Question for long time fans

[Cr1028]

I started following in '07. What is the worst team you all can remember because this year's is obviously the worst team I can remember.

[Andrew]

98-99 Trillion was pretty bad. Season tickets back then as well and watched them lose pretty much every night. 4 wins... 

[letsgiveacheer]

Trilli won a total of 20 games in his four years at North Texas for a sub .200 winning percentage. Particularly noteworthy was the 2000 campaign when we won a total of 7 games in football and basketball combined.

Benford is the next John Wooden in comparison with Trilli.

[Army of Dad]

55 minutes ago, letsgiveacheer said:

Trilli won a total of 20 games in his four years at North Texas for a sub .200 winning percentage. Particularly noteworthy was the 2000 campaign when we won a total of 7 games in football and basketball combined.

Benford is the next John Wooden in comparison with Trilli.

Let's not go crazy here.

Trilli did horrible, but Benford didn't have to face the same kind of schedule so much like tootsie pops, the world will never know.

[meanrob]

Had season tickets during the Trilli years and most games you just stopped paying attention early in the second half. Jankovich years weren't anything to write home about either. 

This is so bad because we have more going for us now. Or at least we should. You think it's hard to get up for opponents now, the early Big West days sucked. Who gives a hoot about Irvine or Fullerton. But some of my favorite players are from those years. 

Edited January 29, 2017 by meanrob

[UNT90]

36 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

Let's not go crazy here.

Trilli did horrible, but Benford didn't have to face the same kind of schedule so much like tootsie pops, the world will never know.

Right, if Benford played a Trilli schedule, does he even get to 4 wins this year? I doubt it.

[oldguystudent]

2 hours ago, meanrob said:

Who gives a hoot about Irvine

This guy

[greenminer]

I started school in Denton in 1999.  I don't remember being so emotionally emotionally bummed like today, but I was still getting acclimated to the rigors of the COM and Chris Davis was just so freaking good.  I do recall lousy crowds.

I traveled to one of the Belt bball tournaments and remember being in awe about the size of the WKU crowds.  Was the host site rotating at that point? I know the year I went it was in NO.

[meanrob]

6 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

This guy

I used to play pickup ball at UCI while stationed at El Toro so I was very familiar with the Anteaters. But the crowds and atmosphere when the Cali teams came to town wasn't the greatest. Then again, you could say nothing has changed. 

[Cr1028]

Appreciate it guys. That's some good perspective 

[oldguystudent]

2 hours ago, meanrob said:

I used to play pickup ball at UCI while stationed at El Toro so I was very familiar with the Anteaters. But the crowds and atmosphere when the Cali teams came to town wasn't the greatest. Then again, you could say nothing has changed. 

Both of those school were gawdawful when UNT was in the Big West.  The conference has steadily slid downhill overall, but somehow fan interest has increased.  They made it a California only league (until Hawaii joined for non-football sports).  SoCal in particular seems to really enjoy that.  Putting future Sun Belt teams from Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana in a desperate attempt to keep sponsoring football was a stupid move and made me look to see if Karl Benson had been commissioner back then. 

[meanrob]

1 hour ago, oldguystudent said:

Both of those school were gawdawful when UNT was in the Big West.  The conference has steadily slid downhill overall, but somehow fan interest has increased.  They made it a California only league (until Hawaii joined for non-football sports).  SoCal in particular seems to really enjoy that.  Putting future Sun Belt teams from Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana in a desperate attempt to keep sponsoring football was a stupid move and made me look to see if Karl Benson had been commissioner back then. 

He was busy imploding the WAC. 

Both LBSU and UCI have fielded some good teams but no one seems to keep the mojo going. I'm still surprised the Gauchos can't get it going. 

Edited January 29, 2017 by meanrob

[oldguystudent]

41 minutes ago, meanrob said:

He was busy imploding the WAC. 

Both LBSU and UCI have fielded some good teams but no one seems to keep the mojo going. I'm still surprised the Gauchos can't get it going. 

Gauchos had a hell of a good team in the 80s and 90s.  Their head coach was this hippie dude that lived on a houseboat.  They've made the tourney a couple times since, but just haven't been able to sustain.  

[UNTFan23]

Here's a snapshot on how previous coaches have done at North Texas.

Rk	Coach	From	To	Yrs	G	W	L	W-L%	CREG	CTRN	NCAA	FF	NC
1	Johnny Jones	2002	2012	11	336	190	146	.565	1	2	2	0	0
2	Bill Blakeley	1976	1983	8	219	134	85	.612	0	0	0	0	0
3	Jimmy Gales	1987	1993	7	202	84	118	.416	2	1	1	0	0
4	Tony Benford	2013	2017	5	148	60	88	.405	0	0	0	0	0
5	Dan Spika	1966	1970	5	127	58	69	.457	0	0	0	0	0
6	Tim Jankovich	1994	1997	4	110	53	57	.482	0	0	0	0	0
7	Gene Robbins	1972	1975	4	103	36	67	.350	0	0	0	0	0
8	Charles Johnson	1960	1965	6	150	36	114	.240	0	0	0	0	0
9	James St. Clair	1922	1923	2	26	24	2	.923	0	0
10	Tommy Newman	1984	1986	3	84	24	60	.286	0	0	0	0	0
11	Vic Trilli	1998	2001	4	107	20	87	.187	0	0	0	0	0
12	Harry Miller	1971	1971	1	25	10	15	.400	0	0	0	0	0
13	Pete Shands	1958	1959	2	45	9	36	.200	0	0	0	0	0

Maybe someone can clarify but it appears Trill was allowed to coach out his entire 4th season.

[oldguystudent]

6 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

Here's a snapshot on how previous coaches have done at North Texas.

Rk	Coach	From	To	Yrs	G	W	L	W-L%	CREG	CTRN	NCAA	FF	NC
1	Johnny Jones	2002	2012	11	336	190	146	.565	1	2	2	0	0
2	Bill Blakeley	1976	1983	8	219	134	85	.612	0	0	0	0	0
3	Jimmy Gales	1987	1993	7	202	84	118	.416	2	1	1	0	0
4	Tony Benford	2013	2017	5	148	60	88	.405	0	0	0	0	0
5	Dan Spika	1966	1970	5	127	58	69	.457	0	0	0	0	0
6	Tim Jankovich	1994	1997	4	110	53	57	.482	0	0	0	0	0
7	Gene Robbins	1972	1975	4	103	36	67	.350	0	0	0	0	0
8	Charles Johnson	1960	1965	6	150	36	114	.240	0	0	0	0	0
9	James St. Clair	1922	1923	2	26	24	2	.923	0	0
10	Tommy Newman	1984	1986	3	84	24	60	.286	0	0	0	0	0
11	Vic Trilli	1998	2001	4	107	20	87	.187	0	0	0	0	0
12	Harry Miller	1971	1971	1	25	10	15	.400	0	0	0	0	0
13	Pete Shands	1958	1959	2	45	9	36	.200	0	0	0	0	0

Maybe someone can clarify but it appears Trill was allowed to coach out his entire 4th season.

Good lord.  Can't somebody get James St. Clair on the phone and see if he's interested in getting back into coaching? 

[Army of Dad]

3 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Good lord.  Can't somebody get James St. Clair on the phone and see if he's interested in getting back into coaching? 

Him or zombie Landry?

[meanrob]

The interesting thing about the Trilli era was for a hot second it all came together and the team started playing good ball. Then it fell apart and everybody transferred. I remember watching Erskin (?) suited up for UT and giving all out effort. What a downer. 

[KRAM1]

23 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

Here's a snapshot on how previous coaches have done at North Texas.

Rk	Coach	From	To	Yrs	G	W	L	W-L%	CREG	CTRN	NCAA	FF	NC
1	Johnny Jones	2002	2012	11	336	190	146	.565	1	2	2	0	0
2	Bill Blakeley	1976	1983	8	219	134	85	.612	0	0	0	0	0
3	Jimmy Gales	1987	1993	7	202	84	118	.416	2	1	1	0	0
4	Tony Benford	2013	2017	5	148	60	88	.405	0	0	0	0	0
5	Dan Spika	1966	1970	5	127	58	69	.457	0	0	0	0	0
6	Tim Jankovich	1994	1997	4	110	53	57	.482	0	0	0	0	0
7	Gene Robbins	1972	1975	4	103	36	67	.350	0	0	0	0	0
8	Charles Johnson	1960	1965	6	150	36	114	.240	0	0	0	0	0
9	James St. Clair	1922	1923	2	26	24	2	.923	0	0
10	Tommy Newman	1984	1986	3	84	24	60	.286	0	0	0	0	0
11	Vic Trilli	1998	2001	4	107	20	87	.187	0	0	0	0	0
12	Harry Miller	1971	1971	1	25	10	15	.400	0	0	0	0	0
13	Pete Shands	1958	1959	2	45	9	36	.200	0	0	0	0	0

Maybe someone can clarify but it appears Trill was allowed to coach out his entire 4th season.

And, I have watched, in person at the Pit and/or Super Pit, games coached by 10 of the 13 coaches listed.  Yikes, that is a lot of coaches and a lot of games.  Guessing I will be on Coach 11  of 14 next season.

Edited January 30, 2017 by KRAM1

[UNT90]

4 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Good lord.  Can't somebody get James St. Clair on the phone and see if he's interested in getting back into coaching? 

I'm thinking Hall of Fame nominee.

[@UNTSportsFan]

Fun Fact : St Clair left North Texas for SMU in 1924

[TheTastyGreek]

8 minutes ago, @UNTSportsFan said:

Fun Fact : St Clair left North Texas for SMU in 1924

Then screw him. He's dead to me. 

[UNT90]

18 minutes ago, @UNTSportsFan said:

Fun Fact : St Clair left North Texas for SMU in 1924

So kinda a reverse Hayden Fry?

[UNT94]

The 84-85 team under Tommy Newman (5-23) & the 92-93 team under Jimmy Gales (5-21) are a tie for me (at least in the Super Pit era). This year's team has considerably more talent than either of those, so what we are watching isn't historic in those terms.

I do remember several fans wearing paper grocery bags with eye holes in it for the remaining few games with Gales in '93 as a way to signal their displeasure.  That was the trend back then.  Now, people just don't go & do something else.  Oh, the memories. Lol

Edited January 30, 2017 by UNT94

[CMJ]

Trilli's teams were so bad.  Jankovich hadn't left the program in THAT bad of shape, but Vic really ran it completely off the rails.

[GrandGreen]

I actually think Trilli was a much better coach than Benford.  He actually was a successful juco hc and seemed to know what was going on at court side.  The impossible schedule that NT played Trilli first two years, was way above Trilli coaching and team talent level.   The enormous losses quickly killed his program and Trilli went from a pretty good recruiter to a coach that almost literally couldn't sign anyone.  

So even though I think Trilli was the much better coach  His last team was worse than anything Benford has fielded.   The best player was recruited to play QB for NT.   Note, Chris Davis was injured and did not play that year.   Trilli's last season despite moving to the Belt, a conference way below the Big West caliber, and a much easier oc schedule was 4-24.   If NT has had a worst MBB team, it must have been in the peach basket days.