What's the next phase of Mean Green MBB?

[greenminer]

Grant and Co have established a program that teams respect.  We consistently make postseasons and consistently compete/show well.

So what is/are the next step(s), and what will it take to get there? A few initial goals:

T25 appearance
March Madness 3 out of 4 years
An #11 seed or higher
A run to the S16

Immediate follow-up questions:

What will it take to get there?
Will being in the American make it easier?
Have we seen everything we are going to get from Mac's recruiting strategies and efforts, or can we look forward to an upgrade? Again, being in the American can impact this.

Edited October 29, 2022 by greenminer

[greenminer]

PS: NOV 7th is almost upon us!!!!

[BillySee58]

Unfortunately it’s going to take a really good record to accomplish this. We were 23-4 and we were barely in the top 40 NET ranking, and about the same when it came to the top 25 rankings. Something like 20-0 is probably what it would take to crack the top 25, given our schedule. Or maybe one loss if it’s close on the road to St. Mary’s and they end up being top 25 quality themselves.

Being in the American should make it easier to boost the resume, but our non-conference predicament makes it tough.

[emmitt01]

Crowds like last years La Tech game (or close to it) regardless of opponent is what it will take.  
 

High level ball players don’t want to play in front of small crowds.  Also, an intimidating home crowd will win us some games…I truly believe winning the Texas State game and playing Virginia so tough had something to do with our fans. 

[greenminer]

I need to dig this up eventually, but I'd like to know how many teams on our 2022-2023 slate are Q1 material.  Q2? Do they even have Quad rankings at the beginning of the season, or do you have to wait for X amount of games to unfold?

Also, same curiosity about potential T25 teams.

Edited October 29, 2022 by greenminer

[NorthTexasSportsNetwork]

2 hours ago, greenminer said:

I need to dig this up eventually, but I'd like to know how many teams on our 2022-2023 slate are Q1 material.  Q2? Do they even have Quad rankings at the beginning of the season, or do you have to wait for X amount of games to unfold?

Also, same curiosity about potential T25 teams.

UAB, Saint Mary’s, WKU are the only 3.

It is SO hard to schedule good teams when you can definitely go out there and win or make it really close like NT always does.

AAC play will help, but Top 25 would need to be, like what Billy said, an almost undefeated record for 15-20 games.

[CMJ]

All of your goals are tough Miner.  I think the most realistic might be a Sweet 16 run honestly.  The tournament is such a crap shoot, you can get hot and a good draw with the potential to make some noise as a 12/13 seed (or every blue moon a seed even lower like a St. Peters).  When WKU made the Sweet 16 back in 2008 they had one nice upset over an excellent Drake squad and then got a chance to play a 13 seed next.  If your bracket blows up that can really help you out advance deep.

Edited October 31, 2022 by CMJ

[Matt from A700]

Give me a Sweet 16 appearance. Honestly, if we accomplish this, the lower seed we are -- the more attention we might draw from the national stage.

Even with Houston out, I think AAC gives us a better change of an at-large tourney bid.

[MrAlien]

more Q1 games and Q1 wins should be the goal, being in the AAC will certainly help

[UNTLifer]

Final Four

[2020 Sucks]

Winning CUSA this year will be more of a challenge than in years past.  UAB and WKY are talented and well coached.  It is always tough to get a 2nd bid, but if all 3 teams are battling it out, we might have our best chance to slip two into the tourney if they don't cannibalize each other.  

So for 22-23, another NIT run would be acceptable.  In 23-24, it feels like we could really have a fantastic season if everyone comes back and barring injury.  Mac and Co. are surely already working on that schedule, and hopefully, they can find their way into a big tournament early.  A big NCAA run is cued up!

[MeanGreenTexan]

17 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Final Four

I'd settle for a Sweet 16 run as the "next phase".   The weeklong build up between the opening 2 rounds to the Sweet 16 round would have NT's name on a lot of National reporters' lips.   And the more we're talked about nationally, the stronger our brand becomes.

Get to this "phase", and then kick into overdrive, shooting for the Final 4.

[southsideguy]

Sure  is great to see UNT fans excited about the team and future.

[greenminer]

Billy mentioned barely being in the top 40 NET last year after getting 23 wins. How does this coming OOC schedule compare to last season?

[Shark 64]

3 hours ago, greenminer said:

Billy mentioned barely being in the top 40 NET last year after getting 23 wins. How does this coming OOC schedule compare to last season?

Probably not as tough. No games against Kansas, Miami, ect. 

[MrAlien]

It is a weaker OOC schedule for UNT.  WKU and UAB also have fairly weak OOC schedules. 

[eeeeagle]

the goal should be regular season conference champs and conference tournament champs. How we succeed out of conference will determine how talented we are in a particular year and how tough of a schedule we have which can vary from season to season.

This isn't a knock against Grant, but as the next step I'd like to see us as the undisputed conference champs (regular season & tournament) since we haven't been able to accomplish that yet.

[BillySee58]

On 11/2/2022 at 9:01 AM, greenminer said:

Billy mentioned barely being in the top 40 NET last year after getting 23 wins. How does this coming OOC schedule compare to last season?

As some have already said, it’s weaker which makes the margin for error more slim but also increases the likelihood of us having that huge undefeated run to start the season that we would need to be ranked. So could help, could hurt us.

[NT80]

Southern Nazarene is hosting Central Okla this evening in a scrimmage....

 

Nov 4 (Fri) 7:00 PM

vs 

Central Oklahoma

HOMECOMING / SCRIMMAGE

.......................................................................

Fresno State beat Stanislaus State 69-62 this past Wednesday in an exhibition.

......................................................................

Paul Quinn doesn't even show us on their posted schedule yet.  They have already played Smut and TCU (exhibitions?) and will host UNT-Dallas Nov. 5.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bf84b434611a034b52113b9/t/63583b3838df077c077781d2/1666726713164/2022-23+Official+MBB+Schedule.pdf

.....................................................................

San Jose State is hosting Cal State-LA tonight Nov.4 (exhibition) live on Twitter at 7pm PCT. Link on their official schedule site.