Texas El Paso (1/2/15)

Andrew · January 3, 2015

Prairie View should have taught everyone that no game is a gimme. We still have to play UTSA on the road and we straight up stink away from home right now. I say we split the series but that still puts the team one game down on the goal of 9 conference wins.

Rice beat UTSA 67-52. I think our games with Rice will turn out to be more of a battle than you are thinking. If we manage a split with them I'll consider us lucky.

We could lose or win the all. I just see the games I listed and "should be wins". Rice has been terrible all year and barely beat two d2 schools I believe. Somehow tonight they put a decent win up against a also bad UTSA a team. We lucked out by playing them twice, because playing UTEP a and ODU a twice is going to be brutal!

Army of Dad · January 3, 2015

No Harris, and maybe no TJ Taylor, who may play but likely wouldn't be near 100% if he does play. Looking at GWP and Eaglin as your point guards, and only 8 healthy players total. This UTSA game at home is one we need to win. Even if you are short handed.

I don't think GWP was going to be allowed back in, but then Harris lost his cool (albeit with TONS of provocation) and now we are going to have to roll with GWP and Eaglin. Eaglin seems to be a decent spot up shooter, just worried about how we are going to bring the ball up the court.

Andrew · January 3, 2015

I don't think GWP was going to be allowed back in, but then Harris lost his cool (albeit with TONS of provocation) and now we are going to have to roll with GWP and Eaglin. Eaglin seems to be a decent spot up shooter, just worried about how we are going to bring the ball up the court.

Since you sit right by the bench do you know what the issue with Anefiok was?

meangreen16 · January 3, 2015

This is UNT. No one sticks around to broadcast a sporting event?

Listening to it on The Range...KNTU wasn't playing it. Guess everyone is gone in the studio.

Oh, trust me we're still around.

Women's game started at 7:45. Decided to not carry the men's game for an hour, then force everyone to switch over to KHYI.

This will happen a lot this season because of the schedule moving women's conference games to Thursday and Saturday (was Wednesday and Sunday most of the time last season).

So, if you don't hear the men's game on KNTU -- it will be on KHYI. Since the women's games are only on KNTU, we kind of are forced to broadcast them in the event of a conflict.

greenminer · January 3, 2015

Oh, trust me we're still around.

Women's game started at 7:45. Decided to not carry the men's game for an hour, then force everyone to switch over to KHYI.

This will happen a lot this season because of the schedule moving women's conference games to Thursday and Saturday (was Wednesday and Sunday most of the time last season).

So, if you don't hear the men's game on KNTU -- it will be on KHYI. Since the women's games are only on KNTU, we kind of are forced to broadcast them in the event of a conflict.

AD got stuck in a situation where we are contractually forced to prioritize this women's team over the men on the official MGRN station...

Sometimes during the last year, our AD is SNL-like golden to me.

Edited January 3, 2015 by greenminer

TheWestie · January 3, 2015

Spot on. They were terrible all night, never had anyone looking off the ball even when trouble/hot spots were present. Harris was taking an extra shot from UTEP player off the ball much of the game and they only called it once.
On the sequence that led to the ejections he was being fouled right in front of an official with both players on the floor and no call until it boiled over.'

Yeah, right before the loose ball scramble that led to the fight, Harris was covering a dude who dropped his shoulder and plowed right into him knocking Harris on his ass. I felt the "thud" on the court when his back hit the floor. No call. A defending player, who is leaning forward to cover the guy with the ball, is knocked into with enough force to push him backwards and onto his ass, and nobody said anything. Army of Dad was going ballistic.

Oh and that historic defense gave up how many points by getting distracted trying to cover the guy charging in the paint and leaving the dude on the far three line wide the F open?

Worse than what happened on the court though was what happened in the stands. We got run out of our own arena by the UTEP fans. Who were NOT all just students from DFW home on break. UNC may be the wine and cheese crowd but we're the read a novel during the game crowd.

Army of Dad · January 3, 2015

Since you sit right by the bench do you know what the issue with Anefiok was?

Since it was pretty early in the game I didn't focus on it too much, but I think he missed an assignment on defense and was pissed when he was pulled. Maybe he said something back to a coach?

GrandGreen · January 3, 2015

Some random observations:

NT is a point guard away from being at least an average CUSA team

Breakout game for Harris, pun intended

UTEP is a very good team, fast guards and seemingly an over supply of front court players

UTEP defense appears very solid, yet NT shot very well

Turnovers killed NT, along with UTEP seeming to get every loose ball in the second half

When did the rules change, so that someone complaining of getting hit or elbowed causes the game to stop and a long review, refs obviously didn't see anything when it occurred

NT is going to miss Voss more than Williams next year

Miss Jones's teams ability to get to foul line

Ahmen needs more court time

Even an opponent dominated crowd is better than no crowd

Anyone who thinks not going to a games, makes a positive statement is very misguided

UNT90 · January 3, 2015

Random observation.

I didn't even know UNT played last night.

Personally, I'm not trying to make any statement by not going to the games anymore. I simply lack the interest to drive to Denton for a game. I couldn't name the starting lineup and have no clue who all is on the roster. Just not interested anymore.

And I had season tickets 2 years ago.

Edited January 3, 2015 by UNT90

KRAM1 · January 3, 2015

Some random observations:NT is a point guard away from being at least an average CUSA teamBreakout game for Harris, pun intendedUTEP is a very good team, fast guards and seemingly an over supply of front court playersUTEP defense appears very solid, yet NT shot very wellTurnovers killed NT, along with UTEP seeming to get every loose ball in the second halfWhen did the rules change, so that someone complaining of getting hit or elbowed causes the game to stop and a long review, refs obviously didn't see anything when it occurredNT is going to miss Voss more than Williams next yearMiss Jones's teams ability to get to foul lineAhmen needs more court timeEven an opponent dominated crowd is better than no crowdAnyone who thinks not going to a games, makes a positive statement is very misguided

This...well stated. Very solid observations.

KRAM1 · January 3, 2015

Random observation.
I didn't even know UNT played last night.
Personally, I'm not trying to make any statement by not going to the games anymore. I simply lack the interest to drive to Denton for a game. I couldn't name the starting lineup and have no clue who all is on the roster. Just not interested anymore.
And I had season tickets 2 years ago.

And, yet, you find the interest to post in every BB thread that develops. Would hate to see how many posts you would throw out if you were actually interested...or, is it that you are just interested in letting folks know, for the umpteenth time, that you aren't interested?

Sorry...the opening was just to good to pass up! :-)

UNT90 · January 3, 2015

And, yet, you find the interest to post in every BB thread that develops. Would hate to see how many posts you would throw out if you were actually interested...or, is it that you are just interested in letting folks know, for the umpteenth time, that you aren't interested?
Sorry...the opening was just to good to pass up! :-)

More like a plea for the AD to do something, anything, to get me re-interested.

I guess it just isnt going to happen.

MeanMag · January 3, 2015

No where special by an means (East Texas Baptist Univeristy) then went on to be an assistant coach at a small d2 school and eventually got his masters at UNT. Johhny offered him a graduate assistant position but he moved and and tried out for the Fort Worth flyers but then the team disband. Instead he ended up just going into the health industry but still follows the game when he can. I trust him along with some of the guys that I played in the UNT rec leauge an then city leauges because they all have experience either playing in college or professionally overseas. Me.... Never even played in high school. I just love the game and have picked it up from people who have offered help. Regardless of what anyone calls the defense he had its strategy down and could tell what player would go where as the ball moved around the permitter or inside. My guess is 3-2 diamond and 1-2-1-1 are similar or just different names for the same defense. You don't step out as far as we were in a 3-2 zone and they were trapping the corners and rolling a post player up to the free throw line.
Regardless, what ever it's called it is either very sucesful or allows teams to score at ease with how we run it.

Teams with good, smart, guards with handles and sound passing will beat this D every time.

When one person steps out that far from the basket it becomes feast or famine. You are banking on getting turnovers to change the momentum of the game, and against a well coached and practiced team, it's tough. UTEP plays good ball. CUSA typically plays sound ball. That crap might work occasionally against a team that has careless, unskilled ball handlers. My hope is that we only went to this when we were behind and needed a spark.

If you do not think you can keep a guy in front of you and challenge every shot, this is what you do. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

This time it did not. This is my opinion, but it will not work against the majority of teams in CUSA. You shut down good guard play with good guard play. 1v1.

I agree with Mean Green 09. I'd prefer to make them shoot for it rather than getting slicing looks at the basket behind a defender when fouls become a concern.

All this talk about defense, but that isn't the problem, right?

Andrew · January 3, 2015

Teams with good, smart, guards with handles and sound passing will beat this D every time.

When one person steps out that far from the basket it becomes feast or famine. You are banking on getting turnovers to change the momentum of the game, and against a well coached and practiced team, it's tough. UTEP plays good ball. CUSA typically plays sound ball. That crap might work occasionally against a team that has careless, unskilled ball handlers. My hope is that we only went to this when we were behind and needed a spark.

If you do not think you can keep a guy in front of you and challenge every shot, this is what you do. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

This time it did not. This is my opinion, but it will not work against the majority of teams in CUSA. You shut down good guard play with good guard play. 1v1.

I agree with Mean Green 09. I'd prefer to make them shoot for it rather than getting slicing looks at the basket behind a defender when fouls become a concern.

All this talk about defense, but that isn't the problem, right?

Offense was the major concern coming into this game, hit defense has been 50/50 at best. I like going man, but with our lack of size we would get eaten alive in the paint even if we fronted their post players. Just watching baylor and oklahoma and that is what we need to do if we have the ability. Man defense (but lack the size in the paint) and constant movement off the ball on offense. Most teams run man against us and if we can get defensive players to switch we coud work off the mismatch. Off ball screens and hustle will do that. We also need to not clog the paint. A little bit off spacing would be nice.

emmitt01 · January 3, 2015

“Our guys came out and competed hard on both ends of the floor. We had the game managed pretty well for the first 18 minutes. [uTEP coach Tim] Floyd does a good job of changing defenses. We knew they were going to do it. They ran four different defenses and we didn’t do a good job of adjusting and attacking it.”

– Tony Benford, UNT coach

Now all we need is someone to coach the other 22 minutes.

UNTFan23 · January 4, 2015

AD got stuck in a situation where we are contractually forced to prioritize this women's team over the men on the official MGRN station...

Sometimes during the last year, our AD is SNL-like golden to me.

For years when both the men and women were playing at the same time, the women were on KNTU and the men were on The Word (100.7). The men were put on the higher wattage station as it generally had better coverage.

MEANGREENCOACH2 · January 4, 2015

Think about it... And I have coached thanks bud, 3-2 odd then even front impossible to be a diamond. Any type of diamond press is a 1-2-1-1 or a 1-2-2 where the back to rotate back and forth on a pendulum. I've been coaching basketball for 8 years and played since I was 6 so I've been around it for awhile. Next time you want to make an assumption make sure it's the right one. Sure people can call it different stuff but I've never in 20 years of being around basketball heard anything called a 3-2 diamond press. Since you like to flaunt your friends knowledge, where did he so illustriously play in college.

If it looks like a 3-2 zone, if it is called a 3-2 zone by the coach, then it's probably a 3-2 zone. my half a sense believes it's a 3-2 zone that's what is easier to fall back in with some of the full court pressure we have.

MEANGREENCOACH2 · January 4, 2015

On a second note the halftime little kids game was interesting atleast. Along with the cold beer I was consuming.

the green rokemi · January 4, 2015

There is no such thing as a 3-2 diamond press.

This seriously made me laugh out loud. Benford is the emperor with no clothes on?

UNTLifer · January 4, 2015

I just don't care anymore.

Rudy · January 4, 2015

Our guys came out and competed hard on both ends of the floor. We had the game managed pretty well for the first 18 minutes. [uTEP coach Tim] Floyd does a good job of changing defenses. We knew they were going to do it. They ran four different defenses and we didnt do a good job of adjusting and attacking it.
Tony Benford, UNT coach

Seems to be a recurring theme in his post game pressers.

Ben Gooding · January 4, 2015

And Andrew, why is it we are so much smaller than basically every team we have faced and will face?? Why is that?

Let me answer...

Piss. Poor. Recruiting.

And...

Piss. Poor. Team. Management.

Like I've said, Benford is a ticking time bomb. It's only a matter of time. 1 more year, 2 more years, whatever. Longevity is not going to happen with this man.

Andrew · January 4, 2015

And Andrew, why is it we are so much smaller than basically every team we have faced and will face?? Why is that?
Let me answer...
Piss. Poor. Recruiting.
And...
Piss. Poor. Team. Management.
Like I've said, Benford is a ticking time bomb. It's only a matter of time. 1 more year, 2 more years, whatever. Longevity is not going to happen with this man.

We actually have some pretty decent recruits. It is true we lack size which is why we signed a 7 footer for next season. My guess is we still go out and get some larger guys. This season it is what is. We have designed our defense and offense around our firs, their size, and their abilities. To be honest Johhnys teams never had any size and were very slow and they were very successful. They we just able to play man and make their shots. I am hoping our guys can do the same under Benford. I rather not run through coach after coach after coach over the next decade trying to chase the next big guy. I rather do our best with the guy we have and find sucess. At this point it is not there but there is nothing we can do but cheer on the team and hope for the best.