Wednesday at Noon, Hub Club: Joint Press Conferences and NIT Celebration

NT80 · April 2, 2023

Meet new UNT basketball coaches Burton and Hodge

DENTON, Texas – UNT Athletics will hold a joint press conference for new basketball head coaches Jason Burton and Ross Hodge as well as celebrate the 2023 NIT Champions Wednesday at 12 pm in the HUB Club at Apogee Stadium.

The event is free, open to the public and will serve as the formal introduction for both new coaches. Doors open for the event at 11:30 am.

The two new coaches will be on hand along with President Neal Smatresk and VP/Director of Athletics Jared Mosley. Mosley, Burton and Hodge will be available for questions from the media.

For fans unable to attend, the event will be streamed via www.youtube.com/@MeanGreenSports.

Following the press conference, a reception will be held to honor the two new head coaches and the 2023 NIT Champion UNT Men's Basketball team.

https://meangreensports.com/news/2023/4/2/mens-basketball-joint-basketball-press-conference-and-nit-celebration

greenjoe · April 3, 2023

And of course this event conflicts with a Denton Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Dang it.

UNTLifer · April 3, 2023

45 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

And of course this event conflicts with a Denton Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Dang it.

Maybe the Chamber should show up in support of the program.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · April 3, 2023

Odd timing for people who have work and such, but I’ll be there

SUMG · April 3, 2023

The celebration should be its' own separate event. At night....at The Super Pit. They're really limiting the crowd doing it this way.

untbowler · April 3, 2023

typical small minded thinking by UNT Brass, instead of making it convenient for the public and bringing out a big crowd, they limit it to a small crowd, guess they want to make sure no work or time after 5pm during the off-season, way to kill the buzz of the NIT Win.

Edited April 3, 2023 by untbowler

Big Z · April 3, 2023

Out of all the days and times...Wednesday at 12pm? Come on!

CMJ · April 3, 2023

1 hour ago, SUMG said:

The celebration should be its' own separate event. At night....at The Super Pit. They're really limiting the crowd doing it this way.

It really does seem like a poor decision. I was thinking a party by McConnell Tower somewhere in the late afternoon/early evening, or yes at the Super Pit at night.

Not a reception after a press conference

CMJ · April 3, 2023

How our soon to be conference mates celebrated their NIT Title back in 2011.

Edited April 3, 2023 by CMJ

NT80 · April 3, 2023

I guess Denton doesn't do parades anymore.

Sad that a genuine National athletic accomplishment can't get more marketing mileage locally.

PHOTOS: UGA National Championship Parade in Athens | Slideshows | gwinnettdailypost.com

MeanGreenTexan · April 3, 2023

Moseley's first fumble.
Let's hope he keeps these to a minimum, but it's pretty disrespectful. Especially when compared to the clip CMJ posted.

...unless there's some other kind of celebration to come. But if so, don't even mention the NIT championship in this "celebration". Make it just about the new coaches for this one so you can go all-out on the NIT championship celebration.

Matt from A700 · April 3, 2023

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

It really does seem like a poor decision. I was thinking a party by McConnell Tower somewhere in the late afternoon/early evening, or yes at the Super Pit at night.

Yeah, break out the white tents and sloppy joes!

greeneagle1 · April 3, 2023

I saw somewhere that Mosley said "The first chance to celebrate would be likely on Wednesday." I may be paraphrasing, but the words "first chance" were included.

meaniegreenie · April 3, 2023

The fact that the new coaches press conference and the NIT celebration are mixed up on a Wednesday noon press conference is all on Mosley and UNT.

HOWEVER, the fact that (as far as I can tell) there's been NOTHING planned from the city of Denton is the biggest slap, even though it's not surprising.

The Twitter accounts for the City of Denton, CoC, etc. should be on fire right now with people demanding a parade/celebration be setup by the city. They need to be hounded into oblivion for this explicit example of the attitude they have shown for decades.

MeanGreenTexan · April 3, 2023

3 minutes ago, meaniegreenie said:

The fact that the new coaches press conference and the NIT celebration are mixed up on a Wednesday noon press conference is all on Mosley and UNT.

HOWEVER, the fact that (as far as I can tell) there's been NOTHING planned from the city of Denton is the biggest slap, even though it's not surprising.

The Twitter accounts for the City of Denton, CoC, etc. should be on fire right now with people demanding a parade/celebration be setup by the city. They need to be hounded into oblivion for this explicit example of the attitude they have shown for decades.

Why wait around for something we know is not going to happen?

Neal & Jared should be planning a parade through campus, ending with a celebration at the Super Pit. Folks who live anywhere nearby can attend with enough notice. But don't try to shoehorn in a convenient "celebration" for such an accomplishment with your coaches' introductory press conferences... that's just lazy.

El Paso Eagle · April 3, 2023

While the rest of our AD strives for "P5" quality, our Marketing/Promotions look closer to FCS standards.

Green Crazy · April 3, 2023

Honestly, this accomplishment, while I'm proud of and is something for the player's and fans to be proud of just isn't parade worthy. That being said, it also shouldn't be thrown into the middle of the day in the middle of the week either. What Witchita St. did was perfect, although I'm not sure our turnout would be as good.

SUMG · April 3, 2023

3 hours ago, CMJ said:

It really does seem like a poor decision. I was thinking a party by McConnell Tower somewhere in the late afternoon/early evening, or yes at the Super Pit at night.

Not a reception after a press conference

Not sure if you saw Twitter footage....but they had a watching party at Eastside Bar in Denton. Fans were outside sitting at picnic tables.... watching it on a Big screen. (Folks who were there, can correct me if I'm wrong on this). But it was a raucous crowd. (Kind of like you'll see when CBS will show a crowd somewhere in SD tonight...pulling for the Aztecs). Anyway....the twitter poster said that there were 500 people there. And that's a local biz that supports NT Athletics. So even if they had the event there....at night.....it would be better than what they're doing.

TheReal_jayD · April 3, 2023

4 hours ago, SUMG said:

The celebration should be its' own separate event. At night....at The Super Pit. They're really limiting the crowd doing it this way.

3 hours ago, untbowler said:

typical small minded thinking by UNT Brass, instead of making it convenient for the public and bringing out a big crowd, they limit it to a small crowd, guess they want to make sure no work or time after 5pm during the off-season, way to kill the buzz of the NIT Win.

3 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Moseley's first fumble.
Let's hope he keeps these to a minimum, but it's pretty disrespectful. Especially when compared to the clip CMJ posted.

...unless there's some other kind of celebration to come. But if so, don't even mention the NIT championship in this "celebration". Make it just about the new coaches for this one so you can go all-out on the NIT championship celebration.

3 hours ago, CMJ said:

It really does seem like a poor decision. I was thinking a party by McConnell Tower somewhere in the late afternoon/early evening, or yes at the Super Pit at night.

Not a reception after a press conference

50 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

While the rest of our AD strives for "P5" quality, our Marketing/Promotions look closer to FCS standards.

Okay so a couple things to make mention of.

1) Our HC is no longer here, as well as all the assistants (Besides Ross) and most of the players have excited stage left. The NIT is a huge accomplishment. But it is not parade worthy. Also the athletic department has enough trouble getting people to arrive to the actual games. How many would show up for a parade? When you have literally only one staff member remaining. And maybe only a handful of players that would even show up.

2) Reason to have it all one day and not have 2 pressers and a "celebration". Because we have two brand new coaches that need to assembly complete staff as well as get on the road recruiting. Having the pressors combined helps allow the coaches to do that ASAP as well as allow media and fans one trip to Denton. Announcing HC of basketball at lunch on a wednesday is no different that announcing HC of football or signing day presser at lunch on a Wednesday.

3) There will be another celebration. It maybe a ring celebration or something during football season. But I think we can all agree that it is more urgent to assemble staff and hit road recruiting.

CMJ · April 3, 2023

I never asked for a parade. More like the party that Wichita State had. And if you are scared no one shows up, have it in the central Mall behind the Administration Building and Willis Library late on a school day (3pm?). If nothing else students will stop by as they're going home. But that's easily walkable by basically everyone who lives on campus.

Edited April 3, 2023 by CMJ

Big Z · April 3, 2023

36 minutes ago, TheReal_jayD said:

Okay so a couple things to make mention of.

1) Our HC is no longer here, as well as all the assistants (Besides Ross) and most of the players have excited stage left. The NIT is a huge accomplishment. But it is not parade worthy. Also the athletic department has enough trouble getting people to arrive to the actual games. How many would show up for a parade? When you have literally only one staff member remaining. And maybe only a handful of players that would even show up.

2) Reason to have it all one day and not have 2 pressers and a "celebration". Because we have two brand new coaches that need to assembly complete staff as well as get on the road recruiting. Having the pressors combined helps allow the coaches to do that ASAP as well as allow media and fans one trip to Denton. Announcing HC of basketball at lunch on a wednesday is no different that announcing HC of football or signing day presser at lunch on a Wednesday.

3) There will be another celebration. It maybe a ring celebration or something during football season. But I think we can all agree that it is more urgent to assemble staff and hit road recruiting.

How many times have we ever won the NIT championship? I was out Friday and Saturday around Plano, Frisco and Allen and had so many people out in public come up to me and congratulate UNT. We need to have a parade and let the City of Denton and the school know that winning is fun.

TheReal_jayD · April 3, 2023

5 minutes ago, Big Z said:

How many times have we ever won the NIT championship? I was out Friday and Saturday around Plano, Frisco and Allen and had so many people out in public come up to me and congratulate UNT. We need to have a parade and let the City of Denton and the school know that winning is fun.

0. I hear what you are saying. But how many coaches are left to show up? How many players are left to show up? How many actual fans are showing up? It would be a great argument if the Pit had been packed most of the year. But that isn't the case. I'm not discrediting the fans that actually showed up. But the quanity wasnt there. How many teams have thrown a parade for NIT winners? WSU is the only one i have found. WSU averaged 7100+ in attendance. North texas averaged 3600. I honestly think it is more important to the future of North Texas basketball to allow coaches to continue to build than host a parade/celebrations that maybe 1000 peoples show up with 1 staff member and maybe 8 members of the team..

emmitt01 · April 3, 2023

As long as nobody from the athletic department has to come in on a Saturday. Gotta have priorities.

TheReal_jayD · April 3, 2023

48 minutes ago, CMJ said:

I never asked for a parade. More like the party that Wichita State had. And if you are scared no one shows up, have it in the central Mall behind the Administration Building and Willis Library late on a school day (3pm?). If nothing else students will stop by as they're going home. But that's easily walkable by basically everyone who lives on campus.

did Wichita State coach and full staff leave before arriving back on campus? Did Wichita State have attendance trouble? The Transfer portal was not a thing back in 2011 when WSU had their party. Think it is more imortant for Coach Ross to be able to hit road recruiting own players as well as other portal targets than standing out in front of Willis shaking hands..