This season was very disapointing

UNT_playmaker · March 5, 2005

Our basketball program has not seen any signicant changes or upstarts in a long time, i really miss the tim jankovich era, we never ever have recovered from that era to where we are now.....

we have a Div I basketball team, with a super nice bball arena, good sponsers, and best of all a backyard to a gold mine of recruits in the area. but its been the same story all decade long, win a few and loss ALOT...

im going to straight out say it, it embarassin to lose in the first round of the sbc bb tourney every year since weve been a member, but its VERY EMBARASSIN to lose in the first round, as the host of the tourney, and to a team that is below or near .500....

there have been some great players in the last few years, my favorite, shawnson johnson, chris davis, leonard hopkins, but.... these are the mistakes....

very poor shooting, esp in the last ten minutes of the game..

very bad clutch free throws...very bad....

poor coaching to prevent the same mistkaes in crucial games, and in very tight games that have cost us alot of games..

GoMeanGreen1999 · March 5, 2005

I am about ready to give up on JJ too, but each time I think that, I remind myself that I gave up on dd when he was 0-5 in his third season, and now look where we are in football.....say it's different all you want, but frankly, it is the same thing.

gksmith · March 6, 2005

Actually, this season was an improvement over last year.

I forget the record but I think it was single digits...maybe as many as 11 total.

I am disapointed with the way it turned out but I am glad the men's program took steps forward.

UNTLifer · March 6, 2005

Actually, this season was an improvement over last year.
I forget the record but I think it was single digits...maybe as many as 11 total.
I am disapointed with the way it turned out but I am glad the men's program took steps forward.

Are you serious?

Gakusei · March 6, 2005

Last year's record was 13-15. This year's was 14-14.

THOR · March 6, 2005

baby steps....at least we are improving

VideoEagle · March 6, 2005

baby steps....at least we are improving

Glaciers move faster!

Football players need to grow and develop from high school to college. It legitimately 5 years with redshirts to build a football program. That's not the case with basketball.

In football, you need a number of good players - one or two stars can't get it done alone. In basketball, just one or two and you're a champion.

Dumping a guy after two years means you didn't give him a chance. But four? How long should someone get?

UNT_playmaker · March 6, 2005

jones has been given 4 years, this is what he has done, we will not see anything better than .500 in the next seasons, the recruiting is awful, and so is progress for a large div. 1 school like ourselves

jones improved our program from trilli in the first six games, he did that, and he need someone else to take us to that next level. hope our AD realizes that...

NDT · March 7, 2005

JJ has one more year on his contract and we can't afford to buy him out.

UNTLifer · March 7, 2005

Last year's record was 13-15. This year's was 14-14.

We also had 15 games at home this year, 16 if you include the tourney. Many more than years past. This team got worse as the year wore on. A sure sign of poor coaching or a coach that has lost his team.

And sorry, I a one game improvement in the win column is not showing progress, IMHO.

UNT_92_Fan · March 7, 2005

it might not have been coaching...maybe the players weren't gelling well...maybe some attitudes on the team didn't mesh...maybe someone thought their shit didn't stink for lack of better phrasing....I mean I dont know if it is true or not...but from what i saw on the court the first half of the season and the second half and ....it may not have been johnny fault...

ever play pick up games or on a team with people you didn't like....its kinda hard to play well....

UNTLifer · March 7, 2005

I believe every problem you addressed can be controlled by a good coach. This isn't a pick up team, JJ recruited all of them except Hopkins.

Edited March 7, 2005 by UNTLifer

GangGreen · March 7, 2005

I am willing to give him one more year. If he can't win with what we have returning than he really needs to go. We lose Hopkins, Jones and Mitchell.

Everyone else is back. Plus we add in the transfer from Arkansas.

Coach · March 7, 2005

This isn't a pick up team, JJ recruited all of them except Hopkins.

And Barnett.

I have thought about this issue for a while, and have decided that we do need to see his first high school class all the way through. That is only fair.

This year was set up for a nice run, but it didn't happen and that is disappointing. However, I think that another year is the right thing to do in this case. If expectations (do they exist?) aren't met by then, then a re-evaluation wouldn't be out of line.

Edited March 7, 2005 by Coach

UNTSportsGuy · March 8, 2005

Our recruiting has serious issues, most of the teams have freshman who make a positive impact. Granted I think Williams will be very good, and the core of this team, JJ has yet to get player who can carry a team or be the leader of the team. Hines was a great catch, but Juco players can be used to add pieces to the puzzle, not start the puzzle. With five seniors next year, JJ has to do some damage with this team, or he should be looking for a new job.

greenfrog · March 8, 2005

This season was truly a downer for both the mens and womens basketball teams this year in view of the

fact that neither of them are in the finals of the Sunbelt. Here are a few thoughts that may or may not

make sense:

1. The girls program can be "big" for North Texas like it is for TT and Baylor but a change needs to take

place at the head coach level. When UTA can build a stronger program than ours in 4 or 5 years it

probably is because of the coach and her ability to recruit quality and coach X & 0's.

2. JJ must turn it next year. On paper he and his staff are quality coaches from elite programs. We

must bring in top kids from Houston and DFW area NOW! Harris, Thomas. and Mitchell are marginal

divisional 1 players. It is my understanding that JJ and his staff left immediately after the loss on

Friday and are recruiting hard. Friday was a wakeup call. I do feel that he deserves next year but

NT needs to win 18-20 games and the tournament in order to see progress.

JayDub · March 9, 2005

I think our number one priority for this off-season should be the firing and replacement of Tina Slinker.

I'm willing to give Johnny Jones a couple more years to get things together, but Tina has had 17 years to do something and her only "saving graces" graduated 2 years ago.

There, I said it.

Priority number two? Hire a group of students to run the entertainment/atmosphere side of games.

Edited March 9, 2005 by JayDub

NDT · March 9, 2005

As much as I am disappointed by Tina's lack of success, in her early years at NT she had little support and was grossly underfunded. Also, there is a big diference between the SBC and SLC. Sagarin has SLC women at the #24 conference and SBC women at #13. In defense of Tina we have only one Senior and I am told she has signed a recruit that is a potential McDonald All-American. A supporter I talked to this weekend has seen this girl play and says she is outstanding and will make an immediate impact. We lost to MTSU by one point and they are going to the dance. UTA is no where near as good as MT.

As for Jones one more year without substantial improvement and that is it.

FirefightnRick · March 9, 2005

Our basketball program has not seen any signicant changes or upstarts in a long time, i really miss the tim jankovich era, we never ever have recovered from that era to where we are now.....
we have a Div I basketball team, with a super nice bball arena, good sponsers, and best of all a backyard to a gold mine of recruits in the area. but its been the same story all decade long, win a few and loss ALOT...

It's been longer than a decade. We won the SLC in '88, hosted the post season tourney and won on ESPN in the SuperPit enroute to the Salt Lake City regional. Everyone remembered how exciting that tournement was so naturally when we won the SLC again in '89 and hosted the tournement, again, we had another fantastic, rowdy crowd for the championship game on ESPN. But we lost that game and Gales was replaced soon afterwards and I haven't seen much since. I will say that Jank's teams made more noise than we have seen recently though. Several of his ex players still feel that he was on the cusp of taking us to the next level when he was let go.

This season was a huge opportunity to get our fanbase back in Denton and we blew it. But, had JJ done so in only his 4th season we all would have been talking about how it was one of the greatest turnaroundsin NT history or something to that fact? So I'll give JJ another year or two as I didn't expect him to rebuild one of the poorest basketball programs in Texas and take it to the NCAA tournament in 4 seasons. That's asking a bit much in my oppinion.

Rick

GrandGreen · March 9, 2005

As much as I am disappointed by Tina's lack of success, in her early years at NT she had little support and was grossly underfunded. Also, there is a big diference between the SBC and SLC. Sagarin has SLC women at the #24 conference and SBC women at #13. In defense of Tina we have only one Senior and I am told she has signed a recruit that is a potential McDonald All-American. A supporter I talked to this weekend has seen this girl play and says she is outstanding and will make an immediate impact. We lost to MTSU by one point and they are going to the dance. UTA is no where near as good as MT.
As for Jones one more year without substantial improvement and that is it.

I don't think anyone that wants Slinker or JJ to have another year have any worries. Relative to Slinker. not many women's programs were well funded in Slinker's early years. What is a potential McDonald All-American? I can assure you that NT does not have a McDonald All American recruit. They may have several McDonald All-American nominees. Any player that had a great junior year is usually on that list. As to your reference to UTA, they beat NT at the Superpit and their coach has build a strong team at a school with a horrible arena and pitiful fan support.

The girls did lose to the Muts in OT in a game that they should have won. Notice that the Muts won all their other games in the tournament by much greater margins. NT generally played very well at home and very bad on the road with some exceptions. Next year should be a great year for the NT women. Yet I have some reservations with Slinker, 5 winning seasons out of 16 does not build confidence.

NT does have all their players back less little used Klat. They also will have 6'2 Amber Jackson who missed the season due to injury and was probably the highest rated 2004 recruit and 6'3 Mia Ajekwu back from a injury joining Sanders, Edwards and Howard in the paint. This a very solid and young group. The back court is the problem even with the teams best player Bobo returning. With 3 of the 4 incomming freshmen being guards help should be on the way. I am not sure which player was referred to but all 4 recruits were rated in the pre-season top 35 players in Texas.

Tricia Lee who moved from Texas to Indiana in her senior year, had a solid season and was named one of the top 40 players in Indiana. Sanetra Jackson was the most heralded recruit but played on an average at best SA Clark team. She was second team all state as a junior. Jo Hall from Cedar Park averaged a double double with 19.7pts, 10.7rbs, 3.8a, 2.2b and shot 51%. Ashley Vation a 6' forward had unimpressive stats but played on a great balanced Mansfield Summitt team. I look for all three freshmen guards to be factors next year and hopefully one will the difference maker in the backcourt that this team needs.

Edited March 9, 2005 by GrandGreen

UNTFan23 · March 9, 2005

Priority number two? Hire a group of students to run the entertainment/atmosphere side of games.

I'd do it for free.

NTEagle08 · March 9, 2005

I don't think anyone that wants Slinker or JJ to have another year have any worries. Relative to Slinker. not many women's programs were well funded in Slinker's early years. What is a potential McDonald All-American? I can assure you that NT does not have a McDonald All American recruit. They may have several McDonald All-American nominees. Any player that had a great junior year is usually on that list. As to your reference to UTA, they beat NT at the Superpit and their coach has build a strong team at a school with a horrible arena and pitiful fan support.
The girls did lose to the Muts in OT in a game that they should have won. Notice that the Muts won all their other games in the tournament by much greater margins. NT generally played very well at home and very bad on the road with some exceptions. Next year should be a great year for the NT women. Yet I have some reservations with Slinker, 5 winning seasons out of 16 does not build confidence.
NT does have all their players back less little used Klat. They also will have 6'2 Amber Jackson who missed the season due to injury and was probably the highest rated 2004 recruit and 6'3 Mia Ajekwu back from a injury joining Sanders, Edwards and Howard in the paint. This a very solid and young group. The back court is the problem even with the teams best player Bobo returning. With 3 of the 4 incomming freshmen being guards help should be on the way. I am not sure which player was referred to but all 4 recruits were rated in the pre-season top 35 players in Texas.

You can put me down as a person who thinks Slinker's time here at North Texas should be up. I would like to see a new coach here next year, but sadly I don't see it happening. If she stays around(if the Athletic Dept. insists) and doesn't do anything with the team next year, considering all the players that are coming back, I don't know what you have to do then at this school to get fired.