McNeese State (12/9/17)

CMJ · December 10, 2017

2014_winter_parting-shot_14_559_hurley-l NT 85 ---McNeese 47

Final

Andrew · December 10, 2017

10 minutes ago, RushnStudies said:

Black hoodie? I think that is him, actually.

Yea that’s who I was thinking. Hopefully that’s a good sign. If we can get him and Duffy come conference play we could put up a fight in every game.

GrandGreen · December 10, 2017

Great to see Arikawa and Miller contribute. This team is going to be trouble for anyone in CUSA.

BillySee58 · December 10, 2017

38 point margin of victory is bigger than any Benford team ever won by against a D1 opponent.

Harry · December 10, 2017

Impressive win.

bstnsportsfan3 · December 10, 2017

First game i have made this year. Several Observations

Simmons is going to be a great player for us. He is only a freshman and i cannot wait to watch him continue to develop over the next 3.5 years,

Its so nice to watch a North Texas team with some plays on offense instead of everyone just standing around like they did for 5 years under benford. This was the most complete offensive team i have seen at NT since the JJ days.

This team is a beast on the boards and play great defense. If they can keep it up, we can steal some conference games we are not suppose to win this season.

FInal thought. This team is young but is already playing better then i expected and is super fun to watch in person. If your on the fence and haven't made it out to the pit then come on out and see for yourself. Only thing that is sad is the student crowd...i saw maybe 10 in the student section and no semblance of the pit crew like it was when i rocked it from 2007-2010. Anyways i am glad the conference tourney is local because this will be a hard team to beat if they continue to rebound and play d like they did today.

Ryan Munthe · December 10, 2017

2 hours ago, bstnsportsfan3 said:

First game i have made this year. Several Observations

Simmons is going to be a great player for us. He is only a freshman and i cannot wait to watch him continue to develop over the next 3.5 years,

Its so nice to watch a North Texas team with some plays on offense instead of everyone just standing around like they did for 5 years under benford. This was the most complete offensive team i have seen at NT since the JJ days.

This team is a beast on the boards and play great defense. If they can keep it up, we can steal some conference games we are not suppose to win this season.

FInal thought. This team is young but is already playing better then i expected and is super fun to watch in person. If your on the fence and haven't made it out to the pit then come on out and see for yourself. Only thing that is sad is the student crowd...i saw maybe 10 in the student section and no semblance of the pit crew like it was when i rocked it from 2007-2010. Anyways i am glad the conference tourney is local because this will be a hard team to beat if they continue to rebound and play d like they did today.

I am completely depressed over the student section (and overall attendance) but I don’t really know what the answer is. In our heyday, we were rowdy as it gets.

Edited December 10, 2017 by Ryan Munthe

RiseUNT · December 10, 2017

7 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

I am completely depressed over the student section (and overall attendance) but I don’t really know what the answer is. In our heyday, we were rowdy as it gets.

5 years of suck

DeepGreen · December 10, 2017

37 minutes ago, RiseUNT said:

5 years of suck

Yep, that will do it.

Edited December 10, 2017 by DeepGreen

RiseUNT · December 10, 2017

I am getting excited again. I'll be at the UTSA game on the 30th.

Aquila_Viridis · December 10, 2017

Nice to see news of a beatdown win even of McNeese. Look man, Benford messed this thing up bad. Attendance takes a while to return. Some more convincing wins like this, maybe the administration will make a priority of getting people to these games. Keep fighting!

Wookies · December 10, 2017

Just now, Ryan Munthe said:

I am completely depressed over the student section (and overall attendance) but I don’t really know what the answer is. In our heyday, we were rowdy as it gets.

There are actually quite a bit more in attendance than what you see in the student section but they are scattered throughout the arena. That being said we have a long way to go to get back to attendance levels for students and almuni that we had during Johnny's tenure. Tonight's crowd looked to me like the best so far this season. I know a lot of people walked away from the program under Benford but I think you will really enjoy watching both the men's and women's programs compete. Both play tough defense, work hard and are getting better each game.

Ryan Munthe · December 10, 2017

8 hours ago, Wookies said:

There are actually quite a bit more in attendance than what you see in the student section but they are scattered throughout the arena. That being said we have a long way to go to get back to attendance levels for students and almuni that we had during Johnny's tenure. Tonight's crowd looked to me like the best so far this season. I know a lot of people walked away from the program under Benford but I think you will really enjoy watching both the men's and women's programs compete. Both play tough defense, work hard and are getting better each game.

It’s going to take a lot to gain me back. I went to every home game when Johnny was here. I didn’t go to a game last year and haven’t gone this year.

We’ll see, I’ll probably go to the UTSA game.

DeepGreen · December 10, 2017

5 minutes ago, Ryan Munthe said:

It’s going to take a lot to gain me back. I went to every home game when Johnny was here. I didn’t go to a game last year and haven’t gone this year.

We’ll see, I’ll probably go to the UTSA game.

New coach, new era. Give McCasland a chance. Support the team now. I think we have the right coach, and with a few holes to plug up with recruiting, we should do well.

Matt from A700 · December 10, 2017

The AD needs to make an event out of these basketball game. I know this season is just getting started, but throw the kitchen sink at the home opener in 2018. Come up with some incentives for mass amounts of students to show up like the UTSA football game, and if you win the game (especially by a big margin like Eureka), I'm sure you'll get a good amount of students interested and ready to return to the Pit.

DeepGreen · December 10, 2017

Any sighting of Tikhonenko on the bench?

Cooley · December 10, 2017

It’s just crap to keep using Benford as an excuse. SMU was worse under Daugherty but they started selling out immediately when they started winning, beating better opponents and playing better people at home.

I wish we could win a national championship with this team but we have not beat anyone we were not suppose to beat and lost to everyone we we suppose to lose to. We still haven’t played anyone at home. Some fans may not be easily impressed when you beat a bad team at home by 38 that loses ever game by a huge margin; with most of of the starters still in in game until the end.

No question, This teams looks better, plays better and feels better to the folks who closely follows men’s basketball. I thought the crowds were terrible when JJ was here for the amount of success they had. We had a standing room only sellout back in the 70’s with 17k students and Denton population of 40k. Many other games were well over 7-9 k.

Its stupid, in my opinion, to keep talking about a bad situation that both parties have long moved on from.

southsideguy · December 10, 2017

The crowd is better than last year and more into the game. Last year is was like being at a funeral.

Mean Green Matt · December 10, 2017

20 minutes ago, Cooley said:

It’s just crap to keep using Benford as an excuse. SMU was worse under Daugherty but they started selling out immediately when they started winning, beating better opponents and playing better people at home.

I wish we could win a national championship with this team but we have not beat anyone we were not suppose to beat and lost to everyone we we suppose to lose to. We still haven’t played anyone at home. Some fans may not be easily impressed when you beat a bad team at home by 38 that loses ever game by a huge margin; with most of of the starters still in in game until the end.

No question, This teams looks better, plays better and feels better to the folks who closely follows men’s basketball. I thought the crowds were terrible when JJ was here for the amount of success they had. We had a standing room only sellout back in the 70’s with 17k students and Denton population of 40k. Many other games were well over 7-9 k.

Its stupid, in my opinion, to keep talking about a bad situation that both parties have long moved on from.

I would normally agree with this, but there are two problems. First, the Benford years weren't just mediocre, they were a complete disaster from the beginning, with a team that was touted as one of our best ever. Second, that disaster was allowed to continue for five full seasons. I agree there is no reason to dwell on it but the reality is it will likely take this fan base, particularly the students, a couple of years to fully jump back on the bandwagon. I do think we will see better crowds in the spring

Hopefully enough progress has been made come conference tournament time to result in some good crowds in Frisco.

GrandGreen · December 10, 2017

4 minutes ago, Cooley said:

It’s just crap to keep using Benford as an excuse. SMU was worse under Daugherty but they started selling out immediately when they started winning, beating better opponents and playing better people at home.

I wish we could win a national championship with this team but we have not beat anyone we were not suppose to beat and lost to everyone we we suppose to lose to. We still haven’t played anyone at home. Some fans may not be easily impressed when you beat a bad team at home by 38 that loses ever game by a huge margin; with most of of the starters still in in game until the end.

No question, This teams looks better, plays better and feels better to the folks who closely follows men’s basketball. I thought the crowds were terrible when JJ was here for the amount of success they had. We had a standing room only sellout back in the 70’s with 17k students and Denton population of 40k. Many other games were well over 7-9 k.

Its stupid, in my opinion, to keep talking about a bad situation that both parties have long moved on from.

I agree Benford is gone, the man who hired him is gone and sadly a lot of the pre-Benford fans. Most Fans got exactly what they asked for a fresh slate and a big time for NT coaching hire. McCasland is the real deal, and this team is playing very well already.

I do agree that the sorry oc home schedule is to blame for a lot of fan apathy.

I agree with your assessment of NT beating the teams they should have beat and losing to those they should is accurate other than the one home loss. The losses actually are a lot more impressive than the wins.

I do disagree about the McNeese State victory. I am not sure who you wanted NT to play in the lopsided win, more minutes for guys who will likely not see any significant court time in conference. Draper, Arikawa and Miller all got extended minutes. Also all of MS loses were to higher rated teams than NT. ULL ( rpi 179, 7-2) won by 89-78; San Diego St (rpi 35, 7-2) won 83-52; Houston (rpi 105, 7-1) won 81-53, and Loyola Marymount (rpi 226, 4-4) won by only 6. Yes, they were big losses; but to good teams.

I wish I was going to NT now, because there must be a lot of good things going on that I wouldn't spend a couple of hours watching my college team play basketball. Even in the best of Jones era, student attendance was awful maybe 1000, but now it is just unexplainable.

Ryan Munthe · December 10, 2017

1 hour ago, Cooley said:

It’s just crap to keep using Benford as an excuse. SMU was worse under Daugherty but they started selling out immediately when they started winning, beating better opponents and playing better people at home.

I wish we could win a national championship with this team but we have not beat anyone we were not suppose to beat and lost to everyone we we suppose to lose to. We still haven’t played anyone at home. Some fans may not be easily impressed when you beat a bad team at home by 38 that loses ever game by a huge margin; with most of of the starters still in in game until the end.

No question, This teams looks better, plays better and feels better to the folks who closely follows men’s basketball. I thought the crowds were terrible when JJ was here for the amount of success they had. We had a standing room only sellout back in the 70’s with 17k students and Denton population of 40k. Many other games were well over 7-9 k.

Its stupid, in my opinion, to keep talking about a bad situation that both parties have long moved on from.

Benford is a completely different disaster.

Want to know why I bailed? My father flew in from NY to come see us get out-hustled by UTA in our supposed Cinderella year. Tony Mitchell was horrible. I hyped it up considerably...and we left early.

That season was painful. It wasn’t even about that we tanked. It was that prior to that point, basketball was UNT’s calling card with sports and IT FINALLY LOOKED like we were going to break through with a national spotlight. It was the birth of what SMU is now.

Jones was loyal and only left because his alma called, so we went out, spent REAL money for a REAL big time coach...even Fraschilla was in the mix. We were going to explode.

And then it all imploded. Our big draft pick stopped giving a shit. Meanwhile, football continued to grow in popularity so students shifted attention that way.

Our presentation was boring, our students dwindling, and the Super Pit being a dark, depressing outdated albatross (seriously) to watch absolutely embarrassing on-court action for a team that was supposed to be a breakthrough.

And despite utter despair and it being PAINFULLY obvious we were destroying our program we KEPT BENFORD AROUND. To make things worse, Benford could recruit. I kept thinking “maybe this will be the year!” Meanwhile SMU did what we should’ve done.

It was a nut-kick of immense proportion that nearly ran me off from UNT entirely. Our football team was great so I focused it all there. And then, to make it worse, football got nuked. Had we not hired Littrell, can’t say I’d still be an active fan.

THAT is why it will take a lot for me to give a shit, and that is why Benford singlehandedly torpedoed UNT athletics.

Call me a fake fan, whatever. I was one of the students who used to go to Hot Springs and lived on the front row. So take your BS somewhere else.

Edited December 10, 2017 by Ryan Munthe

Ryan Munthe · December 10, 2017

All I’m saying is it’s going to take more than overtime Ws against D3 schools for me to care.

BillySee58 · December 10, 2017

1 hour ago, DeepGreen said:

Any sighting of Tikhonenko on the bench?

He can't sit on the bench right now while his eligibility is being determined. He usually sits in the first rows right behind the bench. Apparently the ruling is about to be determined this week, one way or the other.

Also, bonus points to you for typing his name instead of referring to him as "the Russian"

Mean Green Matt · December 10, 2017

12 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

He can't sit on the bench right now while his eligibility is being determined. He usually sits in the first rows right behind the bench. Apparently the ruling is about to be determined this week, one way or the other.

Also, bonus points to you for typing his name instead of referring to him as "the Russian"

Assuming he is deemed eligible (which I realize is a risky assumption for us because the NCAA hates us) does he get significant minutes? Is he practicing with the team right now?