Side.Show.Joe

Thanks for posting this.

Great article. I'll be purchasing a copy of that book too. Here is a picture I took of the Haynes bust before installation.

But UNT has still never been sanctioned by the NCAA. There aren't many 100 year old athletic departments that can say that.

I'd never down vote you for having an opinion. And he seems okay to me, but Morris is our guy and we can't give up on him after one substandard season. I like Morris and do hope he can bring his defensive standard up to his offensive standard. Besides Barbay is also an air-raid guy, the offense probably wouldn't be that different, Again, the defense is our problem.

I'm cautiously optimistic (I did pick up an extra season ticket this season). But, I did think we needed a flood of high quality defensive additions over the off-season, and it seems like most of our bigger additions were still on offense... which most of us feel is great. It's the defense that is causing most of the concern around the program. And let's face it. Defense has been the issue with every coach that's sprouted from the Leach coaching tree. It's a carry over from the Littrell years.

I think it's a combination of factors. The economy is bad, regardless of which side of the aisle you are on, and there is uncertainty regarding where NIL and pay for play is going (and all with no cap). Add in the potential of the power conferences actually breaking away or at least stacking the deck even more in their favor, and it's easy to see how fans that aren't hardcore would retract from investing too much of their time and money.

I can't make the USA game, but I'd be interested in other opportunities. Please PM me on how to follow y'all on LinkedIn. Thanks.

I feel uncertain too. No news on the athletic center expansion. No breaking stories about anything. I want to be positive. I even pick up an additional season ticket for this year. The defense still scares the crap out of me. Until we see some improvement in an actual game, it's hard not to have concerns. But my biggest concern is if we got better mercenaries than the other teams in our conférence. I truly believe that the program that won the portal Olympics in the off-season, will win the conference and earn that first G5 playoff spot. Right now, my money is on Memphis.

I don't view Wyoming as a toss up. Maybe on paper, but expect our high powered offense with an assist from the September heat, to pull away in the second half. If we can't beat Wyoming at home in September, it's going to a long season. I think we finish 7-5 with wans against USA, SFA, Wyoming, Tulsa, Army, ECU, & Temple. I base this prediction on us fielding moderately better defense this season. I figure they can't mathematically be worse than last year.

Yeah. I'm old and always renew my tickets over the phone. But, that entire tickets in the phone thing is a real pain. I miss the physical tickets.

This is sad news. Abner was a legend, but he was also really nice person, despite all he endured. I'm grateful to have met him I hope the team wears a 28 patch and honor him this season.

So hard to watch this team crumble when everything's on the line. It's happened all season. No excuse for losing this game. Sure the bats were cold, but this is completely on our pitching staff. DeLong has to find us better pitchers with more mental toughness for next season. I can't believe a team this senior heavy that has done what they've done, can't play better than what we are watching. I'll go ahead and say it now. this team (especially the pitching staff) isn't mentally tough enough to win the conference tournament.

I haven't had much to say about this year's team. I've had concerns, but wanted to refrain from negative comments. But, today's loss was beyond terrible. With the game on the line, there is no good reason to try and throw a runner out at second, when a runner is standing on 3rd. That was completely stupid. This team is mentally weak, and has regressed from where it was just two seasons ago. Like last season, our bats are struggling. The only difference from last season, is our pitching is a little worse too. Yes, we played a stronger OOC schedule, but we didn't beat any of those ranked teams either. From what I've seen so far, this team won't win the conference title or make a regional. And that is just sad considering where this program was just two seasons ago. Something has to change. I'll ask this question again..... Has DeLong taken this program as far as he can?

Back to back to back walk-off winners. I doubt I'll ever see that again. Very proud of the way the girls fought against great pitching in this series. Tulsa is going to be a tough out in the conference tournament. Coach should take the girls out and celebrate this series sweep. Remember, Tulsa was tied for the conference lead heading into the weekend. We moved them down to 4th place. Co-leader, FAU got to feast on a 3-25 Memphis team this weekend. Right now, UNT looks as good or better than any program in the AAC.

This team is senior heavy and should be much better. Pitching is not as good as it was just a few years ago. And, our bats are continuing to struggle. Overall, this team looks much like it did most of last season. That is not a complement. I'm beginning to wonder if De Long has taken this program as far as he can? Personally, I expected this program to be competing with Top 25 programs by now.

I trust Morris to find a QB that can run this system. He reminds me a little of McCasland, and the way he was always able to find another point guard to run his offense.

This was a good recruiting day for North Texas. We may not have pulled in the top recruiting class in the AAC, but we certainly improved the talent on our roster today. According to 247Sports, we finished the day with the 6th best AAC class (in the top half of the conference). That is better than every recruiting class in the Sun Belt & C-USA today. We also finished with a better class than all but 1 MAC program and all but 3 MWC programs. I hate that we lost some really good talent in recent weeks, but this haul seems like a big step towards rebuilding our plundered offense. But, I think defense remains a big question mark until we actually see improvements on the field next season.

While I wanted the AAC to earn the last access bowl spot, I always rejoice in seeing SMU get screwed. FSU might feel like they've had the worst day ever, but SMU has a strong case too. Today the ponies not only got passed over for a less deserving Liberty team, but also watch their future conference get demoted. SMU is ponying up $500 million and losing 9 years of revenue to join an ACC whose undefeated champion wasn't deemed good enough for the playoffs. Imagine how worse it will be once FSU, Clemson, North Carolina, & Virginia all leave and the ACC features a lesser lineup. Today the playoff committee ushered in the new age of the P3. Congratulations SMU on getting left out again... and paying for it. 😁

The simple truth is that this coaching staff needs a big defensive recruiting win to appease the fan base. Morris kept Caponi, and fans are going to remain skeptical of the leadership until they are given a reason to actually believe things are getting fixed. So right now, any defensive recruit that backs out of his commitment is going to be a bad look for our staff. Morris' honeymoon period is over. A large segment of our fans are not interested in hearing what will be done to fix our defense. And many aren't interested in cryptic assumptions regarding what might be going on behind the scenes. They want tangible evidence, like a big-time defensive player committing to the Mean Green.

But not this season.