After SMU flirtation, Tony Benford named head basketball coach at UNT

Harry · April 25, 2012

Tony Benford spent two decades helping guide programs across the country as an assistant coach.

North Texas granted him the opportunity to put all that experience to use as a head coach for the first time Tuesday, when school officials selected him to lead their program.

Benford, 48, will be introduced at a press conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Apogee Stadium.

The former Texas Tech standout spent last season as the associate head coach at Marquette. He will take over for Johnny Jones, who left for LSU on April 13.

“I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity of taking over the basketball program at North Texas,” Benford said in a prepared statement. “My philosophy is all about the players, and we will do everything to ensure that our players grow in the classroom, the community and on the court.”

Benford has recruited Texas throughout a career that has included stops as an assistant coach at Nebraska , Arizona State and New Mexico.

“It’s a great fit for North Texas, said Mike Kunstadt, editor of Texashoops.com, a website that covers high school basketball and recruiting. “He has recruited Texas and has a lot of ins with people. Johnny did a super job. Tony will continue what Johnny started going forward.”

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/college-sports/unt-mean-green/20120424-after-smu-flirtation-tony-benford-named-head-basketball-coach-at-unt.ece?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

MeanGreen61 · April 25, 2012

“If Tony didn’t commit to Missouri, he would have gone to Marquette because of the relationship he built with coach Benford at the time,” said Nick Smith, Mitchell’s coach at Pinkston. “Tony would love to play for him during his first go-around as a head coach.”

emmitt01 · April 25, 2012

Let me ask the question that I'm sure some have asked themselves. What does SMU have to do with a story about NT hiring a coach? No mention is made of them in the actual article, yet they are prominently mentioned in the article's title. When I heard the hire mentioned on the radio today is was "After interviewing with SMU, and SMU choosing to go with Larry Brown, Tony Benford has been named the head coach at North Texas." Does anyone else see the unspoken dig built into these media announcements?

All About UNT · April 25, 2012

I am lucky to have Mike Kunstadt as my parents next door neighbor. He just never throws me any inside info on recruits

Rudy · April 25, 2012

Let me ask the question that I'm sure some have asked themselves. What does SMU have to do with a story about NT hiring a coach? No mention is made of them in the actual article, yet they are prominently mentioned in the article's title. When I heard the hire mentioned on the radio today is was "After interviewing with SMU, and SMU choosing to go with Larry Brown, Tony Benford has been named the head coach at North Texas." Does anyone else see the unspoken dig built into these media announcements?

The pink polo wearers have to find some way to make themselves sleep at night.

unt_rocket09 · April 25, 2012

Well SMU didn't want him so he can't be as good right? Such bs. I really hope we can get them on the schedule and the Tonys show them who is actually the best in DFW.

VideoEagle · April 25, 2012

In fairness, healine writers don't write the stories. I know of several reporters who didn't recognize there own story based on the headline.

But you are right, there is some digging at NT taking a coach SMU didn't choose. Having all three schools get new coaches does make next year interesting to see which one does the best.

drex · April 25, 2012

There is still money floating around to make sure that SMU keeps the 'little school' down.

TIgreen01 · April 25, 2012

The dig is definitely there, but honestly, didn't WE see this coming?? UNT is currently in the #1 seat at the metroplex basketball table. By hiring a guy that SMU passed on, are we not basically waiving the white flag and announcing that we're #2 behind SMU now--at least in terms of public perception?

Hiring an old, used up Larry Brown wasn't going to change the fact that SMU is going to get their brains beat in by the Big East powerhouses. Them bringing on Tim Jankovich (an ex-UNT coach) as coach in waiting didn't help either. If Brown doesn't go out and land an absolute BEAST of a 1st class, they have no chance to turn around the perception that they are a bottom feeder. They do not have the players, currently, to compete.

RV was in a tricky spot in that he had to hire someone who could have a hope of keeping Mitchell, CJones and JWill on board. But if he gets the right guy, whoever we hire is stepping into an ideal situation. We have maybe the most loaded roster of any mid-major school in the country. Benford might turn out to be the better hire over time (and if we win instantly is he a flight risk?), but it does us no good to argue that the media is digging us. We allowed it to happen in the first place.

I don't know...maybe Benford's name is like gold in area basketball circles and I'm way off base here.

oldschoollefty · April 25, 2012

The dig is definitely there, but honestly, didn't WE see this coming?? UNT is currently in the #1 seat at the metroplex basketball table. By hiring a guy that SMU passed on, are we not basically waiving the white flag and announcing that we're #2 behind SMU now--at least in terms of public perception?

Hiring an old, used up Larry Brown wasn't going to change the fact that SMU is going to get their brains beat in by the Big East powerhouses. Them bringing on Tim Jankovich (an ex-UNT coach) as coach in waiting didn't help either. If Brown doesn't go out and land an absolute BEAST of a 1st class, they have no chance to turn around the perception that they are a bottom feeder. They do not have the players, currently, to compete.

RV was in a tricky spot in that he had to hire someone who could have a hope of keeping Mitchell, CJones and JWill on board. But if he gets the right guy, whoever we hire is stepping into an ideal situation. We have maybe the most loaded roster of any mid-major school in the country. Benford might turn out to be the better hire over time (and if we win instantly is he a flight risk?), but it does us no good to argue that the media is digging us. We allowed it to happen in the first place.

I don't know...maybe Benford's name is like gold in area basketball circles and I'm way off base here.

The media can dig at us all they want when the headline is written next March: "North Texas Mean Green Advances to Sweet 16"

untjim1995 · April 25, 2012

Let me ask the question that I'm sure some have asked themselves. What does SMU have to do with a story about NT hiring a coach? No mention is made of them in the actual article, yet they are prominently mentioned in the article's title. When I heard the hire mentioned on the radio today is was "After interviewing with SMU, and SMU choosing to go with Larry Brown, Tony Benford has been named the head coach at North Texas." Does anyone else see the unspoken dig built into these media announcements?

I talked a little about this yesterday, but the DFW media will fawn all over Larry Brown for the next year, at least, and longer if he can keep them somewhat competitive. His name and reputation really resonates with the local media members.

I have read numerous times on this board that winning will solve all of our problems, that we will get great media coverage once we start winning. Obviously, we have had the best winning program in the Metroplex for a while, yet our media coverage is at best equal to SMU or TCU, even though we have been much better than either program for the last 6 years. And that has been with SMU in CUSA and TCU in the MWC. Now that SMU gets the Big East opponents to visit Moody Coliseum and TCU gets the Big XII opponents to visit Daniel-Meyer, I expect for their local coverage to really jump up, even if they aren't winning. Meanwhile, we get basically ignored. I guess there really ain't much we can do about it, seeing how the ol' SWC is still royalty in this state, but it has always been obvious to me that "just winning" won't do the trick to get more coverage. It seems that even if we move up to the new Alliance, we will still deal with this media mindset. It doesn't help that college basketball ranks no higher than 6th on the local fans radar (after the big 4 professional sports and college football). When you then factor in that it is the Cowboys, Rangers, Mavs, Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M, other Big XII teams, Dallas Stars, and SMU in the pecking order of DFW media, we will always have the deck stacked against us, I'm afraid.

untgeorge · April 25, 2012

Let me ask the question that I'm sure some have asked themselves. What does SMU have to do with a story about NT hiring a coach? No mention is made of them in the actual article, yet they are prominently mentioned in the article's title. When I heard the hire mentioned on the radio today is was "After interviewing with SMU, and SMU choosing to go with Larry Brown, Tony Benford has been named the head coach at North Texas." Does anyone else see the unspoken dig built into these media announcements?

The print edition of the DaMN delivered to my home did not have the reference to SMU.

glick1980 · April 25, 2012

Good thing he only flirted with SMU and didn't get herpes from them.

UNT90 · April 26, 2012

Good thing he only flirted with SMU and didn't get herpes from them.

More like full blown AIDS.

That program is dying a slow death, as is their new head coach.

Comet7745 · April 26, 2012

That program is dying a slow death, as is their new head coach.

It's the first time donors, alumni, and administrators started caring about basketball since the 80s, I'll go out on a crazy limb here and say you're wrong on that (but right about Larry Brown).

And yeah, I don't get why SMU was mentioned, but I don't think it really was a dig at UNT at all. Perhaps just illustrating how these schools in such close proximity had something in common in their coaching searches? It could lead to interesting analyses going forward depending on how the programs develop from here.

GrandGreen · April 26, 2012

Whether the headline was done as a slap at NT or not, it definitely was.

A few comments on SMU, they are not going away. They are still a conference or two ahead of NT and have resources that NT cannot touch. Their bb program as been bad for years, but just like football at some point they are going to be able to buy their way out of it. Their biggest program is that they have moved way up in competition and are going to find it more than a challenge. They haven't been embraced by the metroplex since the Doak Walker days and I think the folks on the hilltop are always going to find it difficult to appeal to most sports fans.

North Texas mission is to stay better than SMU in basketball and it is not going to be easy. SMU will get much stronger if nothing else by conference affiliation, Brown is a big gamble which may pay off. NT has been king of metroplex basketball for a long time but it was mostly by vitrue of SMU and TCU being bad more than NT being good. NT is going to have to excel to stay atop the metroplex because there is a good chance; SMU, TCU and UTA , which had the best team last year, all get much better.