It was a good season

emmitt01 · March 16

I think this is the last game this squad will get to play this season.

CMJ · March 16

First year in a tough new league with a brand new coach. I give us a B.

Censored by Laurie · March 16

Here for this thread. it’s reasonable.

Let’s see how the other ones go

UNTBill · March 16

I'm still proud of this team, never quit.

Edited March 16 by UNTBill

GreenGuy123 · March 16

Hard fought year. A lot of injuries and new players. But overall, I'm proud of this team and the season. Hope we can retain most of the team going into next year. I like our chances if we can.

Dannymacfan · March 16

Injuries were tough. I had hoped we would be better but the chemistry was not the same since we lost Tyler.

UNTLifer · March 16

I think we play somewhere this offseason. Believe it or not, we are now a known program and that will carry some weight.

Green P1 · March 16

That was a lot more fun than I expected this year. Transfer portal notwithstanding, Hodge has us on our way.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 16

24 minutes ago, CMJ said:

First year in a tough new league with a brand new coach. I give us a B.

I give us an A- to A. Too much injury, too much uncertainty with injuries. It's unusual to go these long gaps with so much uncertainty in basketball. Usually, they're either done done for the year or back very soon. The coaching staff took on the challenge of those injuries, and as I've said previously, put out a competitive product.

That doesn't go without criticism... we have to do certain things as a program to get better.. 1. Timely timeouts to stop runs. 2. Timely timeouts to hold our marginal lead, talk to the defense, and let them breathe. 3. Own basket sets. C'mon.. this is elementary. 4. E. M. O. T. I. O. N. Infusion from the coaching staff to the players... let me hear you

emmitt01 · March 16

I keep seeing this take put forth, and I wonder why people conveniently forget that we also don’t have Kai Huntsberry. He was the CUSA Newcomer of the year, averaging 13 a game and was #2 on the team in threes made.

What were our issues this season? Lack of ball handlers to bring the ball up court at times, size across the board, and lacking a “go to” guy. Kai could create on his own and was 6’3”. For all of Edwards’ scoring (and he was impactful) he was trying to get shots off at 6’0” in crunch time. Also, and we may not want to hear this, Abou was more of a presence down low than Sissoko turned out to be.

Green Otaku · March 16

B+ year for me. Lots of players to replace, new coach, new conference, lots of injuries. Hopefully we can find our rhythm as a team next year, and that we can up our caliber of recruiting. This is a very good league, and if we want to be at the top of it we need to win recruiting battles for sought after players.

cousin oliver · March 16

51 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

I think this is the last game this squad will get to play this season.

I disagree as I think it was kinda disappointing. This team won NIT last season man!

NM Green · March 16

I enjoyed this season too. I didn’t watch a lot in person early but quickly grew to love this team’s personality. They fought to the end. I too think we could get an invite. We’re a bubble for sure but this team is a fun watch. I like how Ross sped up our play and made us very entertaining this year. Entertainment product A! Season B. Let’s grow and learn how to take those close games.

p.s. - watching Temple and Charlotte. These refs have swallowed their whistles. Such a differently called game. No flop whistles no Banging under the basket whistles. I can’t tell who is going to win this but I lean Charlotte and their finesse. But FAU mucks it up and that’s been successful for them. We almost got them 3 times this year.

Grabbing the close wins is NEXT.

GMG

NorthTexasWeLove · March 16

1 minute ago, emmitt01 said:

I keep seeing this take put forth, and I wonder why people conveniently forget that we also don’t have Kai Huntsberry. He was the CUSA Newcomer of the year, averaging 13 a game and was #2 on the team in threes made.

What were our issues this season? Lack of ball handlers to bring the ball up court at times, size across the board, and lacking a “go to” guy. Kai could create on his own and was 6’3”. For all of Edwards’ scoring (and he was impactful) he was trying to get shots off at 6’0” in crunch time. Also, and we may not want to hear this, Abou was more of a presence down low than Sissoko turned out to be.

Oh dude stop. Kai was my dude last year. Awesomeness bundled up in a human being. Everything about that guy I liked.

To state, Noland can be his replica next year.

Edwards is good... he can score it... but I also thought he was our Achilles heel a lot. Too sporadic, defense too mysterious, and clutch gene nonexistent. If I'm being honest, I'm not heartbroken if he leaves. If he stays, there is certainly a place for him and that is at a off ball finisher, exclusively.

Ross Hodgeson · March 16

Tough loss but good news is Ross has a legit PG coming in next year and he can recruit so I expect we will have more dudes joining as well!

Green Lantern · March 16

Mixed bag for me this season. Sustained injuries to multiple key players makes it really hard to evaluate. I tend to lean harsher on the criticism because of the roster Ross inherited and elevated expectations for the program in general. But we’re competitive with really good teams and were rarely embarrassed. On the flip side, end of season hindsight, we didn’t really amass any wins of true significance - maybe Memphis but they faded so hard. The good OOC and AAC teams all handled us. Hope the portal is good to us in the off-season to add some size and toughness in the middle.

BleedingGreen · March 16

Solid debut season for Hodge. I am grateful for Aaron and Rubin continuing. Edwards’ is a solid all conference player but needs to be a Kyrie to a 2nd bigger guard I am sure excited about CI next year. Buggs , Sissoko are good role players for next year. Allen was a great find for our culture.
Several of the guys need to find their new school for PT in their college careers . Basically anyone ,other than Cotton, who did not play today . I would love to have Rubin and Aaron stay with NIL invested in them.

wardly · March 16

10 minutes ago, cousin oliver said:

I disagree as I think it was kinda disappointing. This team won NIT last season man!

Not all of last years players returned, such as Tyler Perry for example. The UNT men's basketball team won last years NIT, but our players on the floor this year were not last years team.

TIgreen01 · March 16

For me, we were technically still very well coached. However, our roster was not built to win. Hodge didn’t step out of McCasland’s shadow with this season’s effort. Got to be better at roster building. Staff needs help too.

Edited March 16 by TIgreen01

Greendylan · March 16

Maybe I'm being selfish, but I really want to see more NT basketball from these guys. The NIT is no longer realistic, but I'd be happy to learn that we're playing in the CBI. Might be an opportunity to work on closing out close games--along with being an opportunity for a 20-win season.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 16

Just now, TIgreen01 said:

For me, we were technically still very well coached. However, our roster was not built to win. Hodge didn’t step out of McCasland’s shadow with this season’s effort. Got to be better at roster building. Staff needs help too.

Pretty accurate. I don't think Ross did a bad job. I think Edwards took us out of our identity too much. And I know it sounds like stupidity to say given he was our leader scorer, and I don't mean this any ill will towards him (and I wish he would stay), but his game inflicted us. And I know a lot of that is due to injury, but he didn't value the ball as a ball handler and he took too many iso shots as a player. I get that all sounds crazy, (and I also wish he stays because he could be a larger asset mining forward), but there's truth to it

MeanGreenTexan · March 16

I’d love to see this core run it back & find another player who can play as well as Allen did for us around the rim (big ask, I know).

Overall, another fun year out of Mean Green b-ball.

emmitt01 · March 16

10 minutes ago, TIgreen01 said:

Wrong. First time not winning 20 games since Mac arrived. For me, we were technically still very well coached. However, our roster was not built to win. Hodge didn’t step out of McCasland’s shadow with this season’s effort. Got to be better at roster building. Staff needs help too.

Take a look at who we racked up those wins against last year and compare to who we faced this year.

The best of CUSA came with us to the AAC and the rest of AAC was better than the rest of CUSA. And yet, still, we played almost every game within 5 points without two starters during the heart of the season.

If everyone who is eligible to stay stays, and Ross can find a serviceable guy with size (doesn’t have to be a 5, just big enough to challenge at the rim and grab boards) we will make serious noise next year…I’m calling it now.

Tommy Gadberry · March 16

For those of you criticizing, keep in mind we lost a lot of talent this year and FAU UAB and others kept their entire team in some cases. Also, I am SO much prouder of what basketball accomplished versus what football did. Football was much more disappointing. Our basketball program may have come up short but they were trading punches with the best of the conference. FAU was a final 4 team for goodness sakes! Proud of this team!!

Edited March 16 by Tommy Gadberry

TIgreen01 · March 16

2 minutes ago, emmitt01 said:

Take a look at who we racked up those wins against last year and compare to who we faced this year.

The best of CUSA came with us to the AAC and the rest of AAC was better than the rest of CUSA. And yet, still, we played almost every game within 5 points without two starters during the heart of the season.

If everyone who is eligible to stay stays, and Ross can find a serviceable guy with size (doesn’t have to be a 5, just big enough to challenge at the rim and grab boards) we will make serious noise next year…I’m calling it now.

We went 1-6 against the CUSA Tagalongs this season. Fact is we were worse. We beat up on the supposed “better AAC.” Fact is the Tagalongs made this a better conference. Obviously Houston is a huge loss…but we’re better than what was left.