xyresic

Jackson is the second highest rated prospect to ever sign with UNT (slightly behind Jordan Williams).

I think these are exactly the size recruits we should be targeting. ODU ran away from the pack in CUSA. Their top 7 scorers were: Stith - 6'5" Carver - 6'2" Green - 6'6" Goodwin - 6'5" Kithcart - 6'1" Ezikpe - 6'7" Wade - 6'5" They have a 7 footer but he averaged 3.2 pts and 3.6 reb per game. Our top 7 scorers were: Gibson 6'1" Woolridge 6'3" Smart 6'3" Miller 6'3" Duffy 6'1" Simmons 6'9" Draper 5'10" There are size differences there to be sure, but they aren't as extreme as a few have made them out to be. The guard out of SA Wagner is smaller than Duffy but arguably a better player. if we can bring in two recruits that are in that 6'4" to 6'6" range than our size matches well with theirs moving forward. Agree with Billy on quality vs quality.

This leaves out a key point, that if they chose to rent a spot they will have the cash from the sale of the building to help offset this new expense or to even purchase a new location. Other things to consider are that the new spot could be bigger/nicer and allow for them to do more business and service more customers. They could also potentially have a drive thru or a better way to quickly serve students and the walk up crowd etc.

I mean they were aware of the plan set out in 2013 that said the University was going to eventually want that land. It is now 2019, and they are acting like this was unforeseeable and there is no solution in the world. So it's either poor business strategy or posturing. Take the check and move to a new site nearby there will be plenty of options including literally right across the street. I am glad that campus will ultimately have reasonable looking things that make a true entrance.

If only the NTDaily was as critical of itself as it is of everything else in the world.

The primary issue here is similar to what was seen with Fball and WBB. Gmac had to basically cycle the whole roster and when you do that you will have some hits and misses, especially when year 1 had a shortened recruiting window. Benford took a lot of swings at JC/transfers and many missed, there was less developing guys where they stayed in the program for several years. There were a few exceptions but the roster was not well managed as a whole - we don't have to rehash it. He also recruited players not suited for Gmac's scheme. Gmac was left with a raw incoming Freshman in Simmons, Woolridge and Draper. Draper is great but he is clearly best suited as a roll player who can stick the 3. So he had to bring in 12 players in short order. Same with WBBall after Peterson left, Jalie had to basically recruit an entire team. She had to take a student who used to play basketball in high school and recruit her as a walk-on to get more depth. Seth had a big handicap in terms of quantity of players on the team when he came in. I think this year the football depth issue should finally be mostly addressed - it just takes time. When you are left with a hole on the roster you have to take some chances. When you roll the dice on transfers and JC players you will have some misses and then you add in injuries to a thin roster and you can get into trouble. Football is obviously more of a slow build from a roster perspective, but this is only Gmac's second year. He is doing the right thing, redshirting folks to get the roster built back up to normal D-1 standards. It helps you to build continuity and culture - the culture has already improved if you listen to the players speak. Players will always transfer, but we should be able to build teams that are solid and then have an even better peak every two or three years as our stars mature into Juniors and Seniors. Finally Gmac is smart and he understands that they need more bodies in the event the injury bug strikes again. If you listen to him talk he is honest about the shortcomings of the team and where the coaching staff needs to improve.

I think the real issue is that when a school has to telegraph plans publicly people with adjacent land see dollar signs. When approached they are happy to sell you property for 4 times its appraised value. It is not like the school sets out to hurt small businesses, but the media, alumni and students are generally sympathetic to the narrative of big corporation vs tiny family business that gets run out as leverage against the school. The prospect of eminent domain is the leverage the school has to get negotiations into a reasonable zone. I believe all of the Union food joints are owned by the school as franchises so they wouldnt be able to do that, but I am told there is interest in trying to secure them a spot in the new development across the street. That seems like a good outcome for all.

Rick is on point here. The DRC, the smaller online news sources, and even our own NT Daily do not always paint the school in a great light. Which is a shame, most cities rally around their schools. I think we all see the progress and good things happening, but it would be nice if media outlets gave less "opinion" pieces and more actual fact based reporting. It is not journalism to start with an agenda and then print things that fit into your already held beliefs. The NT Daily is critical of the school for not "supporting" it pretty often, when its funds were cut by student government (not the school itself but students) to provide additional funds for other areas. They don't mention that the new areas are things like academic support, that other orginizations also had funding cut and that that they get paid when most student orginizations don't. It is not a ton of money to be sure, but I feel like they have let this frustration seep into their journalism a bit more than they realize. As for the DRC it makes no sense, as a growing orginization and a huge Denton employer you think they would really cover the school well and highlight the positive a bit better. I think this is why things like the Athletic have taken off, good journalists writing in depth, researched articles is a winner. Edit for clarity: My comments are about the DRC as a whole, not Brett's coverage.

Great day for UNT!

Naming the Biz school

I didn't mention that UTA had been dropped in my post, it is generally poor form to throw dirt on another school. Since you brought it up, UTA did in fact get dropped and they had to file a protest to get reinstated. I'm sure you can imagine that they won't go on a PR tour touting that information. Our condolences to your basketball program. All kidding aside the more T1 schools in Texas the better, I think the state generally gets overlooked in higher ed.

Avery ended up ranked 9th in the state and commited to Ok State.

Big news that UNT maintains its Carnegie R1 status. They tightened up standards and the remaining Texas schools with this classification are UT, UTD, Rice, Tech, A&M, UH and UNT. http://www.kcbd.com/2018/12/18/texas-tech-receives-second-carnegie-tier-one-classification/

To clarify this does not relate to UNT, the Dallas location is a totally seperate entity. The title of the post doesn't make that clear.

And there you have it.

This is the same paper that got their funding cut by student government because they no showed for their presentation - then proceeded to blame the school for being out to get them 🙄

Agreed on item 1. It's almost as if two years ago SL's agent hired a former KSU associate AD...🤔 http://sportsagentblog.com/2016/05/24/caa-sports-hires-kansas-state-associate-athletic-director-clint-dowdle/

It is just as likely that the story was driven by a lawyer, as it came out with little substance over a year later. This actually happens more often than you'd think, and it gives the appearance that the school is hiding something because they are not actually allowed to talk about the student. This is an unfortunate situation all around, but with out hearing the other side of things you are just speculating here.

The report was meant to investigate the program's culture as a whole, rather than the incident. The actual report begins by saying as much and the University put out statements repeating this.

This seems like gotcha journalism to me - the writer takes a harmless quote and the other parts of the story are just his interpretation. Make them click to get your paycheck...

All of their contracts have been updated. General terms get settled on and then things have to go through official channels to get updated. NS put things in motion for SL and WB's new contracts in early 2018 once the regents passed the proposal. Vito had an article about it.

Brett does a solid job. Fans of every school complain that the team board's scoop the local paper. This is because the writers actually have to check sources & facts before just posting rumors. They often know things in advance but are told to hold them so as to not burn bridges with their sources.

The number I heard was 9 million and it came close to doubling the previous record. There was either an email or DRC article that had the exact numbers. I believe those were just 2017 numbers, we are only four months into 2018, so I would be surprised if something has been relased for this year.

Athletic's record breaking fund-raising year sent out enough heat to start the process.