Mean Green Host Furman In NIT First Round

[Ross Hodgeson]

DENTON – The UNT men’s basketball team hosts Furman for a National Invitation Tournament first round matchup at the Super Pit Wednesday.

 

The Mean Green (24-8) and the Paladins (25-9) are scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on the Mean Green Sports Network, presented by Learfield and on ESPN+.

 

Tickets to Wednesday night’s game can be purchased here.

 

North Texas, the 2023 NIT champions, are in the 32-team national postseason tournament for a fourth straight year. They have the longest active streak and are aiming to become just the fourth team ever to win two NIT titles in three years or less. The tournament began in 1938.

 

UNT, who is the No. 2 seed in the NIT Dallas region this year, has won at least one national postseason tournament game in each of the previous four years. They are just one of seven programs in the nation who can say that.

 

Wednesday they will face a Furman team who has won 25 games this season, finished fifth in the SoCon standings and reached the conference tournament championship game. The Paladins earned an at-large bid into this year’s NIT. They are led by Bob Richey who is in his eighth full season as their head coach. He has led Furman to six 20-win seasons and reached the 2023 NCAA Tournament where they upset Virginia in the first round. This is the second time he’s led Furman to the NIT.

 

Wednesday will be the first time these two teams have ever met. It will be the first time North Texas has faced an opponent who is an ac­tive member of the SoCon since the 2018 CBI when the Mean Green beat Mercer 96-67 in the quarterfinal round. UNT went on to win the 2018 CBI championship. It was Ross Hodge’s first season as an assistant coach at UNT under then first-year Mean Green head coach Grant McCasland

 

A win Wednesday for the Mean Green advances them to the second round where they would host the winner of Arkansas State and Saint Louis on either Saturday or Sunday.

 

For more information on UNT Basketball tickets, contact the Mean Green Ticket Office at 940-565-2527 or at ticketoffice@unt.edu. Fans can purchase tickets at www.meangreentickets.com or visit the UNT Athletics Ticket Office located at Gate 2 of DATCU Stadium between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.