Nice Article: Maintaining Success

UNTLifer · Wednesday at 09:00 PM

https://dentonrc.com/coach-ross-hodge-rebuilt-unt-while-maintaining-its-success-with-a-unique-style-heres-how/article_0dbbd5f0-d2f7-11ef-802c-1bcba34c42dc.html

“A team like Memphis needs its top three or four guys to get 15 shots a game to be successful,” Walker said. “A team like us, it can be five to eight shots per guy. That makes us tougher to guard. I’ll take what we have over what most teams in the country have.”

“The culture is what got everyone here,” Lorient said. “We’re a bunch of hardworking guys who want to win.”

The Mean Green are just fine with being the Virginia of the AAC, a defensive-focused team that plays at a slow pace, spreads the ball around and — most importantly — wins.

“This is one of the closest teams I’ve been on since I started out in AAU,” Walker said. “We’re close off the court. Multiple times this year guys have said they’re sad this is our last year together because of how close we have gotten in a short period of time.

“We’re playing for each other.”

Hunter Green · 2025-01-16T05:39:47Z

Good article. It's sad that we just get to know these guys, who are all likeable, and then they're gone. As fans, we'll have to start all over again next year. The portal gives, and the portal takes away.

golfingomez · 2025-01-16T16:23:36Z

as a lot of big time coaches have said... if you want to immediately improve your team, getting everyone's effort levels up will do that...

Since McCasland started his run, the Mean Green have been all about effort, and Hodge has done an excellent job of transitioning into the HC role. It's been talked about ad nauseum, but the Mean Green have an identity. The identity is f*ck you, you aren't going to get easy passes, be able to breathe with the ball in your hands and you're going to be complaining to the refs all game about how physical the team is. It's going to be ugly, and we are betting that we are going to be better than you in the last five minutes of the game.

Credit to Hodge for bringing in the right players to keep this thing moving forward. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and hoping for some hardware

NT80 · 2025-01-16T19:15:00Z

4 hours ago, golfingomez said:

Since McCasland started his run, the Mean Green have been all about effort, and Hodge has done an excellent job of transitioning into the HC role. It's been talked about ad nauseum, but the Mean Green have an identity. The identity is f*ck you, you aren't going to get easy passes, be able to breathe with the ball in your hands and you're going to be complaining to the refs all game about how physical the team is. It's going to be ugly, and we are betting that we are going to be better than you in the last five minutes of the game.

Credit to Hodge for bringing in the right players to keep this thing moving forward. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and hoping for some hardware

Hodge was a Juco HC before joining UNT as an assistant. He brought in the defensive game planning and was used to having to recruit and re-roster the majority of his teams each year. It's always been like that at Juco level and is similar now at D1 level with players leaving for NIL and more playing time.

But some older coaches were used to developing their own players for 4-5 years. Similar to FBS football, some coaches are having trouble adapting to the new era of recruiting a new roster each season.

If Ross keeps us winning and gaining hardware he will attract poachers for his services at a bigger program, like McCasland did.

Edited 17 hours ago by NT80

NorthTexasWeLove · 2025-01-16T20:37:40Z

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

Hodge was a Juco HC before joining UNT as an assistant. He brought in the defensive game planning and was used to having to recruit and re-roster the majority of his teams each year. It's always been like that at Juco level and is similar now at D1 level with players leaving for NIL and more playing time.

But some older coaches were used to developing their own players for 4-5 years. Similar to FBS football, some coaches are having trouble adapting to the new era of recruiting a new roster each season.

If Ross keeps us winning and gaining hardware we he will attract poachers for his services at a bigger program, like McCasland did.

And that's OK. So, the question that has to be asked is who is Ross' Ross?

UNTLifer · 2025-01-16T20:45:53Z

Nah, let's keep Hodge and quit having this discussion every time on of our coaches has success.

NT80 · 2025-01-16T20:50:18Z

11 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

And that's OK. So, the question that has to be asked is who is Ross' Ross?

On the ECU fan forum, after their loss to us, their fans were fretting about their coach. They said they should follow our lead and next time go after a similar multi-year winning lower level or Juco head coach instead of elevating a Dl assistant.

NT80 · 2025-01-16T20:52:41Z

5 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Nah, let's keep Hodge and quit having this discussion every time on of our coaches has success.

Hard to keep them when a larger program multiplies their salary and offers more than 3000 fans a game.

greenjoe · 2025-01-16T21:22:39Z

The money is one thing, but we should be able to get 5-6,000 fans at the Coliseum every time they unlock the doors. It just takes a little “want to.”

UNTLifer · 2025-01-16T22:29:27Z

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

Hard to keep them when a larger program multiplies their salary and offers more than 3000 fans a game.

As @greenjoestated, let's take care of what we can take care of and make NT a place coaches want to coach.

Censored by Laurie · 2025-01-16T22:31:57Z

1 hour ago, greenjoe said:

The money is one thing, but we should be able to get 5-6,000 fans at the Coliseum every time they unlock the doors. It just takes a little “want to.”

I bet if we went back to the JJ era, we could find this quote almost verbatim by someone on here. 20 years of the same thing.

sometimes it just is what it is.

NorthTexasWeLove · 2025-01-16T23:48:06Z

1 hour ago, Censored by Laurie said:

I bet if we went back to the JJ era, we could find this quote almost verbatim by someone on here. 20 years of the same thing.

sometimes it just is what it is.

I wouldn't venture very far to say that you are correct. Further reason to have a 5K (max) arena.

NT80 · 2025-01-16T23:50:02Z

1 hour ago, Censored by Laurie said:

I bet if we went back to the JJ era, we could find this quote almost verbatim by someone on here. 20 years of the same thing.

sometimes it just is what it is.

The AD pushing the Maniacs to get the students involved was a good idea, but seems to have fizzled this year.

We (fans and students) need the AD to push more to both groups. I haven't seen much pushing...other than a last minute tweet for a retro night one day before the game. Lame.

NorthTexasWeLove · 2025-01-16T23:51:39Z

1 minute ago, NT80 said:

The AD pushing the Maniacs to get the students involved was a good idea, but seems to have fizzled this year.

We (fans and students) need the AD to push more to both groups. I haven't seen much pushing...other than a last minute tweet for a retro night one day before the game. Lame.

They don't. Previous AD's didn't either. And no one ever seems to give a shit, no one questions it, and things remain the same.....

Green Lantern · 2025-01-17T00:32:27Z

38 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

They don't. Previous AD's didn't either. And no one ever seems to give a shit, no one questions it, and things remain the same.....

Well, we did do that awesome Nightmare on Elm Street event prior to the season off the Square - which was awesome. But after that, we haven’t had very consistent or effective promotion. Maniacs to this point have not really made their presence felt. Hope that changes in the Spring semester.

golfingomez · 2025-01-17T00:49:47Z

5 hours ago, NT80 said:

Hodge was a Juco HC before joining UNT as an assistant. He brought in the defensive game planning and was used to having to recruit and re-roster the majority of his teams each year. It's always been like that at Juco level and is similar now at D1 level with players leaving for NIL and more playing time.

But some older coaches were used to developing their own players for 4-5 years. Similar to FBS football, some coaches are having trouble adapting to the new era of recruiting a new roster each season.

If Ross keeps us winning and gaining hardware he will attract poachers for his services at a bigger program, like McCasland did.

True, but regardless of Hodge being a good coach or not, it's always harder to take over a coaching spot when "the guy" leaves

greenjoe · 2025-01-17T01:06:43Z

NORTHTEXASWELOVE, with all respect, I couldn’t disagree more. The solution is for more fans to come to the game, not to reduce the size of the arena. By that logic, we could build a 2,500 seat “auditorium” and sell out every night. Fill what we’ve got. Don’t look for a reason to stay at home. Find a reason to come to the Coliseum and support the team you want to support anyway. J

akriesman · 2025-01-17T01:39:02Z

When Grant was here, they were grooming Hodge to be the eventual HC. Now that Hodge is having success, I hope they are grooming the next possible HC that can keep the defensive system and culture moving forward.

We have had an actual identity for the last 6 years that is pretty unique and a perfect fit for a school that is at the lower end of the NIL support. We need to keep that going. If we hire a coach from the outside, we lose that identity as he will install his own system.

Groom from within. That is the key to sustained success IMO.

Edited 12 hours ago by akriesman

UNTLifer · 2025-01-17T03:12:54Z

1 hour ago, akriesman said:

When Grant was here, they were grooming Hodge to be the eventual HC. Now that Hodge is having success, I hope they are grooming the next possible HC that can keep the defensive system and culture moving forward.

We have had an actual identity for the last 6 years that is pretty unique and a perfect fit for a school that is at the lower end of the NIL support. We need to keep that going. If we hire a coach from the outside, we lose that identity as he will install his own system.

Groom from within. That is the key to sustained success IMO.

People keep mentioning the NIL. Is that an assumption because I have never seen anything publicly posted.

NorthTexasWeLove · 2025-01-17T03:13:57Z

2 hours ago, greenjoe said:

NORTHTEXASWELOVE, with all respect, I couldn’t disagree more. The solution is for more fans to come to the game, not to reduce the size of the arena. By that logic, we could build a 2,500 seat “auditorium” and sell out every night. Fill what we’ve got. Don’t look for a reason to stay at home. Find a reason to come to the Coliseum and support the team you want to support anyway. J

We aren't filling what we have. Beyond us never filling what we have.... it's old, dated, and not a recruiting tool by any measurable mean. And, no, my logic doesn't suggest we build something 2.5k. My logic suggests that we average, on a very good year, 4K. Our new state of the art arena located over in Mean Greene village should be around 5-5.5k. It will be awesome.

NT80 · 2025-01-17T03:18:29Z

1 hour ago, akriesman said:

When Grant was here, they were grooming Hodge to be the eventual HC. Now that Hodge is having success, I hope they are grooming the next possible HC that can keep the defensive system and culture moving forward.

We have had an actual identity for the last 6 years that is pretty unique and a perfect fit for a school that is at the lower end of the NIL support. We need to keep that going. If we hire a coach from the outside, we lose that identity as he will install his own system.

Groom from within. That is the key to sustained success IMO.

We don't hear much at all about the assistant coaches; not like we did with McCasland/Hodge.

NorthTexasWeLove · 2025-01-17T03:26:48Z

7 minutes ago, NT80 said:

We don't hear much at all about the assistant coaches; not like we did with McCasland/Hodge.

Not good. Maybe we should start poking around at that. Otherwise, we'll get left with our pants down and our ____ in our hand.

NT80 · 2025-01-17T03:36:43Z

7 minutes ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

We aren't filling what we have. Beyond us never filling what we have.... it's old, dated, and not a recruiting tool by any measurable mean. And, no, my logic doesn't suggest we build something 2.5k. My logic suggests that we average, on a very good year, 4K. Our new state of the art arena located over in Mean Greene village should be around 5-5.5k. It will be awesome.

The Super Pit is still a great facility. Minnesota's gym that we won at earlier this season is 101 years old, lol.

UTA said all the things you mentioned when they and their 1200 fans left Texas Hall. They built the $80mil University Park Center and moved in the same time we built Apogee/DATCU stadium. They now draw 1200 fans.