GMG_Dallas

You're all wrong about why Ron Hunter was upset. I was there and heard it all clear as day. Ron was coaching his team when he caught something in the corner of his eye. "A Rugaru," he shouted in a panick. An assistant came over and asked him, "where, where?" "Right there! It was right there! I swear!" "Coach, it's just a couple students," said the assistant while pointing at two well put together students clad in their favorite North Texas attire. Security came over and asked what the commotion was about to which Ron insisted he had seen a Rugaru. Confused, the security guard went and got one of UNT PD's finest who determined there was no Rugaru, just a couple of students enjoying the game. The officer and security had the students return to their seats and told Ron there was no Rugaru in Denton, America. Frazzled, Ron redirected his attention to the game. I wasn't sure what had happened until today, reading this thread. Now it all makes sense. Saying he was also there, making up claims of what was said, and giving descriptions of red-headed people who weren't there. Maybe Ron was right. Maybe the Rugaru was in fact at the Pit yesterday. Maybe MeanGreen_MBA is the Rugaru.

So I don't make it to many games, sadly. Just the way it's been with my schedule and living an hour and a half away. I can't make a 3 hour round trip back-to-back days while having to keep young kids happy. I joked with my wife yesterday that next season I'm getting season tickets and I'll just make the drive to games alone and leave her with the kids. She didn't find it funny. What surprises me every time we go, and I again pointed it out to my wife yesterday, is how few students go to games. I don't remember student attendance being so poor when I attended UNT but maybe I'm not remembering well. Our student attendance, be it at men's or women's games, just sucks and I don't understand why.

Looked like a couple students hurt Tulane's feelings so they had security/police make them return to their seats or get kicked out. I too was on the opposite side but that's what it looked like happened.

I don't particularly care about the name of the team. I care about NET rankings and specifically Quad 1 and 2 games. Road games against Minnesota and DePaul this year, even with them being bottom half conference teams, are currently Quad 2 games. Those teams, by virtue of their conference slate, are more likely to rise in the NET rankings with a few conference wins while schools from the conferences you listed are on thin ice once they get to conference play just like we are. To answer your question, I'm really not sure what will move the needle other than a win against a big name program in THE tourney or a deep big tourney run. The only real way to get an at-large is with a strong OOC. Otherwise it's auto-bid or bust. I thought I posted this earlier but my internet was unreliable at the Pit.

Good win. Not much negative to say about the team's performance. Every time they were hit with a run, they hit back harder.

They're pretty much done on a yearly basis with the exception of some home-home agreements. From what I've seen, even the mid-season tournaments are scheduled only about a year in advance. I see what you're saying about the road contests not being Quad 1 for the home team. Enter the neutral site game. Like with Mississippi State last year, schedule a neutral site close-ish to the opponent so it's likely to still be a Quad 1 game for them as long as we finish in the top 50 which we have been pretty consistently for the past few years now. There's quite a few mid-majors with good schedules that we should be mirroring. For example, Dayton played Northwestern, North Carolina, Iowa State, Connecticut, Marquette, UNVL, and Cincinnati. Santa Clara played Arizona State, Nevada, Stanford, TCU, Washington, McNeese, and Bradley. New Mexico played UCLA, St John's, Arizona State, USC, and VCU. It's hard for me to believe we can't schedule like them because schools are "afraid" of us.

I believe we can beat just about any bottom half Big 12, Big 10, Big East, and ACC school this year. This year's SEC seems different but I still think we stand a chance against a few of them... those bottom half of those conferences are the schools I'm asking to schedule though. Can you really know who will be good on any given year? No but you can kind of guess based on recent trends. The beauty of the portal is you see who a program is getting every season. It's not like before where you might have to guess how existing players progress or how freshmen do. The bottom halves of those conferences have plenty of schools in your NET 50-150 range plus they come with some conference appeal.

I don't believe this for one second. This stuff is about Quad 1 and Quad 2 games. That's what resumes boil down to. It doesn't matter what the school is named. Alabama hosted McNeese State this year who's NET is about what ours is and made the tournament last year. You look at most other AAC schools and their OOC was similar to ours. My opinion is this is why our coaches don't want to schedule tough OOC: "There several performance incentives included in the contract, including one tied to the number of wins UNT posts in a season. Hodge will receive $7,500 if UNT wins 20 games, $17,500 if the Mean Green reach the 25-win mark and 37,500 for winning 30 games." https://dentonrc.com/sports/colleges/mean_green/unt-new-basketball-coach-ross-hodge-agree-to-basic-terms-of-five-year-deal/article_32af169c-33ec-5e85-8226-5637457e6cc5.html They schedule a couple tough tests to appease the fans and "prepare the team" and then load up with winnable games. High major schools don't care about wins, it's all about winning the conference, making the tournament, and then winning that. Playing North Texas doesn't change that either way. Schedule them. FAU played at UCF and Michigan State this year. So can North Texas.

Then play them in their house. An away loss at Kentucky is worth more than a home win versus Mississippi Valley. I'd rather have 4 road games against high-major schools than play bottom of the barrel schools at home. If you split those road games vs high majors, that likely puts you at 2-2 in Quad 1 games which would look great on our resume. A Quad 1 road game just needs to ge top 75. At our house they have to be top 30. It's almost more beneficial to be on the road because there's more room for error. Neutral site opponents need to be top 50 which is why so many schools do those tournaments. There's a ton of room for error. You just need to go .500.

Absolutely agree. Looking at Memphis, if they take a couple conference losses, it's OK because their OOC is good enough to make-up for it. Our OOC is such that we can't afford any conference losses. I believe we're good enough to make the tournament but our resume suggests we haven't proven it and with our OOC, we were barely had the opportunity to prove it.

Conference name is meaningless if the teams aren't performing. Y'all want more bids? Go to the new Pac. Otherwise, we'll get left behind. Not enough money? AD needs to remember to make money you have to invest money first.

Man, I miss those days...

Dang. For the sake of the team, swith it back!!

Losing isn't necessarily the problem. It's how we lost. 15 turnovers, 7 shots blocked, and an atrocious final possession. Play a clean game and get off a legit shot at the end and you still lose? It is what it is. Hodge got a free chance to draw something up and that's the best we could do?

That being your final offensive possession with 8 seconds to go is criminal. Staff has some reflecting to do.

Great and simple way of putting it. I often wonder if we're even passing on good shots just for the sake of slowing pace. It's illogical at times.

Last 25 seconds was not UNT basketball. Jacking up a deep 3 down 2 and then going for an alley oop?

An embarrassing first half. I don't doubt we'll make a comeback but WTF.

Put the ball in the hoop to get points, guys. Then you score more than them to win the game.

Sounds like a great idea. Many big programs stack talent in the form of former coordinators all over their staff disguised as analysts. My assumption would be Harrell wants to be an OC and we just don't have that position open. If his goal is to get another big OC gig, he's probably better off spending a year as ACU's OC than he is North Texas' "passing game coordinator," though.

Oh yeah I see what you mean. Yeah, neutral sites can really mask a lot. Much different environment than a true road game.

The SEC had a great record this year in OOC. My point is they are largely refusing to play true road games.

Yup. It sucks but it is the current reality. All we can do is try getting into a good in-season tournament every year and maybe 1 High-major at home. And I know our fans may hate it but I wouldn't mind playing 4-5 road games against the High-majors every year along with that tournament. It may only give us 3 or 4 home OOC games but if it means making the big dance, it's worth it. We'd be better off going 3-5 in Quad 1 OOC games than 9-3 with only 3 Quad 1 OOC games and I absolutely believe we could steal a few Quad 1 wins given more opportunity. Worth remembering a neutral site game only needs to be against a top 50 team to be Quad 1. Those 7 home OOC games we got this year are worthless save for Oregon State.

I was kind of with you until you brought in South Carolina. They would barely be .500 in the AAC. They beat ECU at home by 7. That same ECU is 4-4 in the AAC which brings me to my next point. The SEC, and other power conference schools, really avoid playing mid-majors and law-majors on the road. It's a loss for them no matter what. They lose on ticket sales, the win doesn't benefit them much, and if they lose, it hurts them too much. Alabama played 2 road OOC games this year, one at Purdue and one at #292 5-15 North Dakota who they beat by 7. Alabama also beat McNeese at home by 7 while we got them on the road. Florida, Texas A&M and Auburn each played 1 true road OOC game and Tennessee played 2 while Kentucky played zero. Without going through every schedule, I think you get the point. We look at Memphis as our conference's standard and they went 2-2 against the mighty SEC. When AAC teams take Memphis down to the wire, is it really that hard to see the gap isn't at large as people think it is? We, and others, just need true opportunities. The P4s buy home games and take their risky games to neutral sites because most don't want to play tough road games. Then we wonder why 30 P4 teams make the tournament and 20 get canned the first round. Edit to say i realize there's technically no P4 in basketball. I do think the SEC/BIG10/BIG12 especially get some favoritism come selection time.

All we can do is hope the team stays motivated and takes care of business. Reading body language for guys like Atin Wright and Brennan Lorient, they look like they're on a mission.