Son Of A Flying Worm

Another win in a record breaking season. Good game. UTA brought their band, cheerleaders, and mascot. It was cool that they had a good showing, but their attendance was uncomfortably close to ours. No idea what happened to Johnson. Burton mentioned postgame that "she's just no longer with us - her choice." She was listed on the paper roster available at the game and she's still listed on the roster online. So, I guess whatever happened was very recent. Just my speculation. The men and women have a combined 33-2 record at the Super Pit this season. There is a chance the women could host again later in the tournament. Regardless if they get that opportunity it has been an amazing season of basketball at the Super Pit. GMG

Floyd is the only senior who could have another year under the current rules. If you're interested in the details, I wrote about him and Massie in the thread below. All of the players who aren't seniors are eligible to play next year.

The ticket scanning machine (for lack of a better term) was down at Gate D when I got there. Everyone's tickets were being processed by a handheld scanner. Maybe the attendance wasn't being tallied there? Great win and crowd. Furman had a nice group too. Beat Arkansas St.

Yeah, that really stinks. My tickets were in 111 but I sat on the home side instead. I don't know why they're putting us on the visitor's side. We are the 2nd seed, so we would automatically be the 'home' team for any quarterfinals / semifinals games. I don't blame you for choosing your seating. I actually went on the secondary market for this game and purchased tickets in 105. I will do the same for tomorrow if we advance.

Oh gosh. I grabbed a couple of tickets on Wednesday. Purchased them through UNT to do the green and white a solid. I guess 'Tier 3' means Toilet Level seating. Me and my guest will have an awesome view of the Tulsa band with these seats. Good grief. You know how you go to the Super Pit and inevitably someone is sitting in your seat when you get there? Yeah, I apologize in advance if I do it to one of you. I'm gonna be behind our bench like the women's games. GMG

Tough loss. I'm still proud of this team. In the moment it felt like that was probably the championship game despite Rice's recent tournament magic. It feels that way even moreso after South Florida just won the tournament. Frustrated that we couldn't get more shots for Lampkin as she has dominated this match up this year. South Florida did a good job against her: denying entry passes from multiple positions, doubling after the catch at times. But we still missed open opportunities to get her touches in the half court and twice in transition. The transition possessions, which turned into a turnover and an empty trip at the FT line, especially stand out because they should've been layups. Just need those buckets in a game where you don't get great looks and don't convert your open ones. Never mind the mess at the FT line. I assume we'll receive a WBIT invitation again. Let's make some noise there.

The CBC is a Fox Sports tournament focused on conferences for which they have TV rights: Big 10, Big 12, Big East. Their selection process will feature at large teams, but I'd be floored if we received an invitation. The tournament isn't geared toward us. We would get a NIT invitation and at least one game at the Super Pit based on the more mid-major friendly selection criteria this year and the number of SEC teams who will qualify for the NCAAT alone. Not to pile on to @Matt from A700 because he's an awesome fan, but the idea of declining a NIT invitation to participate in the CBI --- a pay-for-play tournament with absolutely no prestige --- is wild. It ain't gonna happen. However, I agree with @Matt from A700 and others who have stated that the way for us to grow our fan base and the respect of a broad audience is through the big dance. Gotta consistently get there and win. Diehards and hoop heads know we have a really good program, but the little brother tournaments don't move the needle. Wouldn't it be awesome if the men's and women's teams made it to the big dance this year? Fingers and toes crossed.

Same here which is interesting because the email I received yesterday stated to wear green. As did the program at the last game as well as other advertising I've received. I guess my outfit tomorrow will be green and black just to be safe.

14-1 at home this season. So proud of this team. Good atmosphere especially for that crowd size. I understand why Hodge benched Lorient with two fouls in the first half, but only 19 minutes for your best player just isn't nearly enough. Shout out to Sparky (Dude Perfect) for giving me the last program on his table, signing it, and chatting about hoops. Nice dude.

The 'white out' shirt for tonight's game.

It's winning percentage against the highest seed. We have the same winning percentage as UAB against Memphis (0%) and Tulane (100%). So, the next highest seed is 5th which is Florida Atlantic / East Carolina. We've won all our games against those opponents while UAB has split theirs. 100% beats 50%. It's important to note that this tiebreaking scenario is used before the application of other tiebreakers. For example, Florida Atlantic and East Carolina are tied for the 5th conference record. Even though Florida Atlantic would actually be the outright 5th seed today based on their head-to-head win over East Carolina, our winning percentage tiebreaker with UAB is applied before that one. Everyone confused now? Great. We likely get the 2nd seed if we win tonight and on Thursday against Charlotte. We will obviously get it if we in all three remaining games. The math is much more simple there. We would play the winner of the 7 / 10 game in the quarterfinals. Our likely opponent in the quarterfinals? Probably between Wichita St / Temple and Tulsa / UTSA.

Good promotion for the game. Not their best performance, but winning is what matters. This team is now tied for second with the 01-02 team for most wins in a season. Congrats to Lampkin. She got a nice ovation in the second quarter. It would be nice if the in game presentation could consistently coordinate the 'North Texas' chant better. Just a brutal sequence where they attempted the chant both before and after Hardaway's FTs with 44 seconds left in the game. The second attempt featured the in game noise (because that's what it sounded like) urging the fans to pay attention to the cheerleaders attempting in vain to lead the chant. It felt like a Three Stooges routine as much as anything else. Ugh. Only one home game left this season! 2:00 P.M. this Saturday against UAB. GMG

Hodge mentioned in the Tulsa postgame press conference that they wouldn't come back to Texas in between games.

As of right now: Massie doesn't have another year of eligibility. He will have completed four seasons after this year. He doesn't get a COVID year because his first season was in 2021-22. The only way I can see him getting an additional year is if the NCAA allows all players to have five seasons (not just years) of eligibility. It's currently under consideration per Jon Rothstein. Floyd should have another year of eligibility. He seemingly meets the waiver criteria the NCAA granted after the Diego Pavia injunction: (1) played at a non-NCAA school for at least one year (two years at NCJAA) (2) eligibility would exhaust at the conclusion of the 2024-25 year (3) within the five year period of eligibility (next season will be his fifth year) (4) progress toward degree (sure, why not?) Of course given the constantly changing NCAA landscape the above could be obsolete by the beginning of next season.

The above jersey is what @Matt from A700 mentioned earlier in the thread.

Great win for the good guys. Not exactly breaking news but Lorient has been such an awesome find for this team. He's so much more skilled than I anticipated and he has room to grow on both ends. I cringed at the early season lineups with him and Moulaye, but that's easily been our best 4/5 combination. Atin is ridiculous when he's on. Delo barely scored a point and he's one of my favorite players to watch. Oh and Hodge moves to 3-0 against ECU.

I was there in Section 104. It looked like Texas St fans made up 2/3rds of the attendance.

Very encouraging as far as losses go. Just felt like we had too many live ball turnovers that led to easy scores. There had to have been at least 15 points there (breakaway baskets plus Haggerty's and 1). Super proud of Sissoko's performance. That wasn't on my basketball bingo card. Not really an exhaustive list but this is what stood out to me. - We just dominated them on the glass with a defensive rebounding rate of 81.8% while grabbing over 40% of available offensive rebounds on our end. The rebounding performance is even better than the box score counting stats would indicate due to it being a low possession game and Memphis shooting a high percentage from the field. For context both of those percentages would be at the top of the NCAA over a full season. Memphis is a really good offensive rebounding team too. The rebounding won't be that lopsided again. - Low possession game. The game was played at our pace. If Memphis can better dictate the pace then they can be more effective on both ends.

All good. Interested to see what the participation will look like in that tournament. I don't think we get a shot in that format, but I'd gladly take another banner too. Speaking of which what a banner second half. Awesome win. Super fun environment at the Super Pit, especially during the second half comeback. Atin Wright strikes again. Happy New Year, everyone. GMG

Thanks for sharing. Not to derail the thread too much on gameday, but I actually think the new NIT selection process is better for teams like North Texas. The short version: there are only 4 guaranteed slots for power conference teams as opposed to 12 last year (at least before all of the opt outs). They've also brought back automatic eligibility to teams who won the regular season as long as they meet a metric benchmark. We would qualify in that scenario. Now let's beat UAB.

Love the spirit. We are capable of being there, and winning the title game, but right now the offense gives me too much reservation to necessarily consider anything else a disappointment.

Definitely agree that there is a steeper drop off in the bottom half of the conference this season. There are 4 teams that are 200+ in KenPom. That doesn't even include Rice who lost to our little brother.

I'll be there. How is everyone feeling as we enter conference play? Overall I'm feeling good. We are 2nd in NET in the conference. The two best publicly available models, KenPom and Bart Torvik, have us as the 2nd best team in conference and finishing that way. Our defense has been really good; it's actually better than last season. The biggest improvement is in the defensive rebounding. We are pulling down 74.8% of defensive boards compared to 68% last year. Of course the team isn't without concerns. Although we start the same lineup every game, we haven't found a consistent closing one. There isn't a 'go to' scorer. The shot creation and/or shooting has been lacking in long stretches. So far our adjusted offensive efficiency is the lowest it's been since the 2019 season, but I don't think (hope) it will necessarily stay that way. I'd be disappointed if we don't finish at least top 4 in conference. The conference, as others have noted in many threads, just isn't as good as last season. Last season there were 4 other teams in the top 100 of KenPom and 7 in the top 150. This season there are 2 other teams in the top 100 and 5 in the top 150. Last year in conference we played 3 Q1 games and 5 Q2 games; this year we're projected to play 1 Q1 game and 3 Q2 games. A top 4 finish in conference means that we would need to win 3 games in Ft. Worth to go to the big dance. That's always the dream. The NIT as the consolation prize wouldn't be bad either. Could we host a NIT game again? Last year Indiana St., Princeton, and Bradley hosted opening round games. That would be a fun atmosphere.