GrandGreen

Yes, seems to work well with Odufuwa, but not so much with Spencer.

NT looking better. Anyone know why channelsurfing picture is so much better than normal university feeds?

Early but this looks like two junior high teams playing. At least the second line is showing a little life.

Why does NT seemingly alway start so slow. Tramiel getting his second foul twenty feet from the basket.

The only game I remember at Loos was against #1 Marquette, a long time ago.

Sure they count as wins and in all the NCAA statistics. Wins against sub-division teams are not factors in the rpi ratings but count in everything else unless they are designated an exhibition game by NT.

I will bet on that, UNT-Dallas will be not only here but could be thriving. I also would guess that they will at least have a basketball program by that time.

The ladies got a rare big win 90-67 over ULALA (9-20,4-13) NT led by Godbolt and Kellum both with double doubles. Godbolt 16 pts, 12 rbs Kellum 20 pts. 12 rbs

The Superpit was build as an all events arena and public funds were used. Note, it is still not under the supervision of the athletic department, hence robot games booting the team out of the venue. The SP was build partly to accommodate a large part of the student body for special events as well as the hope that NT would continue to grow the basketball audience. Remember, that the pit with a capacity of around 4400 was sold out a lot of the time with a student body of around 14,000. I would estimate that at least 2/3 of the attendance in those days were students. So it is not difficult to see how a 10,000 seat arena could have been justified based on the projected student body. Sadly the deterioration of the MVC as most of the marquee teams moved out and the increasing competition from tv and the pros were probably not anticipated. I really believe that there were a few in the administration that had the vision of building up the NT basketball program, but sadly they never provided the funding necessary to maintain NT as one of the premier Texas basketball programs.

Odus Mitchell was good a coach by all accounts but I didn't see his teams. If you are going to go by records you would have to put Jack Sisco ahead of Mitchell. As far as Rust's success being "largely because of Mitchell's recruits" bs. I have heard this many times and no doubt Mitchell left Rust some great players in particular Joe Greene along with others. However, Steve Ramsey, Ronnie Shanklin and many others were much more a product of Rust. Although Ramsey and Shanklin may have been on a winless freshman team under Mitchell, I would think their development should be credited to Rust and staff. Cedric Hardman was a small defensive back under Mitchell but grow and turned into a first round draft choice under Rust. Rust also added players like first round draft choice Lenard Dunlap to the team. Rust was a victim largely of his success as he was made AD and was actually partly responsible for the athletic fund cuts that happened in his late career at NT. The killer to the program, however was a rule change that made it much more difficult for jucos to transfer. Rust had a large class of jucos including 5 or 6 first team All Americans that were all deemed ineligible. NT is essence lost almost an entire recruiting class. Also NT gradually lost the great advantage they had by being one of the few Texas and Southern schools that recruited black athletes.

The turnaround in swimming has been miraculous. Before Dystra a fourth place finish in any event was the highlight of the Belt Meet. Also for those who have not noticed both golf teams are on big upward swings. The men's team were only five strokes behind the winner in their last tournament playing four freshmen.

qb-Dodge rb-Dunbar wr-Casey wr-Jackson wr-Stradford te-Olawale ot-Gill og-Franklin c-Johnson og-Drake ot-Santiago de-Obi dt-Atkisson dt-Jackson de-Miller Lb-Robertson lb-Johnson lb-Graham cb-Hill s-Hughes s-Smith cb-Wood Second team qb-Tune rb-Mathis wr-Outlaw wr-Bynes wr-Lewis te-Ross ot-Tomlinson og-Freeley c-Fortenberry og-Flax ot-Bean de-Akpunku dt-Cantly dt-Anyiam de-Weber lb-Prior lb-Penson lb-Phillips cb-McCord s-Cook s-Downing cb-Ford Assuming not many more personnel loses, this team should have a lot of depth.

My link Thomas reported no longer with team. May hurt this year, but another ship for next year is great.

Now Dodge has the type of coaching staff he should have begin with initially. I think the Dodge experiment really demonstrates why there are not more high school coaches that make the jump directly into FB Division football. The coaches may have been truly great at the lower level but the skills required at the college level are not only different but the competition is much more intense.

Interesting discussion, my opinion is that JJ certainly deserves to be considered one of the best coaches in NT basketball history, the only coach I would put above him based on teams I have seen would be Spika. Spika's teams beat several top twenty teams and he coached a very fast paced game and he managed to win in the MVC without the greatest talent. Looking back at old scores can be very misleading unless you want to do a lot of research. However, most of NT's teams in the last fifty years have been mediocre at best and downright bad a lot of the time with only a handful of exceptions. It is much easier to win 20 games now than it was a decade or more back. More games and power-puff oc schedules have made the twenty game standard much less meaningful. However, despite serious injuries NT is posed to have it's best Belt season ever. Frankly, NT has no great wins and has more than a few loses that should not have happened but once again seems to be peaking at the right time. I think most acknowledge the job that Jones has done, but still want the team to take the next step up. Winning 20 games is very good, but moving the team to consistently be a top 100 school should be the next objective. It should also be realized that Jones as well as every coach since moving up from the Southland is working against much better supported conference programs. To get to that next step is going to take a lot more support than NT currently has. Having a very generously counted attendance of less than 3,000 including in most games a few hundred students does not provide much of a base to build a program on.

Ladies win 70-64 over UNO. Godbolt with big game and James clutch at free throw line at end. NT now 7-18 and 4-10 in conference.

Why an extension? Nothing against JJ but I think it is foolish for an University like NT to give out 5 year contracts. Excluding the initial contract were it may be necessary to give out a five year contract to get the right coach. Although I wonder why a high school football coach or a woman basketball coach with little experience warranted 5 year contracts. We all are aware of the Dodge situation but what if Stephens has another season like the first two next year and with two years left on her contract? The facts are that contracts never bind coaches to schools and most leave as soon as they get a better offer despite their contract status. On the other hand, if things go South, like in the case of Dickey; the University has an expensive buyout to deal with. I have nothing against giving JJ a raise but why tie the school down for little reason with a longer agreement. I would always extend a good coaches' contract out were they would never be in the last year of their agreement but why go further than that? What does NT have to gain from granting JJ a long term contract? If JJ is wildly successful and starts to win big, perpetual top 50 program, then he is going to merit big bucks. He is either going to go to greener pastures or renegotiate for more dollars at NT. The current contract means nothing. If JJ starts to lose more often and doesn't continue to advance the program, NT is stuck with a buyout or a coach they may not want. If JJ continues the status quo, keeps NT in the upper echelon of Belt teams but never really elevates the program, then a long term contract really gives NT no more advantage than a rolling two year agreement. If anyone deserves a long term contract at NT athletics, Jones does. I just don't think it is a wise plan to unduly obligate the University when the potential downside in long-term contracts far outweighs any possible gain.

That was way too close. FIU plays well against NT if no one else.

Anyone else enjoying the some women's game instead of the NT game on NT athletic site.

Not the first half we wanted. NT defense needs to get a lot better in the second half.

Simon's problem was not signing jucos, it was he ran off the majority of Parkers' players plus the inherent issue of raising the ship level to 85 from the lower 1-aa level. Recruiting jucos is not a particular problem with maintaining scholarship numbers. Where it hurts teams is when you want to reduce the number of jucos, it leaves a shortage of upper class players as a larger senior class buoyed by two year players are replaced with freshmen. While there are a few success stories of teams who thrived by recruited big numbers of jucos, in the long run most coaches don't think it is a good strategy.

It is obvious who the last recruit was. However, I didn't know the name and had hopes he was a 5 star defensive end.

Hopefully they can finish strong, they are young and definitely playing short handed. They are going to have to start playing defense, they just can't continue to let players drive uncontested to the basket. Maybe they were trying compensate for the 20 threes they gave up against Middle but there was no interior defense tonight.

I am going to exclude current coaches because their legacy is still in progress. Best: 1. Hayden Fry - A true visionary, too bad not even he could wake up the North Texas Administration. 2. Dan Spika - Coached exciting fast break basketball against the best in the nation and beat several top twenty teams. 3. Ron Rust - Coached IMO the best NT football team in history. Too often remembered for his last years which were largely unsuccessful due in part to continued budget cuts. 4. Bill Blakeley/Gene Robbins - Robbin's teams never had a winning record but he recruited arguably the best basketball class in history, Blakeley won big with Robbin's recruits but was a .500 coach after they graduated. 5. Darrell Dickey - Four conference championships and first bowl win in decades. H.M. Corky Nelson - Provided a lot of entertaining football and had a great knack for playing the big games. H.M. Johnny Gales - Coached a good brand of basketball, first to take a team to the NCAA tournament. Worst: 1. Vic Trilli - Horrible record but even worse was how he treated the players he inherited. Never let the truth get in front of a good story. 2. Darrell Dickey - Could have had the success somewhere else he coveted; if he could just have kept his mouth shut. Seemed to never miss a chance to run down his employer and play the poor me card. (Note: Being on both lists is probably not fair, but couldn't totally ignore his accomplishments ) 3. Tommy Newman - Newman collected a bunch of highly talented but apparently non-academic minded players at Texas Wesleyan and won a lower division national championship in a year they also stomped NT. NT then hired him and preceded to get a number of not only losing but boring basketball seasons. 4. Jerry Moore - A great coach for years now at Appalachian State, but an absolute horrible hire for NT. Taking over after Fry, he inherited a 10-1 team almost intact. He took a team build on speed that ran a multiple offense and tried to turn them into a 4 yards and a cloud of dust Nebraska clone. For example: Bernard Jackson one the best runner in NT history did not start for Moore, he also replaced all of a defensive backfield that was close to leading the nation in interceptions the year before. 5. Stacy Segel - NT first softball coach in the new era. After being hired almost 2 years before the initial season, she was fired after her first season went 22-57. Not a bad record for a new team unless you factor in she played about 20 games more than the NCAA limit. H.M. Bob Tyler - Didn't make the worst list because he only messed up one year before fired. H.M. Harry Miller - One year basketball coach who left for greener pastures after one year.

FAU beat the Green 76-94. This team plays no defense.