Quick Thoughts On Last Night

[greenminer]

This is something I shot around this morning at work. The sports fans here know that I have a UNT degree and an upcoming UTEP degree. I thought some of ya'll might want to see this.

UNT played a heck of a game against a bigger opponent last night. I was absolutely stunned looking at the stats; I don’t recall specifics, except that for us, the smaller and more athletic lineup, to out-rebound them like we did was an eye opener. For a while, they were the ones with more 3’s and steals, while we were getting the ugly stats. What was odd to me is that it didn’t look like that…we were just out-hustling them in every facet. Especially the first half.

They [Cowboys] kept hanging in there, though and it worried me. I’d also like to note that there were probably 1.5K – 2K OSU fans in there last night…very impressive. I felt like a team with their size advantage and touch on the 3 were capable of coming back into it at any time. To UNT’s credit, we answered everything they threw at us. Shots were just falling last night. No disrespect meant, but I thought OSU looked like they didn’t even care to be on the floor last night? I don’t know what it was, but their coach lit a fire in their asses at halftime. You could tell because during the first 12 minutes of the 2nd half those guys started to play defense like I thought they could: arms were getting into the passing lanes, they played our players tighter 1-on-1. It really messed up our offense in the second half.

UNT has a couple spectacular freshman guards. Tristan Thompson and Josh White are 18 years old and already starting. That depth was critical last night, because our star Quincy Williams got two quick fouls and played most of the night in his chair. Josh specifically plays like one of the most mature freshman I’ve ever seen. He and Thompson are small, but pretty quick and extremely fluid around the floor. White hit a couple critical 3s and made all 6 of his freebies down the stretch to keep the Cowboys away. Those guys are going to be stars.

Wooden is our best center, which is kind of sad being that he’s only 6’9. Having said that, he’s so wide-bodied…especially across his shoulders. I’ve never seen him throw his weight around like he last night, and he proved to be a powerful presence inside. One of the best performances I’ve ever seen out of a sub-6’10 center. He and Josh White were the game leaders with 25 points a piece.

This team is really fun to watch. (Although I don't care for our other center, Howerton. He plays like he's lost on the floor and can be childish and temperamental. If he were an inch shorter and 25 lbs lighter he’d be a waste of scholarship.). I’d like to see The Pit one day with over 10K fans in there. It’s such a beautiful facility and this team deserves a loud atmosphere and home court advantage like…

…what UTEP gets. As much as I love UNT, there’s no way around it: UTEP has the best home basketball atmosphere in the southwest. When they bring in a rival (NMSU/UNM) or a big conference foe with a lot on the line, it WILL sell out the 12,222 seats and it gets so raucious. Even on an off day, the arena will see 9 – 10 thousand, which is almost 50% more than what UNT saw last night.

UTEP hung toe to toe with a 16th ranked A&M squad last night. It’s so hard to gauge right now: is UTEP that good or A&M over-ranked? I think it’s a little bit of both. Aggies are going to find out how much Gillespie is missed at his former schools, and UTEP – if they play over their heads – can make a strong case for an at-large bid come March. I don’t know where UTEP stands within CUSA…they might even win it? We’ll see…

It’s going to be a fun season….and this was much longer than I thought it would be.