It was a good season

BigWillie · March 16

Wishful thinking, but with Temple beating Charlotte, SMU getting smoked in the first round, and Memphis getting smoked in the first round, does that open up anything for us, or is it body of the season that plays a bigger role?

CMJ · March 16

45 minutes ago, BigWillie said:

Wishful thinking, but with Temple beating Charlotte, SMU getting smoked in the first round, and Memphis getting smoked in the first round, does that open up anything for us, or is it body of the season that plays a bigger role?

Body of work

ADLER · March 16

18 minutes ago, CMJ said:

Body of work

The NCAA revised the NIT selection process this past October. This article may clarify what opportunities we may or may not have.

REVISED NIT SELECTION PROCESS

CMJ · March 16

23 minutes ago, ADLER said:

The NCAA revised the NIT selection process this past October. This article may clarify what opportunities we may or may not have.

REVISED NIT SELECTION PROCESS

Yeah, we don't have much of a chance with the priority on taking power league schools.

BigWillie · March 16

39 minutes ago, CMJ said:

Yeah, we don't have much of a chance with the priority on taking power league schools.

Maybe I am reading something wrong, but it says automatic bids are from NET. 68 teams make it in the NCAA, we are NET 79. I know NCAA is not top 68 of NET, but how does this not help us?

CMJ · March 16

They're automatically giving preference to teams in the Power Leagues (something the NIT hasn't done since the NCAA took it over). Twelve spots are gonna be taken over by those leagues before any other schools are selected.

BigWillie · March 16

14 minutes ago, CMJ said:

They're automatically giving preference to teams in the Power Leagues (something the NIT hasn't done since the NCAA took it over). Twelve spots are gonna be taken over by those leagues before any other schools are selected.

Crap, I read that wrong. American isn't in that automatic list. That's really crappy.scrappy.

Can they make it any more obvious they want as much post season for the P5?

Quote

Additional teams from the six conferences with automatic qualifications are eligible to be selected as at-large teams and can be selected as hosts.

Edited March 16 by BigWillie

Greendylan · March 16

I don't know that the new NIT rules will make much of a difference one way or the other for NT this season. It might come out to almost a wash when you compare the auto-bids to power conference teams vs. the auto-bids to regular season champions (since that wouldn't have benefitted us this year). I believe 11 teams earned auto bids last season, and most of those wouldn't have gotten in without the AQ. Of the 12 power conference teams that would have received the AQ bids last year, had the rule been in place then, many of them made it anyway.

Matchbox · March 16

They should give the NIT champ an auto bid in the next year’s NCAA tourney.

NT80 · March 16

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

Yeah, we don't have much of a chance with the priority on taking power league schools.

Much like the new CFP format. 13 P5 programs to every one G5.

outoftown · March 16

This was a disapointing season to me. Maybe they get into the CBI to salvage a bit of it. But to me the injury thing is overblown, because this team also didn't really get any notable wins before. It kept coming up just short, no matter who was on the court. The schedule was tougher and littered with opportunities for quality wins, and this team kept playing efficient until it actually counted and the only thing close to a quality win it got was a home win over an SMU team that had similar problems in terms of not managing to turn its good play into wins.

Hodge has many things that a great coach needs (the defensive coaching is clearly still great), but there are also some things that might still be missing. He does not yet appear to have found the same culture for winning that mac had from the moment he arrived in Denton. The team started out like a mac team (that is not a compliment for mac teams usually start slow into the season), but then never turned it around like a mac team usually did and never got into this keeping your foot on the opponents throat once you have him down, nor the "we can come back from any deficit" believe.

NT80 · March 16

1 hour ago, outoftown said:

Hodge has many things that a great coach needs (the defensive coaching is clearly still great), but there are also some things that might still be missing. He does not yet appear to have found the same culture for winning that mac had from the moment he arrived in Denton. The team started out like a mac team (that is not a compliment for mac teams usually start slow into the season), but then never turned it around like a mac team usually did and never got into this keeping your foot on the opponents throat once you have him down, nor the "we can come back from any deficit" believe.

Agree. The failures to close out games are concerning. I also feel we were a couple players short of what other teams seemed to have available. We can't play at this level with only 7 players. We can hang with teams but don't make the adjustments needed at end of games that other teams are making. More pep talk or strategy or whatever. Hopefully Ross learns from this season...and recruits to cover our deficiencies.

MCMLXXX · March 16

2 hours ago, outoftown said:

He does not yet appear to have found the same culture for winning that mac had from the moment he arrived in Denton.

What? Mac lost 7 of his last 8 games before we entered the CBI. We indicated we would participate in the CBI after an early contact before those losses. We probably would not have been invited to the CBI if they had waited until late Feb to make their contacts. I am sure there are others on this board who remember those facts.

North Texas Mean Green 2017-18 Postseason NCAAM Schedule-ESPN

In addition, the next year we lost 8 of our last 9.

North Texas Mean Green 2018-19 Regular Season NCAAM Schedule - ESPN

Edited March 16 by MCMLXXX

CMJ · March 16

If I recall, Mac had also scuffled down the stretch his one season at ASU. Some were concerned that was starting to be a trendline with his teams.

BigWillie · March 16

1 hour ago, MCMLXXX said:

What? Mac lost 7 of his last 8 games before we entered the CBI. We indicated we would participate in the CBI after an early contact before those losses. We probably would not have been invited to the CBI if they had waited until late Feb to make their contacts. I am sure there are others on this board who remember those facts.

North Texas Mean Green 2017-18 Postseason NCAAM Schedule - ESPN

I am glad you posted it. I was already formulating a similar response in my head when I read that post. And I have to keep harping on it. Look at what we did after that.

My point is. Let's see where we go from here. When you get used to winning and being really good, it's hard to take a step back, but it was inevitable at some point. I was trying to explain that to @Big Z last night.

My pipe dream is Hodge becomes our Bill Self.

Edited March 16 by BigWillie

NTXDJ · March 17

8 hours ago, MCMLXXX said:

What? Mac lost 7 of his last 8 games before we entered the CBI. We indicated we would participate in the CBI after an early contact before those losses. We probably would not have been invited to the CBI if they had waited until late Feb to make their contacts. I am sure there are others on this board who remember those facts.

North Texas Mean Green 2017-18 Postseason NCAAM Schedule-ESPN

In addition, the next year we lost 8 of our last 9.

North Texas Mean Green 2018-19 Regular Season NCAAM Schedule - ESPN

The primary reason for the losing streak near the end of the 2018-19 season was an injury to Ryan Woolridge's knee. He was out of the lineup for several of those games, and the games he was in were difficult to watch because it was obvious he was in pain. But he was the team leader and the type of point guard that made the guys around him better.

CMJ · March 17

We struggled down the stretch of Mac's first two years. Year two we started out like 15-1 before limping to the end.

Edited March 17 by CMJ

BigWillie · March 17

29 minutes ago, CMJ said:

We struggled down the stretch of Mac's first two years. Year two we started out like 15-1 before limping to the end.

This gives me hope.

Tommy Gadberry · March 17

8 hours ago, CMJ said:

We struggled down the stretch of Mac's first two years. Year two we started out like 15-1 before limping to the end.

Yes but Mac built a great program here that Ross inherited. Mac was not as fortunate as Ross.

CMJ · March 17

I was onboard with Mac from the beginning, but it doesn't mean that we didn't have struggles. The first season showed so much promise and year two started off so well that it was pretty devastating when we floundered the second half of the campaign.

Edited March 17 by CMJ

Matchbox · March 17

I liked the non-conference scheduling this year. Although we never got the signature win, the opportunity was there and we competed for the most part.

St John’s - 1pt loss

LSU - 4pt loss

Boise (true road game) - 5pt loss

Having said that, you still have to find a way to win those games. There are no points for close losses.

Edited March 17 by Matchbox

BigWillie · March 17

2 hours ago, CMJ said:

I was onboard with Mac from the beginning, but it doesn't mean that we didn't have struggles. The first season showed so much promise and year two started off so well that it was pretty devastating when we floundered the second half of the campaign.

Curious to know your thoughts on Hodge with their first years being somewhat similar.

CMJ · March 17

I think Hodge is going to be just fine.

MeanGreenZen · March 17

So no chance for any postseason tournament?
Aren’t there a bunch of small, weird ones?
Is there anything stopping us from signing a sponsor, inviting a few schools and starting our own?

Matt from A700 · March 17

4 hours ago, MeanGreenZen said:

So no chance for any postseason tournament?
Aren’t there a bunch of small, weird ones?
Is there anything stopping us from signing a sponsor, inviting a few schools and starting our own?

The NCAAT, NIT, and CBI are it. The CollegeInsiders.com Tournament ended its run a few years ago. When teams are rejecting NIT and CBI invites, I doubt (and hope against) any other tournaments popping up.

There was something called the Vegas 16 before Covid. It lasted one year and only could get eight teams to agree instead of the Vegas "16". Old Dominion won it when we were conference mates.