UNT basketball loses four players to transfer

[Harry]

Men’s basketball

The Mean Green men’s basketball team has two unexpected scholarships to fill after freshman guards Clarke Overlander and P.J. Hardwick requested releases. Overlander and Hardwick join more than 260 collegiate players transferring around the nation this offseason.

Overlander has already committed to Arkansas Tech University, and Hardwick said he will be taking visits to Arkansas State University, St. Mary’s University, Virginia Tech University and one other school.

Hardwick said the coaching system and style of play at UNT didn’t fit his fast-paced style.

“It is hard because I built a great relationship with all of my coaches and the North Texas family,” Hardwick said. “But it’s a business decision. I had to make the best decision for me and my career.”

Overlander said via Twitter that he only had one comment about his experience at UNT.

“I loved every minute of being a member of the Mean Green,” Overlander said. “And I’m even more excited to be an ATU Wonder Boy.”

The official signing period for basketball started April 17 and ends May 15. Benford said the difficulties in recruiting are both emotional and logistic.

“You never want to lose kids, but I want them to be happy,” Benford said. “You have to be like a Boy Scout when you’re a coach. You always have to be ready. I tell my guys you have to recruit year round, and we are. We’ll get some quality players.”

Preseason hopes were high for the Mean Green, but injuries and personal issues limited UNT’s success. The team finished 12-20 and was eliminated in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament. Hardwick and Benford said things would be different if the season had been more successful.

“If we would have won, things would have gone better,” Hardwick said. “I think I would have been a little bit happier, coach would have been happier and I think everyone would have been happier.”

Hardwick said he waited until the season ended and had a meeting with his family before making the decision.

“We thought about it and said, ‘No matter what the consequences are, you have to live with the decision,’” Hardwick said. “I said, ‘OK, I’m comfortable with it.’ I opened up my recruitment and tons of D-I schools are calling me, so I think I made the right decision.”

Read more: http://wordpress1.cws.unt.edu/?p=4121

[UNT90]

Personal issues...

Ya, like hiring the wrong coach.

[GrandGreen]

Wow, I thought we lost two more men players by the headline.

At least Harwick and Overlander were classy with their comments, can't say the same about Goodwin.

[THOR]

What did she say???

[Andrew]

What did she say???

Something like could I meet my full potential here. Is this a place I could win at. Would I be happy here... Something along those lines...

[greenminer]

What did she say???

It is all there in the blog post. Harry doesn't quote the entire thing.

[Eagle61]

Goodwin would have been a starter for the rest of her career if she would have stayed and probably had the school record for steals. Probably in our hall of fame. She wants to move up in competion. Good sun belt player, maybe not a good big 12 player, maybe not a starter. She needs to pick wisely. I wonder if she burned her bridges here. Pete has 1 ship left, i think. She can probably find a school that draws better. Crowds usually under 1000 here.

Our attendance hurts us in both BB programs. I am talking long term - the past 30 years.

[CMJ]

Women's attendance is a problem at all but a handful of programs.

[EaglesNBirdies]

I think this is a "culture" problem more than anything. I have a daughter who is starting to play a little, so I follow both men & women. I would think the transfers are more with the men than the women because of exposure of the game I would think, could be wrong though. You would think it would be the other way around because my wife changes her mind more than her underwear. Football players often can't transfer because the penalty of sitting out is lost when they redshirt. In golf and other individual sports it doesn't really matter because if you can perform individually, who cares? In basketball, its an epidemic and from what I've read so far, the damage is minimal here at UNT and maybe necessary. Have a buddy who shared this with me today because when we both played, it was so different...probably has alot to do with transfers to, I'm sure this culture change is hard for the coaches as well. In my business, with these attitudes there would be plenty of transfers...

http://espn.go.com/blog/dave-telep/post/_/id/3494/the-entitlement-culture-of-elite-hs-hoops