DRC: Mens BB to use full court offense

OldTimer · November 6, 2004

Men's Basketball: Mean Green look to take full advantage of court this season

08:03 AM CST on Saturday, November 6, 2004

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones has given the Mean Green the green light to run the open floor in tonight’s exhibition game against Cameron.

Last season, UNT often settled into a halfcourt game to take advantage of a series of standout frontline players, including third-team All-Sun Belt Conference selection Shawnson Johnson.

The Mean Green won’t have as much size and experience down low this year, but they will have a group of athletic guards and forwards. The asset is one UNT wants to begin to take advantage of in its first real action of the season at 7 p.m. tonight at The Super Pit.

"We will have an opportunity to play faster," Jones said. "Our post guys will be able to score, but I do feel good about our guards."

Senior guard Leonard Hopkins is a preseason first-team All-Sun Belt selection while fellow guard Calvin Watson is coming off of a solid freshman season. The Mean Green also added former Collin County Community College point guard Isaac Hines to their starting lineup.

The trio is expected to lead what could be one of UNT’s best backcourts in recent years.

Hopkins has endured a series of injuries at UNT, but enters the season in the best shape of his career. The former Dallas Lincoln standout lost 30 pounds over the summer and has displayed the athletic ability in practice that made him one of the top high school players in the state a few years ago.

"I am real excited about this year’s team because coach is going to let us get up and down the floor," Hopkins said. "Last year we had Shawnson and played more in the halfcourt. Isaac will get the ball up the floor and we have wing players who can run. We are going to do a lot of running and gunning."

Hines heads a class of newcomers that could make an immediate impact. The junior was known for his abilities as a defender as well as a floor leader during his junior college career.

UNT will also look to its recruiting class to help fill the void in the frontcourt left when Johnson and forwards Michael DeGrate and Will Smith completed their careers last season.

Jeffrey Simpson and Quincy Williams could see time in the frontcourt. Simpson played at Eastern Oklahoma State College last season, while Williams played at Carl Albert High School in Midwest City, Okla.

UNT is hoping those additions will complement a core of players who suffered a stunning double overtime loss to New Orleans in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament last season and finished with a 13-15 record.

UNT will host the conference tournament this season and hopes to capitalize on the opportunity to play on their home court at the end of the year.

"I’m ready," senior forward Michael Jones said. "We will play a more exciting game that will make people want to come back out and see us."

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870.