DRC: UNT's run to the CBI title, the untold story

[Brett Vito]

DRC: McCasland, UNT players cite untold story of the moments that made their breakout season possible 

https://www.dentonrc.com/sports/an-unforeseen-journey-unt-s-run-to-cbi-title-contained/article_ab110c87-cbcd-5fbb-936f-b09feba50037.html

Edited June 10, 2018 by Brett Vito

[GrandGreen]

One of Vito's best articles.  

[Green Lantern]

Nice article @Brett Vito! Really enjoyed it.

[WaxaWarrior2016]

I. Love. McCasland. This program is a complete 180 from what it was one year ago today. An excellent article highlighting just how much of an impact he's made!

[Cooley]

2 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

One of Vito's best articles.  

Was this a compliment?  Just the latest in a long line of Benford bashing articles and hyperbole. Will it ever end? 

[GrandGreen]

13 hours ago, Cooley said:

Was this a compliment?  Just the latest in a long line of Benford bashing articles and hyperbole. Will it ever end? 

This is a newspaper article not a blog, therefore it is assumed that a lot of the readers won't have in-depth knowledge of the program.   I am not sure how you would write about the progress of a new coach without providing background on the status of the program before he arrived.  

Benford was an awful hire, I am not sure how you sugarcoat that.  As for as hyperbole, how so?  This seemed to me to be a fairly in-depth article that provided some unknown facts at least to most of us.  

Vito IMO definitely slants his writing based on his relationship with the subject.    Dodge was horrible and Dickey was one of the best NT has ever had per Brett.    In typical Vito fashion, he rarely expresses any position on  current coaches. 

Edited June 10, 2018 by GrandGreen

[Wag Tag]

Thanks for the article and congrats to all! The CBI championship game may have been the best experience I have had at the Supet Pit!! GMG 

[UNTLifer]

8 hours ago, Cooley said:

Was this a compliment?  Just the latest in a long line of Benford bashing articles and hyperbole. Will it ever end? 

I guess you would be complimentary of Benford?  What do you want. He sucked as bad as Trilli and that is saying something. At least Trilli got us green seats. 

[UNTLifer]

Great article. Love the part about the meeting between Woolridge and McCasland. 

[drex]

Trilli got us green seats?  I don't think so.  Joe Holland and others got us green seats.

 

[SUMG]

4 minutes ago, drex said:

Trilli got us green seats?  I don't think so.  Joe Holland and others got us green seats.

 

I was on the committee....Coach Trilli got the ball rolling on the green seats. Absolutely. The whole campaign was his idea. 

[Greendylan]

Well-written piece!

The focal points examined here were all critical moments within or right before this season.  Other than some required narrative framing, there really wasn't much comparing of one coach to the next.  Even had he chosen to emphasize the coaching disparity, would he have been wrong?

[EagleMBA]

3 hours ago, SUMG said:

I was on the committee....Coach Trilli got the ball rolling on the green seats. Absolutely. The whole campaign was his idea. 

True. A large number of people, including moi, wrote checks and got rid of those orange seats. There should still be a plaque somewhere in the Pit with the story.

[97and03]

I am a Vito critic but this was a good article.

[jdennis82]

19 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

One of Vito's best articles.  

Agree.

Felt like he explored greater storytelling than usual.  I imagine the slower pace of things on campus right now allowed for (or possibly necessitated) a change of pace in the style of writing but I certainly enjoyed it.

I value the information we get from Brett in his typical writing but would certainly welcome more of these creatively crafted deep dives into the programs.

Who knows, maybe there's some new freedom for the staff at the DRC now that the ownership change has had a full 6 months to settle in.

 

 

[outoftown]

Agree, one of vitos better articles.

 

Had me thinking that a) MacCasland looks smart here for being tough in the right way, but b) this could also have gone wrong. If Mr Woolridge was not the reasonable human being he proved to be but would slant more in the direction of say -Craig James son- this could all have turned out very differently. c) this article also shows how McCasland is willing to take risks, but also how he is being creative in creating the necessary motivational tools as well as psychological and strategic settings needed for success.

[TheColonyEagle]

great article @Brett Vito

Really enjoyed it.

 

 

[untcampbell]

Mr. Vito had to sit through every one of those games in the Benford era. I had the choice of going or not going. He will have recurring bouts of PTSD for some time and until it has been exorcised from his dome, it is healthy therapy for him to regularly purge.

 

GMG

[EagleMBA]

The more I read about McCasland, the more insight I develop as to how he has built that coaching record of his.  The man is a leader and a winner.  Long may he be at the helm of the Mean Green basketball team!

[CMJ]

Fantastic piece.  I have mostly gone into hibernation until the fall, so I hadn't seen this before now.  Brett did a great job.

[UNTLifer]

Love the story about the meeting between McCasland and Woolridge, but how crazy was it to suggest that Miller switch shooting hands at that point in the season?  A great overall piece.

[KRAM1]

On 6/10/2018 at 1:21 PM, EagleMBA said:

True. A large number of people, including moi, wrote checks and got rid of those orange seats. There should still be a plaque somewhere in the Pit with the story.

There is...my name’s on it too! 

[Cerebus]

On 6/10/2018 at 4:35 PM, jdennis82 said:

Felt like he explored greater storytelling than usual.  I imagine the slower pace of things on campus right now allowed for (or possibly necessitated) a change of pace in the style of writing but I certainly enjoyed it.

All newspapers, including the DRC, have cut way back on staffing.  I know the amount of reporters and photographers is a small fraction of what it was 10 or even 5 years ago.  The last time I talked to anyone there, they had one photographer for the entire paper  

The DRC was already a small operation, cutting their staff means everyone has to do more than one job.  Doing more than one job means you usually don't have the correct amount of time to spend on anything.  I know people love to take shots a Vito, but he has to cover every sport, he has to shoot video, he has to write a blog, he has to do things reporters never dreamed of doing not that long ago.

Yes, every paper has this crunch, but it's magnified at smaller papers.

[FirefightnRick]

Great article.  Thank goodness for leadership with some foresight who saw the potential positives to be gained by playing the CBI.

 

Rick