Harry

I had neglected to mention this young man suffered a broken leg in his junior year which probably cooled some bigger school interest in him.

He really may have hit on a big under the radar signing here. Add in the point guard transfer and AJ Lawson and there is a NICE nucleus of young talent to build on... for those who haven't followed this kid is from Cedar Hill and really blew up after signing with UNT. 6-9, 230 and very athletic playing in a tough district. here is what his coach at Cedar Hill said about him: "He's playing like a senior who's laying it all out there on the floor every game and that's what you want. He's playing his best basketball at the most important time of the year - second wave of district, heading to the playoffs. The crazy thing is there's still room for improvement with him and he knows that. He's improved the most from junior to senior year of any player that I've probably ever had in my career as a coach." -Brandon Thomas" Here are some stats: Simmons recorded 17 points, 23 rebounds and eight blocks as the state's fourth-ranked 6A team beat No. 12 Duncanville 73-55. The win gave Cedar Hill a two-game lead over Duncanville in District 7-6A. Simmons also had 11 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks in a 66-58 win over DeSoto earlier in the week. Simmons is averaging 16 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks per game this season.

You can't underestimate how critical the relationship between the AD and the HC candidate is. It was huge when RV made the Benford hire. For this hire it may be bigger since it is Wren's first at this level. AD's want a guy that will fit their leadership vision and will mesh well with their management team which in his case is the big 4. Do I think this came into play on the last time around on Fran? Absolutely. Fran was sort of an independent entity and some might argue bigger nationally than anyone else at the school. He was not going to be corralled. If the practice facility didn't have restrooms he was going to scream loudly. Publicly it was communicated that it was was a risky hire and Fran had been out of the coaching game too long. But look at the woman's hire, Coach Pete was about as company man as you could have hired. I for one hope Wren will be willing to go outside his comfort zone on this one but history on first hires seems to point to him going with a known commodity that he knows very well.

@SilverEagle will like this update!

I ask this question with the obvious exception of the great John Hedlund and the women's soccer program... After Jalie's team was pretty much routed by WKU in the second round it dawned on me that we still have a long way to go in most of our sports. Always here about how tennis is great but we are currently 4-6 with the majority of conference matches ahead of us. We know football saw a huge turnaround but even the most optimistic fan would say we have a couple of years before we are challenging for the conference title. Men's basketball we have a new coach on the horizon but it could take 2-3 years to be at or near the top. My main question is what is it going to take to get us at the top of our standings in all C-USA sports and shouldn't that be our goal? Personally - if that goal is just lip service and not intended to be supported at the necessary level, I would prefer that we focus on the sports we have the best chance of excelling in. Part of the problem is we historically (other than soccer) have not had a consistently good program that we could build a tradition behind.

Jackson never really got or supported athletics. That along with the accounting fiasco hurts his legacy in my opinion. Would love to see us land someone like John Sharp @A&M, Admiral McRaven @UT or Renu Khator @UofH. Someone who appreciates and understands the importance of athletics as a window to the university.

Why you should know him Brooks, along with other under the radar players Kishawn McClain and Eric Jenkins, makes up one of the most talented position groups in Conference USA, the Mean Green secondary. Well, McClain may not be under the radar so much, he was an All-CUSA freshman he's been a playmaker for North Texas for two plus years now, but you should get to know all of them. Back to Mr. Brooks. Brooks arrived on campus a skinny kid who was expected to play on special teams and in nickel situations, but he ended up starting his final seven games as a true freshman. He made eleven stops as a true freshman against UTSA at Apogee and generally survived his trial by fire. Enter Seth Littrell and with him Co-Coordinators Troy Reffett and Mike Ekeler, they transformed North Texas' defense into an attacking multiple/flexible unit and oversaw a near ten point improvement in points allowed per game. Reffett and Ekeler's defense skyrocketed and improved from 108th in pass defense in 2015 to 26th in 2016. That jump was aided by a bulked up Brooks who added ten to fifteen pounds for his sophomore season. He used those extra pounds to finish fourth on the team in tackles with 57 tackles, including 36 solo stops. Brooks started all thirteen games for the Mean Green in 2016 and didn't shy away from the big stage. In the Mean Green's trip to the Swamp to take on Florida in September, Brooks led the team in tackles and registered his first career interception. Brooks would make a second pick a few weeks later at West Point. Against Southern Miss in November Brooks would have his best night to date and dismantle USM's offense with two picks, a forced fumble, six tackles, and a pass break up. That win would be the fifth for the Mean Green and, thanks to their APR, would qualify them for a Bowl Game in Littrell's first year. read more: http://swcroundup.com/news/2017/3/9/under-the-radarnorth-texas-nate-brooks

I sense he will get snapped up by a bigger program as a recruiter -- he is good at it and is well thought of in the coaching community. Not everyone is cut out to be a head coach but I think he will be fine.

With spring in the Texas air, some Baylor University students were navigating the social challenges of another off-campus party, chatting and dancing while trying not to spill their drinks. Amid the swirl, a petite freshman named Jasmin Hernandez lost sight of her friends. Then Tevin Elliott, a 20-year-old Baylor football player dating someone she knew, appeared. Earlier he had been pouring hard liquor for Ms. Hernandez and other underage students; now he was insisting that her friends had gone outside. When Ms. Hernandez expressed doubts, she said, he began pulling her by the wrist toward the door, telling her they had gone outside. But the farther they strayed into the darkness, the more she argued that her friends were back at the party, and that they should return. Without a word, she later said in a lawsuit, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound linebacker picked up the 5-3 freshman and made his violent intentions clear. Panicking, Ms. Hernandez told him that she was sorry if she gave him the wrong impression; that they should just go back to the house and forget this ever happened; that she was, in fact, gay. He acted as though he did not hear. When Mr. Elliott finished raping her behind a secluded shed, an angry Ms. Hernandez used an expletive in demanding her shirt back. “He tossed it over to me,” she later recalled. “And that was the end of the interaction.” Ms. Hernandez, who has appeared on ESPN and who spoke to The Times for this article, assumed that her rape was a horrible but isolated incident at Baylor, a private university of nearly 17,000 students that takes pride in its Baptist foundation. And she wasn’t alone in believing that: Even after Mr. Elliott was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in 2014, Baylor officials said they considered him to be a solitary bad actor preying on a campus of goodness. Continue reading the main story

I tend to agree with you on this.

University of North Texas System Chancellor Lee F. Jackson today announced plans to retire before the end of 2017 from a position he has held for 15 years. Jackson, the second Chancellor in UNT System history, is currently the longest-serving university system chancellor in the State of Texas and has guided UNTS and its three universities through a period of unprecedented growth since being appointed by its Board of Regents in 2002. View Full Article

Looking out of his glass office near the corner of Main and Harwood streets, UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson can see the old Municipal Building where he started his career in Dallas more than 40 years ago. Back then, he was a “very junior” assistant in the city manager’s office, tackling nuisances like high weeds and loose dogs or responding to protesters at council meetings. He moved up in that office and went on to serve as a state representative for a decade and 15 years as Dallas County judge. And now he’s wrapping up a career in public service after serving as UNT’s chancellor, where one of his main charges recently has been renovating the Municipal Building so it can one day house the university’s new law school. Jackson will announce Thursday that he’s retiring from University of North Texas after 15 years leading the system. “I had no idea my career would come full circle to this place,” said Jackson, 67, a native of Oak Cliff. “I could have been an ambassador and traveled, maybe. But really, I never thought I’d live anywhere other than North Texas. I just instinctively know how it works and doesn’t work.” Often working out of the spotlight, Jackson helped usher many major developments in the Dallas area and pushed for regional approaches to the area’s biggest challenges, such as transportation and pollution. As Dallas County judge, he was credited with revamping the juvenile justice system and stepping up efforts to address child abuse. He successfully lobbied for the creation of the North Texas Tollway Authority so the money generated could be spent easing the Dallas area's traffic woes. His support was the final push that led to the creation of the Sixth Floor Museum. Jackson took the helm of UNT when few university leaders were non-educators, a growing trend that was criticized at the time. read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2017/03/08/unt-chancellor-lee-jackson-retire-four-decades-public-service-dallas-area

There is a connection here as I believe The Wren and Harper coached in the same league when The Wren was coaching at Rogers. im interested to hear @TheTastyGreek and @Cooley etc have to say on this possibility.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/03/a_year_to_remember_for_ray_har.html

UNT WINS!!! 65-62 Double overtime

UNT takes a 3 point lead with 6.2 seconds left!!!

DOUBLE OVERTIME!!!

44- 41 UNT leading 3rd quarter.

As will we all but I have a feeling Nic Smith will help ease the pain...

New UTSA defensive line coach Bo Davis is no stranger to success. He helped put together some of the strongest, most dominant defensive line units in the country during his time at Alabama. How he put those units together is a question at this point. Davis resigned from Alabama last spring under curious circumstances. Davis was shown the door at Bama allegedly because of recruiting violations. Davis' lack of cooperation with the school sped up his ouster. 24/7 rated Davis as the number one recruiter in the SEC and number two recruiter nationally. Davis was investigated by the NCAA, however the investigation has not reached a resolution. His hiring at UTSA is a little surprising given that fact. Davis spent last season in NCAA limbo, waiting on something to come of the investigation. So he took a job driving a truck, making $18 an hour and waited. He's still waiting. The allegations stem from Davis' contact with recruits outside NCAA mandated time frames. Not exactly SMU from the 1980's type stuff. So UTSA may have landed one of the best recruiters in America, with a few strings attached. Those string haven't identified themselves yet. But this is what Frank Wilson has done at UTSA, enlist the help of some serious recruiting talent to help him build the program. read more: https://gardale-hatley-xort.squarespace.com/news/2017/3/6/tuesday-playcard?utm_content=bufferd5cd9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

DENTON - In 2016, Jeffery Wilson had another great season at running back for North Texas, finishing just short of 1,000 yards with 936 yards rushing and 14 touchdowns. The Elkhart product is now 10 yards away from reaching 2,000 for his career and if things go well in his senior season with the Mean Green, he could leave Denton as the No. 5 rusher in school history. But don’t talk to him about numbers, at least not his own, because he’s not really interested. “At the end of the day, numbers are going to be numbers; I don’t really get too involved in it because that can send you down a selfish route,” Wilson said during UNT spring practice. “My dad taught me to never be selfish and always humble myself, so numbers don’t really matter to me. It’s good I guess (to have the numbers I do), but hey, I’m just here to win games.” Last season, Wilson had two of his best performances against Army, running for 166 yards and three scores during an October win at Michie Stadium. And when the Mean Green faced the Black Knights a second time in the Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl in late December, he had 127 all-purpose yards with two touchdowns in an overtime loss. In addition to his strong rushing numbers, Wilson also set a new career high in 2016 with 29 receptions for 247 yards. The offense of second-year UNT head coach Seth Littrell emphasizes running backs catching the ball out of the backfield, so Wilson welcomes the chance to further hone those skills in 2017. “We already knew with the offense coming in that we would have to deal with catching the ball more out of the backfield,” Wilson said. “Catching the ball has never really been a problem. I always loved catching the ball, so adding it in and putting it into the offense I feel was a great asset.” read more: http://www.etfinalscore.com/ET-Football/274615/numbers-not-elkhart-product-jeffrey-wilsons-concert-in-senior-season-at-north-texas