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While it wasn't included in this write-up, here is a little extra bit from my interview yesterday with Benford on how he thinks the new players are developing and fit into the puzzle. Benford's Breakdown: “Keith Coleman has improved the most out of all the new guys we added, and we need him to the improve the most. He's 6”10, 250 [lbs,] he's our biggest player. Very athletic tough interior rebounder and defender.” “P.J. Hardwick will be really good. He is a change-of-pace, pass-first point guard. He'll come in and put a lot of pressure on the opposing team's point guard. He's really quick in transition and in open court he'll push it and initiate our offense.” “Clark Overlander is probably the best shooter on our team. He's really adjusting to the intensity of the game and how hard you have to work. His ability to shoot the basketball is really going to help us, but he has to become a better defender and he understands that.”

Jacob Holmen ‏@JHolmen_1 Playing LeHigh at home before Christmas, just a little pre-leaked information for all my followers.

It is just unbelievable how far this BB program has come in the last 5 or 6 years. Instead of hoping for top notch talent, you almost come to expect it these days. While our FB program seems on the right track, it is taking baby steps compared to BB.

Let's see if we can't ruin this verbal's thread with a discussion on the actual vs. reported heights of college basketball players.

Even if you listen via the radio there will be about a dozen times that they lose the connection during the show. Maybe they should hire Harry and Evan, they seem to have a lot less technical difficulties when they stream their podcast. Or they could fire the manager of KNTU and replace him with someone who is competent.

I can? Good! Because the last few times I have tried to listen over the airwaves, 88.1 was batting about .500 in terms of actually broadcasting whatever show was going on at Rudy's. And last night, not by a radio, but tried to stream 88.1 and had no success. And what's a tape?

Ref mikes a problem for over a year now. Radio show audio problems (haven't listen to a game on radio yet this year) continue for the 1st 3 episodes. Bridge not finished before season. Maybe we just accept mediocracy around here. I mean, we are the sane fan base that is more than happy with a 5-7 season followed up with a 5 game home slate with an FCS opponent as the lone OOC home game. Then we get all excited by a 4 TD loss to LSU and a 2 TD loss to KSU, and make excuses for a bad offensive performance against an FCS team while predicting that because of this stellar performance, we will win the rest of our games. I've done it. I admit it. I'm done doing it. Get the F'n pedestrian bridge finished before the next home game. Call the freaking governor if you have to. Just F'n GET IT DONE! Fix the damn field mics, for the love of God. It's been almost 2 FREAKING YEARS!! Fix the damn radio link!!! And while I'm at it, order some GD Tony Mitchell jerseys so you can make some freaking money by the time basketball season starts. People notice when mediocracy is accepted, even players notice.

Now that I think about it, he may have been ensuring that no one tries to jump off it after the loss to Troy.

While I do agree we likely won't see all 5 verbals on campus, I will disagree that if they all show that the pieces don't fit. We'll still have 5 legit guards (CJ, PJ, TJ, Alzee and Clarke) and a true wing in Jordan Williams on the '13-'14 roster...2 combo forwards (Norris and Wesley) capable at the 3 or 4...and 4 posts (Coleman, Casmino, Nunn and Friar) with a scholarship left to give. That's decent balance...may want a shooter...or may want a more polished post with the last ship, depending on how along Nunn and/or Friar are. Lot's of teams don't have pure shooters...we have enough in those 6 smallest guys to keep teams honest, in my opinion Wesley seems like Edo's back-up plan. Edo had the same weaknesses...I wonder if we'd be rubbing our hands over shooting had this been Edo's verbal. I remember Wells being bigger...a real college 4's body who tended to play on the perimeter more than his frame would suggest he should. For SBC comparison's sake, he reminds me a bit more of a more athletic Brandon Davis from USA or Tyren Johnson from ULL.

rep·e·ti·tion    [rep-i-tish-uhn] noun 1.the act of repeating; repeated action, performance,production, or presentation. 2.repeated utterance; reiteration. 3.something made by or resulting from repeating. 4.a reproduction, copy, or replica.

Wouldn't mind a JUCO stud ,espically if it's a DT

Here’s the good part for UNT, he had a chance to stay close to home at TCU or SMU, but picked UNT instead. Wesley said both of the Metroplex’s other Division I schools offered, along with Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, New Mexico State and Louisiana-Lafayette.

I'm fine with not knowing the schedule yet. We'll still have plenty of time for people to bitch about it once it's revealed.

According to a post by Denny's daughter (Shannon) on Facebook....Denny's Dad has passed away. Sorry to hear that......they will all be in my prayers.

Can this staff bring in a non-JUCO stud to contribute? Seems like a big piece of the puzzle we've been missing. A winning season sure wouldn't hurt!

On the heels of 2-10 and 0-12 seasons in 2008 and 2009, WKU hired Taggart from Stanford. Improved from 0-12 to 2-10 in 2010. Improved from 2-10 to 7-5 in 2011. Have begun 2012 with a 3-1 mark with wins over Kentucky and Southern Miss. Since beginning the 2011 season 0-4, WKU has gone 10-2. And, those two losses were to...LSU in 2011 and Alabama this season. I've got to admit, what Taggart has done in short order has been very impressive. He couldn't have had much more in the cupboard than we had when McCarney took over. WKU plays both Arkansas State and Lousiana on the road. Those will be the games that decide the Sun Belt. This weekend's Sun Belt slate will feature the top four contenders playing one another with FIU at Louisiana and WKU are Arkansas State.

Hope the Rangers lose too. For attendance sake, of course. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/ps.jsp ALCS Game Three Tuesday, October 16

From the inside out?

Good analogy!

I disagree. I dont believe there are any dangerous dog breeds only dangerous owners. I think it would be a wonderful study to track dog bites on a socio-econimic scale and see if there is a correlation between being poor and the propensity of your breed to bite. Why? Because the breeds that are vilified as dangerous or aggressive are kept by many undereducated, poor people as status symbols/4 legged hand guns for the purpose of frightening others/protecting themselves. Meaning, they want their dog to be mean. Counter that to educated, middle class persons that own the same breed(s). My gut says you'd see telling evidence that it isn't the breed at all. Random dog bite fact - over half of all dog bites are to the face of a person. That's not the fault of any breed. That's a dog being a dog and feeling challenged when another animal goes nose to nose with him.

Well, a soldier accidentally killed his friend with a handgun while trying to scare the hiccups out of him. So today, it looks like it's 1-1. Maybe the real problem is people and how stupid they can be.

In fairness...5 vs. 22 and 13 vs. 85.

TCU and Boise didn't get to where they are by landing 4* recruits

I had to move back to Tennessee and thus had to drive 7 hours back, so am late to post my observations on Saturday night's game. I knew Troy would be a competitive game. They played MS State close the week before. None of the other Sun Belt schools are standing still. We should not take any of them for granted. The reality is our collective level of commitment is hardly enough to keep pace with them. We aren't going to separate from them significantly in terms of quality anytime soon. EVERY win is hard-earned. You may as well come out to the games every chance you get, realize sometimes they're gonna lose, not get too worked up about a tough loss, and be really really happy if you get to see them win. Now that said, I don't understand some of the performances against Troy. Practicing and playing football is a big part of these players' lives, so why do we see in one game so many poor throws, missed kicks and defensive backs not looking for the ball? The ball is a pretty important part of the game. It is in fact 50% of the name of the game. So it seems elementary that knowing where the ball is, must be crucial to success, especially if your role is to prevent someone else from getting it. I would not want to be a defensive back. It is risky and difficult and there is more potential downside than upside. I do not envy anyone in that position. But if one finds themself in that position, the best you can do is avoid the downside, and the way to do that is look for the ball. I would not want to be a kicker either but actually there is a lot of opportunity. I don't buy the headcase thing. Practice makes perfect, well a LOT of practice. It would be great to be a quarterback but wow a lot of things have to come together. I never understand why so many soccer players kick the ball over the goal. That is one sure way to not score a goal. I was reminded of this seeing passes going way too high. It is a great way to throw an interception. We were fortunate in that regard. Still, Saturday night's result would not cause me not to make the trip again. A Tuesday night game though, that is a bit of a problem!

So, you think the NCAA would never throw the hammer down on a big boy? Connecticut is a 3 time national champ, but they just had the hammer thrown on them for basketball.

Updated MGB blog post with quotes from Wesley

MGB updated blog with quotes from Wesley

The "we" is you, me, the fan base, people who order athletic apparel,facilities, past coaches, the athletic department, the BOR members, the university presidents, and the chancellors. Basically everyone associated with UNT over the past 20 years. The attitude of "well, doing an OK job is acceptable because we are UNT, and our athletics suck, anyway" doesn't seem to have really left any of these groups. Oh, there is lip service, but do Alums show up for the 1st home game? Nope. Is the pedestrian bridge finished by the home opener as the original plan called for? Nope. Is there ONE Tony Mitchell jersey, T-Shirt, anything in the team store at Apogee? Nope. You know, he is probably the best athlete to come to this university since Mean Joe Greene graced Fouts Field with his presence almost 50 years ago, yet people like Kingwood and Houston can't even get an F'n T-Shirt with his number on it when they come in for a football game. Lord knows they will NEVER find anything like that in Houston. We have a law school that was stolen from UNT-Denton because we couldn't out-manuever a south Dallas politician. We have a student fee that ends when the stadium is paid off because we couldn't convince the governor that we deserved the fee LIKE EVERYONE FREAKING ELSE. The list is pretty endless. It's perfectly fine to half ass it around here, and it's getting tiring.

Enjoyed my short time around them, according to bar talk they are selling a good deal of tix for such a new program, and agreed when a real-deal WAC program comes to town things may change. Its good to see enthusiasim in a program such as this, Now we just need to welcome them to CUSA the NT way......GMG!!

You do know that you can listen in, right? Or...tape the show for a later listen perhaps. Not knocking you...just letting you know. maybe the time doesn't work for you.... Pretty good show last night, excellent crowd considering the loss Saturday night. Not much more than you would expect Coach mac to say after such a defeat. Did the usual coach thing in praising FAU and talking about how tough the game will be. Comic relief as the folks were talking about FAU's old stadium...pretty funny. hank compared it to the Denton fairgrounds and got a few moans from the locals. Said Brelen was not told to fair catch the ball and he wanted Brelen to secure the ball and head up field more...said Olen is a good kicker and he expects him to recover from the last game. Likes all three of our running backs. Likes the crop of red shirts and the recent transfer signings. About it really...at least all I can recall anyway.

You didn't hear??? We've dropped men's basketball to stay compliant with Title 9. We're adding a women's skeet shooting team.

I'm still having trouble dealing with (the concept of) anyone who is atheistic. Agnostic, skeptic, and the like I understand. After all, none of us knows for sure...we simply have our beliefs. If I know anything about the laws of probability, there is no way that in billions of years that all of the various forms of life could begin as amoebas or protozoae and end with perfectly attuned specimens with random selection. Plant life...maybe; but even they are a part of a grand plan that sustains all life. As to the cross, if it's what the majority of the survivors and the families of the deceased want, then that's the symbol that should be used.

This coming Saturday (9/29), we’ll be having another North Texas football watching party at Rudy’s BBQ in Allen (next to Cabela’s). This one has an earlier start! We have the back room reserved and the doors will open at 3:30 pm for the 4:00pm kickoff. As always, this event is free and open to the public. We’ll have door prizes and drink specials for Mean Green fans. It's ALWAYS more fun to watch the games with fellow Mean Green Fans. Post below if you plan on coming. I hope to see you there!!! GO MEAN GREEN! Note: This game is not televised, so don't plan on slipping into just any sports bar or turning on the TV to watch the game. It is being broadcast on ESPN3 (Internet stream) which we'll be picking up and streaming to the big flat screen at Rudy's and running the audio through the PA system.

Awesome , didn't realize it was espn3!

He is a 3 without an outside shot. Same athletic ability as Jordan Williams. Great addition to a full court game but you'll never see offensive plays going through him in a half court game. Currently ranked #17 in Texas Hoops' Top 100 (class of 2013)

RIP. Prayers going out to Mo & his family

Back on topic, I see several articles that have him listed as in the top 150 in the nation and a 3 star rivals recruit, yet when I pull up his rivals page, there are no stars, no teams listed, nothing. Like Rivals just generated the page yesteday. What is up with that.

Just trying to provide a little information. Believe me, don't believe, I could really care less. He is no where near 6'10". Could I be an inch off? sure. I was 3 feet from him (not yelling) and he was certainly no more than 3 inches taller than I.

Google Tony nunn video I found one on YouTube and the kid looks huge!! By far the biggest guy on the floor.

That is what I meant by next year... We only have one ship and I hope it goes to him. This year we still have one more I believe and It needs to go to a good guard.

Commits to UNT

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you . . . but what would everybody on the board be saying if his 40 had been timed at 4.4?

I predict attendance at this event will rival some past actual games attendance. And before you go and say well of course it will it's free, I'll remind you the last time they had one, there were maybe 50 people there.

A couple of more plays in the game, and most fans would be talking about a conference championship. Now, it is gloom and doom; all is lost. It was one bad game, NT did not play well enough to win against an opponent they should have beat at home. The prior week they play very well against a top 10 team. My guess the team is somewhere between those two performances. This team could still finish very well or fold. The next two games are very winnable and NT can regroup and still have a very good season.

"Shaking head"....as your right, it should never have happened. Rick

I would trade some "football IQ" for more speed. If he does really run a 4.9, that's not "the the kind of guy UNT wants."

It is at North Texas...apparently.

They are putting more butts in the seats that anyone in the WAC. Second is Texas State. http://blog.mysanantonio.com/utsa/2012/09/utsas-home-attendance-no-1-in-wac-despite-drop-from-last-year/ Whether we admit it or not, these two schools' fanbases are excited about watching them play even lower level opponents.

Any person who would say anything of the sort is irrational. MeanGreenTexan, I understand the tendency of Christians to think atheists hate them & their God. But I think this is a classic case of projection.

I really want to but it's a once a week class. Ah, we'll see