Stars For A Week At Unt

[NT80]

Stars for a week at UNT

Just spoke with UNT basketball media guy Stephen Howard. Boy, has it been insane since Tuesday night.

In about 72 hours, UNT has filled or booked more media requests than in the entire regular season. Coach Johnny Jones has done two Sirius Satellite Radio shows, one hosted by former UNLV/Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian.

The list of sudden suitors for Jones and his players include both Dallas sports stations; local TV; Rivals.com radio; a sports station based in Plano; CBS Evening News for a piece on UNT player and Iraq War veteran Rich Young, radio in Austin, San Antonio, Seattle, Lawrence, Kan. (for center and Lawrence native Keith Wooden) and more.

"It's been unbelievable," Howard said. "All of a sudden, people [in the media] are my best friend. We're trying to accomodate everybody."

Fox Sports wants to fly Jones to Chicago on Monday for the Tim Brando Show, and Channel 52 in Dallas sent a limo on Thursday night for Jones and guard Calvin Watson. Jones is scheduled to be on with Babe Laufenberg on CBS/Channel 11 on Sunday after the selection show.

Howard said Young, 26, is having to be the most patient, because EVERYONE wants to talk to him about his military service. Around the Christmas holidays, Star-Telegram writer Don Bowman was the first to interview Young about his compelling story, and he's the most unassuming leader type you'll ever meet.

With the Sun Belt tourney wrapping up so early, UNT has time to enjoy a little love.

--Troy Phillips

[CMJ]

I really appreciate the the FWST historically covers us so much better than the DMN.

[e-bone ver2.awesome]

I hope that JJ makes sure the team stays focused. It seems like we have already won our "Superbowl" and are enjoying the exposure. If I were the coach, I think I would limit some of the media exposure of my players, and out wright not let them talk to any media for a few days preceding the first round game. This, along with RV's extension talk has me scared that the team and coach might not be as focused as they should be.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

I really appreciate the the FWST historically covers us so much better than the DMN.

---Also TCU fans and students are more respectful of NorthTexas than at SMU which in general rates us about the level of dirt.

[Green Mean]

I dont know if DMN necessarily favors SMU over NT but SMU is the school of Dallas and maybe they have other alliances thru ads or something else. Denton is one of those turkeys thats in the DFW area so its much further way for DMN to cover a lot of it I think.

[JayDub]

See what winning will get you? Win...and the rest will take care of itself.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

I dont know if DMN necessarily favors SMU over NT but SMU is the school of Dallas and maybe they have other alliances thru ads or something else. Denton is one of those turkeys thats in the DFW area so its much further way for DMN to cover a lot of it I think.

---The DMN is closer to SMU than UNT ( that we understand) but it is not futher away from Denton than the FWST is and when the FWST make statements about us they seem more complemenary than what appears in the DMN. Making it worse isn't there some ownership connection between the DRC and DMN. If that is true then DRC writers could use them to contribute some to the DMN.

--- A lot of the DMN articles come across as "They are fairly doing well considering who they are". Not exactly positive.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Stars for a week at UNT

Just spoke with UNT basketball media guy Stephen Howard. Boy, has it been insane since Tuesday night.

In about 72 hours, UNT has filled or booked more media requests than in the entire regular season. Coach Johnny Jones has done two Sirius Satellite Radio shows, one hosted by former UNLV/Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian.

The list of sudden suitors for Jones and his players include both Dallas sports stations; local TV; Rivals.com radio; a sports station based in Plano; CBS Evening News for a piece on UNT player and Iraq War veteran Rich Young, radio in Austin, San Antonio, Seattle, Lawrence, Kan. (for center and Lawrence native Keith Wooden) and more.

"It's been unbelievable," Howard said. "All of a sudden, people [in the media] are my best friend. We're trying to accomodate everybody."

Fox Sports wants to fly Jones to Chicago on Monday for the Tim Brando Show, and Channel 52 in Dallas sent a limo on Thursday night for Jones and guard Calvin Watson. Jones is scheduled to be on with Babe Laufenberg on CBS/Channel 11 on Sunday after the selection show.

Howard said Young, 26, is having to be the most patient, because EVERYONE wants to talk to him about his military service. Around the Christmas holidays, Star-Telegram writer Don Bowman was the first to interview Young about his compelling story, and he's the most unassuming leader type you'll ever meet.

With the Sun Belt tourney wrapping up so early, UNT has time to enjoy a little love.

--Troy Phillips

Great article! I am glad to hear about all this publicity, maybe we will get that stadium announcement soon...

[MeanGreengdub]

Can someone PM me and let me know when FOR SURE the Rich Young story is going to be the CBS Evening News?

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

---The DMN is closer to SMU than UNT ( that we understand) but it is not futher away from Denton than the FWST is and when the FWST make statements about us they seem more complemenary than what appears in the DMN. Making it worse isn't there some ownership connection between the DRC and DMN. If that is true then DRC writers could use them to contribute some to the DMN.

--- A lot of the DMN articles come across as "They are fairly doing well considering who they are". Not exactly positive.

What are you saying? The articles in the DMN are the same articles that appear in the DRC (albeit often in abbreviated form). The Morning News no longer assigns a writer to cover North Texas. Instead, they use Vito's articles. Belo owns both the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record-Chronicle.

If the Star-Telegram seems more complimentary to you then it must be due to the skills of the writer. That would also make them more complimentary to UNT than the Record-Chronicle as well. Go figure.

Dallas and Dallas County are not without faults but we are neither original nor alone in that category. We still contribute more UNT students and alumni than any other county in Texas.

Tarrant County has some of the best and finest North Texas alumni that I know. So does Dallas, Denton, Collin, Parker, Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall and Wise Counties. (Actually, since Silver moved from Wise County there may not be any left). The point is, your continual favor of one area over another tends to alienate the other.

I realize that the favoritism is your opinion only, and you are certainly entitled to it, but you are becoming a broken record. Your vitriol and hate for SMU is spilling over into everything around it. SMU has more than its fair share of a--holes and some are very vocal but so does everyone else. The biggest problem is that those at SMU don't have enough sense to keep their mouths/keyboards shut.

SMU is in Dallas County and the DMN should report their activities moreso than UNT. That doesn't mean that the News is depreciatory toward North Texas.