From 87-88 to Trilli's firing, or more?

Gakusei · December 6, 2003

I have to admit that I know very little about North Texas' basketball. I do know that in 1987-88 we won every game in the season except for against #2 North Carolina, and ended the season ranked at #15.

Beyond that, I have no idea what happened between that time and now, or if you really want to give a history lesson, from the beginning of our days in the MVC to now. It absolutely boggles my mind that we could have an arena like the Super Pit, and have been so good at one point, to being now ranked at almost #300 (Sagarin) out of 320+ D1 schools.

Is there any one factor responsible for this, or is it a whole slew of factors kind of like the football program?

Memphis people keep talking up Johnny Jones, so I hope that he's on his way to building North Texas into a basketball powerhouse once again.

Zeke · December 6, 2003

I have to admit that I know very little about North Texas' basketball. I do know that in 1987-88 we won every game in the season except for against #2 North Carolina, and ended the season ranked at #15.
Beyond that, I have no idea what happened between that time and now, or if you really want to give a history lesson, from the beginning of our days in the MVC to now. It absolutely boggles my mind that we could have an arena like the Super Pit, and have been so good at one point, to being now ranked at almost #300 (Sagarin) out of 320+ D1 schools.
Is there any one factor responsible for this, or is it a whole slew of factors kind of like the football program?
Memphis people keep talking up Johnny Jones, so I hope that he's on his way to building North Texas into a basketball powerhouse once again.

I can't tell you our record in '88, but I feel confident in saying we weren't a one loss team in '88 nor were we ranked #15. A #15 seed in the tournament ...........yeah, probably (losing to the #2 seed UNC).

My take on the Trilli Era (we got green seats in the pit out of the deal):

When I was in school and within 1 mile of The Pit, I went to every game. Even the 3-4 win season a few years ago I made it to. This was during the Trilli Era. His hiring went from great in the begining to what seems like almost ruining the program. His first recruiting class of Dexter Tennel, Chris Davis, and Deg Erskin was amazing. You could really see we were going places. And while he brought in talented recruiting classes at first, it seemed his X's and O's were severly lacking. We began to lose.......A LOT (once by 75 to Maryland). Things got worse when Deg Erskin transferred to UT (IF you watched much of the tourney you saw him have a decent amount of playing time for the 'whorns last year). Trillis recruiting classes diminished and started bringing in people with less and less talent. His last season was cursed. A player died (Marcellus Wright) , a player had a seizure on the court (Wes Allen), numerous injuries that lasted all season, and a guard off of the bench flipped his vehicle a couple of days after the season concluded. We sucked.

JJ brought me some hope his first year getting his team to play above their usual level. Now............I don't know, I am pretty frustrated with our bball team.

KPFC Sports Dept. · December 6, 2003

1987-88 Record: 17-13

Coach: Jimmy Gales

NCAA Tournament: Loss to North Carolina 83-65

1988-89 Record: 14-15

Coach: Jimmy Gales

1989-90 Record: 5-25

Coach: Jimmy Gales

1990-91 Record: 17-13

Coach: Jimmy Gales

1991-92 Record: 15-14

Coach: Jimmy Gales

1992-93 Record: 5-21

Coach: Jimmy Gales

1993-94 Record: 14-15

Coach: Tim Jankovich

1994-95 Record:14-13

Coach: Tim Jankovich

1995-96 Record: 15-13

Coach: Tim Jankovich

1996-97 Record: 10-16

Coach: Tim Jankovich

1997-98 Record: 5-21

Coach: Vic Trilli

1998-99 Record: 4-22

Coach: Vic Trilli

1999-00 Record: 7-20

Coach: Vic Trilli

2000-01 Record: 4-24

Coach: Vic Trilli

2001-02 Record: 15-14

Coach: Johnny Jones

2002-03 Record: 7-21

Coach: Johnny Jones

Buford_Julep · December 6, 2003

Why did NT have such football and basketball success in the late 60's and early 70's and then fall apart?

In the late 60's the SWC, SEC and ACC only gave scholarships to white athletes. The very best of Texas' black athletes went to the Big 10 or Pac 10 or Big 8. But only the very best. Those schools only gave scholarships to black players they were sure would be stars. That left a huge pool of Texas black athletes for Houston, North Texas and Texas Western (UTEP) to choose from.

Later, the SWC integrated and teams from other parts of the country raised the quota on the number of black athletes allowed. NT no longer had a great recruiting advantage, the teams quit winning and the support dwindled.

VideoEagle · December 7, 2003

UNT had great success in the late 70's, well after integration in the other conferences. We had Bill Blakley, former coach of the Dallas Chaparrals of the ABA and still the coach with the most wins in school history.

I know this seems hard to believe now, but the Pit was 3/4 full for most games back then. If you lived in a dorm, THE thing to do was go to a BB game. There was a game against either Texas or SMU back then that the Denton Fire Marshal was theatening to shut down because the turnstile count show 12K in the 10K seat arena.

I never did understand why Blakley was fired. He had one (1!) "less than 20+ win season" and was let go. Can you imagine that now?

Of course, once he was gone, the anti-athletics folks who were in power at the time managed to get an idiot hired. Bill had built a "run and gun" team. He even had Spud Webb coming to play at UNT. He successor, who's name I can't remember, wanted to switch everything to a "half court, defense first and second then think about taking a shot" team. His ideal game would be a final of 50-49. It was awful. The fans deserted and still haven't come back.

Gakusei · December 8, 2003

Of course, once he was gone, the anti-athletics folks who were in power at the time managed to get an idiot hired.

Looks like they had a dominating win. Not even the die hard Mean Green fans will show up to the basketball games now. <_<

Thanks everyone for helping to clear up the past few decades and how we've arrived at the horrible position we're in right now.

Edited December 8, 2003 by Gakusei

NDT · December 8, 2003

The Bozo we hired after Blakely was coaching at Texas Weslyan when he was hired. After he left he ended up at Trinity High School. He told Spud Webb that he was too short and so he went to NC State. He did however recruit Tony Worrell. I think his name may have been Nelson.

UNTX · December 8, 2003

I remember hearing at one point that Blakely was fired right after having lost to Texas Wesleyan (or at season's end for losing to them) we then went and hired Texas Wesleyan's coach. Don't know if that's true or not.

NDT · December 9, 2003

Yes. We had lost to Texas Wesleyan and then hired their coach. Bad mistake. That hire and the hire of Gales really hurt the program. Gales just got lucky the year we went to the NCAA playoffs. We had the best arena in the Southland conference and the most desirable location. We really screwed up by not hiring a coach who could dominate that league. A kickass basketball coach would have opened the door to charter membership in conference USA . What a shame.

UNTLifer · December 9, 2003

The Bozo we hired after Blakely was coaching at Texas Weslyan when he was hired. After he left he ended up at Trinity High School. He told Spud Webb that he was too short and so he went to NC State. He did however recruit Tony Worrell. I think his name may have been Nelson.

Tommy Newman. Newman from Seinfeld would've been about as effective.

UNT_92_Fan · December 9, 2003

lol!

CaribbeanGreen · December 9, 2003

Does anyone remember the last game of that year of Trilli's big freshman class (Tennell, Erskin, Davis, etc.)? We put it to Nevada something like 125-80-- the freshmen were flying everywhere with highlight reel dunks, raining threes, etc... it seemed like something special was really coming together... and then poof.. it was gone.