San Diego (12/16/17)

[Andrew]

3 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

Smart is averaging 18.1 a game as a sophomore.

Watson averaged 15.7 as a senior, and his next highest season average for his career was 11.3.

If Smart keeps his average where it is at, he is in a class as a perimeter scorer at this stage in his career with Chris Davis and that's about it. At least as far back as I can see.

I hold Davis and Watson in the same category simply because they had range and were not afraid to shoot it from anywhere on the floor. I remember watching both David and Watson pull up from the Wells Fargo logo and knock down shots. Smart has that tenacity. He is a confident shooter and with a guys like Woolridge who can control the floor and Temara who can space the floor, Smart is going to have a lot of good looks. The best part is he, Woolridge, and Lawson are only sophomores. 

[Mean_Green09]

Well I thought it would be lower scoring but as the asshole @Andrew was so nice to point out to me I was wrong. I’m glad he felt the need to send me a message to tell me. You win dude. 

[CMJ]

That was an amazing game to be at.  Probably a dozen other NT fans were there, though most were related to players (I met AJ Lawson's cousin who is in the Navy and stationed nearby).  Not a full crowd, but that was a loud arena.  Felt really good to walk out win the win.

Edited December 17, 2017 by CMJ

[FirefightnRick]

Dang our guy can coach.  Great win by the men.

Hat tip to sumg for the link here of the locker room celebration.

https://mobile.twitter.com/UNTCoachGMac/status/942291332885651456/video/1

 

Rick

Edited December 17, 2017 by FirefightnRick

[MeanGreenTexan]

Whoa!  We’re hooping now!

Way to go fellas.  Looks like i’ll Be making a trip or 2 out to the pit this season.  Something I didn’t do last year for the first time in a long time.

[Venson]

Great win. Looks like Benford was a good recruiter, but a bad coach. McCasland is taking a lot of Benford players and improving them by leaps and bounds. Lawson, Woolridge, Temara, and Holston are all Benford players and all he could manage was 8 wins. GMac is taking those same guys and a couple of his and they look head and shoulders above last year.

[Matt from A700]

Awesome headline to wake up to! Already more road nonconference wins than Benford had last year! This team has been playing better and better on the road each game this season, I knew some kind of upset had to happen. What a great win, and a great job at avenging San Diego's win at the Pit in 2016. Let's see if we can carry this momentum and shock Georgetown!

[CMJ]

I hope we can have a west coast game once every year or two - especially if we have that kinda game.  One of the better ones I've ever seen live.  Even my girlfriend said that it would have been worth going to even if we had lost in OT.  Just a fun game...I'll be hoarse for another day.

[djohnnie]

Exciting to see the growth the team is making. I guess because we have so few seniors graduating, we can look at Gibson and Tikhonenko being added to the mix with the transfer from Arky state as Freshman. Does anyone know how many new scholarships we have available next year for players coming in?  Nice to see improvement being made from the team. It has been some time. We could make some noise in conference play. GMG!

Edited December 17, 2017 by djohnnie

[Green Lantern]

Great win!

This is going to be such a dangerous team come CUSA tourney time. I’m so happy real basketball is back in Denton! 

[BillySee58]

23 minutes ago, djohnnie said:

Exciting to see the growth the team is making. I guess because we have so few seniors graduating, we can look at Gibson and Tikhonenko being added to the mix with the transfer from Arky state as Freshman. Does anyone know how many new scholarships we have available next year for players coming in?  Nice to see improvement being made from the team. It has been some time. We could make some noise in conference play. GMG!

One, if everyone with eligibility remaining returns next year. Temara is our only scholarship senior, so that is our open spot which has not been filled yet.

Edited December 17, 2017 by BillySee58

[TreeFiddy]

Beating USD on the road should give us a pretty nice RPI bump. They had an RPI of 60 entering the game and ours was in the 260 range. The score prediction based on RPI had us losing by 30. That was a very nice road win. 

[ChristopherRyanWilkes]

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

Beating USD on the road should give us a pretty nice RPI bump. They had an RPI of 60 entering the game and ours was in the 260 range. The score prediction based on RPI had us losing by 30. That was a very nice road win. 

We are ranked 187th in RPI now. 6th best in the Conference behind Middle, Old Dominion, W. Kentucky, LaTech, and Marshall.  

Last year we finished around 320th out of 351 teams if I remember correctly. 

[Harry]

I know this question beats people down but anyone heard anything on the Russian and will he become eligible this season at 2nd semester?

[chrisfisher]

40 minutes ago, Harry said:

I know this question beats people down but anyone heard anything on the Russian and will he become eligible this season at 2nd semester?

I was thinking the same thing. Would be nice to have another athletic big man beneath the basket. The NCAA sucks. They are so biased. If this was a noted P5 basketball program, they would have cleared this player before the season even started. Atrocious! Robbing this young man (and our team) of playing time...almost half the season is done. THE NCAA powers that be SUCK!!! 

[BillySee58]

1 hour ago, Harry said:

I know this question beats people down but anyone heard anything on the Russian and will he become eligible this season at 2nd semester?

I'm thinking redshirt year either way at this point. Although it would be really nice to have him given that we only made one three-pointer by someone not named Roosevelt Smart last night. Plus we only have one true stretch four right now, and that's what Mccasland plays so we could use another, so he could be groomed into that role to fill Temara's spot.

We'll see, but timing wise not sure how likely it is that we'll see him this year regardless of the ruling.

[GMoney]

I love listening to basketball play by play on the radio. Whoever subbed for Dave and Hank (may have been SD feed) was pretty good.  Speaking of that, the lady's play by play announcer is really good too.

 Smart was on fire!  This team will get better! Also, this is the first team/coach I've seen actually playing defense, not just giving lip service to it, in a long time.

Edited December 17, 2017 by GMoney

[CMJ]

Forgot to mention, I saw a guy in a Hilltoppers sweatshirt at the game.  Not sure why he was there, but WKU folks ARE big basketball fans.  Maybe he just lives in SD and likes to catch roundball every now and then.

[Mean Green Matt]

4 hours ago, GMoney said:

I love listening to basketball play by play on the radio. Whoever subbed for Dave and Hank (may have been SD feed) was pretty good.  Speaking of that, the lady's play by play announcer is really good too.

Agree. John Liddle is the women's play by play guy and is fantastic. Could be wrong but I believe he is an alum just like Dave Barnett. 

[UNTFan23]

53 minutes ago, Mean Green Matt said:

Agree. John Liddle is the women's play by play guy and is fantastic. Could be wrong but I believe he is an alum just like Dave Barnett. 

John Little is an original Green Guy. I think he and Sean Bass were the first. 

Zach Babb is who was the caller last night for the men's game. He is a KNTU student worker and calls HS games.

[GrandGreen]

Most sports related fun I had in New Orleans was listening to the second half of this game.  

Calvin Watson was mentioned in comparison of Smart I think.   Smart, Lawson and Woolridge are all better than Calvin as a sophomore.   Watson was the type of player that substantially improved every year.  If NT gets that kind of progression out of some of their young players they will be very good. 

NT could start Simmons, Lawson, Woolridge and Smart for two more years.   That is a very bright future.  

[Andrew]

4 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Most sports related fun I had in New Orleans was listening to the second half of this game.  

Calvin Watson was mentioned in comparison of Smart I think.   Smart, Lawson and Woolridge are all better than Calvin as a sophomore.   Watson was the type of player that substantially improved every year.  If NT gets that kind of progression out of some of their young players they will be very good. 

NT could start Simmons, Lawson, Woolridge and Smart for two more years.   That is a very bright future.  

That’s the best part. This is a pretty young team and the guys still have a few years together. I’m hoping we can get a top freshman recruit to replace Temara and keep the youth movement alive.

[UNTLifer]

18 hours ago, Andrew said:

That’s the best part. This is a pretty young team and the guys still have a few years together. I’m hoping we can get a top freshman recruit to replace Temara and keep the youth movement alive.

Interesting that this is one of the most successful Fall's we have ever had at UNT with soccer, volleyball, football and the basketball teams playing so well, and every team is extremely young.