SCREAMING EAGLE-66

---Considering 2,700 of the 33,000 studnets went to the Tournament game IN DENTON....... it ain't gonna happen....... Students can gripe but maybe they should have showed up and then they would have a case to argue. Those who want to go and have no test or projects due Friday can hit the road on Thursday after classes... --My other college and where I work, Midland College.... just make the Final-16 tournament in community colleges for the 3rd time in four years.... We won once with Spud Webb (of Dallas) We now have former players playing for Texas, Weber, and Washington State (all tournament teams). We had a Gonzaga player last year. UNT needs to look at some of the better JC's when recruiting ----there is a lot of talent at these places..... some were overlooked after HS and matured (with a lot of playing time) and some had SAT problems but have proved themselves in the class-room. Can't speak for other places but we sure don't give away grades, ask those 4-year school guys who return to us in the summer. .

----They need to get a Texan in as anchor... Cronkite wasn't exactly a Texan but he graduated from UT, Dan Rather was from Sam Houston and Bob Shiefer (my favorite) was from TCU. I too started watching NBC after Katie took over. ---Rather harmed his credibility over the Bush military report... The document was fake (pretty obvious from appearance) although having lived through the Nam era as draft bait I know that getting into the National Guard at that time was next to impossible unless you knew someone. No one I knew was able to get in which basicly meant you would avoid Nam... No National Guard units were ever sent.... unlike Iraq which has lots of them (no draft now, there was then). You can sort of understand the Rather's situation since he had been shot at regularly in Nam as a reporter, and the other guy found a safe place to stay but later had no problem sending others to Iraq for "questionable" reasons. ---Go Mean Green... I may be able to make NO... depends on son's situation. I am on Sping Break...I am the only family member to have never been there. ---Thanks to CBS for covering the NT player's story.

---Which is exactly what I have stated.... The Big-East is way too large (16) and a lot of those teams are accustomed to success. That and the issue of some playing football and some don't and don't have the same priorities. If it breaks up some then expect fallout to hit the CUSA and maybe to the Sunbelt and likely LaTech also. --Syracuse (unhappy) is a Big East team and placed above Villanova in regular season but did not do so well in their tournament., Villa. did. Cinn finished dead last in that 16 team league at 11-19. Had they stayed in CUSA they might be in considering the opposition.

----At the time we build the Super Pit... we were a member of the Missouri Valley with Louisville, Cincinatti, Memphis coming to town... The MVC was far superior to the SWC in basketball, and we were part of it. Today's students and more resent Alums don't really understand the atmosphere at UNT basketball games then. This is one of the reasons I was shocked and disappointed at the poor turnout that now exists. ----We had one of the best and largest arenas at that time..... much better than what A&M or Texas had although Tech may have had a larger one, it was old and not near as nice.

----I have thought the same thing (Shreveport) if in the West or perhaps somewhere in the East every other year. Shreveport makes sense because there are a lot of members within driving distance of there .... plus as you stated there is other entertainment available. A second item to consider is make the Conference Tournament a tournament with only four teams and not eight teams and have the earlier rounds hosted by the higher seeded team. Even our "awful" 2,700 attendence is better than what happened in Lafayette. ----I doubt the weekend part will happen..... unless you don't want it covered by ESPN.... as we need the publicity...

---I don't think we should mess with time.... after all God created time and we should not try to change it. !!!!! LOL..... I actually heard a "lady" tell this me several years ago when Texas started using Daylight Savings time. We started using DST in April of 1967 but had used it during WWII.. then called War-Time on something similiar. --- Until the era when Railroads became common-place and telegrams came into use... each town kept its own time based on the position of the Sun... RR's wanted to standardize time for scheduling purposes and time zones then came into existence...... The world had "speeded up" and became smaller. This likely explains why a public building in each town (courthouse?) often had a large clock in it. That was the official time of that town.

Doesn't appear that they joined a conference that has a lot of teams that are much stronger than they are in ability... ...They weren't dominating the Sunbelt were they???.... and now they are winning the WAC..

---Memphis a three???? ..... They are a minimim of 2... they have 20+ "consecutive wins" .... and they may get a #1 now that UCLA lost... Ohio State and Wisonsin play each other and one will lose a game also... . The polls have them at 5.... which would make one think they could move up to inside the first 4 (a #1) with those others losing. Sure hope we can sneak up to a 14.. life should be easier there.

--- In West Texas expect a minimun of 10,000 and maybe 15,000 we we play most HS football games (inter-city or intra-city)which includes (Midland ,Odessa,Abilene, San Angelo,Lubbock, all of which are is close ---close meaning under 150 miles and about a 2 hr drive....Even 20,000 Brownwood usually has about 8000 , some locals and some visiting fans.. Basketball drews pretty good crowds as well .... after Christmas. --I did state most big-city schools....Plano and South Lake are exceptions but considering the enrollment of Plano high schools that is not a real large attendence. The crowds have declined there (percent-wise) as the town has gotten larger and more into a big-city mode. Most large-cityschools can up with a good crown for one of their games.. their arch rival... but not the rest.... Try 40,000 + for a Midland Lee-Permian game.... played in Lubbock... 120 miles north as a playoff game..... or about 35,000 for a Brownwood-Cleburne AAAA game played at TCU (regular season). It happened in the 80's and neither town had 25,000 people. They were ranked #1 and #2 at the time.

---The DMN is closer to SMU than UNT ( that we understand) but it is not futher away from Denton than the FWST is and when the FWST make statements about us they seem more complemenary than what appears in the DMN. Making it worse isn't there some ownership connection between the DRC and DMN. If that is true then DRC writers could use them to contribute some to the DMN. --- A lot of the DMN articles come across as "They are fairly doing well considering who they are". Not exactly positive.

---Also TCU fans and students are more respectful of NorthTexas than at SMU which in general rates us about the level of dirt.

--- You mentioned something that I have sort of touched on..... It is my belief that that people who have grown up up in "smaller" towns are more usually passionate about their background, have more pride in themselves (I don't mean vanity) , their school, and other groups they are a member. I know one thing that when West Texas football teams play big-city metroplex teams IN the metroplex---we usually briing more fans from maybe 200-300 miles away than they have present from less than 50 miles away. A lot of students at Tech and maybe surprisingly A&M are from smaller towns (by that I mean 100,000 or less with 1-2-3 high schools) I know nothing about UT's make-up but it carries the state name so that makes it a different "cat" anyway. My personal kids that went to NT noticed the same thing that big-city kids are much different in many ways. Rick is about as rabid as it it gets apparently.... his hometown (Weatherford) is/was not all that large. A lot more of us are similiar just not quite as open about it. It is also seems true that this type of person don't give up or become discouraged very quickly either.... perhaps because they know others are supporting what they are trying to do. These people take it more personal when their friends, teams, and schools win or lose. To me, it sort of explains why UNT fans don't show the pride many other places do.... they are too big-city and don't take success or the lack of it very personal. ---Sort of different but not really... I don't even understand some here that want other Texas teams to fail against outsiders ... after all I/we are Texans ... [ I make an exception for SMU because of how they have treated us ] --Now how to fix our problem with our students/fans... I don't know..... but it has to do with them improving pride in ourselves and from where they went to college. When you start hearing WE won instead of our team won....it is partly fixed. ---I have been around awhile (always in Texas and a son of Texans) and this is my observation from being around for several decades.

If Rice defeats defeats Memphis in MEMPHIS....... expect the world to end in about 10 min....... What seed won't matter.

Me earlier today.... Typical good West Texas attitude----Never give up and hope for the best. Many posted and most thought I was wrong and I still may be... but never give up hope.!!!

--- Guess I don't understand those guys at all.... I grow up in Brownwood where it was assumed you would have pride in yourself, your school, and any group you belonged, and then you went out and kicked the rear of the rest of them. It is pretty much the same out here further West. ---There is nothing "gay" about that... Perhaps that is why you see so many successful people that once lived in this area. [ The Pres., (even if you don't like him), his father, Gen Franks, Texas Speaker of House, H.Fry, many athletes, (Benson, R. Williams) etc. plus several actors inc Tommy Lee Jones etc. and lots wealthy oil execs. ] To me, doing nothing, and not caring might be.....

---It has been done before when games ran long because of OT or whatever... at that point they know who is in the final game anyway and how it is going... The real problem would be if there was a big surprise in the final ..for example Rice against Memphis and Rice would be doing well and might win.... Memphis is going to get a bid if they win or not... Rice would not. I am sure it happed to a Big-XII game once... it was not finished but both teams were going anyway. It may have been over by the time their location was announced but not when the show started.

---Let's win them ONE at a time...

----It is NOT all about advertising..... It is mostly about some self-pride and PRIDE in our/your university. ---THAT is the problem....UT and others have it and show it.... most of our students don't.... That is sad.

---I agree.... I am hoping to be a 14 seed to avoid these top 10 teams and increase our odds... not likely maybe... but possible.

---There is one huge difference now than what things were like in the 70's.... The SWC existed then and we were the outsider... only North Texas and UTEP (of the present D-I's) were not members of it and we were largely ignored... and it didn't seem to matter what we did... we were not a "member of the "elite club" so we would get ignored. ---Today only A&M, UT, and TxTech has a big advantage over us... the rest are members of conferences that aren't the best in area, in fact the Belt has been pounding CUSA this year in football and basketball. We even have a big size advantage (enrollment) over most of these guys and are near a huge population area.. None of them except TCU in football has really jumped out as being outstanding in any sport either. ---We need to make student's aware of our situation now get them somehow to have have some self-pride and pride in our university and gain the respect of the other universities in the state. Pride and self-respect begins as home. It is sort of like what I tell my college students--- " If you don't care if you pass, then I don't care either."... If we don't show any respect in our university, don't expect any of the others to. This needs to made clear to the students even if that means articles in NT Daily or whatever. Not all read it but they do listen to others and some of their friends do.... The "have pride in our ourselves idea" needs to be pounded in the student and alums.....it matters.

---Winning in athletics gets a university a lot of cheap publicity and respect...... We need to keep it up.... Hope a lot of the students are catching on to what it can do for us and show up at sporting events in the future. By us winning a spot well ahead of time, it allows us enjoy "the ride" more.....It give fans time to soak it all in... ... By the way UCLA just lost to unranked California... they had been listed as a possible first seed and maybe a first round opponent of UNT. Hope there are a lot of people present for the CBS thing!!!! Go Mean Green Machine.!!!!

----I went to the barber this morning (in Midland) with a NT shirt on and one of this first things he said was he watched them on TV Tuesday night.... Winning and sports gets us publicity..... can't emphasize this enough.

---Makes you wonder if rants by several of us criticizing the student's support worked its way into the heads of the writers of the NT Daily. After all most us are alums and are ticked and disgusted with the level of student support. You never know. They need to keep this up in the fall when football starts.... "Have pride in your university and show up at some sporting events..... it will get us more respect from the other universties in the state".... that very issue was posted a couple of times on the Aggie site that someone linked us to yesterday. . ---We can't do much but you never know where what we say could go.

Do I detect sarcasm??? and an odd statment of "opinion" by the CUSA members.

Rice just won their second CUSA tournament game 53-51, over Central Florida which was the #2 CUSA team and had a 22-8 record. We own a victory over Rice.