2015 Creighton Men’s Basketball Opponent Preview: North Texas

[Harry]

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/