FAU (2/28/19)

CMJ · March 1, 2019

FAU 46 ------- NT 33

7:54 to go

This is really becoming depressing.

CMJ · March 1, 2019

FAU 50 ------- NT 45

3:41 to go

Trying to make it interesting.....11-0 run.

BillySee58 · March 1, 2019

Gibson breathes life into a flatlining offense

bstnsportsfan3 · March 1, 2019

11-0 run almost all gibson

TIgreen01 · March 1, 2019

12 minutes ago, bstnsportsfan3 said:

11-0 run almost all gibson

Has Gibson taken a shot since the big run? WTH.

CMJ · March 1, 2019

FAU 60 ------- NT 54

Final

Mean Green Matt · March 1, 2019

Hopefully we are due for a big turnaround when the CUSA tourney starts. This is pretty hard to watch right now.

BillySee58 · March 1, 2019

What happens when you waste scholarships on guys who give you nothing. I really have no explanation for Smart, but it is frustrating how we keep having these preseason injuries that seemingly hamper us the rest of the season. Duffy and Miller last year, Smart/Wise/Mohamed this season.

Greendylan · March 1, 2019

It doesn't feel like we're capable of winning any more games, at least not in the regular season.

GrandGreen · March 1, 2019

NT is relatively healthy for the first time in a while and plays worse. I am still amazed that McCasland lets Z Simmons sit on the bench and plays J. Simmons when it counts.

J. Simmons is a tough dude, but is horrible on the offensive side of the court and is a big liability on the defensive side at 6'4 trying to guard post players.

BillySee58 · March 1, 2019

18 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

NT is relatively healthy for the first time in a while and plays worse. I am still amazed that McCasland lets Z Simmons sit on the bench and plays J. Simmons when it counts.

J. Simmons is a tough dude, but is horrible on the offensive side of the court and is a big liability on the defensive side at 6'4 trying to guard post players.

I was not particularly excited about Jahmiah Simmons when Mccasland brought him with him. My optimism was that Mccasland really liked him. Mccasland still really likes him but I have no idea how it is warranted.

southsideguy · March 1, 2019

We need some size on this team and size that can score. Zach is very talented but man the teams have really started collapsing on him. When gets the ball inside there are at least two players from the on the other team on him.

Edited March 1, 2019 by southsideguy

UNTLifer · March 1, 2019

Press the three point line and sag on Z. Simmons and you beat us. I love Woolridge but being a point with his size, he has to drive a draw contact. Zero FT’s from him is not good.

Salsa_Verde · March 1, 2019

1 hour ago, All About UNT said:

This is the reason I urge some to be cautious when advertising teams as hitting "milestones" and of being something really special. You get people excited... they show up... and watch you shit the bed. Next time you try and convince them "oh no this time we mean it, these guys are great!" you will have plenty of skeptics to try and convince that this isn't a "boy who cried wolf" scenario.

I don't pretend to know what happened with this year's team. Be it injuries or lack of depth, this team was overrated from the get-go and it's schedule was obviously pretty pathetic thus artificially inflating both the team's ego and the aura around the program.

Probably done on purpose to say they had back to back 20 win seasons. Great work on part of the AD to drum up support and buzz...but imagine how much more it could have been with a team that equaled the ADs talent.

GMG

All About UNT · March 1, 2019

2 minutes ago, Salsa_Verde said:

Probably done on purpose to say they had back to back 20 win seasons. Great work on part of the AD to drum up support and buzz...but imagine how much more it could have been with a team that equaled the ADs talent.

GMG

No I agree for sure. The AD is talented and very capable. They are doing what they believe is best with promotions. Of course that is exactly what they are supposed to do year to year. But as a long-term fan I have a different aspect that I take to seasons like this that possibly over promoted a very mediocre product

Salsa_Verde · March 1, 2019

I agree 100%.....the support is there, the product is not.

Go Mean Green

NorthTexasWeLove · March 1, 2019

Bunch of bullshit. Gar------Bage.

Let's start ramping up for football. This is a waste of time and money, and has been for flirting with a month.

GrandGreen · March 1, 2019

22 minutes ago, Salsa_Verde said:

I agree 100%.....the support is there, the product is not.

Go Mean Green

13 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Bunch of bullshit. Gar------Bage.

Let's start ramping up for football. This is a waste of time and money, and has been for flirting with a month.

Product is far from were we want it to be, but there is no denying the improvement from the Benford era.

Yes, the argument is anyone could be better than Benford, but it takes time to rebuilt a team from that disaster.

I think what happens with McCasland's intensely coached teams, are they just wear down both physically and mentally as the season comes to an end.

Obviously the time, that the team should be peaking. Hopefully they can regroup before the tournament.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 1, 2019

1 minute ago, GrandGreen said:

Product is far from were we want it to be, but there is no denying the improvement from the Benford era.

Yes, the argument is anyone could be better than Benford, but it takes time to rebuilt a team from that disaster.

I think what happens with McCasland's intensely coached teams, are they just wear down both physically and mentally as the season comes to an end.

Obviously the time, that the team should be peaking. Hopefully they can regroup before the tournament.

All great and dandy...but might as well move the CUSA tournament, because fans aren't coming to watch them shit the bed in the 1st round.

And the athletic department can stop with all the 'first time since fill in the blank with irrelevant stat compared to arbitrary year." It's not fooling anyone. We are squarely a middling CUSA team, at best. It doesn't matter that we beat 10 schools of the deaf. Schedules and results are public information. They know that, right?

Football and basketball are running on such parallel tracks it's eerie.

Salsa_Verde · March 1, 2019

I totally agree that it takes time to build a program. At the same time some fans are tired of waiting, this fan base is starving for a winner. They came out to the pit at 8,000 plus to see Western Kentucky for crying out loud. So my question is this, what is coming in the pipeline? There are other schools in CUSA with worse facilities than North Texas and are performing at a higher level, so what is the problem here? I say this with the utmost humility.

BillySee58 · March 1, 2019

15 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I think what happens with McCasland's intensely coached teams, are they just wear down both physically and mentally as the season comes to an end.

Obviously the time, that the team should be peaking. Hopefully they can regroup before the tournament.

If this were the case then how were we so good and sharp in the 36th-40th games of the season last year?

Also, we haven’t been good offensively all year. Early in the year we struggled to get 68 points against a now 5-24 UMES team, then followed that up with a game where Maine, also now 5-24, took us to overtime as we scored just 60 points and only 25 in the second half, then couldn’t separate against St Peter’s, who is now 8-20, as we beat them by just 9 points. Then our next home game we needed a furious come back just to reach 63 points to beat UTA, now 14-15.

The issue to me is talent. Mccasland has done a good job winning games early on with average talent but as the season goes on teams are able to exploit our lack of talent and glaring player deficiencies. Plus the schedules have gotten harder in these cases as well.

I think this was more true last season and in Grant’s year at Arkansas State than this season. I think we had the talent at the top of our lineup, but Duffy and Smart have looked nothing like they did in the CBI run and we used too many scholarships on guys who can’t make up for those guys not being as good.

BillySee58 · March 1, 2019

8 minutes ago, Salsa_Verde said:

I totally agree that it takes time to build a program. At the same time some fans are tired of waiting, this fan base is starving for a winner. They came out to the pit at 8,000 plus to see Western Kentucky for crying out loud. So my question is this, what is coming in the pipeline? There are other schools in CUSA with worse facilities than North Texas and are performing at a higher level, so what is the problem here? I say this with the utmost humility.

I think the biggest issues in Mccasland building the program have been recruiting and over-estimating players we have. Much like Littrell’s first few recruiting cycles, Mccasland has just not been winning head to head recruiting battles against noteworthy schools.

And he thought our roster was set and deep enough to take a guy in Shakeem Alcindor who no one else wanted and who put up pedestrian stats at a prep school that played very questionable competition. And at the beginning of the year he thought we had quality enough depth to be able to redshirt Mohamed and Wise when in reality his depth was made up of guys who have proven to be well below average CUSA level players in guys like J Simmons, Arikawe, and Draper.

risinggreen · March 1, 2019

4 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Press the three point line and sag on Z. Simmons and you beat us. I love Woolridge but being a point with his size, he has to drive a draw contact. Zero FT’s from him is not good.

That, in a nutshell. Our opponents have us scouted out pretty well at this point of the season, and they're doing a good job of exploiting our weaknesses. No easy answers.