came in in the second half.

[Quoner]

Hey, tasty, did Quoner buy you that beer he promised????? Or........

If you're going to mock me, wait for the game I said I was going to. Or the person I promised the beer to. And maybe not the person who I'm riding with.

You'll get it. Comedy's a bitch.