KRAM1

This is really one for Comedy Central. UNT has not even seen the start of it's affiliation with CUSA and already the Mean Green Nation seems to have found something to complain about...the Basketball Tournament site. Greatness!

I dare say you might want to think twice about that passport thing. Juarez is not the safest of places to be these days. Lots of things to do on the US side of the border if you go to El Paso. Am just wondering how the "feel" of the tournament might be in a larger city like El Paso? It was fun running into Mean green fans on the streets in Hot Springs and you could pretty much walk all over the town during the tournament. Team watering holes were close, etc. I wonder how it might be in El Paso? I guess we'll find out soon enough! Viva El Paso!

Really appreciate the update and report. Glad to see there was a decent turnout and that there were definitely a few good prospects...in spite of what you posted...you DO definitely know a good player when you see one. FACT! You hit the nail on the head with Coach Mac. He is very good at remembering the little things that will help in years to come with building relationships with HS coaches and in establishing pipelines for UNT. The patient among us understand that this stuff does take a bit of time....however, I am looking for 6-6 or 7-5 this year...and better next when UNT hits CUSA! Can it happen with Coach mac and Co.? ABSOLUTELY! Let's get it on! Thanks for the report, but most of all...thnaks for taking the time to head over to CH for the camp. Much appreciated.

Good points made. I think, for a lot of the criticism that this department gets from mostly the same folks over and over, it comes from people who have not experienced any other program FIRST HAND other than UNT. They never attended other universities (of larger and/or smaller size and with vastly different budget differences), so it;s really hard for them to know or even compare. They see other schools doing something...even schools smaller in size or in the same conference...differently than UNT and they "assume" everything is equal, so UNT should be the same. Same priorities, same budgets, same number of staffers and coaches, etc., etc. That's just not the case, and if you have attened other universities you know it's not the case. So, sometimes the comparisons just ring hollow. Now, what every school can do, no matter size or budget, is to have good "customer service". But, for those of us who have worked with the public and had to hire inexperienced personnel on limited budget you know how hard this can be as well. You can preach and train, but with interns, volunteers and inexperience, you don't always get through, and it gets frustrating to keep trying. But, you simply must if you are in a management position. One of the challenges I have in today's world is that what I preached as good customer service to my staffs for over 30+ years seems to be way above the normal level of customer service one receives in most establishments these days. I am wondering if folks even know what good customer service is these days? If you have not worked with the public, and many of the folks I see complaining on GMG.Com and elsewhere about UNT and its Athletic Dept.'s level of customer service have not, in their professional careers, had to worry much about the general public it seems. If they had, they might be taking a different approach to being heard and in trying to get their concerns taken seriously. That "general public" can be pretty unreasonable and certainly lacking in the knowledge of how to correctly handle an "issue" so that it actually gets attention. Tough to deal with the public and it's an art form learned over years and through experience. And, even with experience, one can certainly "screw it up" from time to time...how well I know that as well. No excuses...good customer service should be the standard everywhere...great customer service should be the goal. Larger staffs, experienced staffs and bigger budgets can certainly help.

WOW! Thanks for posting this...I now have an ever better reason to watch the US Open this year...Go Cole. The Mean Green Nation is pulling for you...let's make that cut and play on the weekend. Top 10 finish!!!!!!

I believe Mac held some camps last season as well. I know UNT had one in CH and I believe there were others as well. CH camp is today starting at 9AM. Hopefully someone will report on how it went and how many players showed, etc.

Well...here you go...at least my source...I read extensivly about WWII and have an pretty extensive book collection/library...the attributed quote is as follows: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass". My source....The Prange files....late Gordon W. Prange...Chief Historian to Gen Douglas A. McArthur. You will find some "controversy" regarding this quote...folks who don't like US citizens owning guns have written aryticles claiming the quote is false. Interesting as the Prange Files pre-date such "controversy".

One of the reasons that the Japanese, early on in WWII when they were on the offensive shortly after Pearl Harbor, decided against an invasion of the US west coast was the fact that Adm. Yamamoto, who had spent a good bit of time in the US, argued that it would be suicide for the Japanese to do that as so many people in the US owned and knew how to use guns! True fact. The anti-gun lobby can whine and moan all they want about private ownership of guns in the US, but it will not change the fact that private ownership of guns is not going away in the US. On the other hand, will the anti-gun folks be able to curtail certain types of gun ownership? Probably, but you know...if they really wanted to control ownership they might should actually look more to the restriction of ammunition. Might have better luck. I don't own a gun...don't care to, but may well get my CHL soon....before the anti-gun nuts start to try to shut that down as well. The NRA, while I am not a member, has every right to lobby and spend any amount of funds his membership can muster to protect the rights of US citizens to own guns...just as the anti-gun folks can spend all they want to try to deny citizens their rights.

Well, let's hope Stoops holds his ground with these guys...might send a bit of a lesson to the team that he will no longer condone bad behavior and violations of team rules. My guess, however, is that he has players already in position that he likes as well as these guys, so it's probably not a big deal for him to dump a few trouble makers. As laxtonto says, let's keep watching this and see if they reappear this fall on the team.

I don't, but last time I posted "who cares" someone took offense after not understanding what I was trying to say.....

The UNT Alumni assoc. just this year hosted a national conference of Alumni Associations at UNT and had a great turnout. The gateway center is way too small and has far inadequate space to host any event of any real size. Its' great for certain things and was built not as a convenetion center, but to handle much smaller events. It is even getting to be too small to host the Alumni Association's twice annual Ring Ceremony for graduating seniors. There is really no place in denton to house any conference of any size and that is the reason Denton does not compete with some of the cities mentioned in this thread. There is no one hotel large enough to house any group of any real size...thus, while Denton has seen a nice increase in hotel/motel rooms in the last few years, no one of the properties is actually large enough. So, if you want to bring mid-sized (and even smaller conferences) to Denton and if you want a place in Denton to be able to hold larger events such as Chamber of Commerce events within the city of Denton itself, the this conference center and hotel is a pretty important development. There will be the usual number of naysayers who want Denton to stay the sleepy little college town that they see it as (and, of course, which it has not been for over 20 years now), the same number of "not in my backyard folks, the same number of of just plain negative on everything folks that always come out of the woodwork in cases where Denton and/or UNT is doing some development, but the bottom line here is that this is a needed addition for Denton. The positives far outweigh any negatives that these folks can drum up...in my opinion, of course. Let the dirt start turning and flying on this project ASAP. The sooner the better for me.

Hey...Happy Birthday...I'm probably a tad late to this party, but wanted to add my 2 cents anyway...appreciate your support for UNT and I hope you had a great day...it's your day....Happy B'day!

That was some pretty rough testimony yesterday. Even in happy valley and with a pro-Happy Valley jury it looks pretty tough for Sandusky at this point...you never know in jury trials, but man, that was some graphic and tough testimony yesterday.

I think she should call FFR and then he can post about all this person's challenges with the UNT athletic program. At least it would be something new.

Well, he does have LaLa headed in the right direction and in the Sunbelt in the coming years the Ragin' Cajuns may well be the "hunted"...we'll have to read about that as the Mean Green will be long gone from the Sunbelt. I'm really happy for the long suffering fans of the Ragin' Cajuns as they are always nice when visiting teams come to town and have certainly made me feel welcome. It seems way past time for these guys to turn this long suffering program around. Good luck to the Ragin' Cajuns...except, of course, when the Mean Green takes 'em on in the last year of Sunbelt play for the Mean Green.

Any outside "issues" with this guy? Something seems a tad "strange" here to me....

PLEASE GOD, let it be the Thunder! I hope the Heat NEVER win a championship as long as the "three egos" remain on the team. Just me...if you are a Heat fan...no problem...but, they SUCK!

Really? Seiously? This is the line you think is the lame one in this thread? Seriously?

Well deserved. Congrats to RV!

Some very good points made in this thread, and it would be very hard to disagree with anything said. However, I would also add that one reason the "outside" perception of UNT is what it is can be in part traced to the fact that UNT's own like to criticize and complain and everything that is the Mean Green and do it in VERY public ways. Folks, this stuff hurts more than you know. During my banking days I heard it over and over again when visiting with clients and when when discussions turned to sports. It often came up on the golf course as well with clients. Can't tell you how many times I was asked why UNT fans complain about UNT so much. It's well known around the metroplex...as least in the business circles I worked within for some 30+ years. So, one needs to think about that as well. To me, except for a very hard core but declining group of "the sky is falling and everything is done better elsewhere" crowd, this perception is changing within the Mean Green family. And that, folks, is a very good thing indeed. Mean Green pride is returning and retuning in a big way, even among our student body and faculty and staff it appears. Perhaps it is time for the "everything is bad crowd" to take note. As with re-building a winning program from pretty much ashes and improving facilities, it takes time! This will not happen overnight or even within a year or two, but progress is and will continue to be made. If some would just stop looking for every little thing THEY think is a problem, they might even be able to see some good stuff happening and changing. It's hard to see the good stuff with one's head buried deeply in the "sky is falling and everything is bad" sand...or elsewhere and when folks who think that way seem to only communicate with those of a like mindset. Winning is definitely number one in getting UNT "over the hump". And that involves recruiting, facilities, coaches, etc. And, it takes time and dollars. UNT has the time, but donor dollars are another thing. Folks like to compare UNT with other programs and what they do and how they do it, but all to often fail to compare staffing numbers, budgets and donor numbers and dollars. I'm enjoying the ride and hope that the ride to the top culminates while I am still "young" enough to enjoy it. Yes, it takes time...Anyone who has even half-a brain knows that...what we all should consider is being supportive of the program in public and doing what we as individuals can do to help....you decide what you can do and are willing to do...but we can all be positive about the university and the athletic program in public. Everyone probably knows the saying...."criticize in private, praise in public". Seems like a great idea to me. Now, let the winning begin as that cures more ills in college sports than just about anything. On that we can all probably agree.

My earlier point exactly! Obviously NT03 missed that point. My post was thoughtful content and, if folks took any time to think about it rather than just trying to be cute, they would have known exactly what I was trying to say. Perhaps you said it better and in a bit more "basic" way so some (NT03) could actually understand the point i was trying to make. It's no big deal, in my opinion, at all if this guy is straight or gay, and really isn't news of note these days...thus...WHO CARES?

Just waiting for someone to turn this into a "it must be RV's fault" thread.

Probably about as happy as you liberals are for bringing us the Frankenstein that sits in the Oval Office at White House these days.

Who cares?

You can coach technique...you can't coach speed. You cannot turn a slow guy into a fast guy. You can turn a fast guy into a football player...anyone else remember Bob Hayes? One reason the Mean green lost so many games in the last few years is that the team as a whole WAS SLOW! I mean real slow....so, give me a little speed and I'm thinking the rest Coach mac and Co. can take care of...no, I am not talking about a kid who cannot spell football and has no experience. You know what I mean here. And, if you think Coach Mac and Co. is not going after the highly recruited guys as well...you are sadly mistaken. If anyone here thinks that after one year and a 5 win season that 4 & 5 star recruits are going to be flocking to UNT, you are NUTS! It's a process...UNT will get "left at the alter" more often than not right now with these highly rated guys, but UNT IS recruiting them...and that's a start. Just because UNT is now a CUSA team and that certainly does help...it will not open the flood gates to tons of 5 and 4 star guys! Patience grasshopper, patience. What I want is progress...positive progress and I saw that last year and I have seen that in spring ball this year...we'll see how the recruiting battles play out and we'll all get to judge success on the field.