Fans Send Unt Off To Ncaa Tournament

[MeanGreen61]

Fans send UNT off to NCAA tournament

08:49 AM CDT on Thursday, March 15, 2007

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

Lynn Carrino was there for the hard times North Texas experienced at the Super Pit this season.

There was no way she was going to miss the good times, especially not the sendoff party the UNT athletic department held for the Mean Green on Wednesday as it headed out for its game against Memphis in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

UNT will take on the Tigers at 11:30 a.m. Friday in New Orleans in a first-round game in the South Region.

“We have been to every home game,” said Carrino, a freshman from Houston who came to the event with a group of fellow fans. “We are proud of the guys and feel a connection to them. I think they feel the same way about the fans.”

Carrino was among several dozen who cheered as the Mean Green’s coaches and players paraded out of the Super Pit’s north tunnel with the UNT fight song playing over loudspeakers.

UNT head coach Johnny Jones and several players said they appreciated the show of support from fans who stopped by in the middle of the day to cheer the Mean Green on its way out of town.

“The sendoff you gave the players today is something they will remember for the rest of their lives,” Jones told the crowd. “You supported these guys the whole year. That is why they play so hard for you.”

A few of those fans plan to make the trip to New Orleans to see the Mean Green try to pull off a monumental upset against the Tigers. UNT is the No. 15 seed in the South Region, while Memphis is the No. 2 seed.

Only four times has a team seeded 15th won its first-round game in the tournament since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Those long odds are not going to be enough to convince several UNT students from making the trip. Casey Cosey, a junior from Dallas and a member of the Pit Crew, a UNT spirit organization, held up a sign during the pep rally that read “See Ya’ in New Orleans.”

“We are going to go down to the game,” Cosey said. “We have been supporting the team the whole season.”

Cosey was about to say that going to the game would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, but was quickly corrected by her friends that it was an opportunity that hadn’t come around in almost 20 years. Cosey and her friends said they hope UNT is a regular in the tournament in the future.

The Mean Green went to the tournament in 1988, when UNT lost to North Carolina in the first round.

UNT graduates Ed Lane and Brenda Ritz couldn’t make the trip to New Orleans, but Ritz had an alternate plan in place.

“I asked for a vacation day so I could watch the game,” Ritz said. “We have season tickets and go to all the games. This is what we have been hoping for.”

The Mean Green endured some rough years waiting for the team to break through for a tournament bid, including a four-year span before Jones arrived that saw UNT win 20 total games. Seeing the Mean Green get into the NCAA Tournament was especially rewarding for UNT fans who were around through the lean years.

“I went to school here and this does not happen very often,” Lane said. “Hopefully it will happen more often now.”

UNT senior guard Calvin Watson joined the Mean Green four years ago, when an NCAA Tournament bid seemed like a goal that was out of reach. Watson helped UNT get over the hump by scoring 24 points in the Mean Green’s win over Arkansas State in the finals of the Sun Belt tournament and was named the event’s Most Outstanding Player.

Watson and the Mean Green have enjoyed the wave of support provided by the UNT and Denton communities ever since.

“It has been a fun few weeks,” Watson said. “We are going to enjoy it.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .