Smitty

Don't miss the point here. Even if you can't easily or readily see the North Texas player, the point is that SI put a North Texas player on its cover. SI acknowledged the Mean Green, and they didn't have to. With a mosaic like that, they could have easily just put in players from the big-shot schools. But they didn't. Sports Illustrated included the University of North Texas. That's a step in the right direction, folks.

I'm ready for some football.

11th-seeded Winthrop is thumping 6th-seeded Notre Dame, 52-34 in the second half.

The men's basketball team gave a sensational effort and earned plenty of props from outside the Mean Green Nation. We've got a new football coach with a new stadium on the horizon. Soccer is on the rise, softball is building, and we're getting good performances in track, golf, tennis, cross county, swimming, and volleyball. Attendance is up, interest is up, excitement is up. Even during the glory days of Hayden Fry and Bill Blakely, we got no bowl bids or NCAA or NIT bids. But now we've been to and won a bowl game. We've been to the NCAA tournament and competed well at a national level. The national media is beginning to notice us. North Texas is starting to reap well-earned rewards. Today is a good day to be Green!

In the past ten years, the biggest accomplishment would have to be the win at the New Orleans Bowl, because of what came next. The football program followed the bowl victory with two more bowl bids, two NCAA rushing champions, a few players making it into the NFL, a higher-profile football coach, increased attendance, and a push to build a new stadium. That win, it can be argued, was the springboard for the growth of the football team. If UNT wins today and then builds on that success by continuing to recruit well and making regular visits to the NCAA and NIT, then today would be as big as the bowl win. But if this turns out to be like 1988 - one year and gone, then even two wins in the tournament this year would not be as big as the New Orleans Bowl win. It's not just the event - it's what is built upon that event that decides its place in history.

I wouldn't worry too much. EA's simulation is off to a dreadful start. It picked Texas Tech to go to the final eight, but the Raiders got beat by BC in the first game of the tournament. It also had Stanford beating Louisville, but Louisville won by twenty. And it had Maryland crushing Davidson, but Davidson gave them a very tough game.

Besides, this is a chance to integrate real-life experiences into the classroom.

Just explain that it's a statistics lesson. Nothing more important than being able to work out field goal percentages.

I'm just guessing that the schedule came out of the deal the Sun Belt made with ESPN. Like almost every sport, you play when TV says you play.

If you want the Sun Belt Conference tournament to be televised on ESPN2, then you play it earlier. If you play at the same time as the Big 12, ACC, SEC, CUSA, Big Ten, and Big East, you will get no national coverage. Being on ESPN2 far out-weighs any possible disadvantage of the extra days off.

One last Sun Belt championship wallpaper. This one for Calvin Watson's big performance:

Baylor's lead down to 6 with 11:03 go play. How much would this suck for the Bears to lose this game? Man, that would leave a mark.

When we talk of the biggest football victory in UNT history, one game always comes up: the win over Tennessee. But is there a clear-cut favorite in basketball? Three that come immediately to mind are from the Bill Blakely era: wins over SMU, Texas, and Rolando Blackman's Kansas State team (happy to say I was at all three of those). Any other suggestions? And would a win over almost anyone in the NCAA tournament move to No. 1?

Here's a wallpaper to commemorate North Texas's Sun Belt championship and its entry into the NCAA tournament: In three sizes - 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024.

A possible matchup between a 16th-seeded UNT and first-seed UCLA might be in jeopardy. UCLA was upset by California in the PAC 10 tournament, 76-69. This from the AP game story: "UCLA's second straight loss dealt a serious blow to its hopes of being a No. 1 seed in next week's NCAA tournament."

A couple of changes made:

Here's a first effort at a wallpaper celebrating UNT's Sun Belt championship. I''ve got another idea or two I'm working on. Any suggestions are welcome. It's available in 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024, and can be downloaded from my graphics site: Mean Green basketball wallpapers

I'm working on something. Give me a couple of days.

How would that be any different from American Airlines Center in Dallas and American Airlines Arena in Miami?

Amen.

Wow. That is a remarkably pathetic display. SMU bitterness knows no bounds.

I still think American Eagle Airlines is a natural. American Eagle Stadium is perfect.

Correction: the Sun Belt championship game will be televised on ESPN2. 8:00 p.m.

North Texas was in the MVC 1957-1974. Cincinnati - 1957-1969 Louisville - 1963-1974 Memphis - 1968-1973 New Mexico State - 1970-1983 Tulsa - 1935-1996 We had some pretty good basketball games back in the day in the old Snake Pit. Talk about a loud gym.

I do not pretend to know if a new stadium in Dallas would have been a good thing or not, but I have heard quite a lot of discussion about the benefits of a new stadium. There are economic studies that show that, once you get beyond the emotional reaction - gee, isn't great to have the team here, doesn't the stadium look cool - that there is no economic benefit, and therefore tax dollars spent on a new stadium are wasted. I don't know if that is true or not. I'm no economist. I do well just to balance my checkbook. But here's a story that discusses this subject, in regards to building a baseball stadium in Washington DC. It is certainly food for thought: WOULD A PUBLICLY FINANCED BASEBALL STADIUM PAY OFF FOR DC?