GrandGreen

I think most of you are underestimating SMU, they will be better than any Belt club. Yes NT beat them, but they completely dominated Ark State last year. NT will have a very difficult time playing them away in the second game of TD's program. The emotional edge that NT enjoyed last year will have disappeared. Both teams will be up for the game. I will stick to my earlier 8-4 prediction with three OC loses, but NT will win the Belt with one loss.

2001, Jonas Buckles, Gardner, Casey, Kennedy, Ridgeway, and Hall. It must be realized though that you may be talking apples and oranges. TD actually recruited 5 or 6 players in some state 100 last year (Fort Worth, San Antonio newspapers). Now most focus on the rivals list as many papers and other media no longer create their own separate lists, but use Rivals. It will be very difficult for NT to get many players on the rivals 100 list, which IMO is primarily created based on "Big Boy" recruiting. A real catch 22 situation, if a player signs with a lower tier team then he by definition could not be considered a top level recruit.

Quinn was an exceptional athlete and played with great intensity. Unlike the vast majority, however I remember Ron Shanklin and I would have to put him at the top of the list. Shanklin was much faster than Quinn and went on to all pro status in the NFL. Shanklin obviously had a much better QB to throw to him, but unlike many I don't think that Quinn suffered because of DD's offense. Quinn despite playing in DD's run first offense actually got a lot of passes thrown his way and with most teams stacking the line against the run had his share of soft coverages. Shankin although benefiting from the Ramsey led offense had to share the ball with some other quality receivers such as Barry Moore and although NT throw a lot of passes in that era, NT did not use a spread offense and played with both a running back and fullback.

I don't have any list. But I was hoping for an obvious upgrade to the program. Hubbard's only coaching experience is as an assistant coach at NT, not exactly overwhelming. Last year, NT was last in fielding, hitting, and pitching in the Belt and only one of the new recruits played any significant minutes. Usually, when looking for a new coach you would want a coach with head coaching experience or at least an assistant from a top program. I hope the new coach is a great success but I wonder if there was a real search to get the best available.

Not exactly the step up that I had hoped for. From NT official athletic site Hubbard Named Head Softball Coach Courtesy: University of North Texas Release: 06/22/2007 DENTON, TEXAS (6/22/07) - TJ Hubbard has been named head coach of the North Texas softball team, Director of Athletics Rick Villarreal announced today. Hubbard served as interim head coach following Kelly Burns’ resignation in May. "After carefully considering all of the candidates for this job, TJ became the best choice as the person who could best lead the North Texas softball program to the distinction that we know is possible," Villarreal said. "He brings stability and a track record of success in developing young people into great softball players and high-character student-athletes." Hubbard has been a part of Mean Green softball from the very beginning. Hired as an assistant coach under former head coach Stacey Segal in August of 2003, Hubbard helped field the very first North Texas team in 2004. He continued as an assistant coach after Burns was hired in 2005. Keith Berg, who was hired as an assistant coach in 2005, will move up to the top assistant. "I am grateful and excited about the opportunity," said Hubbard. "I appreciate the support of the university and the athletic department. The future of North Texas softball is very bright." As an assistant at North Texas, Hubbard worked primarily with the hitters and the defense. In 2007, the Mean Green was ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in double plays per game (0.60). NT finished tied for first nationally in total double plays with a school-record 35 turns. For the third year in a row, the Mean Green shattered individual and team hitting records. In 2007, North Texas hit 42 home runs, two long balls shy of the school record set the year before. As a team, the Mean Green was ranked 80th in the NCAA in home runs per game (.72). Senior Susan Waters was one of the nation’s home run leaders, finishing 14th in home runs per game (.30). Her 17 home runs was one shy of tying her single-season school record. The two-time first-team All-Sun Belt honoree left the program holding 13 single-season and 15 career records, including the career home run record. "TJ’s coaching ability is reflected in the accomplishments by the players he coached," Villarreal said. "He was directly responsible for this team having the training and understanding of what is required to lead the nation and set team and individual records in several categories." Prior to his arrival at North Texas, Hubbard was the assistant softball coach at Seminole State College in Seminole, Oklahoma. In 2003, Hubbard help lead the Lady Trojans to a 64-16 record, a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Region II championship, and a third-place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association National Championship. Hubbard is a 2002 graduate of Oklahoma Wesleyan University in Bartlesville, Okla., where he received his bachelor’s degree in exercise science and sports management. He was a three-year letterman for the Eagles baseball team as a second baseman. He transferred to OWU from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. While at Oklahoma Wesleyan, he competed on OWU’s inaugural team in 1999. In 2000, Hubbard helped lead the Eagles to a post-season bid where they finished second in the Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Mean Green finished its fourth campaign with a 22-36 record, tying a school record for most wins in the program. The 2004 and 2006 teams each posted 22 wins. The 2007 team recorded its 22nd win in high fashion; defeating Louisiana-Lafayette, 6-5, in the opening round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. The seventh-seeded Mean Green gave ULL its first-ever conference tournament loss, while NT won its first-ever victory against the Ragin’ Cajuns.

Being wrong would not be a new experience, however the Burba standings points are awarded based on regular season performance. Maybe the conference champion is solely the tournament champion with the regular season winners being the Division champions. However, my point was for those that somehow have a hard time understanding the concept of co-championships should have problems with NT declaring itself conference champion when they were third in the Western Division.

I wonder why those people who complain about the MUTS describing themselves as Sun Belt Champions for winning the co-championship in football, don't point out that NT was not the conference champions in basketball. They were the Sun Belt tournament champions which because of the ticket to the NCAA tournament is much more important but they still finished the regular season as the fifth seed.

DD had one inexplicible great class 2001 with Kennedy, Spencer, Gardner, Buckles, etc. and parlayed it into 4 conference championships. I think he/staff did a good job of evaluating talent and even though he seldom got any players with offers from anyone other than Belt schools, he was at least conference competitive until his last few years. Finally, IMO DD's "woe is me" persona plus his constant put downs of the University and situation could not be overcome. NT was not only losing recruits to Belt schools but to 1aa programs. Who could be coaxed to join a program that the head coach deemed the most difficult in the nation? DD's attitude and frankly probably the laziest recruiting strategy in the nation spelled doom for DD. Even the extremely fugal NT administration could see that a $500k plus buyout of DD's contract was a bargain compared to the complete ruin of the football program. TD is doing a great job thus far of recruiting but I doubt if anyone at NT is going to compete with good BCS teams for players. TCU is currently a top notch non-power conference school in the best non BCS conference and they don't come close to recruiting against a UT, OU, or A&M and probably even a Baylor. It will take NT years and a couple of conference upgrades before they can challege a Big 12 school in recruiting.

You are getting a lot of whistling in the dark by NT rivals. They don't know what to make of all these early commits so they are hoping that the players won't stick or that TD is busy offering fringe players. By the way if they think SLC record is based on physical superiority, they obviously know nothing about Texas football. The Muts last year were a more fired up and better team than NT, I don't think either will be true in 2007. Let them talk, DD was a very crummy recruiter and yet won 4 championships. I can't wait to see what TD does to the Belt.

I doubt he is better than Bell. He averaged 5.4 pts, and around 2 assists a game for the 3-13 (conference record) SMU mustangs. Bell was a very good pg at year end. McCoy has led two national championship juco teams. Why in the world would NT recruit an average player in his last year at a position that should be strong. Now if he was available last year, a totally different answer.

A 5'11 point guard, with 3 point guards already on the team? What would he do other than take minutes from players who need to develop?

NT was co-champion with MTSU but won the right to the bowl game by winning head to head. NT is still the only Belt team to win a football championship out right, in fact three of them. MTSU has just has much right to call themselves champion as NT in the year they were tied. Yes NT beat the MUTS but also lost to a woeful UlM team. Every year it is always touted that the Belt is vastly improved. I don't see it; Troy had a good team last year just as NT had good teams a couple of years that could compete with at least the second third of the NCAA. The Belt still is far behind most conferences with most of the members being correctly triple digit rated. How many big victories did the league get last year? I can think of two: Troy over Rice and ULL over Houston. They did improve their record against 1aa teams. I think that there will be a dominant team arise that could match NT four straight conference championships that will be the club that moves on. IMO NT has as good or better chance then anyone to achieve this. However, I do not think that the 26 straight conference victories will be approached that was truly an impressive run.

Basketball has the potential to be a revenue sport but is far from it at NT. When your head coach's salary is more than your total home ticket sales for the year you have a problem.

IMO, you could guess about anyone on the team except the point. Bell demonstrated in the Belt tournament he can score but I think he will focus on point play and he will share the point with at least another player who will get good minutes. I believe Williams and Wooden will offset each other to a certain extent but both are capable of averaging 15 ppg. That leaves IMO either Dennis or Thompson. I will go with Dennis because I think he will get more minutes early than Thompson.

Both signed with Southern Nazarene University

Top 10 1. Termination of Dickey 2. Winning of Belt basketball tournament 3. Hiring of Todd Dodge 4. Dr. Bataille's support of athletics 5. Men's basketball recruiting class 6. Interest generated by Todd Dodge in football program 7. Improvement in football recruiting 8. New women's sports facilities 9. New coach in tennis 10. New coach in swimming Bottom 10 1. No announced progress on football stadium 2. Having to buy out DD's contract 3. DD's lack of composure in termination 4. Creation of lame Duck women's BB coach 5. Dr. Pohl's exit 6. Horrible support for BB programs 7. Football season record 8. Matress Mac's antics 9. Lost of BB recruit Flemings 10. Another off year for Jamario

I am sure that coaches are begging to work for lame duck Slinker. What a mess. The worse is that NT has the players to be very good next year. I guess I am just glad that RV didn't give her a five year contract instead of two.

Unfortunately, conference selections are a political process. With the Texas privates in CUSA, I would not be surprised that NT continues to be shunned. They do not want to compete with a larger and potententially a very formidable foe. All those who think all NT needs is a stadium, a baseball team, greater attendance, winning programs or any combination of these factors to get in CUSU may be in for a big disappointment. Not that NT should not strive and achieve all these things, but there are no guarantees. There are many reasons cited for UTEP selection to CUSU over NT. Attendance, better basketball, etc., but the fact is they were chosen over a much more logical pick, NT; despite having one of the traditionally worst football programs in the NCAA and a location completely out of CUSA's footprint. IMO, UTEP big advantage in gaining the privates votes was they were not seen as serious recruiting competition being hundreds of miles from any Texas CUSA members and being historically weak in football. That added to Eastern CUSU's desire to get a basketball name to soften the blow of losing their basketball powers sealed the deal. NT should continue to build its athletic programs and help grow the Belt and be ready for any athletic opportunities. CUSU may never happen, not only would NT have to overcome Western CUSU's fear of giving NT a competitive edge but also Eastern CUSU's probable desire to limited the number of Texas teams.

On the arrogance of Memphis and CUSA. As far as TCU, I doubt if it was a serious inquiry, that incompetent Memphis AD would have announced it to the world. It is amazing to me that CUSA thinks they can look down on anyone.

I think although Thompson was rated the seventh best player at one time on the Brewster team, he really came on at the end of the season and would have rated much higher at the end of the season. Most of the players for Brewster were early signees and in effect placed at the school by the universities. Early signees from Iowa State, UT and Arizona as well as Creighton and Idaho made for strong competition for playing time. Despite starting out on the bench at the beginning of the year, Tristan ended up being the leading scorer in most of the play off games at Brewster. Just looking at the bios and game recaps, no doubt that the Arizona signee was the diamond at Brewster, but other than him I think Thompson may be the best prospect. I agree with Cooley, Thompson could be something very special. On paper he is the best high school signee for NT since Chris Davis.

All this discussion about CUSA. CUSA is far from the Big Twelve and in my mind only a step ahead of the Belt. I doubt seriously that the budget is a number set in stone because no-one accounts for revenue or expenses the same way. For example, what is the cost of a scholarship used in SMU's budget compared to NT; about 6 times the expense because of their much higher tuition despite the actual costs being almost identical . Wonder why the Louisiana schools ala Louisiana Tech are much lower than their counterparts in expenditures ? Unless they have changed in the last few years, the cost of athletes tuition is not even charged to the athletic department. There is not a team in the Belt that does not expire to better things. The Muts are no different but frankly few fans care one bit about Bubas Cup standings. As I stated in a previous post the key to winning an all sports trophy is having a good track program with track/cross country accounting for a third of the points awarded. If NT really cared about this competition they would upgrade in track, a sport I do believe that NT is happy with mediocrity in. They could also follow the MUTs lead and recruit more foreign athletes to booster their non-revenue sports if winning is that important.

Congratuations to Heath. He has worked very hard and improved every year and completed well in every throwing event. I wish NT had more track athletes like him that actually develop at NT. It seems most of NT's track athletes struggle to even match, much less improve on their best high school marks.

A lot of players go to prep schools because they have not shown the academic process to get admitted to an university directly out of high school. Others are recruited as undergraduates to power house basketball preps to develop their game more than their academics. IMO it would be a better world without most of the prep schools. While the majority probably do provide good educations, others do not; and they kill athletic competition as the best really field all star basketball squads that other teams have little chance of beating. Obviously they recruit or how else did a kid from Angleton, Texas end up in New Hamphire? To give you an idea of the extent of their recruiting, I saw one rating system of all high school players in New Hamphire and basically all of the top players were from prep schools. Thompson in this rating was listed as the seven best player on the Brewster Team.