Arkansas (11/28/14)

[Harry]

What's most frustrating is now it looks like we weren't competitive. This game was in doubt with about 7 minutes to go.

Exactly. They just said we have now 10 turnovers.. When we had 2-3 at half so we got sloppy I'm the 2nd. Also a lot of missed free throws I saw.

[PerryG2480]

I'm not sure why the things that kept us in the game (staying calm, not turning the ball over, handling the press soundly) seem to disappear down the stretch. Free throw shooting was horrendous too. Still better than I expected.

[CMJ]

Arkansas 89

NT 73

Final

[GoMeanGreen1999]

11/24 on free throws is awful.

[CMJ]

11/24 on free throws is awful.

Even if we'd gone 67% from the line we would have kept game pressure on them for another few minutes...which could have changed the game.

[glick1980]

We missed the front end of a ton of 1-and1's.

[Andrew]

I'm not sure why the things that kept us in the game (staying calm, not turning the ball over, handling the press soundly) seem to disappear down the stretch. Free throw shooting was horrendous too. Still better than I expected.

At the end of the game I am sure our guys were running on fumes. Still no excuse for missing the last 10 free throws in a row. Lots of positives to take away from this game and definitely some things to work on.

-I'm suprised we did not see Pittman. Hoping to see him versus oklahoma state.

-if deandre does not pick up the foul/ technical we save 4 points there.

- we make hat of those last 10 free throws there is another 5 points.

-combs and Jordan foul hard do not give up three point plays we save at least 2 points.

-jordan makes a better pass to deandre on the break and there is another 2 points

-deandre does not get out of control and dishes it to combs on the 2 on 1 there is another 2 points.

There is 15 easy points right there that would have had us right back in this game and fighting for the win.

I am not saying we should have won but we could have easily lost by 3 to 5 points. The final score does not show how close this game really was. Good game by the guys. If that is what we out in the court every game this year we will be a 20 win team and only have to a contend with UTEP in confence.

[Mean Green Matt]

We missed the front end of a ton of 1-and1's.

This. At bad times too.

[Andrew]

We missed the front end of a ton of 1-and1's.

5 that I counted. 3 by combs, 1 by Anifiok, and 1 by Ahmed. I cannot remeber if Deandre's was an and one opportunity or a miss on a 1-1.

Edited November 29, 2014 by Andrew

[untwillrise]

Better than I thought.

[NT80]

0-2 against non-cupcakes.

[UNTFan23]

We lost pretty big in the rebound category 47 - 34 and gave up a ton of offensive rebounds 21 - 12. I'm pretty sure Arkansas is much taller than we are and so it's not a huge surprise to see this happen.

[chrisfisher]

Exciting game. Much better than I anticipated. We looked like a tourny team in the first half. In the second half, we started to hurry up the offense and take progressively more crazy shots and played more and more out of control. Free throws absolutely killed us - very disappointing that our good effort and chance to win against a ranked opponent would be sabotaged by this basic skill. Definitely things to build on here nonetheless. Hopefully, we can give OSU a great game - maybe even pull off the upset.

[IslandEagle]

0-2 against non-cupcakes.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), these opponents were very far from being "non-cupcakes". They are both legitimate conference and tourney contenders. Personally, I see a young team with loads of potential, especially if we bring in the good signing class.

[NT03]

Strong showing for most of the game. If we can play like that vs Tech and/or Creighton we may have a shot at a big win this season.

[KRAM1]

Unfortunately (or fortunately), these opponents were very far from being "non-cupcakes". They are both legitimate conference and tourney contenders. Personally, I see a young team with loads of potential, especially if we bring in the good signing class.

Preach! Yes Sir! These players are showing something. Let's see if they can continue to develop as a team. Potential certainly there with these guys.

[Andrew]

0-2 against non-cupcakes.

Losing to two tournament bound teams is nothing to shake your head at. We had to solid performances that fell short in the second half. Even if we lose at Oklahoma State I am not writing off this season. This is the best this team has played in 3 or 4 years. Imagine how good we will be when we get Reese eligible. Even better what would happen when we get Wesley back. If we had him from the start of the season we could have played better as a deeper team. Someone needs to get into him and a light a fire under him to motivate him to play.

[meangreenacct]

Unfortunately (or fortunately), these opponents were very far from being "non-cupcakes". They are both legitimate conference and tourney contenders. Personally, I see a young team with loads of potential, especially if we bring in the good signing class.

Starting 4 seniors and a junior is a young team? We are going to need a good class BC replacing Taylor and Williams will be tough...not to mention losing our starting front court.

[UNT90]

Everyone needs to calm down. We actually beat A&M by 20 at A&M last year. It meant nothing.

Good teams have bad games. This was the case with Arkansas. Iona MAY or may not be a tournament team, but we didnt just lose to them, we lost by 20 at home to them.

I didn't see the Arkansas game, but I am shocked by the lack of turnovers by UNT in the 1st half, especially from what I saw from our point guard play against Iona (pretty much non-existent).

This team also has no one who can shoot the basketball consistently. No one.

Hopefully the first half of the Arkansas game is a sign of things to come.

We shall see

[Andrew]

Starting 4 seniors and a junior is a young team? We are going to need a good class BC replacing Taylor and Williams will be tough...not to mention losing our starting front court.

We only have 4 seniors.... We do have a lot of juniors but my guess is Ward will be a junior again next year (red shirt). We also have some good young players. Pittman, Combs, and Harris. Could add wesley to that list if he would play.

[Andrew]

Everyone needs to calm down. We actually beat A&M by 20 at A&M last year. It meant nothing.

Good teams have bad games. This was the case with Arkansas. Iona MAY or may not be a tournament team, but we didnt just lose to them, we lost by 20 at home to them.

I didn't see the Arkansas game, but I am shocked by the lack of turnovers by UNT in the 1st half, especially from what I saw from our point guard play against Iona (pretty much non-existent).

This team also has no one who can shoot the basketball consistently. No one.

Hopefully the first half of the Arkansas game is a sign of things to come.

We shall see

TJ and Anefiok can both shoot the ball consistently. TJ is also a very good point guard. I already had Oklahoma state as a lose but we can still just lose to Oklaohma state and Creighton and go 8-4 in out of Confrence play. That's not bad.

[UNTFan23]

TJ and Anefiok can both shoot the ball consistently. TJ is also a very good point guard. I already had Oklahoma state as a lose but we can still just lose to Oklaohma state and Creighton and go 8-4 in out of Confrence play. That's not bad.

"Consistently" would mean we do it for more than one game. I guess we'll see how it works out against our next opponent?

[Andrew]

"Consistently" would mean we do it for more than one game. I guess we'll see how it works out against our next opponent?

TJ is a pure shooter who can also play the point extremely well. He is a very good player. If you asked chris jones last year who is the best player on the team he would have told you TJ Taylor. TJ may be our best player this year as well, although jordan is growing into his leadership role.

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

I'm tempering my enthusiasm, but we are hanging with these good teams longer into games. With more experience they will learn how to close out games better. Will be interesting to see how we do against OK state now.

Edited November 29, 2014 by ChristopherRyanWilkes

[GrandGreen]

Benford was a terrible hire to take over an experienced very talented team. However, I think he has shown a lot of improvement and there are a lot of fans or ex-fans that won't give him any credit. If Jones was still here, he would most likely have the same record with this schedule. I don't remember Jones' teams ever beating any ranked clubs or even playing them all that close.

Jones build the NT program up and perhaps was on the verge of taking it up the next step before he left. The facts are with the exception of at most two years, Jones didn't recruit any better than Benford. Jones also benefited from cupcake home OC schedules and seldom challenged for a conference title. What Jones was very good is peaking the team at tournament time and performing best at year end.

At this point, I am encouraged by this years' progress. I though their back court play was awful against Miss Valley, but was stellar for most of the game against Arkansas. This team has a long way to go, but at least there is hope that they could be much better than most anticipated.