Think We Could Use That Extra Scholarship Now?

[FirefightnRick]

This team is gassed and seven players doesn't seem to be working out too well any more.

Rick

Edited February 4, 2011 by FirefightnRick

[Green P1]

This team misses Tyler Hall...

[LakeTravis]

Tyler Hall is the one to blame, Phuck Him

[drex]

Self inflicted pain by Johnny Jones.

[Mo Green]

We were told be several here last fall that JJ was the best coach ever at NT, surely couldn't be him. He doesn't need all these scholarships to win.

[CMJ]

We were told be several here last fall that JJ was the best coach ever at NT, surely couldn't be him. He doesn't need all these scholarships to win.

Link?

Certainly Jones is near the top of our all time basketball coaches. We only have like....3 or 4 in the entire conversation.

[Censored by Laurie]

Link?

Certainly Jones is near the top of our all time basketball coaches. We only have like....3 or 4 in the entire conversation.

No...clearly he sucks. It wasn't that he didn't want to commit to just any player for 4 years because there was an available scholarship...rather than holding it for a quality player.

He didn't use that scholarship because he's a cocky son-of-a-bitch who probably thinks wins just come by walking into a building.

Look, CMJ...as a casual basketball fan whose interest waxes and wanes with success, I've raised my expectation levels unreasonably...and at the first bit of adversity I want effing blood.

[Mean Green Matt]

I'll trade not having a deep team this year for a year and a half of Tony Mitchell any day of the week. Actually, I'll trade that for half a year of Tony Mitchell. If Cam Spencer Gets a medical redshirt, then Tony Mitchell is going to take up the last scholarship (I hope I'm not wrong on that). Even with having an extremely young team next year, as soon as Tony Mitchell steps on the court, we are immediately a contender for the SBC title...and we are this year too, even with that scholarship being open.

Who knows if JJ knew how all of this would work out, but I certainly am not complaining.

[Green P1]

No...clearly he sucks. It wasn't that he didn't want to commit to just any player for 4 years because there was an available scholarship...rather than holding it for a quality player.

He didn't use that scholarship because he's a cocky son-of-a-bitch who probably thinks wins just come by walking into a building.

Look, CMJ...as a casual basketball fan whose interest waxes and wanes with success, I've raised my expectation levels unreasonably...and at the first bit of adversity I want effing blood.

You need to learn your history, moron.

[TheTastyGreek]

We were told be several here last fall that JJ was the best coach ever at NT, surely couldn't be him. He doesn't need all these scholarships to win.

We were asked by one person here last January "What if February doesn't go well?? WHAT THEN?!?!?!"

And we won every game we played that month, swept the tournament, and went to the NCAA tournament.

And anyone who sees this team struggling and thinks the solution would be 8-10 minutes of Colin Mangrum... Well, I love Mangrum as much as anyone... But you're wrong.

[UNTLifer]

8-10 minutes of Eric Tramiel would do wonders.

[meanrob]

We were asked by one person here last January "What if February doesn't go well?? WHAT THEN?!?!?!"

And we won every game we played that month, swept the tournament, and went to the NCAA tournament.

You keep trying to point out that this happened one time so it can/will happen again.

Sure it could happen again but is that what you hope happens, not looking at the situation and trying to logicaly figure out what will probably happen. This team is not playing well and a sweep of Feb (obviously not going to happen with a loss last night) isn't likely. Defense is horrible right now and are you really expecting a run to the tournament? Based on the team's play? One and done is a bit of an overreaction but i could see us getting bounced in the semis rather easily. We certainly don't scare anybody.

Drives me crazy there isn't an area between JJ sucks and worshipping the ground JJ walks on.

Edited February 4, 2011 by meanrob

[TheTastyGreek]

You keep trying to point out that this happened one time so it can/will happen again.

Sure it could happen again but is that what you hope happens, not looking at the situation and trying to logicaly figure out what will probably happen. This team is not playing well and a sweep of Feb (obviously not going to happen with a loss last night) isn't likely. Defense is horrible right now and are you really expecting a run to the tournament? Based on the team's play? One and done is a bit of an overreaction but i could see us getting bounced in the semis rather easily. We certainly don't scare anybody.

Drives me crazy there isn't an area between JJ sucks and worshipping the ground JJ walks on.

I don't think I've been hyping up another undefeated run to close out this season... If it seems that way to other people, I'm sorry because I certainly don't expect it. I mentioned it here because last year, one specific person stopped by to ask the WHAT IF?!?!? question, and then he was answered with that run.

But no, I don't expect us to win out on the rest of the regular season, and I'm not trying to convince anyone that it's going to happen.

There is something between JJ worship and JJ sucks. It's taking the 13-2 start and the 3-5 run since, appreciating the good, trying to process the bad, and trusting that the guy obviously knows something about what he's doing to continually finish seasons as well as the last half decade indicates he traditionally does. We've got somewhere between 7 and 17 games left in this season, and even this miserable stretch isn't cause for giving up on it entirely yet.

I'm pissed off, disappointed, frustrated... Insert almost any negative emotion of helplessness you can think of into describing how I feel about the way things have gone in conference this year. But I'm also annoyed by the drive by "eff this team, this sucks" that pops up whenever we lose a couple of games.

Last year, we won out in February. The year before, we won 5 games. The year before that, we won 5 games. The year before that, we won 6 games.

If we win 5 games this February, matching the worst we've done in the past 5 years... We'll go 10-6 in conference and almost certainly get a bye in the tournament. And at this point, that's an overall disappointment but at least a realistic hope for what could still be a good finish to the year.

[Censored by Laurie]

Drives me crazy there isn't an area between JJ sucks and worshipping the ground JJ walks on.

There is plenty...I've many issues with JJ - minute distribution, some in game management decisions, reluctance to press in recent years with great depth, etc...

But, none of that changes the fact that the man is responsible for making my favorite sport, college basketball, relevant at my beloved university...so you're damn right I sleep next to a life-sized cardboard cut out of the man...and will repeatedly defend him against moronic bits of wisdom like:

"We were told be several here last fall that JJ was the best coach ever at NT, surely couldn't be him. He doesn't need all these scholarships to win."

"f'n ridiculous! this frustrates me much more than football! this team has the talent (i thought), but f's it away!"

"Not only does our team suck now, our SunBelt officiators are even worse. Do they get bonuses based on the number of fouls they call? "

I mean, what the hell is an officiator?

Nobody is denying that this team is in a bad way right now...but its as if everything that raised your expectations, 4 returning starters, senior-laden team, tournament experience, gets completely tossed out the window in favor of bitching and pessimism.

[greenminer]

What this team needs is Madmartigan.

That man had passion.

[meanrob]

Appreciate the honest replys.

Am i glad that JJ has raised the program to where a 16-7 record somehow seems a little disappointing? Absolutely.

Like i've posted in years before, i was just hoping for that one 24-4 season where we get an #12 seed or better and have a team ready to make some real noise. Just one, pleasse. Those are lofty expectations i know but this was the year i thought that was possible. Year is definitely not over, but somehow feels a little disappointing considering it's these guys last run. Hope they can turn it around.

Not the BBall fan you guys are but these losses to ULL, Troy, and Denver kill me.

[TheTastyGreek]

Appreciate the honest replys.

Am i glad that JJ has raised the program to where a 16-7 record somehow seems a little disappointing? Absolutely.

Like i've posted in years before, i was just hoping for that one 24-4 season where we get an #12 seed or better and have a team ready to make some real noise. Just one, pleasse. Those are lofty expectations i know but this was the year i thought that was possible. Year is definitely not over, but somehow feels a little disappointing considering it's these guys last run. Hope they can turn it around.

Not the BBall fan you guys are but these losses to ULL, Troy, and Denver kill me.

I remember last year when you posted a logical frustration about not ever having a conference winning year where we finished with 3 or 4 losses (out of 18). I agreed then, and I agree now. These conference losses are killer, and I want exactly what you want.

The thing that keeps me from snapping and killing people (or going through with a murder/suicide pact with CBL) is that we can still finish well (not perfectly, but well) and end up with a year that still qualifies as a successful one. Also, we've got talent coming in that makes me confident that there isn't going to be a tremendous dropoff or extended rebuilding process.

The semi-miraculous year didn't happen this year, but we've got guys coming in that still make that sort of season a possibility for us after a year or two.

And, as much as I love this team and the guys on it, and appreciate the wonderful things they've done for this program... It's not inconceivable that winning 70-75% of our games with them is pretty much the ceiling of what our team is capable of. That's just close enough to greatness that only being quite-to-very good is so frustrating.

(edited to fix an "of" that should have been an "or")

Edited February 4, 2011 by TheTastyGreek

[TheTastyGreek]

Also, getting back to the original post that started the thread... I don't like a 9 player roster, and I don't like having to play guys as long as we do.

But the team that looked more "gassed" last night was FAU. Whenever we pushed the tempo, we outplayed them. I was grinding my teeth when extended foul/inbounds delays took us out of the rhythm we were establishing.

I wish we would make more use of the "white press" that allowed us to pull out one or two games earlier this season where a rally couldn't have happened otherwise. Having a healthy Alzee might allow us to go to that earlier in the game when we need it.

[MeanMag]

Self inflicted pain by Johnny Jones.

Don't think Johnny Jones was planning on not having Alzee and Cam sitting out all season. Those guys saw a decent amount of minutes last season.

[Andrew]

Also, getting back to the original post that started the thread... I don't like a 9 player roster, and I don't like having to play guys as long as we do.

So pretty much you will never be happy....? Its either to many or to few. What a basketball fan we have here...

[Censored by Laurie]

So pretty much you will never be happy....? Its either to many or to few. What a basketball fan we have here...

What the hell?

[Green P1]

What the hell?

You heard the man. Deal with it.

[MeanMag]

So pretty much you will never be happy....? Its either to many or to few. What a basketball fan we have here...

I think you know what he's saying, but in case you don't I'll take a stab at it.

Tristan, Josh, George, and DJ have played between 600-800 minutes each thus far. that's 2781 minutes combined.

Hogans and Shorter have played around 500 each. around 1000 combined.

Holmen/Knox/Edwards split the next 600 minutes.

4 guys are carrying the load of the minutes, probably the ones he's referring to playing long minutes. I don't have a problem with the next 2 guys because of the defense they bring. It's not uncommon to see one or 2 players in the college game get crazy minutes, because those are your race horses. Denver and LaMo both have trios that play 32min+ per game. But, Josh White's 781 total might be a little much (34 minutes/G). Especially for a player that had a really bad night against FAU. In fact, I thought it might have been you, who pointed out at the beginning of the season that Josh might be playing a little much.

It'd be great if someone from the Holmen/Knox/Edwards combo would step up to become the clear consistently better player to bring us down to a 7 man rotation and split the minutes more evenly between those 7.

I hope that I've come close to TTG's mark with that explanation.

Further, I'd say TTG pays very close attention to UNT basketball, college basketball and even more attention to the Sun Belt conference. He is probably one of the most basketball savvy fans we have around here. There are a few others that might be more, and you may be one of them. We are well aware that you are very close to some of the past and present players, and you may feel it's your duty to defend them on this board, because they are above posting here. I understand that perspective, since many are likely your friends.

However, I don't think questioning TTGs fandom is really taken seriously. You obviously have some very valid points, good insight and make some very good posts from time to time and I'm glad you share here, but many statements sound emotionally driven from being VERY close to the situation. I think this may be one of them. You're a newcomer to the board, maybe to UNT basketball (obviously not basketball in general), and probably relatively young. The people that post here brave enough to share opinions typically aren't fair weather fans. They're typically season ticket holders and have been for a while. These are the people that put their money and time into supporting, watching and following the team. If you want to question the dedication of fans, you've picked the wrong one to question.

[UNTLifer]

Skiver, you don't make friends easily, do you?

[Cerebus]

So pretty much you will never be happy....? Its either to many or to few. What a basketball fan we have here...

Tone down the combative attitude.