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Not sure where you get your information, but many men continue to grow into their early 20's.

1)Next year- we'll struggle and struggle mightily. IF multiple players haven't transferred the apologists will continue calling for a "cleaning of house" to root ot the delinquents. T-Mitch's absence will be apparent from day 1 but it will take until mid-season for some to realize that "hey, that guy did make us tolerable". If players do transfer prior to the season we'll see rounds of "good riddance" followed by rounds of "Benford deserves time to get 'quality' kids in here to relplace them. Either way, 12 wins is the ceiling. 2)Year two- Benford will have more of his players in here...and the results will be the same. By this point 2,000 will be the high water mark for attendance and many will refer to basketball season as "football off-season". Stubbornly, the apologists will refuse to call it a bad hire and will point to the relative "strength" of CUSA as a reason that 12-14 wins aren't his fault. Year three- Since we hire and fire based on cost savings (we're the Wal-Mart of athletic programs after all) we'll cut Benfordd loose and will bring in a former head coach who had moderate success elsewhere but who "knows how to rebuild at a place like North Texas". He'll inevitably struggle but it'll be ok because the same apologists will now concede Benford as a bad hire and...wait for it..."it'll take time to clean up the mess left by Benford". 15 wins or so. Year four- The new coach will bring better than .500 ball and a hint of excitement. By this point the DFW pipeline that JJ built will be a distant memory. Still, RV will be roundly applauded by the usual suspects as having made a brilliant hire because we have our heads above water. Year five- We'll settle into the lull that will be our fate for the foreseeable future and will be one of those teams that is competitive but never sniffs the top of CUSA. Make no mistake, our basketball fortunes are the story of Sisyphus. JJ rolled the rock to the top of the hill. Benford has rolled it right back down.

Sad thing is we wasted Mitchell's time here with a terrible coaching hire. We get one shot at a 5 star player, and we manage to F even that up.

Putt Putt no. Butt Putt yes.

I don't disagree, but I ask what the future holds for us with RV as AD. Where we stand now, what more is there left for him to do other than hire coaches? New stadium, BB facility, Pit upgrades, CUSA, baseball, we've started the process of finally catching up with similar schools in all areas other than coaching. If all there is left to do is manage coaching staffs, I don't want him around anymore.

I think it is really funny how some folks here give ZERO credit to RV for the great new Apogee Stadium. If you were even part way or somewhat connected to UNT in some way you would know how much and for how many years RV was working on that stadium. It takes a lot of different folks and a good bit of luck as well to make something like this happen. To discount any part of the situation or anyone who had a hand in its development just reeks of a personal agenda and a complete lack of understanding and knowledge about how this whole thing took place. Apogee sits as UNT's stadium due the the hard work of many people...all of whom every fan of the Mean Green Nation owe a good bit of gratitude and thanks.

As one who has worked countless jobs in less than a year, I wouldn't understand anyone holding my leaving for better positions against the people who decided to hire me. It's a reality that is always there, no matter the salaries or significance of term.

I really think Atterberry gets on a NFL roster by seaaon's end. I think we will miss him more than some may think Great kid , pulling for him !

Because RV can never be found pacing around eating rolaids by the handful, stressed about the shitty losses. The man just...doesn't...care. Some men just want to see UNT burn.

RIVALS

If I told you that we just signed a kid who would come in and give you, on average, the following stats: 13.1 ppg 8.4 rpg 2.4 blocks per game (and is your all-time blocked shots leader in 1 1/2 seasons) How many of you would say "nah, I don't want that guy"? Yet, I've talked to at least five different people who refered to Tony Mitchell as a disappointment, over-hyped or told me we will be "better without him". I'm amused. When Tony came back from the Amare and Lebron camps, how many articles did he write touting himself as a superstar? How many ESPN blog entries did he write? How many draft projections did he put out there? Last I counted, none. Does he write for Meangreenaports.com? Yet, somehow, many want to lay this dumpster fire at the feet of a kid who did ZERO to hype himself up. We deserve the void that will be left when he exits.

Liberty (14-20) knocks off Charelson Southern to claim the Big South Conference March Madness has begun

I heart tennis and swimming too. Keeps the bills paid.

Glad we agree. Benford wasted talent.

The future holds staffers with no pressure to excel, hiring with no pressure to get it right because there is a long line of ready apologists, and middle of the pack success in CUSA. Other than that we're golden.

All I know is that the future CUSA opponents must be licking their chops when thinking of their games with North Texas.

This is the part that I found astounding. I used to work as a radio dispatcher during that time frame and had an occasion to meet a ranger or two. We never called them except for when a Bank was robbed, and the ones I met would not have let a college prank go with just a "good dressing down". Your dorm mate got REAL lucky.

Jamize Olawale should have dominated in the Sun Belt....

No college player can dominate ANY conference when being consistently double and triple teamed. UNT was terrible at rotating players to the proper posotions on the court when those double and triple teams came at TM, and TM was not good at finding the open man. This is a coaching issue.

All that said , I think he needs to come back. Teams may still want him to mature more. A starting lineup of - Chris Jones TJ Taylor Jordan Williams Tony Mitchell *Lekan Ajayi Would get my hopes up again for next season Having Alzee & Walton coming off bench as our 6th & 7th men would make us pretty deep

Preseason rankings suck!

AAA was booed bc they created a school solely for basketball. They can recruit from all of Dallas ISD and compete at the 1a level. I don't know if you know this, but 1a schools have less than 200 kids in their school, and that is the largest amount. AAA will come back to earth when they play in 3a, but still have no business in the UIL. Charters in the UIL is a joke! Congrats to the AAU team from AAA, everyone in Texas knows you are good, but it's not fair for the legitimate 1a schools from Mumford, Stamford and such. Those are true small town, 1a schools.

Atmosphere was the goal that obviously didn't come through the post:) The pagentry of college football will be in effect with this rivalry. The rivalry will not be because of the bands. But college football to me is big mass sections with bands, painted fans and a good game and of course beer. All of those things will be in force in the Alamodome in 2014. GMG

We tried. It didn't work out.

Your Bruceling comment is right on the money. Get each group to contribute in their own way. The Bruce crowd has always been aware of the usual apathy, but once in a while we capitalized on that by way of pointing out that you can dress like a lunatic and yell completely insane things at our games, because there isn't enough mainstream interest to drown you out. I also went to a few games with groups that were about half gay guys, half straight guys because we alternated "stereotype events" - one weekend, go to a home football game, the next weekend, hang out in Cedar Springs, etc. It's like the discussion about the Halloween game - if you try every idea all at once, you're bound to achieve success with at least a couple of them.

So you think a loaded basketball charter school should be applauded for beating a legitimate class A team. Nothing against the kids playing, but their inclusion in class A is a joke. I doubt the fans were booing the players but the insane situation of an undefeated legit Class A team having to play a team filled with athletes the average class A team won't get in a century. If I were a Mumford fan, I would be plenty upset.

Anyone know where I can find his pic?

Roger Franklin.

Would that be the 23-8 Ole Miss? The virtually assured of getting into the tourney Ole Miss? Thanks for playing though.

RV has been really impressive in developing facilities and working conference realignment. And, he does deserve immense credit for hiring Johnny Jones. However, he also made possibly the worst hire in the history of UNT athletics (Dodge). Then, he hired a guy (Benford) who completely destroyed (in a single season) everything that his one crown jewel hire (JJ) accomplished. Make no mistake about it; our once proud basketball program is now completely broken and about to have substantially less talent next year. We will be rebuilding from the bottom. So, the great accomplishments of RV's one (at least in the major sports) solid hire were completely nullified in record time by yet another one of his massive mistake hires. Consequently, I don't know how you can rate his hiring record as anything but poor. McCarney may be an incomplete--but it is an incomplete because we're allowing him the time to dig out of the bottomless hole that another RV hire left us in (a hire that may have been one of the worst in all of college athletics over the past 10 or 20 years). The only way for RV to rectify his own mistake at this point would be to pull a financial rabbit out of his hat and find a way to pay the buyout and replace Benford with a coach capable of an immediate turnaround--a turnaround that shouldn't be necessary for a program that just played with its self-proclaimed "best team ever."

LSU lost to Ole Miss 67-81 today. CJJ is just not a good coach. Maybe talent can bring him over the hump but I doubt that.

At least MTSU would have shown they are CUSA ready, in football and basketball...

MTSU's play by play announcer tweeted : @Chip_Walters: Tony Benford has three clean suits available if anyone needs one. #sbc

It's the tony romo syndrome. You don't realize that an oline is under performing until you get Quincy carter or John kitna under center.

I've never personally ridden one of those pedal pubs, but I know several people who have, and they all say that after two beers, that damn pedaling becomes a Herculean effort and they just want to get off the damn thing.

Very good point Baby Arm. A festive, decorated shuttle driving by those places could not help but increase attendance, slowly at first perhaps, but eventually making a real difference. Have you noticed how many students are hanging around in front of their dorms on game days with no particular place to be? With a creative approach and a little encouragement I think we could even get a good number of Brucelings to get in the spirit of the thing. We really need to push this idea.

I can't help you figure out the Internet, Andrew.

ULaMonroe and FIU are ahead of Apogee..... All you need to know about this list.

Now that the pedestrian bridge is present, this may be possible, but before that, it was difficult to drive into the stadium parking lot from Avenue D. NO WAY a shuttle bus was going to work out.

So your saying there's a chance !

What stories! In my day even the term "Coed Dorm" had not been coined and if you were caught anywhere beyond the front living room or front desk of a girl's dorm your college career was over - if not your life. Dean Dickey would have seen to it. We checked girls out of the dorms as if they were library books and were required to return them on time(10:50) sober and relatively unscathed. No exceptions, no excuses.

Reading for comprehension is evidently not a strong suit. As I've explained numerous times in the past, I've never taken a position on any coaching changes on this board. I've never said talent doesn't matter. I've never attempted to foolishly predict a number of wins in any year. I've consistently said that bitching on this board causes more harm than good. The least amount of harm is that it has no impact on what you want. I've also said that if you want to be heard, speak to decision makers. I've also explained how you attain more access and a louder voice. Finally, I have very clearly stated there should be a high level of expectations and committment. So, Bitch less-----> Give more

If KRAM is insulting I'm not sure how to define many of the comments you and others make on this board. Oh... How has the bitching had a positive impact so far? Bitch less---->Give more.

Jim, appreciate your comments, but don't buy the "stuff" that several folks here are trying to sell you regarding what this Coach is and where this program can be in a couple of years. Remember, these are the same folks who have been telling everyone that attendance would drop to 500 per game. Yet, facts are, UNT has the 3rd highest attendance in the Sunbelt this year...behind only Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. The majority of UNT fans and supporters are not buying what these few, loud and vocal that they may be, are trying to sell. There is a difference between ability and execution, youth and experience, willingness to learn and to be coached and stubbornness, athleticism and skill, etc. things are changing and changing for the better. Pre-season hype does not always equate to reality when play begins. This is not the same team that came one game from winning the tournament last season. Odufawa is not grabbing rebounds, UNT's two most skilled players, CJ and Brandon have been out most the year, Holman (arguably the best UNT player heading into last year's tournament is gone, etc., etc. Put a healthy CJ in, a healthy Walton in, have Holman back in uniform, etc., etc. and this is a very different team at this point in the season. All who refuse to see this possibility are simply not willing to admit the differences. Without these players, teams can sag down and pretty much negate TM knowing that UNT is not a good outside shooting team. Now that PJ has started to shoot and Jordan has found his stride, teams will no longer be able to focus on TM with two or more defenders. This also helps Roger Franklin. Defense has suffered as without the skill players and many playing out of position (ala Nikko) there is not the quickness/skill to stop other teams more skilled players. Get "our guys" back and healthy, give these players more time in the current system, and BINGO...this is a much different team. One might also recall that this is a very young team...sophomores and freshmen abound. Underclassmen often struggle at learning the more sophisticated college game. Anyway, don't let the vocal few get you down. No matter how much they played in HS and claim to be experts. Heck, some never even played HS ball, yet want all to believe tat they know all there is about coaching college level basketball. You know, it may be time to either support this team and Coach or not. The fact is that he and the majority of the team will be back next season. Some just need to either get over that fact or move on down the road if it is just too painful for them to bear. The facts are that this team has not won the number of games that anyone expected. But, the fact also remains that this team has much left to play for this season. Personally, I plan on being there to see how the season plays out...win or lose. Here's hoping there will be more wins left than losses.

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.

If he was that close with the High School coach then he is the one who probably told him to go to prep. Kids go there for the sole purpose of working on their game. If he really wants him to succeed and has any future at BB beyond college , then going prep is probably the right 1st step. Hanging on to this kid might be a challenge

I don't recall ever seeing that pitch option on NCAA.

No thanks.