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Unt Celebrates Ncaa Tournament Bid

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GreenBat

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UNT celebrates NCAA tournament bid 12:38 PM CST

12:38 PM CST on Wednesday, March 7, 2007

By MONTY MILLER JR. / Denton Record-Chronicle

mwmiller@dentonrc.com

A pep rally to celebrate the North Texas men’s basketball team's upcoming trip to the NCAA Tournament will be held Wednesday afternoon at the Super Pit on the North Texas campus.

Also Online

UNT men earn NCAA bid

The team will arrive on buses with a police escort around 3 p.m. at the north tunnel of the Super Pit, with all the fanfare, including the marching band, cheerleaders and tons of students and fans.

The Mean Green defeated Arkansas State, 83-75, Tuesday night to win the Sun Belt Championship, which earned the tournament bid. This is only the second time in team history to go to the NCAA tournament. The first came in the 1987-1988 season, when the team lost to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels in the tournament's first round.

The trip marks a return to the tournament for UNT coach Johnny Jones, who helped lead Louisiana State University to the tournament's Final Four in 1981 as a player and made multiple return trips as an LSU assistant coach.

"I've been very blessed to have the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament," Jones told KTCK-AM Wednesday morning. "My goal was to get our guys on this basketball team to have that experience."

UNT President Gretchen Bataille celebrated the championship and tournament bid Tuesday night inside the UNT Lyceum with students and fans.

“It goes to show that if you do it right, you can win,” Ms. Bataille said. “I’m excited about this team.”

The team ended the regular season with a 23-10 record, the best ever for UNT's program. Senior guard Calvin Watson was named MVP of the championship game after he scored 24 points and hit six out of seven three-point shots for the team.

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MeanGreengdub Newbie

MeanGreengdub

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Good idea, but not nearly enough time to get many folks there for that. I suppose they sent this to all of the students vis email?

No email sent to us students yet so it's already too late. But I'll be going and I'm telling everyone I know. If someone can tell me how to post pictures on here I will upload pictures from the event.

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Keith7 Newbie

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hmm I would estimate about 200-400 people showed up (maybe more, i'm not good at guessing sizes of crowds).. first the band, dance team, and cheerleaders showed up on their bus and unpacked their instruments and cheerleaders started cheering.. about 15 minutes later the bus with the players show up via police escort.. the players get off the bus to the fight song following a huge ovation from the crowd.. the whole team takes the stage, singing the chorus of the p-diddy song "we aint goin no where" but instead of "cuz its bad boy for life" they say "cuz its mean green for life".. Dr. Bataille gives speach talking about how proud she is about the team and thanks the crowd for the support.. Rick Villareal gives thanks to the band, cheerleaders, the team and the crowd, and gets teary eyed when he introduces "his head basketball coach, and closefriend, Johnny Jones".. Johnny Jones gives a great speach about never giving up, playing thru adversity, he then talked about bouncing back after tough losses, and thanked his wife "so he would be able to go home tonight".. Then Calvin Watson got a chance to speak first he thanked god, then he thanked the fans and all the supporters who were with them from the beginning and the ones who showed up today.. Then ben bell got to speak, his speach was short, and he pretty much thanked everyone for the support and talked about winning it again next year.. Then Rick Villareal thanked everyone again for showing up and that was it.. The players went out to the crowd and mingled with the crowd and the t.v. crews that showed up.. There were alot of t.v. cameras, and sports writers there, some that I saw included channels 4,5, and 11.. I got interviewed by a guy from the DMN, but I also saw the FWSTG, DRC, and of course the NT daily there, and a lady from news radio.. I think I covered it all

Edited by Keith7
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CMJ Grand Master

CMJ

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hmm I would estimate about 200-400 people showed up (maybe more, i'm not good at guessing sizes of crowds).. first the band, dance team, and cheerleaders showed up on their bus and unpacked their instruments and cheerleaders started cheering.. about 15 minutes later the bus with the players show up with via police escort.. the players get off the bus to the fight song following a huge ovation from the crowd.. the whole team takes the stage, singing the chorus of the p-diddy song "we aint goin no where" but instead of "cuz its bad boy for life" they say "cuz its mean green for life".. Dr. Bataille gives speach talking about how proud she is about the team and thanks the crowd for the support.. Rick Villareal gives thanks to the band, cheerleaders, the team and the crowd, and gets teary eyed when he introduces "his head basketball coach, and closefriend, Johnny Jones".. Johnny Jones gives a great speach about never giving up, playing thru adversity, he then talked about bouncing back after tough losses, and thanked his wife "so he would be able to go home tonight".. Then Calvin Watson got a chance to speak first he thanked god, then he thanked the fans and all the supporters who were with them from the beginning and the ones who showed up today.. Then ben bell got to speak, his speach was short, and he pretty much thanked everyone for the support and talked about winning it again next year.. Then Rick Villareal thanked everyone again for showing up and that was it.. The players went out the the crowd and mingled with the crowd and the t.v. crews that showed up.. There were alot of t.v. cameras, and sports writers there, some that I saw included channels 4,5, and 11.. I got interviewed by a guy from the DMN, but I also so the FWSTG, DRC, and of course the NT daily there, and a lady from news radio.. I think I covered it all

Awesome! Thanks alot Keith7. :D

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Green Lantern Mentor

Green Lantern

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They did have a nice turnout. Several hundred students, faculty, and staff were there along with the pep band, cheerleaders and dancers. I was actually impressed with the turnout given the short notice and general lack of awareness amoung many on campus about events that are happening. There was quite a bit of media there filming and taking pictures of the crowd and the players and staff. Keith pretty much covered the on goings of the event. The players and coaches seemd to really appreciate the fact that people came out to show their support.

Pretty cool actually...people were very pumped and there was tons of specualtion amoungst the fans in attendance about who we were gonna draw in the first round.

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Go_UTA Newbie

Go_UTA

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Congrats on making the NCAA tournament. That's a hell of an accomplishment. I could tell you had the makings of a pretty good team as I watched you play us in the Super Pit earlier this year.

I'm hoping the Southland rep will pull another big upset as happened last year when Northwestern State knocked off Iowa. Most likely, A&M-Corpus Christi will emerge, but Sam Houston State is a possibility. Either of those teams are capable of an upset, but maybe not anyone else. If your opponent takes you too lightly, you guys have a chance at an upset, too.

Although I'm not staking a lot of hope on our men making the NCAA, as we are so young, I do have high hopes for the girls. They just went through the Southland regular season undefeated. They already have an NIT invitation if they get upset in the Southland tournament.

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