Fw*telegram Jennifer Engel..dream Alive In Denton

[OldTimer]

Why does she have to print the negative always...anyway most of the article is good.

Dream is alive in Denton

North Texas' NCAA Tournament berth proves great coaches find a way to get the job done.

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Johnny Jones has to be a nightmare for every non-BCS-school basketball coach. He has erased every possible excuse.

He took a job at a school you supposedly could not win at and won anyway. His Mean Green earned an NCAA Tournament berth by winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament Tuesday, proving once again great coaches find ways to win. Anywhere. Everywhere. And with whatever budget.

"I was warned and made aware that some people thought it wasn't a good opportunity or didn't think it was a good job," Jones said late Wednesday, a whirlwind of a day with calls and well wishes. "But I wasn't going to dismiss an opportunity on what somebody else said. I thought I could make it work."

Work is an understatement, which is why Jones is the kind of coach who should make Neil and Matt D. sweat and schools from "power conferences" with coaching needs memorize his name.

Jones obviously understood or quickly learned that, without the aid of a sold-out Super Pit or endless appearances on national TV to sell UNT recruits on, he needed to sell himself. He also sold a dream, a day years from now when Mean Green players would be able to return to Denton, point up to the rafters and say, "I did that. I helped turn that program around."

And what to sell now, now that UNT officially has been turned?

"Every kid, I do not care whether it is at LSU or wherever, they all want to know: Have you been to the Tournament," Jones said. "Now, our answer will be yes."

He's selling, and consider me sold.

[fan19740]

"But I wasn't going to dismiss an opportunity on what somebody else said......"

Great quote.

[greenminer]

A school smack in the middle of one of the great high school athletic hotbeds in the entire country; not just in football but in nearly every sport. How the heck do we qualify - on any level - as a school that is not suppposed to win? (rhetoric, but feel free to answer if you like)

It doesn't take genius to figure out we've been fighting institutional entities and administrative powers within our own walls for the past, what, 30 years?

Put the right people in place and there's no excuse for us not to excell. I can't wait to see what JJ does with the NCAA tourney appearance, and what Dodge will put on the field. It's exciting to think we have such potential and an administration that is in place to fuel the fire.

[Greenblood94]

I don't see so much of the negativity in the article as you do, OldTimer. The negative aspects of the program are pointed out by Engel to show what JJ or any good coach can overcome. Coaches would love to have sold out arenas and play on TV all the time to boost recruiting. We don't have that. What we have now is a coach who fought through all that and achieved success anyway. Now, the ball is rolling. Here's to keeping it going!