Dothan Eagle Blog On Troy Vs North Texas

MeanGreen61 · January 3, 2008

Hoops look: North Texas at Troy

January 02, 2008

dchamplin

What: North Texas (9-3, 0-1 Sun Belt) at Troy (6-6, 0-2)

When: 7:30 p.m. CST Jan. 3

Where: Trojan Arena, Troy (4,000)

Last time out: Troy fell to Western Kentucky 94-90. North Texas beat Texas A&M-International 97-70.

Probable starting lineups

TROY

G-Jerome Odem (6’1, 160, Sr.) - 6.9

G-O’Darien Bassett (6’2, 190, Sr.) - 18.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg

F-Justin Jonus (6’6, 221, Sr.) - 13.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg

F-Trayce Macon (6’8, 191, Soph.) - 8.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg

F-Jarvis Acker (6’6, 210, Sr.) - 6.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg

NORTH TEXAS

G-Josh White (5’10, 167, Fr.) 16.6 ppg, 56.4 3pt percentage

G-Ben Bell (6’3, 190, Sr.) 8.6 ppg

G-Collin Dennis(6’2, 185, Jr.) 12.9 ppg, 48.5 3pt percentage

F-Keith Wooden(6’9, 245, Sr.) 11.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg

F-Quincy Williams (6’8, 230, Sr.) 8.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg

What to watch for: Troy has beaten all but two Sun Belt teams in Sun Belt play, but one was UL-Monroe in a game where the Warhawks had a fluke late comeback. The other is North Texas, and it hasn’t been close. The Mean Green have been incredibly mean to the Men of Troy. Some great players are gone from the last two years, but the biggest advantage UNT has is down low with forwards Keith Wooden and Quincy Williams. It’s just not even close when you compare the frontcourts between the two and don’t be shocked to see UNT have a 25-rebound advantage. UNT did lose a surprise game at Denver by four, but the change in altitude causes a few teams with more talent than Denver to lose at Denver.

Troy is 0-2 in Sun Belt play just like last year. North Texas was the Sun Belt’s NCAA Tournament representative last year.

Player to watch, Troy: O’Darien Bassett. The 6-foot-2 senior scored a career-high 36 in a 4-point loss to Western Kentucky last Saturday. He’s playing at a very high level right now and is worth the price of admission. He’ll need to keep playing like that for Troy to have a chance.

Player to watch, UNT: Josh White. The 5-foot-10 scoring guard is the frontrunner for Sun Belt Freshman of the Year.

Troy will win if: The Trojans get very hot from the outside and/or UNT’s forwards get in some foul trouble.

UNT will win if: The Mean Green dominate the boards and attack the press like Western Kentucky did.

Drew’s prediction: It’s like picking against Arkansas State in football. It needs to happen before I do it. UNT 86-78

Posted in by Drew Champlin on 01/02 at 11:03 PM

Edited January 3, 2008 by MeanGreen61

untgeorge · January 3, 2008

Troy continues to rely extensively on the 3-pt shot. They have tried 385 3s to date, avg 32 per game. For comparison UNT has tried 201. The other two SunBelt members who shoot a lot of 3s are Monroe and USA; Troy has shot 120 more 3s than USA, though USA has played one more game, and 45 more than ULM, who also have played one moe game than Troy.

UNTs defense against the 3 is off an on; Hartford filled it up and Denver did pretty well outside also.

Troy plays Zone almost exclusively. We beat Hartford's zone like a drum but did not do well vs Denver's zone. Who knows.

Good news, Troy doesn't play that good on defense, yielding 84 ppg, by far the worst in the conference. They don't rebound very well, either.

Our key is keeping Wooden Williams and Stewart out of foul trouble and in the game, and getting scoring from our guards. We may need a lot of points to win. Last season we beat them by 41 in Denton when we did all those things.