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DENTON, Texas – North Texas head basketball coach Tony Benford has announced the signing of former George Mason veteran guard Vertrail Vaughns. Vaughns ended his career at George Mason as one of the most prolific 3-point shooters in program history. He connected on 38.5 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc (99-of-257) and sank 99 shots from deep. Those figures rank eighth and 13th in school history, respectively. The Mesquite, Texas, native has 623 career points (5.8 per game) to his credit, and started all 33 games for the Patriots in 2011-12 while pouring in 8.8 points per game. “We are very fortunate to have Vertrail joining the Mean Green family,” Benford said. “He will bring a great deal of leadership and character to our locker room, and has proven himself one of the country’s best shooters over the last three years. He can score off the dribble or from the perimeter, and brings another local great local player back to the area. We couldn’t be more excited to have Vertrail on board.” Vaughns will graduate from George Mason this spring with a bachelor’s degree in integrated studies, and will be eligible to play one season for the Mean Green this fall. Vaughns played in 107 games for the Patriots over the last three years, and is a two-time Dean’s List honoree and twice earned the Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner’s Award. In 2012-13, Vaughns appeared in all but two contests, scoring 5.8 points per game while adding 38 rebounds, 19 steals and 13 assists. Vaughns was rated by ESPN.com as the 58th best shooting guard in the country coming out of Mesquite High School, and TexasHoops.com named him the 25th best player in the state overall. North Texas Basketball 2013-14 Recruiting Class Vertrail Vaughns – 6-2, 184, Sr., G, Mesquite, Texas (George Mason) Colin Voss – 6-7, 240, Jr., F, Grand Rapids, Mich. (Northern Oklahoma) Armani Flannigan – 6-8, 200, Jr., F, Rockford, Ill. (Central Wyoming State) Tony Nunn – 6-9, F/C, Salisbury, N.C. (Oldsmar Christian) Josh Friar – 6-8, F, Houston, Texas (Kingwood HS) Greg Wesley – 6-7, F, Arlington, Texas (Seguin HS) http://www.meangreensports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=1800&ATCLID=207565377

The Maryland Terrapins basketball program pursuit of two transfer students came to an end this week. Rutgers guard, Eli Carter, decided to play the rest of his college basketball career at the University of Florida, while George Mason graduate Vertrail Vaughns will play at the University of North Texas. Vaughns had visited College Park earlier this week, and Carter picked Florida after his visit this past weekend. I’m all in favor of looking to grab the one year graduate students, its an ideal situation if the scholarship is available. Logan Aronhalt was a solid addition to last years team. He brought the ability to shoot the three and a veteran attitude to a young locker room. I just don’t know how either Eli Carter or Vertrail Vaughns would have answered the biggest question of the Maryland offseason. Sometimes you can have too many players on a team. There are only 40 minutes to split up, and only 5 players can be on the court at once. Coach Turgeon had a deep team last year, and at times struggled with rotations and did not allow many player to get into the groove of the game. Despite missing out on either one of these players (I doubt they would have taken both), Maryland is still having a good offseason. The deperatures of Alex Len and Pe’Shon Howard did not catch the staff by surprise. With there being over 350 players transfering this offseason, it is a positive sign that Maryland was able to retain everyone else. With the direction college basketball has moved to where players are either leaving earlier for the NBA draft or transfering right away, it is encouraging to see that Maryland has a staff and players who are bought in to a long term goal. Assistant coach Scott Spinelli, will soon leave for a head coaching position, but it will not be this offseason. Another bullet dodged for Maryland, as he has been instrumental in not only landing key recruits, but also helping the players progress. It will still be an uphill battle next season for the Maryland basketball team, but maintaining stability is a tough thing to do now a days. Maryland has maintained their roster and coaching staff, now its a matter of them coming together as team and improving as individuals. Read more: http://terrapinstationmd.com/2013/05/03/maryland-misses-out-on-two-transfers/

** Vertrail Vaughns, the George Mason shooting guard transfer who reportedly visited Maryland, committed Thursday to North Texas. UNT sold Vaughns on the idea of playing both the point guard spot and on the wing next season, an approach that will allow him to develop his ball-handling skills. Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/tracking-the-terps/bal-weekly-maryland-terps-recruiting-roundup-20130502,0,6042140.story#ixzz2SFoHigi0

It was a pretty big day in terms of news when it comes to UNT basketball yesterday with the Mean Green landing Vertail Vaughns, Karen Blair officially joining the Mike Petersen’s staff and the real zinger — Zach Peters visiting UNT today. While we are waiting to see what happens with Peters, here are some thoughts on Vaughns. I can see the concern with UNT lacking a lot of size at this point following the departure of Tony Mitchell and another forward who was a little on the small side in Roger Franklin, but going after and landing Vaughns was a solid move. UNT really struggled to shoot the ball last season at 28.5 percent from 3-point range and could use another high-character, leadership kind of guy. UNT had a ton of those guys in the past in the Eric Tramiels of the world, but had a bit of a void there last year outside of Franklin. Vaughns appears as if he can help address both concerns. Read more: http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2013/05/9529.html/

Ventrail Vaughns, a 6-2 guard who spent the first four years of his career at George Mason, confirmed this afternoon that he has committed to UNT and will transfer to the school and play his final season with the Mean Green this year. Vaughns averaged 5.0 points a game this past season for George Mason. He averaged 8.8 points a game as a sophomore. Read more: http://meangreenblog...ts-to-unt.html/ Click here to view the article

Redshirt freshman Vertrail Vaughns has been through a lot of hardships in his young life. When he was 13 years old, Vaughns was chased by a Rottweiler. In his escape, he attempted to jump on a car to elude the dog and smashed through the cars windshield, badly injuring his face. Thats where all these scars on my face come from, said Vaughns. The event in his life was just one of a few bad incidents that Vaughns has been through. From being hit by a car at the age of seven to undergoing wrist surgery last season, Vaughns knows pain. Coming off a freshman year in which he medically redshirted, Vaughns was hungry to get back on the court. Struggles are an understatement for what Vaughns has been through in his young life. The scars are the reminders of the tragedy that he underwent when he was 13. It was painful, Vaughns said with a laugh. Regarding his recent surgery, he was in a cast for three weeks and was unable to move his hand at all during that time. When he got the cast off, he started rehabbing it by stretching it out and eventually regained all motion in his wrist. It wasnt until two weeks after he regained motion that Vaughns shot a basketball. Vaughns sure hasnt had any setbacks from the injury. This year he has been a catalyst off the bench, shooting an impressive 51.7 percent of threes with 4.7 points per game. The numbers dont jump off the page, but Vaughns has really shown his worth this year. Against Virginia Commonwealth University two weeks ago, he scored 12 points in 11 minutes of play, shooting four of five from 3-point range. My dad and my stepdad were shooters so we would go to the gym everyday and just shoot 2,000 to 3,000 shots, said Vaughns. They taught me to shoot with a high arc and have a funny spin on my ball. Read more: http://broadsideonline.com/2011/03/07/vertrail-vaughnss-painful-past-has-fueled-success-3063/