nortx9

Pratice game..... Tomorrow will be tougher. NW beat USA 2-1 Friday

Again Chicken or egg. I think the conference needs to get a little tougher with NCAA on what gets handed out. To your point, nobody deserves a handout, but there are UNT's and MTSU's (this conf and others) that aren't getting that opp because the conf winner is the only one going. Not getting bids hurts recruiting too, and illogical rankings don't help either. Why should SEC get 5 bids and the Big East 8 if they can't win a game in conference tourney? Why get 8 period? In essence, they can play poorly all season and still get in. We can play poorly for one game and be out. Don't want a hand out, but how about a little field leveling when it comes to opportunities to just get a chance to....prove worthy. Good challenge, not mad at all. Besides good excuse to get worked up......

Good point, but hard to do without bids. Denver won their first Sunbelt NCAA playoff game last year and they have been Buzz darlings for last two full seasons without that added glory. Sunbelt had two, arguably 3 teams last year that were good enough for first round bids. Instead we got to watch Big East and SEC field nearly their entire conference Qualifiers in the NCAA, some did not win a game in the conference tourneys and got bids! Kentucky was overwhelmed by Denver in NCAA's.

Without really looking, and I should before I say this, I believe we are at least as good as the C-USA teams in the rankings (SMU for sure!). We are not 10-15 places worse than #7Denver, with SMU at #8. In three years (this year and last two) by my scattershot account, we are I believe 4-2-3 against C-USA teams (SMU 1-1-1, Houston 1-0-1, Utep 1-1, Rice 1-0). The loss to SMU was in NCAA's...We did tie Grambling last year while outshooting them 34-4 ( 4 off the crossbar.....won everywhere but the scoreboard). I hope we get the SMU game in this year, it is in between Denver and Conf tourney, something tells me that won't happen for safety sake, at least not a full-on battle.

Just don't get the love from the pollsters is it. Last year prime example. While we did make weekly top 15 for most of year, our record was much better all throughout the year (see Vandy comment) than many in top 15, even those that remained in the final poll. Could not move up substantially all year with a high win percentage, but they dropped us big time when we took a single loss to MUTS. Buzz does no investigation, they go on the "Buzz" about each team, and the "Buzz" about UNT is that we are benefactors from a weak conf schedule. The real irony is that same logic does not seem to apply to Denver each year, just UNT or MTSU. Denver already lost to Colorado this past week 2-0 (who was subsequently tied by FAIRFIELD!! while also getting to keep their top 5 ranking!!!) and they held rank at 7th. and, while ties are not really supposed to hurt, why did our Grambling tie last year haunt us all year when it came to rank and NCAA consideration?

Mean Green Ladies on the road this weekend in Natchitoches, LA. Lamar on Friday and NW State on Sunday. I'll have my report in on GMG before Hedlund calls it in to web...heh, heh. Look for me bros. Got a little bump on the Buzz from the UTEP win, but no top 15 cigar. Figures... look at the lowly performances of the Top 15........in the first week, guess everyone gets a mulligan on their ranking. My fav, Vandy started the season with yet another tie (a Top 30 Natl Team too). They had like 7 or more last year while keeping ranking. What is the love affair with that team? Out of 15 teams ranked last week, 4 have not won a game, 4 have lost a game , 7 no longer have a perfect record…. All in the first week!!.... and UNT are not good enough to move into top 15 at 2-0? Don't get me strarted on who those teams played either. Just another Buzz year, I see where the name comes from.... Check it out! Central (69 teams) RankSchool Record Prev Rank 1 Texas A&M 2-0 1 2 Texas 2-0 2 3 Tennessee 2-0 4 4 Colorado 1-0-1 3 5 Missouri 2-0 13 6 Oklahoma State 2-0 6 7 Denver 1-1 7 8 SMU 1-0 8 9 Vanderbilt 1-0-1 9 10 LSU 2-0 11 11 Nebraska 1-0 14 12 Colorado Coll 0-1-1 10 13 Kansas 0-1-1 5 14 Mississippi 0-0-2 15 15 St Louis 0-2 12

We can get SMU....this year too! As for the "G" crew, we got our tails handed to us this Spring in 7 v 7 tourney. Turned the Scoreboard off at 20-1 but the goals kept coming. I'm not ready to say we can take that team this year, but certainly we would be more competitive with the team we put on the field sat for the Alumni game.

Reminder for those interested in seeing the Mean Green Women's Soccer team take the field for the first exhibition this season. Saturday Night at 7:00 pm at the Women's Soccer Field at Mean Green Village complex. This is one of the fastest, most skillful teams UNT has probably ever fielded and will be exciting to watch this year. Returning some great players such as Hutyra and Ellis, and the incoming Freshmen can really play too. If you find soccer is not your sport of choice to watch, or if this would be your first Women's Soccer game, in my opinion you will find it more exciting and a different overall experience as compared to any men's soccer game you may have attended. Come out and see for yourself and root for the team of your choice....they are all Mean Green on Saturday night!!!!

Check the UNT Soccer Website and SBC website.....Hutyra, Ellis and Juett preseason all conf. Team picked to finish second, tied with MUTS. http://www.sunbeltsports.org/ViewArticle.d...;ATCLID=1151563

Women's Soccer scheduled to report for duty tomorrow. Just when the excessive heat decided to finally make an appearance. Sounds like the girls are in good shape from summer workouts or club team appearances, and should be ready to go in a few weeks when they open with TWU. Lots of fitness and and two -a - days ahead!!!

Buzz soccer rankings are out for Central region. Same ol' - - - -!! UNT ranked 18, displaced in the top 15 by some very discouraging nominations. Seems like if you win 15-17 games (UNT and MUTS), in SBC conference, you must not be as good as perennial mediocre programs such and LSU and Mississippi who can't break double digit wins. Where they come up with some of this pooh pooh I'll never be able to figure it out........ Soccer Buzz Rankings

This week is the USYSA Nationals (profiled today in the DMN) in Frisco at PHP complex. In addition to the the UNT Solar recruits I mentioned here in the thread, and also profiled on the UNT soccer webpage, the 90's Texan Red team has three players verbally committed to UNT for next years recruit class. While they are verbals at this point, that means there are five players that have signed with or committed to UNT that are playing in the Nationals tourney this weekend in Frisco. Fairly impressive. Both teams are well positioned to win their respective divisions whichwould bring additional regional/national cred to the outstanding recruiting efforts we are seeing in the UNT program.

I think the deal on the local vs. non-local recruiting focus is simply that the club teams are better/deeper in the DFW local club league. If they are too good, non-local players are going Big(gest) Conf School. If they are D-I calibre, but less than Big(gest) Conf School, the DFW club scene is probably better talent, woman for woman, and my guess is they can probably be had for a less-than-full scholarship initially with a bump later. I don't think UNT are missing out, just think that all considered equal, they go local. And, a local athlete has a better chance of sticking with a program than one far removed from home if playing time/school/etc don't go as planned early on. I think the key to getting non-local players to commit is to have some success at getting a few commits to get it started, and sustaining it the next few follow on years from the same region while the players are familiar to the recruits. Tulsa also is a good area, and I know we have been looking there as well, year to year. Believe we lost out on a couple of those players to TCU. If we can add a few more Conf champs and NCAA appearances from the last few recruiting classes including 2008, we stand to gain a bigger sustained foothold outside the local area in the next 4-5 years.

Been a while, been on a self imposed GMG detox. All that Dodge-ball blogging totally fried me out..... but its almost time for the "other " exciting fall sport.......... besides Dodgeball and V-Ball. First, some interesting news about the competition.... MTSU lost the 2006 SBC F.O.Y to transfer- left for Creighton...(you may recall Zappapas edged UNT's Juett for the FOY award, although Juett was awarded first team All Conf and Zappapas placed 2nd team?????? Anyway...).... big loss for MTSU. UNT was ranked 14th out of 31 teams ranked in the Soccer Buzz NCAA DI Central Region recruiting rankings for 2007. 2007 class is very good. The class was also ranked 77th nationally! Denver ranked 10 in region, but opinion is UNT have a better overall class of 2007 recruits. If the transfer players show well, UNT will be an even better 2007 recruit year than the ranking suggests... MUTS bringing it up at 24th. UNT already has its 2008 class verbal commitments and the list is veeeeery impressive! 2008 class has verbals from several Sting and Dallas Texans Red D-I club stars, among other talented commitments from Dallas and Houston area. This is a very important class for replacing the Hutyras and Slavonics, among others scheduled for graduations. All 8 players currently committed come from teams currently ranked in the top 35 '90s club teams nationally. For those who did not hear.... Kelli Lundsford fell to ACL injury in the last Spring game matchup. Will miss her hustle and winning attitude on the field this year. No word yet on any of the SBC pre-season rankings, or pre-season player superlatives predictions. Team is on voluntary summer workouts and report around first of August for preseason training. Some players are coming off of their U-19 and U-18 USYSA Regionals club performances., and two of our freshmen recruits (Herron, Hall) will be playing for their Solar 89 team at Nationals in Frisco in July.

yep...

It was....... did the ACL I heard today. This is a tough one to absorb for us...... big "hustle and heart" shoes to fill!!

Schedule is posted for those who were not aware. Some good OOC games, more travel this year. Check the website.

Won't know for a couple of days according to the coach. Players said knee popped on outside, which could be optimistic. Hoping it is just a bad sprain and no ACL. Other than that, game was good and competitive, especially second half. TAMC was a tough (rough) team. Lot better than the Cisco JC duck shoot last Friday. I stopped counting at 14-0. Three players had hat tricks. Juett had 4, Slavonik had 3, Cleveland had 3. Hutyra looked real good in her first action back on her ankle. Much quicker than last year, she looks healthy again.

This game was rained out and has been rescheduled for Wed 4/11 (tomorrow) at 7:00 pm at UNT. Weather should be nice, hope we have a nice turnout. Ladies beat UTD 2-0 on the road last Thursday, pretty much controlled run of play in a game where they were not seriously challenged.

Just a reminder to all fans that the women's soccer team is scheduled to play spring game tomorrow night at 7:00 vs Cisco JC. Still on as of today......free beer happy hour and tailgaiting available too...... well, ok, ok....no free beer, just got a little carried away...... but game should be good, and we could try to start a tailgate tradition, BYO.........

prolly give and go.......

????

In addition to the UTD game mentioned previously, I understand we have a couple more scheduled: Friday Mar 30 UNT vs Cisco JC at UNT 7:00 pm Sunday Apr 15 UNT vs A & M Commerce at UNT 1:00 pm That will probably be it. Team looked pretty sharp Sunday vs TWU for this time of year, although short-handed on subs. TWU went co-ed and supplemented their squad with some good male players. Had a pretty good crowd there too, some '90 recruits in attendance too, thanks to all for coming out!