ADLER

Houston Chronicle Article on the Stratford, Bball Team Led By UNT FB Signee Craig actually plays for Stafford which is a 3A school. Stratford is a 5A school.

Things do look kinda slow on the Bourbocam compared to usual. Bourbocam Link

I think Mardi Gras is just going to be smaller this year, and it may never be the same again. I'll get to see fist-hand since I'm heading down to New Orleans with the family on Thursday to stay through Mardi Gras. One of the main influences on Mardi Gras is the amount of local people that don't have the expendable income that they've had in the past. It's incredibly expensive to ride in the parades and finances are very tight right now for a lot of people. The riding krewes of each of the parades pay from their own pockets for all the beads that they throw. I've paid between $2500 and $3000 on 'throws' when I rode in Bacchus, and I didn't even buy a whole lot of the expensive extras (blinky beads, footballs, specialty beads). That's a lot of money to literally throw away during a three hour ride on a trailer, and I fear that fewer people will be in the position to make that kind of commitment this year. The "Super Krewes", Endymion, Bacchus and Orpheus will survive as well as Mardi Gras Day stalwarts Rex and Zulu, but many of the other smaller krewes will probably cease to exist because of the enormous costs involved (police for the parade route, insurance, and the costs associated with riding).

That's so sad. At North Texas, the main barometer for measuring athletic success is by comparisons against our own past futility. It seems everybody avoids comparisons to actual competition.

After releasing Helwig, Dr Pohl brought Gene Stallings in as an advisor. Coach Stallings reported " I'm sat watching a Division 1 team with 14 scholarships trail an NAIA team with 0 scholarships for almost the entire game. North Texas basketball has serious problems". Trilli's fate was sealed. Dr Pohl needed the new Athletic Director to be able to concentrate on hiring a new basketball coach and not have to deal with firing Trilli so he pulled the trigger himself. There has been improvement during the Jones years. North Texas went from winning 4 or 5 games a year to winning 13 or 14. Respectable at least, but not good. Is average good enough? Is there reason to believe that the winning percentage will improve? Is 5 seasons long enough to rebuild a program that was destroyed during the Trilli years? Although he didn't predict records, how is Coach Jones performing to the other goals he set when he first arrived? Interview With Coach Johnny Jones

He's a smaller back with an injury history that doesn't have blazing speed. He probably will not be drafted, but he will certainly be given a chance as a free agent. Patrick was an Academic All-American and already has earned two degrees. I think he will do just fine whether NFL football works out or not.

Ya know, Seven would make a great name for a son.

I thought the same thing about the multi-color logo. On another subject, they should have seized the opportunity and dumped the Mavericks moniker during the change. It's an abstract mascot without any identity, and there is no possible way that UT-Arlington can compete with the local NBA team for the name recognition. (And yes, I know that UTA had the name first, but that just doesn't matter. The Dallas Mavericks will always be thought of as "the Mavericks" in the Dallas/Fort Worth region.) And for the record, MOOVIN' MAVS was plain horrible.

Wow, that's the same UT-Pan Am that we were beating 76-24 at one point tonight.

North Texas is a local college and the the largest in their market. Either the infromation is not getting communicated properly, or they are refusing to report it. If it's the first option, what corrective action needs to be taken? If it's the second, which stations, and what is their reasoning? Either way, there has been failure in getting the scores broadcast, and it needs to get fixed if possible. on a side note - I can't believe I'm sending a response to something named Quinn+Boner

Before we go condemning the D/FW news stations, do we know for sure that our Sports Information Director contacted each and provided the scores? You know that it's kind kind of hard for them to report scores that they're not informed about. Now, if the Athletic Department comes out and says that they have forwarded the information to each station, but certain ones REFUSE to give North Texas scores, then we may have a reason to bitch. I don't know, which do you guys think is the case.

I sure hope not. We have a problem at North Texas and it's that not enough fans are coming to our games. Band Day does NOTHING to fix that problem, it only hides that problem. FIX THE PROBLEMS, NOT THE SYMPTOMS.

Gawd, I am so saddened that people in the Metroplex that are deperate to get ahold of North Texas gear can only find hats with logos from the 1990's and have to have tee shirts made. Poor kid probably started to realize what he'd gotten himself into when he couldn't even find a North Texas shirt anywhere in northern Texas. North Texas needs to start firing people and keep firing people until they find an individual that will get off his a$$ and get our merchandise into stores.

Does anyone remember the Cash twins that won a 5A state basketball championship at San Antonio Holmes. Many colleges recruited them as basketball players, but they instead played football at UT and had a lot of success (much of it genuine). They played WR and TE and were able to outrun and outjump most of their coverage. Both were drafted and played in the NFL. Sturns could possibly be that same type player for North Texas. He would have this spring in the system and could also redshirt next year before playing in the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

I wonder if Mike Leach would have different sentiments if three men forced him to do that. Seriously, other kids around the country are getting their scholarships pulled because they get caught with a beer or get into a fight, and then you have Mike Leach justifying giving a scholarship to a convicted child raping criminal. Shame on you Mike Leach. How would you feel if that was YOUR daughter that the three men raped.

No need to panic, yet. Louisiana Tech is able to play a 13 game schedule because there is a game at Hawaii. The NCAA allows all conference mates of Hawaii to schedule an extra game in season in which they travel to Hawaii to help offset travel costs. La Tech is scheduled to play 5 home games and 8 road games, including a trip to North Texas. Now, Tech may be trying to delay the trip to North Texas for a season or two in order to schedule another home game for 2006.

Michael has outstanding athletic ability, and would have 3 years left to play 2 football seasons.

OK, lets take lemons and make lemonade. Michael is one of ours, and even though we may be upset with him, we need to do what's best for all involved. (unless he's done something really heinous, which I haven't heard about) Put Michael Sturns in pads as a wide receiver on the football team. He has the size, speed, strength, and all the God given athletic ability to be an outstanding player. Just look what happened for UT-Austin when they put what was a prototype collegiate basketball player at their quarterback position.

We lose. 75 to 74. We have now lost 3 in a row, with the last 2 coming from teams with losing records.

UNO 75 to 74 with 4.3 seconds left. Mean Green time-out.

74 - 71 UNT 1:14 left. UNO ball.

UNO now up 71 -70 2:00 left. UNT with ball.

UNT up 69 to 66 3 minutes 44 seconds left. UNO at line for 2 shots Listen Here

Which brings the question, If a grenade goes off in a padded room, does it actually make a sound? Of course his attendants in their nice white coats have to go in every week and clean all the "Bobby Ray Must Go!" and "Fire Dickey" graffeti off the walls once a week. These two guys have redefined the term "committed fans". Remember your happy place Plumm - lush green meadows of prime real estate surrounded by major interstate highways..........

.....you get dehydrated because you avoid the water cooler on Mondays.