Ncaa Tournament

AnotherEagleFan · January 18, 2007

The way that I see for all of UNT athletics to get better is for basketball to bring in the money. Profits from going to the NCAA tournament is much more profitable then winning a football bowl game. The question is how do we get to the tournament. on a consistent basis. I dont get it. This is a sport where one great player or a couple of good players with a good coach makes a huge difference. We are off to an OK start but my concern is how we finish.

drex · January 18, 2007

You are correct. I have fought this war since 1984. While at the athletic department I preached this, but no one seemed to listen. The situation in men's basketball is pitiful with little interest in upgrading....women's basketball is even more pitiful. Why turn on the lights in the SuperPit for 300 people to watch a women's game? Good luck seeing things change anytime soon. As the new president assesses the situations at NT, maybe she will ask the right questions relative to basketball.

oldschoollefty · January 19, 2007

Maybe we could start by renaming the Super Pit to Cameron Indoor. The crowds would be sure to follow.

eeally · January 19, 2007

The way that I see for all of UNT athletics to get better is for basketball to bring in the money. Profits from going to the NCAA tournament is much more profitable then winning a football bowl game. The question is how do we get to the tournament. on a consistent basis. I dont get it. This is a sport where one great player or a couple of good players with a good coach makes a huge difference. We are off to an OK start but my concern is how we finish.

Agreed,! But keep in mind what it takes to get to the NCAA tourney in our Conf. All you have to do is win the Sun Belt tourney at the end of the year. Which is hard enough to do since you have to win 4 games in a row. We have good competition in our league. Every team gets to woo about 3-6 recruits per year. That is it. It is easy to get guys off the top 100 in the nation if you are an ACC school. But Sunbelt you have to get very good players and hope.

There are about 26 conf. that each get a spot. That leaves 38 at large bids. 7 to the ACC. 5 to Big 12 5 to Big 10 6 to SEC 5 to Pac 10.

ETC.

Oh yea what about if Gonzaga does not win its tourney. Do you think we will get an At Large over them.

Basketball is a conference sport. See who is on TV week in week out. As far as the NCAA tourney goes. It is the top 25 then the conference tourney winners then the rest goes to the Power teams with top 20 wins.

If UNT never plays ranked opponents then how could we get an at large birth. How can we get top recruits when they want to play at teams that go to the tourney.

Just saying it is harder than it looks. UNT fields a good team but we are working against some great odds.

Green Mean · January 19, 2007

Agreed,! But keep in mind what it takes to get to the NCAA tourney in our Conf. All you have to do is win the Sun Belt tourney at the end of the year. Which is hard enough to do since you have to win 4 games in a row. We have good competition in our league. Every team gets to woo about 3-6 recruits per year. That is it. It is easy to get guys off the top 100 in the nation if you are an ACC school. But Sunbelt you have to get very good players and hope.
There are about 26 conf. that each get a spot. That leaves 38 at large bids. 7 to the ACC. 5 to Big 12 5 to Big 10 6 to SEC 5 to Pac 10.
ETC.
Oh yea what about if Gonzaga does not win its tourney. Do you think we will get an At Large over them.
Basketball is a conference sport. See who is on TV week in week out. As far as the NCAA tourney goes. It is the top 25 then the conference tourney winners then the rest goes to the Power teams with top 20 wins.
If UNT never plays ranked opponents then how could we get an at large birth. How can we get top recruits when they want to play at teams that go to the tourney.
Just saying it is harder than it looks. UNT fields a good team but we are working against some great odds.

You are absolutely right but at the same time in comparison to football its very doable in basketball...heck we even have a very nice facility for the basketball teams that can help in recruiting. With the emergence of basketball in the state of TX for the past 15 years or so not just collegiately but even in the NBA the talent pool in the state has gotten much better. I have no idea what conference Wichita State is in but I know I see some kind of story on them on ESPN once or twice a week. You can definitely create a buzz and earn money from basketball. I think NT has a very good shot with that cuz 1. We have a very nice facility 2. the talent pool of TX is very high in basketball talent and its getting better by the day 3. Whether people like him or not JJ has definitely convinced some people that NT has the shot and talent to make some noise. I believe NT worries TOO MUCH about football and forget basketball. Even though NCAAB isnt what it used to be with the nba draft taking underclassmen, I still believe its a sport that can generate money. Hopefully DR. Bataille can address this to RV because she came from UNC Chapel Hill.

AnotherEagleFan · January 19, 2007

Agreed,! But keep in mind what it takes to get to the NCAA tourney in our Conf. All you have to do is win the Sun Belt tourney at the end of the year. Which is hard enough to do since you have to win 4 games in a row.

I buy everything you said except this. If we cant win 4 in a row then there needs to be a change. I have not followed UNT basketball in the past. UNT is an adopted school for me. So i fwe are not confident that we can win our conference then what needs to happen so that we will be confident.

As far as recruiting goes we do not need top 100 recruits do we?? I mean cant we do this with a few of the top 50 area recruits??

CMJ · January 19, 2007

It's not just the power leagues that get at large bids to the Dance. The selection committe has been great in recent years about handing out some to the George Mason's of the world. With the MVC as strong as it is...they could get 4 schools in the Dance this year.

The Belt is down right now. Has been for a few years in fact. But the conference used to occassionally get 2 or more in the Dance. Just not this season.

Edited January 19, 2007 by CMJ

NTPhiKap99 · January 19, 2007

It's not just the power leagues that get at large bids to the Dance. The selection committe has been great in recent years about handing out some to the George Mason's of the world. With the MVC as strong as it is...they could get 4 schools in the Dance this year.
The Belt is down right now. Has been for a few years in fact. But the conference used to occassionally get 2 or more in the Dance. Just not this season.

Right but teams have to win just like teams getting at large bowl bids. In football if you go 9-3 and don't win your conference you're still in a bowl. In basketball if you win 25 games but loss in the conference tournament then you've still got a good shot at making the tourney. We had a shot at doing this we started out at 9-2 in non-conference but if we end up at .500 in conference we end up at 18-12 then no tourney for us. If this happened our only hope is to win those four straight games in the conference tournament.

CMJ · January 19, 2007

No doubt about that. I guess I was quasi responding to whoever said all the "little conferences" just get one bid. Many of us get multiples. Granted, currently the SBC is not one of those.