U N T Ready For Texas Challenge

[MeanGreen61]

UNT ready for Texas Challenge

12:17 AM CST on Wednesday, December 5, 2007

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas freshman guard Josh White will have a little inside information when the Mean Green takes on Texas tonight.

White grew up in New Orleans, where he was a summer league teammate and high school rival of Texas guard D.J. Augustin. The two will face off for the first time in their college careers when the Mean Green travels to Austin for a 7:05 p.m. game at the Erwin Center.

"It will be fun to play against him again," White said. "He is a very talented player. I will have to do a good job on him defensively. Hopefully we can come out with a win."

Reaching that goal will be a challenge for UNT largely because of Augustin. The sophomore guard ranks second among Longhorns players with an average of 17.7 points a game and is coming off a 19-point outing in a 63-61 win over second-ranked UCLA.

The Bruins are the highest-ranked team Texas has upset on the road in its history. The Longhorns come into tonight's game ranked fourth nationally.

UNT enters tonight's game off a key win of its own, a 75-72 victory over longtime rival New Mexico State. The Mean Green trailed by 21 points before posting the biggest come-from-behind win in school history.

"It's another challenge for us," UNT head coach Johnny Jones said of facing Texas. "That is the reason we scheduled New Mexico State, for the challenge and to see where we are. It's a good challenge for us to face a top-five team in the country."

White is looking forward to the opportunity in what has been a tremendous freshman season. The 5-10 guard has started every game for UNT and leads the Mean Green with an average of 16.2 points a game.

White scored 25 points and hit a critical 3-pointer late in the Mean Green's win over Oklahoma State, which ranks as UNT's most important victory thus far this season.

White and Augustin share more than just a common background in Louisiana. They are also similar players.

White has shown the ability to shoot from 3-point range and score points in bunches. He is shooting 52.4 percent from beyond the arc, just slightly better than Augustin's average of 50.0 percent.

Both White and Augustin developed their shooting touch while traveling the country with their Louisiana-based AAU team when they were about 10 years old.

"We are still friends, even though we don't talk as much," White said.

These days both are playing for college teams that are thriving. Augustin and Texas are unbeaten at 7-0, while a loss to UT-Arlington is the only blemish on UNT's 5-1 record.

"This is a big opportunity for us to shock the world," UNT guard Ben Bell said. "No one believes we can do it but us. This is a big opportunity to test ourselves against a team like Texas."

Jones and UNT's players know just how big the challenge will be. The Mean Green last faced Texas in the 2004-05 season, when the Longhorns rolled to an 86-57 win.

"When you start talking about tradition, Texas is always right there in the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight," Jones said. "You can look at a list of guys they have had who are in the NBA now. And they have guys on that team now who will be first-round picks."

UNT's players believe they will be more prepared to face Texas than the last time they visited Austin.

"We are bigger and more physical," Jones said. "We are also deeper, which is what you worry about. We are big enough to play a team like Texas now."

Men's basketball

UNT comeback one for the record book

The Mean Green's comeback from 21 points down on the road Saturday against New Mexico State was one for the ages, according to research conducted by the UNT athletic department.

The Mean Green trailed for nearly the entire game before going on a tear in the second half, outscoring the Aggies 52-31 after the break and hanging on for a 75-72 win. It was the biggest come-from-behind win ever for UNT.

"We started to pressure them and extend our defense," Jones said. "We created some turnovers, forced them to play faster and started shooting the ball better."

UNT shot 48.5 percent from the field in the second half.

UNT-Texas game to be shown on tape delay

UNT's game against Texas will be shown on tape delay at 10:30 p.m. tonight on FSN Southwest. The game was scheduled to be shown live, but was pushed back due to a conflict with a Dallas Stars game.

Player of the week

Collin Dennis continued to cement his status as one of the best players off the bench in the Sun Belt Conference last week.

The junior guard scored all but two of his 21 points in the second half of UNT's game against New Mexico State, when the Mean Green rallied for a 75-72 win. Dennis hit eight of 13 shots and went 3-of-5 from 3-point range in just 16 minutes of action.

Dennis also scored six points for UNT in its win over Western New Mexico in the first round of the tournament. The Mean Green's sixth man is averaging 14.8 points a game, despite a lingering ankle injury.

For his performance in the Lou Henson Classic, Dennis is the Denton Record-Chronicle UNT Player of the Week.

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