GrandGreen

For those that may not know, there are more juco level football teams in California than the rest of the US combined, over 70. Mississippi comes in second with 14 schools and the rest of the US about 50. Not sure if all the California are the highest level of juco competition, but its seems if in need of juco players, it is the first place to look despite being so far away. Simon use to get criticized for recruiting there, but he did get some good players.

I guess we can make light of the school with the least resources in the Belt if not all of the FB division. However, I admire their intent if not their progress; I would not want to compare ULM and UNT's results on a "bang for the buck" basis. I would love to see a meaningful NT athletic mission statement signed on by the system chancellor as well as the BOD.

Actually adding teams makes sense as there are a lot more teams since the last major change going to 64 teams. Above someone quoted that both the tournament and regular season champion would be assured a place. This would be good, assuring that more teams not associated with the power conferences would get in, but is it true? I have not seen this as part of the proposal. This would also seemingly put a lot of pressure at the bottom tier conferences to have someone other than the regular season conference champion be tournament champ. I would like a ban on any team getting into the NCAA tournament that did not win their conference tournament or have a winning conference record. Won't happen, but I don't want to see 10 Big Twelve teams, 9 SEC, and 12 Big East Teams get into the Dance. One great thing if it is true that the regular season championship gets an automatic bid is that it would make conference games much more important. I can also see playoffs established to determine the regular season championship. East versus West Division for example in the Belt. Hopefully with so much on the line, the regular season conference winner would not be determined by some insane tie breaking formula.

Some are excited about the idea of another scholarship but I would hate to see Mangrum leave. Based on the play at the end, I think he could have a real shot at starting next year. I don't see JJ starting two small guards again, so I think Johnson will probably be coming off the bench. Mangrum appeared close to beating out Shorter at the end of the year, and if he stays I would expect a real competition between those two and McGhee for one wing position with Thompson at the other. Visions of McCombs, Morgan or Babb are great, but how realistic signing any of them is unknown. Trading a senior with only one year eligibility left for a two year player with great potential sounds good, but giving up Mangrum's senior year would be costly.

Actually, NT send him about three more years of checks.

I doubt anyone on the team had NT at the top of their dream schools to play for. However, that is different from Gaines who apparently had no other fb division offers openly expressing his desire to find something better. But, that is all water under the bridge at this point, and I hope he strongly contributes and is glad he finally made the right decision. There is a vast different between quality and quantity at the defensive end position. NT certainly has numbers but that in its self screams desperation. The last minute signing of Gaines and before that fellow California juco Miller, is illustrative that NT doesn't think they have an answer at the position. Anyone remember how Cole was going to be the answer at de. I am surprised that they are once again trying Cantly at de when after started him at dt at the end of the season. I also have doubts that Anyiam or Weber will play outside. I do believe that Owusu-Heming if he can stay in good shape with the staff maybe a starter with the other being Akpunku with Obi and perhaps a better than anticipated Boutwell in the rotation.

Vito's latest blog is that Tulane may come after Jones. Yes, successful coaches at any level are going to be in demand.

It is very common for teams to go almost entirely with their starting five in the offensive line. The benefits of playing one unit and the increased familiarity with the defense as the number of plays increase can offset any benefits of being fresh in the offensive line. The downside is that secondary players get little experience . However, although it is difficult to believe with NT having the majority of it offensive line out for the Spring, offensive linemen are the least likely to have serious injuries; therefore teams think that a couple of backups are enough. I disagree a little with Harry, I think that the offensive line is the deepest part of the team with the exception of wide receiver. NT returns four starters from last year with Santiago, Gill, Drake, and Johnson plus one starter from the year before in Freeley. Tomlinson also started several games at offensive tackle. The only losses were Bailey and Hollovay who alternated in the guard position. Redshirts Noble, Flax, Franklin and Bean along with Fortenberry should form a good back up unit. I think the offensive line was actually good last year at least compared with most of the team, there were few sacks and Dunbar had a heck of a year. No-one got any all conference recognition which is to be expected with NT's Belt record. There are no kept conference stats on offensive linemen. A skill position or a defensive player can sometimes get recognition on a bad team because there are statistics such as yards gained, tackles, etc. to highlight their performance, but it very difficult for an offensive linemen to get recognized unless he is truly dominating.

Am I the only one that finds it arrogant that UCLA terms the non-renewal of a scholarship a dismissal? It is obvious they want to make room for another 5 star high school player but why make it look like the player has done something other than be as good as they hoped by terming it a dismissal.

Ronnie Morgan started for NT as a freshman that was the first year that NT played in the NCAA tournment. He played two more years and was not allowed to play his senior season reportedly because of health issues, high blood pressure. However, he did play internationally the next year. I do think NT did eveything they could to keep him playing, he missed a lot of games during his career because he could not pass physicals. He was a good player but NT could not take changes with his medical issues, apparently they did not have the same concerns then in international pro ball.

So deserving that he is already in the NT HOF. Has all time longest field goal as well as being a great soccer player.

It all depends, I remember when NT played North Carolina in NT's first NCAA tournament that a lot of the game was not shown were more interesting and closer played games could be shown. Nothing worse than watching your favorite team and having several minutes long periods not televised. I actually think they are doing a much better job of that now showing most of the scheduled games and breaking away at time outs. Of course, the scheduled time-outs were not part of the game back in the day.

Unless they have changed, and that is very possible; they are or were referred to as restricted earning coaches. The Graduate Assistant title is still in common use whether that is official or just continued use of the older terminology. No matter what the proper name there are a lot of debates and proposals such as the one you cited trying to curtail the use of employing veteran coaches in these positions. Graduate assistants positions were developed as a type of sports internship usually for students in post graduate programs at the universities but evolved into a limited earnings position by NCAA statue that can be filled by anyone.

He transferred from Nebraska because he was not getting any playing time not because he didn't want to play under the basket. I can't believe anyone thinks JJ signed Edwards to play the wing. Edwards averaged 6 points on a mediocre juco, why would anyone thing he is an outside offensive threat? If that performance coach had mentioned in his article that Alonzo really wants to play the point, some of you would be predicting less playing time for White and Johnson. Edwards was a very good high school player, physical and with some skills. I would think that JJ and apparently other coaches believe with his physical ability he can become a force around the basket based on his high school promise and ignoring what he has done since. The interesting thing is that he was signed during the juco season and his numbers were only slightly better than at the end of the year. I thought he was a strange choice for NT's only ship at the time but he was signed to replace Tramiel at the 4. Tramiel was a first team juco All American, Edwards was not closed to being all anything. I do think that the coaching staff sees a little of Odufuwa in Edwards. Odufuwa in his sophomore year was a strong re-bounder but very limited offensively. Maybe Edwards can be a player that gives you adequate defense and 8 ppg and 6 rbg next year.

My idea would be that the Belt and CUSA would in effect trade teams to get a geographical balance. In this manner the conferences would retain their NCAA points and basketball bids. Western Cusa and Sun Belt would merge and have a Northern Division of UTEP, Arkansas State, Tulsa , SMU and North Texas. The Southern Division would be Houston, Rice, Ull, Tulane, ULM and non-football UALR. I think this league would be attractive enough to lure one or more other football teams to it such as NMSU or La Tech or in a pinch UTSA. I don't think TCU is going to be willing to lower themselves to a regional conference for a while. The other conference new members would be even stronger with an Eastern Division of UCF, FIU, FAU, Marshall, Eastern Carolina and WKU. The Western Division would be USM, Memphis, UAB, USA, Troy, and MTSU. The new configurations could retain the CUSA and Sun Belt names or be renamed .

One great thing is that traffic on the basketball board has gone up an order of magnitude from prior years. A lot of HSO's being expressed. Back to Edwards, I don't think there is any doubt he was recruited to fill Tramiel's position at the four. The question that has evolved based on a relatively poor juco performance is he capable. I don't believe despite sugar coating his performance at Lon Morris like Barnes attempted to do in his commentary that his progress has been promising. Numbers at Lon Morris are hard to come by, but it appears that Edwards was about fourth or fifth in scoring and third in rebounds on a very mediocre team, 16-15. For example, in LM's last regional game, Edwards started but only played 16 minutes with 0 points and 6 rebounds. I still can't believe that anyone thinks that JJ is going to start a 6'7 245 player with little demonstrated offensive skills at the wing or all of sudden go to a three man back-court with a team loading at the guard position. If he wanted to do that he would use Holmen. It seems to me despite what Edwards may think his correct position is, that his best change to contribute is being a rebound first interior player. The issue there is that with Spencer and Hogans, NT already has two similar players. A positive out of the article is that Edwards is working hard and wants to contribute. Josh White will start and I question the BB IQ of anyone that blames him for anything. He has had more clutch performances than any recent player and is the heart of the club. As far as Thompson not wanting to be the go to player, I am not sure how anyone comes up with that conclusion. He has on the offensive end always been the one that seems to want the ball, maybe too much. This year, he also improved his defense and made more than a few good defensive plays. Thompson has substantially improved every year, if he can do that again he may be the best player in the conference. Odufuwa, White and Thompson are obviously all great Belt level players and will start. Johnson before the injury was also close to that level. Magrum, Williams and Shorter provide great depth at the guard positions. The only critical issue next year is going to be the other front court starter. Holmen appears to have the best potential to be good on both ends of the court. Hogans and Spencer should be adequate depth players. I also would not be surprised to see Edwards come through. Knox did not play much but did show some promise, if he could gain some confidence he could really help. It is interesting that the NT program is in such good shape that we are expressing concern over a fifth starter when we have three All Belt players and two other players returning that probably would have been in the top six contributors if heathty on the team this year.

No way that JJ with a loaded guard lineup starts 3 bigs. I think we are more likely to see a four guard lineup than 2. I remain mystified on the Edwards signing, he does not seem to fit this team needs at all. NT does not need a 6'7 245 three that has shown little offensively. Can you really see Edwards taking time away from Mangrum, Johnson, or Shorter? Problem, with his numbers and desire to play face to the basket can he even beat out Spencer, Hogans or Knox under the basket? I'm not sure I like it but wouldn't be surprised to see a starting line of White, Thompson, Odufuwu, Johnson and either Mangrum, Shorter.

Graduate assistant is no longer the term, it is restricted earning coach. Recent thrend is for experienced coaches that don't need the income or willing to work for little or perhaps are paid through other means to to get these positions.

My link Recent article on Edwards, that somewhat explains his lack of big numbers at juco.

Numbers yes, but Stewarts forte was defense, a part of the game Holmen is just getting aquainted with. Holmen if he works hard has the physical ability to be very good, but playing behind Spencer at the end of the year shows he still has a long way to go.

Hindsight is always great. Scheduling teams from lower rated conferences based on who is going to be good might prove to be more than a little bit tricky. Was not Southeastern Louisiana the pre-season Southland favorite? I think it is a very good article and NT should schedule a more challenging oc slate next year because they should be a team that can handle bigger challenges. However, with the way that NT started this year, I doubt that scheduling more top 100 teams would have helped. NT has to win some of these games to benefit, a higher SOS with more loses would accomplish nothing positive. The problem this year was not the oc schedule anyway, it was loses in the Belt that killed NT's rpi. Only the Boise State scheduling fiasco hurt NT in the oc.

Your posts gave me a thought that I maybe one of the few people to see all three NT conference tournament wins. The first in 1988 was held at the Superpit, so there were a lot of people that saw that one, over 4000 if I remember correctly. The one in Lafayette in 2007 was attended by very few, I would guess less than 50 NT fans excluding the spirit groups. It was nice to see a much better crowd in Hot Springs, however there should have been many more NT fans. The facts are that WKU and MTSU both had many more fans and they are further away. Don't mean to rain on a parade but I want this program to maintain and build on their recent success and to do that there has to be more support. The team was great with all the starters strongly contributing. The bench was not used much but Mangrum played a lot and Williams had some great clutch plays. I do think the NT fans were instrumental in the wins as they significantly outnumbered Troy, Denver and ULM's. I also think the NT's women in their victory over FIU were helped by a good crowd. I almost felt sorry for FIU who seems to be supported by only two fans and their infamous but not very interested in the game eight girl dance team. Unfortunately, the NT fans were probably outnumbered 10 to1 for the MTSU/NT game.

Girls played hard if not well against the MUTs. Way too many turnovers and blown layups. Big obnoxious MUTS crowd who seem to thrive on watching their ass of a coach run up the score. I guess you have to give him credit, he apparently has no fear of his starters getting injured or any thoughts of resting his starters for the upcomming games. He did taKe out Clark after she scored 40 and MUTS up over forty with three minutes left in the game. You do have to give the MUTS players credit, they are good and pressed the entire game.

Obviously, WKU is the team to beat. They have by a substantial margin the best basketball program in the Belt in terms of tradition and resources as well as results. Two straight years with NCAA Tournament success coupled with a great upsurge in play with the return of Sergio Kerush to the line-up make them the favorite. However, they can be beat; WKU was 7-2 in February with surprising losses to ULM and Houston. They have blown out several good teams but were taken to overtime by both ASU and FAU. They are a veteran team starting 2 seniors and 2 juniors. They have a very solid starting team but not a lot of depth. Slaugter their 6' 3 guard leads them in scoring at 17.7 but has recently taken a backseat to Kerush. Kerush and Pettigrew both 6'5 fireplugs are averaging 14.9 ppg with respectively 7.1 and 6.0 rebounds a game. Evans at 6'9 is averaging 10.5 ppg and 7.1 rb. Their fifth starter is Argyle's Dickerson, a freshman. I wonder if NT even recruited him. I think NT can beat WKU, they may have done that last year with a healthy Tremial. NT does have an advantage in WKU not getting a bye and can only meet them in the finals with them playing their fourth game in four days. The other team I think a lot of NT fans are ignoring is Troy. Troy is 6-1 in February winning 8 of their last 9 games including beating the MUTS twice. They have five seniors that have started every game for them this year. Four starters average double figures with the fifth Jones avering 9 ppg. The good thing for NT is that Troy and WKU are both in the opposite brackets so NT only has to beat one.

Good points, but you are comparing Thompson who made the third team with Rohnert who was put on the first team. My point is although Denver run a variation of the Princeton offense, their scoring is not that far from the normal. Also Thompson's scoring numbers are much better than Rohnert's in conference play. It seems to me that conference statistics are a much more valid comparison for all conference honors than season's. I made the same point about Roberts, but that is just an example of how good players on bad teams are often overlooked. As far as honoring seniors, why? All conference honors should be based on the year not some type of career acheivement award. One of my pet peeves is Texas high school all district honors were almost every senior starter in any sport is all district .