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Ok, I know it is a couple weeks off - but I wanted to guage interest in an NCAA tourney bracket. I think we could do a $5.00 entry fee, if we get 50 people then we can have the winner get $250.00 bucks. I know that Coach usually puts together a free one each year but everyone has $5.00 to throw in. Or, if you want - we can do $5.00 each and the winner get $200.00 with the other $50.00 going to towards the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund. We could grow this each year so that maybe someday it would raise some serious money for the Andrew Smith Memorial Scholarship; but everything has to start small. I would be happy to set up a PayPal account for this so you can pay over the computer. People that pay by PayPal would need to include an extra $1.00 for processing fees. PayPal charges $.40 cents per transaction and then a percentage of amount. For instance, I just sold an old VHS tape on E-Bay and it sold for $4.99 - the guy paid with PayPal (with a credit card) and the fee I was charged (as the recipient of the money) was $.78 cents. It would be a little less depending on the card, if it is paid with an electronic funds transfer, or with an E-Check - but basically it is about a buck. Any extra amount would go towards the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund... So if everyone pays by PayPal and the fee averages $.50 cents, that will be an extra $15.00 bucks we can throw on top of the $50.00 donation. We could use a Yahoo bracket to take care of all the bracket information and I will just set up a PayPal account to make it easy on everyone. If you don't like to mess with PayPal then you can send me a check in the mail. When the winner is decided I will cut a check to the winner and a check to the Drew Smith Memorial Fund. For those of you worried about this being illegal, bets in Texas $5.00 or less are completely legal. Awhile back the state passed a law called the Fuzzy Animal Law or something like that, basically it made it legal for the folks and Chuck E Cheese and Dave&Busters to give out prizes for game of skill - the law just says it has to be a game of skill, not of chance (like a slot machine) - and picking in an NCAA pool would be considered a game of skill because you would need to have knowledge of the teams involved, etc.. Anyways, do we have 50 people that want to play? I am in - that is one. Respond to this post if you want to play as well. I think we need at least 25 to make it fun. Also, Aaron - will you set up the bracket with Yahoo like you have done in the past? Finally - does everyone have a PayPal account? In order to get the money squared away we need to go ahead and get this cranked up now because once that first round is completed, people will be less likely to send in their money, lol... So who is in and who can set up the bracket? Is everyone in favor of donating 1/5 of the pool to the Andrew Smith Memorial Fund (in other words, if there are 50 people playing, the pool would be $250.00 - so we would donate 1/5 of that - or $50.00 to the Andrew Smith Fund)... If there are more people then the more the merrier, if there are less, I would say that we need a minimum of 25 people to make it exciting and interesting, everyone wants the chance to win $100 - $200 bucks for playing in a NCAA pool at a $5.00 entry fee. Should really add some spice to it. Anyone else interested?

Looks like the new NCAA stats released yesterday have turned our basketball program from an NCAA bottom dwellar to a top ranked Grad rate program. Congrats to JJ and his team for making the grades and getting us out of the NCAA doghouse. This new system is different then the old system and these good marks could not have come at a better time, schools scoring below the minimum 925 score will lose scholarships that they can offer. Way to go Guys! It looks like Coach's numbers were on the money and I am so happy that the new stats are about 80% better then the ones that were the current stats just two days ago. Again - Congrats to JJ and his players for making this alumnus proud. UNT makes grade in athletics 08:45 AM CST on Tuesday, March 1, 2005 By Brett Vito / Staff Writer North Texas finished above the pass-fail mark as an overall program in an NCAA study released Monday that measures universities’ performance in keeping athletes eligible and in school. UNT finished with a score of 951 on the Academic Progress Compilation Report, just above the pass-fail line of 925. Scores are calculated by giving athletes one point per semester for maintaining their eligibility and another point for staying in school. Points are then added and divided by the highest possible total. The resulting percentage is transformed into a point total. Schools could face penalties, including the loss of scholarships, if they score below 92.5 percent or 925 points. "We are happy with how we did," UNT athletic director Rick Villarreal said. "It is a system we are going to have to adjust to." UNT’s softball and football teams were the only programs within the department that failed to exceed the pass-fail line. The softball team finished with a score of 880 while the football team fell just short of the pass-fail mark at 907. The figures released Monday are based on statistics gathered during the 2003-04 school year. Villarreal said UNT has already calculated what the softball team’s score will be for the fall semester. The Mean Green will be above the pass-fail mark. UNT had several teams finish with a perfect 1,000 mark, including volleyball, women’s indoor and outdoor track, tennis, men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s cross country. The NCAA’s study on programs’ ability to keep their athletes eligible differed from pervious studies that focused on the number of players who graduate. The UNT football team has improved its graduation rate in all but one season during coach Darrell Dickey’s seven-year tenure with the team. Each senior on the 2004 team is on track to graduate. "I will need to look at the figures to see where we are really at based on what they are asking us to do," Dickey said. "I have been pleased with the improvement we have made since I have gotten here, but I also realize that we have a lot of improving to do." The football team’s increasing graduation rate has helped UNT increase its overall graduation rate for athletes from 37 percent to more than 60 percent in the last few years, Villarreal said. School officials expect that rate to continue to improve after statistics for the current year are calculated. "The first set of numbers give you a way to measure yourself and see where your deficiencies are," Villarreal said. "Traditionally football and basketball have not been as proficient in graduating players. We need to continue to work on ways to move those sports to where they need to be." BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. UNT academic report The NCAA released Monday its Academic Progress Rate Compilation Report, a measure of the job schools do keeping their athletes eligible and in school. The following are UNT’s numbers for the 2003-04 school year: Sport Grade Men’s cross country 1,000 Women’s cross country 1,000 Men’s golf 1,000 Women’s golf 1,000 Women’s tennis 1,000 Women’s indoor track 1,000 Women’s outdoor track 1,000 Women’s volleyball 1,000 Women’s basketball 982 Men’s basketball 977 Men’s indoor track 971 Men’s outdoor track 971 Women’s swimming 968 Women’s soccer 958 Football 907 Softball 880 Program totals 951 * What the numbers mean: Each student athlete receives a point per semester for staying eligible and another for staying in school. The points for each team are added together and divided by the highest possible total to reach a percentage that is translated to a point total. For example, 92.5 percent translates to a score of 925. Schools that fall below the 925 mark could face scholarship penalties next year.

True, but he is the first player we have ever brought in that we knew from the start would only be around to play his 14 games as that is all he was eligible for. If you think that education is not the reason we give scholarships than I will just have to disagree. The guys should be coming to North Texas to get a degree, not to waste our money so they can elevate themselves professionally. I am glad to hear he is trying to make a career out of basketball, perhaps he should have gone straight to that instead of wasting our time and money. He was good enough to play in that league without wasting $20K+ of our scholarship money.

And I followed that post up with saying that I needed to clarify my statement. But in case you didn't get it the first time - or in case anyone didn't get it - or in case I am just insane and forgot to post it - I was being SARCASTIC but that their NCAA grad rate was absolutely terrible. I even went through the trouble of looking up the real stats to prove to you I wasn't slandering the team for the hell of it. But I guess facts don't matter, just the "love for the game"... and I am still waiting on someone to explain to me why we spent $20K plus to pay for Sho-Jo to go to school at North Texas for two years only to play 14 games and never earn the usual AA&S degree? Is that money well spent? You guys ask why some people are turned off with the basketball program - personally, I can't stand the fact that they don't graduate. I graduated and was working full time running a half million dollar business at the same time; working 7 days a week until 4 in the morning almost every night. And I paid my own way. No money for momma or daddy, had to pay for my fraternity dues, my rent, my school, my books - and opened and ran a business... If I got it done in 6 years then I sure as hell don't know why a MAN, playing basketball and getting everything handed to him, can't get it done in five. And I didn't get a AA&S degree either, I got a real degree and didn't get free tutors to help me out. I could have gotten out in 5 if I had gone the AA&S degree path of Underwater Basket Weaving or whatever the hell they major in. So of those model students you named off, how many did it in the required five years? Just look it up and show me the improvement - then maybe we can have an idea if the number will go UP or stay the same come August. It is simple as finding when they signed with UNT because their first year would have been the year after in most cases. Transfers don't count unless they didn't graduate and then they count AGAINST us, like Sho-Jo.

You're telling me! I guess I am not being clear; but I don't know how to better state the truth - even if it hurts someone's feelings. A lot of guys on this board LOVE the basketball team and they are taking up for their team, I understand that. I have favorite teams and favorite players that i take up for. But I just don't see how you can argue with facts. I even said that it was a nationwide problem - OU had the same problem, even worse - they had a 0% rate because so many players went to the NBA, dropped out after their eligibility ran out, or took too long to graduate. So we are not in the same boat. I just don't know why the men's basketball team can't seem to graduate players on time when all the other sports seem to be able to do it. I guess you could argue that the schedules were more demanding as it lasts two semesters rather then one but that would still contradict itself because the women's basketball team has one of the best grad rates on campus, 2nd behind track.

You are right - it is actually closer to one. The NCAA window for the current standing have us at 11%, if you factor in that there are about 20 guys that have come and gone during the official window, it is actually less than 1. So I agree, I was wrong, it wasn't two - it was one, if you want to get real technical about it - it wasn't even one, it was .6. When the next NCAA standings come out, North Texas' OFFICIAL NCAA stats sound like they will be better, but for now, they are piss poor - 11% grad rate for 4 year degreed students (they are given 5 years to get a degree) and 7% when you include transfers - which would put us at an average of less then one person a year - about .4 students graduating per year. I would say I was real off. As I have stated over and over again - I am going by the up to date - OFFICIAL NCAA STATS found at www.ncaa.org. You can look them up but I copied and pasted them directly from the site. And like I have stated over and over again - it looks like JJ will get this number to move up slightly as long as these graduating players got out in 5 years - not 5.5 years, not 6 years... but FIVE - F-I-V-E - 5 ... how many other ways should I say it? The window started with the 1998-199 season and ended in 2003. It sounds as if there have been some people that have graduated since then - if they made it out under the NCAA rules then they will improve the average. Hell, just two graduates can improve it to almost 25% which would be a double improvement. Hopefully that happens. As far as the rules being shitty - I agree, they are shitty. They are unfair - but the same rules apply to the STUDENT BODY as well as ALL OTHER SPORTS when they make these numbers.... and as you can see, those sports didn't have any trouble beating the general student population. You would think if a guy didn't have to work, pay for school, books, rent, food, and even come up with spending money - they could go ahead and get their Applied Arts and Sciences degrees (which by the way is about the equivalent of an Associate's Degree from a Junior College in the real world) - and maybe even pick up a second degree because of the redshirts. But for some crazy reason, our men's basketball team hasn't been able to take care of business. Hopefully all those guys that graduated did it under five years so we can have a better grad rate when the new stats come out at the end of the summer.

They aren't false numbers, they were taken directly from the NCAA website as the current numbers for our program. If you don't like the system they use then that is fine but the truth is, our number is currently at 11% for men's b-ball. Maybe it will go up with the next window but the current numbers suck. I am going to guess that you think it was worth it to pay for Shawnson Johnson's schooling for two years so that he could play 14 games for the Mean Green but I don't; especially when he didn't even bother to graduate afterwards.

Leonard graduated in December. I think this was his 5th or 6th year, not sure if they have to graduate before the 5th year or during the 5th year to count in the NCAA rankings. I imagine that if he is granted the extra year that he could get a second degree in the next year and a half or possibly start working on a masters. I think he graduated with the Applied Arts and Sci degree so a second degree would be most likely, I don't think that there is a Masters for the AA&S dept.

But how many of them graduated in the required 5 year time period? Chris didn't. Leonard has had two redshirts and is looking for another so he won't count. Some of those guys are transfers. I was referring to kids graduating that count towards our NCAA stats. I know that stats are messed up but the same system is used for football and all other sports as well as the general student body. Hopefully when the next window is released Men's B-Ball will pull its own weight but we agree on one thing - it is a nationwide problem with college basketball.

Ok, I found it and it sucks like I thought: http://www.ncaa.org/grad_rates/2004/d1/sch...s/RPT00497.html These are the current NCAA stats for North Texas: UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS GRADUATION RATES All Students Student-Athletes # 1997-98 Graduation Rate 39% 57% Four-Class Average 38% 43% North Texas - non athletes: Overall Men: 31% Overall Women: 43% Overall: 38% North Texas = ATHLETES: Overall Men: 36% Overall Women: 51% Overall: 43% MEN'S BASKETBALL: 11% (7% for transfers - but that does not count towards rankings) Women's Basketball: 47% Others: Football: 44% (55% for transfers - but that does not count towards rankings) Women's Track: 71% (100% transfer) Men's Track: 31% (60% transfer) Men's Other Sports: 25% (88% transfers) Women's Other Sports: 41% (82% transfers) These calculations include all students enrolled during the four year period beggining 1997-1998 so I imagine that it goes through 2002-2003 - just about the time that RV talked to us. I don't know if they update this every year or every 4th year but those are the stats on record. As you can see, Men's B-Ball is by far the worst of the bunch and abuot what I stated earlier in the thread.

Ok, maybe the NCAA calculates the graduation rate with a window. I know that you have to graduate within 5 years or they do not count. Perhaps some of those players took 6 years to graduate this they did not count for our NCAA stats. Our program took a big hit when Trilli came in and released the whole team except for one or maybe two people. Then a lot of his players chose to transfer or drop out completely. The ones that transferred did in fact graduate from where they went but it counts against us. I don't think we get credits for anyone that transferred in to our program either. It is a wierd system. I think if a student athlete leaves and goes to another program then it shouldn't count against us. All that I know is what I heard from RV last summer (not 2004 but 2003) - he said that the NCAA graduation rates were coming out and for the first time since moving up our student athlete graduation rate would be higher than the regular student population (something like 37%)... he also went on to explain the system and how the football team had pulled its weight and most of the other teams but that the basketball team had dropped us about 2 or 3 percentage points because we had only graduated one person during the NCAA window. Like I said, I am not sure how it is calculated, and a lot can change in a year and a half but it sounds as if JJ is getting the job done when it comes to graduating players. I hope you are right. By the way, we aren't in this alone, Basketball graduation rates are terrible across the nation. OU had a 0% graduation rate just last year. You have to graduate in 5 years, the scale is done on a 5 or 6 year window, if a student transfers to another school and graduates - it doesn't matter - it still counts against you. If they quit the team but stay in school then it counts against you. It is a double standard though - if you sign in a JUCO or a transfer, then they will count against your stats if they don't graduate BUT if they do graduate they don't count for you. They are just a "wash"... The only ones that count are kids that get a ship and graduate in 5 years. And I think the stats are always a year or two behind because they (the NCAA) wait to see if the kids that were seniors 2 years ago graduate eventually. So while our graduation rate for basketball is currently among the worst in the nation, it sounds like it will take a huge leap in the next few years thanks to JJ making sure that his kids were taking care of business in the classroom. I didn't mean to attack the program, it just has a history of having a terrible NCAA graduation rate... but the NCAA table is messed up in my opinion. Most students don't make it out of school in 5 years and I don't think athletes should be held to a higher standard than any other student that had to work his/her way through school. BTW, Slinker - even with her faults - has a tremendous graduation rate, or at least she did when the last window was released by the NCAA. That is part of the reason why she has her job still. When she recruits kids she can show them that if they come to NT, they will get a degree. I am going to try to find the current stats and post them, today is a slow day and my curiosity is sparked now to see where we are after a year.

How long is the graduation rate staggered from? Our "NCAA" grad rate for basketball was like 0%-10% when RV met with us summer 2003. I had heard of one that graduated - and then I saw that Leonard Hopkins graduated. So that was basically an estimate. I am glad to see that all those guys have graduated. It is too bad that we do not get credit for transfers that went to other schools and graduated. And I don't think Chris Davis graduated. But I could be wrong. I seem to recall him playing semi-pro ball in April that year so I figured he would give it a try and maybe come back. Has he come back since? I wouldn't trust those media guides - just because they are seniors in the guides does not mean that they graduated. Remember, a player only has to take 24 hours over the year (that can be taken during either semester - during the May or X-Mas Mester or during both summer semesters) - I think they have to have a minimum of 6 hours to play. A senior in NCAA class just means that they are out of eligibility. I hope I am wrong on this, and a lot can change in a year and a half - I hope it has... but Summer '03, our basketball teams had a 0%-10% NCAA grad rate (I think Trilli graduated the one kid he didn't throw off the team - SEMO or David or someone).

There is a situation in San Diego that might help out - Drew Brees is up for a renewal and the Chargers haven't jumped at it yet (they drafted Phillip Rivers last year for their "future")... Brees is from Dallas, actually tried to get a ship at NT and was turned down by Matt Simon because Simon thought Spencer Stack was the second coming of Mitch Maher. Drew eventually wound up at Purdue and kicked some serious butt there.... this year he took the Chargers to the playoffs (this was his first full season - he has been nurtured along by their staff to this point).. but I would like to see him back in the Metroplex... he is a good guy from everything I have read.

It is nice to see that the basketball team graduated their 2nd player in 6 years this December. That puts them at about a 2% graduation rate. I guess we paid for two years of Sho-Jo's schooling so that he could play those 12-13 games only to have him take off before getting a diploma, what a waste.

Going to a Nascar race is no more watching a "sport" then going to an airshow. 30-40 hillbillies driving cars around is just not a sport - same thing with airshows - they are not sports - they are 30-40 rish guys flying planes around. Same thing - one is called a sport and shouldn't be and the other is a spectator event.

I have been in that Gym, and that is what it reminds me of - my Elementary School Gym. Now maybe it has changed since 2002 but here is how I remember it... It was right next to the football stadium (which is nice) - It would be as if North Texas built the Athletic Center over at Eagle Point twice as big and then just put a Gym inside of it. There is really no grand entrance for it (from what I could see, but then again we snuck in before a football game)... and you are kind of walking through a hall, and then there is this doorway, not even a particularly large doorway, and that is where you turn in to get on the floor. I can picture a little old lady with a portable table taking tickets in the hall outside the gym. Is that how it was to go to ag me there? Anyways, it was wierd stuff to me. I guess I just never knew how professional the Super Pit was before that visit. I felt like I was at my old Elementary School Gym - it was just kind of pieced together with various stuff. An old scoreboard that had real wood on it. And then those collapsable wooden bleachers were just strange.

I stumbled upon this while reading up on our recruits on the Scouts.com site... just wondering if this is one of the kids that sits in street clothes at the basketball games? His name is Kendrick Davis and I guess he has to sit out a year because he transferred from Arkansas (lack of playing time)... Anyways, is he still at NT? Here is the article and I linked the source: Davis' 101 Points is #5 Moment in ANI History By Chris Monter Date: Dec 21, 2004 The Academy National Invitational Tournament has some new teams in its fourth season, but there is no denying that this is one of the top high school events in the country. The tournament starts December 28th and will run through December 30th. The following is a look at the number five moment in Academy National Invitational history. High scoring guard Kendrick Davis of Sugar Land (TX) Clements was being looked by several top JC programs along with some WAC and Big 12 schools before the 2001Academy National Invitational Tournament. However, his strong play in the inaugural event opened the eyes of several top programs as Davis set a ANI record for points that still stands today. He scored 28 points in their first round 65-54 loss to Cleveland (TX) Heritage Christian Eisenhower proved that four double figure scorers are better than one as they defeated Clements 70-61 in the consolation playoffs. Davis scored 45 points for Clements, but he was the lone double figure scorer for the Rangers. Davis was 15 of 29 from the field and six of 14 from beyond the arc. Davis scored 28 points to lead Clements to a 68-64 win over Texas City in the seventh place game. He was eight of 15 from the field and made six of nine from beyond the arc. Davis a total of 101 points in the three games, a tourney-high. Clemens earned all-state, all-city and all-district recognition and was named District 20-5A MVP after averaging 30 points, 5.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds as senior. The high-school standout led Clements to the district championship and a 22-11 record. Davis had games of 46, 45 and 41 points during his senior season and ended his high school career as Clements’ all-time leader in points scored (1,563) and three-point field goals made (241). Where They are Now? Davis is currently sitting out the season at North Texas after transferring from Arkansas. The lefty averaged 10.3 points per game for the Razorbacks as a freshman. His number dropped 5.4 points and 1.2 rebounds per game in 12.7 minutes per contest as a sophomore and he decided to transfer to receive more playing time. Source Link

I would be in for giving. Those girls got me interested in women's b-ball and I followed them all the way up to Stillwater for the first round Women's NIT (bad loss to OSU in the first round - but they had SERIOUS home court advantage, lol) That trip was ...errr... a lot of fun, Stillwater is a cool place and much different from the rest of Oklahoma... not as nice as Tulsa, but at least the people don't creep you out there like most of the state (where I always feel like I am in the Twilight Zone)... Anyways, I buy the excuse that they want to do it right. There are going to be a lot of people "judging" NT that night/weekend. These presentations are never easily executed (see the Ron Maestri Invitassssshhhhiiioooonnnnn to the NO Bowl in 2003) - and with the conference having ALL schools play (with some games being played in the Pit and others being played at TWU) - it is difficult to do. It also might be against SunBelt Conference Rules. While the site is not neutral, the school has to act like it is. And you can bet that the losers bracket women's games will be played over at TWU. It would be even more wierd/embarrasing to have them retire the two jerseys during the middle of a UNO/South Alabama Women's game because the North Texas women had already been moved into the losers bracket due to an early loss (quite possible this year)... it would be a disservice to the true fans of the Lady Mean Green (sorry Jalie, that is what the team is called now, lol). So NT is kind of in a lose lose situation with this one... if they do it too earfly in the tourney to assue it will be in the Pit, then all your friends might not be able to make it because it will be on a Thursday. However, if they wait for the weekend, they stand the chance of retiring the jersey over at TWU or in front of a bunch of forein fans from other schools (if the conference will even allow it to happen)... So I can't fault them for not doing it during the Sun Belt Tourney. Your time will come, I think next year we have the Lady Longhorns coming to town - that would make for a great crowd to retire the jerseys and really get the team pumped UP for the season.

Are you talking their men's team? You know who the coach is, right? None other then Ronnie Arrow - the guy that put UAB on the basketball map back in the 80's but then they found out he was as crooked as can be. There was some phrase at UAB at the time- "please don't let our new coach be as straight as an Arrow but let him coach that way." or something like that, the only reason I know any of this is because I had a buddy go to school there after we graduated and he used to tell me the stories about how great the basketball team "was" before he got there.

I'm in!

Belt is up to 13th in Sagarins, the highest I can remember it ever going into conference play. Once conference play starts is pretty much stay constant so if we can move up to 12th or even just hold 13th, that would put us in the top 1/3rd of basketball conferences. Not bad at all. If we has laready lost NMSU then we would be higher, possibly 12th, they are having a terrible year. Sure is nice to see WKU finally live up tot he hype. It would be great for them to rip for the seaosn with 1 or 2 losses and then lose in the tourney (to NT and for the Belt to get two teams in the dance. I think it is possible this year. Also I notice that ASU lost to a team we beat - Lamar, and pretty badly, I think that we don't really know it yet but we are going to great in conference play. ASU has outstandin attendance and support and they normally win at home... that loss shows how good Lamar is and we beat Lamar... so I hope that it wasn't a fluke win. We would have won the TCU game if we could hit our free throws, this team excites me and makes me want to face the traffic to get to Denton. I think good things are ahead for the Belt and for NT when it comes to roundball, the Johnny Jones contract extension is looking pretty good these days. We could have lost him and be rebuilding all over again with a new coach, instead we have a winning record, we are playing the teeams we lose to closely (sans UT) and he is getting great recruits. Losing Barnett is going to turn out to be a blessing, as much as I hear he is a nice guy, he is a starter due to experience and seniority; not strenght or poise on the court... I think we will be much better getting our other center ready to go by conference time.... we should be able to have 17-18 wins this season, when was the last time that happened? Not in my days as an NT fan!

Thanks E-Bone... all these different ranking confuse the hell out of me.

I know this is going to sound stupid - but wha in the heck is an "RPI" standing? I am looking at the Sportsline RPI rankings and their top 25 rankings and very few teams come close to matching rankings. Arizona is #3 in their RPI ranking list and #19 in their top 25 list. Is RPI - Ratings Percentage Index, and if so, what does that mean? I see that we are at 95 in Sags and I take sags seriously, I think we would beat almost every team below us in Sags given a neutral court and such... and I think the top 94 would give us trouble.... Looking at these RPI rankings, I can name off about 30 teams that "should" be able to beat us ranked lower then us so I am just wondering how they come up with the numbers. Thanks in advance... by the way, I think we can go to the Dance this year as long we can knock of Western Kentucky. They seem to be the biggest threat but we will have home court advantage. It would be great for someone like UNO to knock them off in an early round upset to lighten up that stress level, our guys do not seem to respond well to stress (TCU game comes to mind - damn that still stings!)

Here is what I wrote on the Belt board, someone let me know if I got anything wrong so I can edit it, thanks: I know that a 6-3 record isn't crap to a lot of your schools for basketball but it has been 24 seasons (1980-1981 season) since NT started off 6-3. With the 6 point win over SEMO tonight our only losses are to UT (Austin), TCU, and Alabama. We are playing a lot of new faces on our squad and lost our dominating center from last year (Shawnson Johnson)... This is a whole new territory for my generation, back in the 80's, I hear that there was some great basketball at North Texas but as long as I have been following the Mean Green I have never seen us have much more than a .500 season. My first year as a fan we got knocked off by NLU (now ULM) in the SLC finals and since then we have had one .500 season a couple of years ago when it was Johnny Jones' first season... that is about it. 69-62 win tonight, I had to listen to it on the radio because there is snow and ice everywhere on the roads and I-35 is literally shut down from Ft Worth to Denton right now. The win sounded sloppy but this team is winning the slick games and the sloppy games. We got embarassed by UT on TV but we should have beat TCU, we totally lost that game at the charity stripe. I think we missed 20 free throws in that game... one of the most frustrating games I have ever watched just "slip away" from us... Anyways, just wanted to let everyone know that the road to the Final Four goes through DENTON this year, lol... We have the SBC championship in Denton this year... should be interesting... next up is UT-Chatanooga. They seem like a feisty bunch and they have a good season going on with a win over the other big state UT (Tenn)... That is a tourney so we will see how things go with that. Tough opponent/game to have first in a tourney but they are giving us a return trip to Denton next year as our reward for playing them first in the tourney.

Your point just doesn't have a point. Show me where a definition is of "directional school" - there isn't one, it is subject to any interpretation. I think that 99.99% of people in the country would say that a directional school would indicate any type of direction or location of the school name. Would you call Central Florida a directional school? I certainly would. What abot Middle Tennessee? What about "Western" Michigan? There is no "Western" on a compass yet Western Michigan is a directional school. What about Central Michigan? Yes, again that is a directional school. It indicates their general location in their state. North Texas is a directional school as is Southern Miss. So is University of Southern California. There is nothing wrong with it at all. Geez, talk about an inferiority complex! We are proud of our name, you won't see anyone from North Texas trying to argue that we are a "compass point" school rather than a directional school. They are one in the same. It sounds like you have had this arguement for years on message boards with other fans of other schools... so I don't think i am going to change you mind.... but like it or not, you have a directional school name... so does North Texas, South Florida, USC (the real one), Central-East-Western Michigan, Middle Tennessee, and Central Florida. Some have a point on a compass, other just tell their general direction in the state, thus the term "directional" school and not "compass point" school. I would definitely call Northern Arizona a directional school yet there is no Northern (or Southern) point on a compass. You can't have it both ways buddy, just cheer on your directional school and be proud of it. BTW, I can't believe I just spent 5 minutes trying to convince you that you are wrong when i know damn well that I will never change your mind, lol