ADLER

She always looks great, and I also like that Johnny and Tina also dress up for the games. Times have changed, and more and more coaches are taking the Monte Towe approach and wearing casual attire. For you youngsters, believe it or not, but there was a time when even football coaches would wear ties and jackets for every game. Now, back to the subject of the thread. I think there should be cheerleaders present at every home basketball game. Cheering is their obligation, the competitions are a potential benefit that comes with that obligation.

Well said lifer. I believe that that does sum it up pretty well. I would also like to state that I was very proud of our cheerleading crew when they were competing and winning all the national accolades. Winning multiple national championships on national television certainly reflects well on the university. I wish there could be a happy medium found where the cheerleaders could still fill all their obligations at the football and basketball games, and also be supported to be competitive in the national competitions. And yes, the Dancers are Hot and we all love them. ps - Jennifer Cloutier does a wonderful job with the Dance Team.

I too love our Dance Team. Their performances at basketball and football games are always excellent. I was so proud of those young ladies when they collectively took the stage and performed a few routines at the Utopia Club in New Orleans before the New Orleans Bowl in 2004. They looked smokin' hot doing those routines in their street clothes, and the North Texas and Southern Miss fans at the party were incredibly impressed. For those of you that weren't there, yes, the show was THAT good.

We have a lot of potential fans. We have done NOTHING to entice them to get involved. At North Texas, Promotions means giving away a dozen Wendy's tee shirts and an Outback steak dinner.

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail. oh well, go mean green

According to Hank Dickenson during our post-game show today, McNeese coach Tic Price had the equipment manager fired immediately after the game.

A fan base is something that you have to cultivate. It involves promoting the right events to the right people. You want those people to have a great time so that they want to continue coming to more games. We REFUSE to do that. As ar as the protocol of college basketball, there is a huge void at North Texas. NONE of the North Texas spirit groups are educated in collegiate basketball protocol, and those are the very people that should be leading the other fans (if we actually bothered to cultivate some). Overall, Johnny and the team did their part. Others failed by continuing to do what's always brought failure in the past. They try to hide this constant failure by recruiting PIPs, church groups, school groups, and corporate bulk seating to pad the horrendous attendance numbers. Nothing against those people and I have nothing against them being at the games, but THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT NORTH TEXAS BASKETBALL, AND THEY WILL NEVER SPEND ONE DIME OF THEIR OWN MONEY TO SUPPORT THIS PROGRAM. Today was embarrassing because key people decided not to do what SHOULD have been done. Oh well, go mean green.

From Fort Bend Owl on the CUSA board: Dion Dowell, a 6-6 small forward who was a national top-50 recruit out of high school, is apparently transferring to Rice at mid-semester. He'll be eligible for C-USA play next year and have 1 1/2 years remaining at that point. We're not going to be a postseason team this year but I like our chances for minimum of NIT next year with a 1-2-3 punch of Almond, Williams and Dowell. We only lose 2 seniors this year and both are replaceable. It's not a done deal yet but Dowell was on the local radio today saying he is transferring to Rice.

If he redshirted this year, he would play there in 2006, and then he would have 3 years of eligibility when he came to North Texas. One season he would be playing with his brother, and then the spotlight could be his for two years. Time will tell, but it sounds like a good plan.

You're right, I should have said road game audience. I was at the 2001 game. There were so few people that the ancient facility echoed if anyone cheered.

Houston Rally Falls Short at UNLV Cougars fight back from 20 points down. Dec. 20, 2005 LAS VEGAS (AP) - Michael Umeh had a game-high 23 points and Jason Petrimoulx added 13 points Tuesday night to lead UNLV to an 83-73 victory over Houston. Trailing by 20 points, Houston made things interesting late, going on a 13-0 run and cutting its deficit to 69-62 with 3:54 to play. But UNLV (4-5) didn't miss a free throw in the final three minutes and hung on for its second win in seven games. The two teams combined for 55 fouls and UNLV was in the double bonus with 14:25 to play. The Rebels made 10 of 10 from the line over the final 2:58, taking advantage of 31 Houston fouls. They converted 29 of 44 foul shots in the game. Ricky Morgan and Curtis Terry added nine points apiece for the Rebels. Oliver Lafayette led Houston (4-3) with 18 points and Lanny Smith added 17. UNLV closed the first half with a 19-7 run, using a pair of 3-pointers from Petrimoulx and a crowd-inspiring dunk from Terry to break a 24-all tie and pull away over the final 5:33 of the half. The Rebels jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead, but the Cougars went on a 16-4 run to take a five-point lead with 13:42 to play in the first half.

Did anyone know that our former Assistant Head Coach under Vic Trilli now holds the same position at Houston? Melvin Haralson Position: Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Director Experience: Sixth Year at UH Alma Mater: Auburn, 1989 In his sixth season at the University of Houston, Melvin Haralson is in his second season as the associate head coach and recruiting director after helping Houston sign one of the nation's Top 15 recruiting classes in 2004-05. He also helped the Cougars win 18 games and play in a postseason tournament for the first time in three seasons. In his first season as recruiting director, Houston's recruiting class ranked among the nation's Top 35 schools. Haralson has been a successful recruiter at each of his last two stops before coming to Houston in 2000. He helped North Texas sign one of the nation's top 21 recruiting classes in 1998, and was a member of Tom Penders' staff at Texas from 1990-95, when the Longhorns signed two Top 10 nationally-ranked recruiting classes. Haralson came to Houston as an adminstrative assistant in 2000, a position he held for one year. Then, he was named the director of men's basketball operations in 2001 before being promoted to assistant coach in 2002. He served two seasons as an assistant coach on Houston's staff before Penders was named head coach. He was promoted to his current position on Penders' staff in 2004. Haralson came to Houston after serving as an assistant coach at North Texas for five seasons. The Mean Green's 1998 recruiting class also was the top ranked class in the Southwest Region. Haralson went to North Texas after serving as a head assistant coach under Penders at Texas from 1990-95. While he was at Texas, the Longhorns won three Southwest Conference championship teams and four NCAA Tournament squads. The two Top 10 nationally-ranked recruiting classes at Texas included three of the best players to ever play for the Longhorns. They were Terrance Rencher, Reggie Freeman and McDonald's All-American Kris Clack. Rencher is the Longhorns' all-time scoring leader and Freeman ranks third on the school's career scoring list. Haralson began his coaching career as a student coach at his alma mater, Auburn University, when he helped the Tigers reach the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament in 1988-89. Before he began his coaching career, Haralson was an Honorable-Mention All-American high school player at Murrah High School in Jackson, Miss. He played collegiately at Lon Morris Junior College in Texas, where he earned Junior College All-American honors in 1984-85. He transfered to Auburn in 1985-86, and was a member of the Tigers' Elite Eight NCAA Tournament team that beat UNLV in the at the Compaq Center in Houston. He earned a bachelor's degree in education in 1989 and was invited to NBA camps with the Los Angeles Clippers before beginning his coaching career. He and his wife, Tonia, have a son, Isaiah.

I don't think it will happen. The amount of Ticket Holiday Packages that were sold probably does not justify the time required to type the ad. This will probably be the smallest audience that the Houston Cougars have played for in decades.

If the stuff was available in shopping malls it would be selling well during the Christmas season. Everyone's mother would buy their kid a sweatshirt of his/her college as a gift if it was readily available, especially at $7.98 each. Steve and Barry's at Grapevine has a unique method of maintaining stock. They don't get too much North Texas gear but they do have an awful lot of customers wanting to buy it. So that they don't have to explain why their out, and when they'll be getting more, the North Texas stuff is 'hidden' away from the other college stuff on the other side of the store where jeans and other non-collegiate clothing is kept. The manager outright told me "We don't get many North Texas sweatshirts. If we put them somewhere out on display, we would sell out too quickly. We put them over here so we don't run out."

Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail.

On a bad note. The North Texas merchandise must be generic NAME ONLY, which means name only, no mascot picture, no copywrited branding, and no current logos. Unlike almost every other Division 1 playing school in the state, the great and mighty University of North Texas refuses to let their current branding be sold by Steve and Barry's stores.

a couple of cliche's come to mind: You reap what you sow. and Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail. oh well, go mean green

Que the Playmaker Panic. ...5...4...3...2...

This game was Houston's to schedule. Their fans will be in the metroplex on Friday for Saturday's Fort Worth Bowl, and there are Cougar Club parties planned for Friday night in Fort Worth. There was probably very little room for moving the game around. Now it's up to our athletic department to make the most out of the situation. The impression made from this game could either be a big positive or a big negative.

Well, they were already light years ahead of us. They had a FUNCTIONAL stadium design to sell to their fans and boosters. Sure it has end zone seating, but look at all those other seats that people will actually be willing to spend money to sit in. We, on the other hand, have that POC that was displyed in the virtual tour video which would guarantee that we will always be on the bottom rung of division 1 football, if not further down. It's amazing, for decades, centuries, and possibly millenia stretching back to Roman Collesseum days we have known what would be desirable seating for a stadium, and then we get stuck with that design. It is clearly the worst stadium design conceived since 1952. And for JB, yes Memphis'Liberty Bowl does have an even more fan friendly stadium design than UCF's new stadium.

Oh, one more tiny reason that we may want to put a tiny bit of effort into generating a crowd for this game. ESPN has scheduled a crew to cover the game. I don't think the game's being televised anywhere, but they'll be providing some coverage of the resurgent Houston Cougars. Several metroplex news stations will also have crews present for this game. Without proper promotions, this late addition game could be a horrendously sad display. The students are gone for the holidays. There should be several hundred Houston fans that have come up for the bowl along with a couple hundred North Texas season ticket holders that were in town for the holidays, didn't have other plans or obligations, and didn't have to work on Friday.

I just received confirmation this evening. There will be several representatives from the CUSA offices at the game. I hope we make a good presentation with a big crowd.

Hey, Andre still owes me a favor or two for helping him get through Dr Mackey's physics class so he could graduate. He's already let me down once by letting Kendrick Perkins go directly to the NBA.

Well, don't they need to be out on the streets for recruiting? By the way, I don't think it was very nice to refer to them as "whiners", and I fail to see how it benefits the community.

That's a school that really needs to change it's mascot. If Ohio State can be the Buckeyes (a type of nut), then why can't Idaho be the Potatos. They could already have an incredibly popular mascot in Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head.