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North Texas Mean Green Sunday, December 21, 1:00pm Denton, TX Last Season: The Mean Green finished 16-16 a year ago, but went just 6-10 in Conference USA and advanced to the second round of the conference tourney. They closed the year with four straight road wins, and won as many as 16 games for just the 18th time in program history. Last Meeting/All-Time Series: Creighton holds a 5-4 edge in nine all-time meetings, including a 71-51 win in Omaha two years ago. The Jays are 0-2 in Denton, however, and dropped their last trip in February of 1977, 108-105. Head Coach: Tony Benford, a former associate head coach at Marquette under Buzz Williams, recruited six All-Big East players according to his official bio, including 2012 conference Player of the Year Jae Crowder. He’s compiled a 28-36 record in two seasons at North Texas, but might be close to turning the corner as he’s finally began succeeding in convincing top-tier talent to come play for him in Denton. Top Returners: Leading scorer Jordan Williams, a 6’6″ guard who averaged 12.0 points a year ago and also led them in rebounding with 6.3 boards a game, returns for his senior year. Williams isn’t a terribly efficient scorer, shooting 40% overall from the floor (127-316) and 30% from long-range (33-109), and is a turnover machine, giving it away 60 times (nearly twice a game). He had five double-doubles, including a nice 11 point/14 rebound performance against Rice in the CUSA tourney. Read more: http://whiteandbluereview.com/2014-15-creighton-mens-basketball-opponent-preview-north-texas/

UNT released the nonconference portion of its basketball schedule today. I posted the full rundown at the bottom of this entry. Most people who are interested have probably gone through it by now. We reported earlier that Creighton and Iona would be on this year’s slate, and they are. I talked with Tony Benford for a couple of minutes about the schedule today. He believes it’s the best schedule UNT has put together in the last 20 years. UNT does play some really good teams. Iona isn’t a household name, but that team won 22 games last year. For what it’s worth, USA Today has Iona at No. 54 on its countdown of teams that will make the NCAA tournament. read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2014/09/a-couple-of-basketball-tidbits.html/

3. Who wins the matchup between Doug McDermott and Tony Mitchell? One is college basketball's leading returning scorer and a popular national player of the year candidate. The other is one of the best defenders and rebounders in the sport and a potential lottery pick in next year's NBA Draft. Creighton's Doug McDermott and North Texas' Tony Mitchell meet Friday at 8 p.m. EST in Omaha in an under-the-radar matchup that should be one of the most intriguing of opening weekend. Creighton returns four starters and a handful of key reserves from a team that won the Valley tournament and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament last season. North Texas has Mitchell, promising sophomore point guard Chris Jones and high-scoring perimeter shooter Jordan Williams, more than enough talent to win the Sun Belt and pull some surprises too. Read more: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/watch-opening-weekend-three-games-ships-kentucky-freshmen-173649775--ncaab.html

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Creighton matched its record for wins last season and won a game in the NCAA tournament. Coach Greg McDermott believes he has the makings of a team ready to reach a regional semifinal for the first time in program history, and he wasn't afraid to make his goal public. "We're certainly not going to hide from (our expectations)," he said. "At the same time we understand there is a target on our back and we have a lot of work to do between now and then if we expect to have an opportunity to have that happen." The 16th-ranked Bluejays and preseason All-American Doug McDermott - the coach's son - begin that quest against visiting North Texas on Friday night. The younger McDermott, Creighton's first-ever first-team All-American in 2011-12 and now a national player of the year candidate, is among four returning starters. In all, nine of the top 10 players are back from the team that went 29-6, finished second to Wichita State in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and won the league tournament. The Bluejays beat Alabama before losing to North Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Janhenns Manigat said the coach's confidence about the Bluejays' potential has rubbed off on the players. "He understands he needs to challenge us," Manigat said. "Saying something like that really just helps us and lets us know how good a team we could be. We could even go farther than the Sweet 16." Grant Gibbs agreed, saying his coach set the goal too low. "I know it sounds lofty, but I think everybody's goal this time of year should be to compete for a national championship," Gibbs said. "If you're not shooting for that, what are you playing for? We get to the Sweet 16, then what are we going to do?" The Bluejays were second in the nation in field-goal shooting, third in 3-point shooting and ninth in scoring. Their prolific offense covered a host of defensive deficiencies. Creighton was 222nd in field-goal defense, 242nd in scoring defense and 313th in steals. Greg McDermott said the team can't count on being "off the charts" again offensively. read more: http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/gametracker/preview/NCAAB_20121109_NTEXAS@CREIGH/north-texascreighton-preview

There was nothing about Mary that left Creighton feeling overconfident Friday night as it moved within a week of opening its season. Sure, the Bluejays outshot, outrebounded and, for the most part, outhustled their Division II opponent from Bismarck, N.D., in posting an 89-51 exhibition game victory at the CenturyLink Center. But everyone on the Creighton side knew the Marauders bore little resemblance to the North Texas team that will show up Friday to tip off the season against the Bluejays. “The little I’ve seen of North Texas, they’re very, very talented and very, very athletic,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “They’re going to pose some problems that I don’t think we’ve seen in our scrimmage against Iowa or tonight. “Part of those are difficult to simulate in practice, because we don’t have a guy who is 6-9 and has a 40-inch vertical jump like Tony Mitchell. It’s going to be a challenge, and North Texas may very well be one of the more talented teams we play in the nonconference.” The University of Mary also didn’t have anyone 6-foot-9 with a 40-inch vertical. The Marauders’ tallest players were a trio of 6-6 guys. And athletic isn’t a description that often will be used to size up a squad picked to finish 14th in its 16-team conference. But former Bluejay Jevin Budde got his team to play hard for 40 minutes, which is exactly what Creighton wanted from its only exhibition-game opponent. After losing the first half 61-21, Mary outscored the Bluejays 30-28 in the final 20 minutes. “We got off to kind of a shaky start, but then put together a big run and were clicking,” Creighton forward Doug McDermott said. “In the second half, we could have done a much better job. They beat us by two in the second half, and we have to improve there.” Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20121102/BLUEJAYS/711029853/1707

Your dad didn’t offer you a scholarship when he was coaching in the Big 12 at Iowa State and you were in high school. How often do you remind him of that? I don’t really think about it anymore, and we really don’t talk about it much. A lot of old boosters joke with him about it, though. He always says that he thought I was good enough, but that he just didn’t want to waste a scholarship on me. We are where we are now, though, so why go back about it? I’ll probably have more fun with him about it after I’m done playing for him. Is it crazy to think you may start this season as a first-team preseason All-American? Crazy. I didn’t even start on my high school team in Iowa as a junior. My confidence was a little shaky, then all of the sudden I got a chance to play with Harrison (Barnes), I got to watch how hard he worked and it inspired me to where I am now. It’s nuts, though. I still can’t believe it. When did the light really go on for you? Probably my freshman year at Creighton. There were a couple injuries that happened on the team that put me in the mix, but the plan was for me to redshirt. I played fairly well and then my confidence really skyrocketed. Then after the season, I was on the U.S. team, and that helped me out as well. It showed me that I could play with just about anyone in the country. You had a terrific freshman season at Creighton, but you didn’t always see eye-to-eye with your coach/dad. What was the deal? We argued a lot that year. When I came in, I felt like I knew everything. We’d argue about what type of defense we were running. He’d say that I knew nothing about defense and that I was always guarding the other team’s worst offensive player. It was tough at times, but we’ve come a long way and we rarely argue now. read more: http://www.athlonsports.com/college-basketball/2012-13-college-basketball-preview-1-1-creightons-doug-mcdermott

Creighton’s best chance for regular season matchups against that caliber of team comes from the crapshoot that is multi-team events. Usually scheduled a few years out, these tournaments litter the early season schedule of college basketball and give ESPN and other networks made-for-TV matchups in warm locations like Hawaii and Florida. This season, the Jays head to Vegas for the crown jewel of their non-conference slate: an arranged meeting with perennial power Wisconsin and then a game against either Arkansas or Arizona State. Greg McDermott and the men’s basketball staff put together a solid non-conference schedule (Adam Streur/WBR) Don’t listen to ignorant college hoops fans: the neutral court event is far from the only captivating non-conference piece of Creighton’s schedule. McDermott saw an opportunity and scheduled a road game at California in mid-December. Mike Montgomery’s team came on strong at the end of last season, advanced to the NCAA Tournament, and returns a few key players from that squad. Traveling halfway across the country after taking final exams isn’t easy, but a game against the Pac-12 Bears will offer CU a name opponent against which to collect a win. You can apply the same theory to the annual game against Nebraska. A win against the Huskers this season would give CU a “W” against a team from the Big Ten, which is usually one of the top three conferences by RPI. Sure, there are some certified stinkers (Presbyterian, Longwood) scheduled for home games this season. But what college hoops teams don’t play a few sub-250 RPI schools each year? Once again, McDermott and his staff have put together a slate of non-conference games that, if thing break correctly, could leave CU in a solid position among the computer rankings later in the season. Don’t be surprised if Creighton’s home-opener against North Texas is one of the most challenging games the Jays play all season, in or out of conference play. Potential lottery pick Tony Mitchell gets plenty of publicity for the Mean Green — he graces many of the same All-American teams and lists of best college players as CU’s Doug McDermott — but UNT will put plenty of talent on the floor on November 9. The favorite in the Sun Belt Conference has road games at CU and Saint Louis and will participate in the NIT Preseason Tip Off, where a win against Alabama-Huntsville on November 12 could set Mitchell and the Mean Green up for a game against Kansas State. Its name may not carry the same cache as most major-conference teams, but come March a win over North Texas could do the Jays good. Read more: http://whiteandbluereview.com/?p=19973

The last piece of Creighton's scheduling puzzle might not be the elite program some Bluejay fans long to see their team play. But getting North Texas to open the season in Omaha excites coach Greg McDermott. “I think North Texas as an opener will turn out in the end to be a great game for us,” McDermott said. “And it's not going to be an easy game. They're going to be very talented, and there's a reason they had a hard time filling their schedule, too.” Creighton announced its 2012-13 schedule Thursday. Most of the Bluejays' nonconference opponents were already known, but McDermott and his staff had been working on landing a possible high-profile opponent for the season-opening game. McDermott said the Bluejays were prepared to open against a non-Division I opponent, which would not have impacted their RPI, had a suitable first-game foe not been found. North Texas falls somewhere in between. The Mean Green, a member of the Sun Belt Conference, compiled a No. 200 RPI ranking while finishing last season with an 18-14 record. Six of the losses came in the final 13 games after two of the team's top three scorers, Chris Jones and Jordan Williams, were declared ineligible. They are back with the team, as is sophomore Tony Mitchell. Read more: http://www.omaha.com.../708319999/1001 CREIGHTON SCHEDULE NOVEMBER 9: North Texas, 7:05 p.m. This post has been promoted to an article