Unt Beat Uno, But In The End, Did It Win?

LAZER · March 4, 2008

UNT beat UNO, but in the end, did it win?

"Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose."

-- Gloria Clemente, White Men Can't Jump

I was sitting here this afternoon trying to find a way to put into perspective the impact of UNT's win over New Orleans on Saturday heading into the Sun Belt Conference tournament this week. I guess no one can say it better than Gloria.

UNT's win over UNO was huge for momentum, for putting the Mean Green on the verge of winning 20 games, for ending the regular season in style and for ending the Privateer curse. But when it comes to the conference tournament bracket, one has to wonder if UNT wouldn't have been better off falling to the Privateers. Hear me out.

UNT is the No. 6 seed and will face No. 11 Arkansas State in the first round at home Wednesday. If UNT wins, it will face Western Kentucky before potential showdowns Little Rock in the semifinals and South Alabama in the finals.

Had UNT lost, it would have been the seventh seed, faced No. 10 Florida International in the first round at home and UALR in the second round with WKU potentially looming in the semifinals and USA in the finals.

The second option looks a little more inviting to me. UNT has faced FIU just once and won by three, fell to UALR by two on the road and lost to WKU by 10 at home, where it beat USA by two.

UNT will have to beat an ASU team with nothing to lose after head coach Dickey Nutt stepped down for the third time this season. It will also have to take on a WKU team that has to be among the favorites a round earlier in the tournament.

Big deal, you say. Yea, I say that is a big difference.

UNT did all it needed to last year to win the Sun Belt tournament title and advance to the big dance, but even the most avid of Mean Green fans would have to admit UNT got some help along the way. Middle Tennessee upset top-seeded USA in the second round, eliminating one of the top teams in the tournament that appeared to be on a collision course with the Mean Green. ASU also eliminated WKU in the semifinals to take out another one of the top teams in the event. Granted ASU was the No. 2 overall seed, while WKU was the No. 3 seed, but the Hilltoppers were arguably the better team. WKU finished 22-11, while ASU went 18-15. The Indians were the higher seed based on winning the SBC West.

UNT beat the No. 12 seed (Louisiana-Lafayette), No. 4 seed (Louisiana-Monroe) and No. 9 seed (Middle Tennessee) before finally facing one of the top teams in the tournament in the finals in ASU.

No one is going to take out WKU for UNT this year. That task will be up to the Mean Green, which is looking at facing WKU a round earlier than it would have if it had lost to UNO.

Last year showed that later is better when it comes to taking on the best teams in a conference tournament because there is always the chance of an early upset. ASU also looks more dangerous than FIU in the first round.

You have to win them all any way. The path just seems like it will be a little tougher now.

Feel free to post your thoughts on UNT’s draw on the blog.

CMJ · March 4, 2008

I wonder if Vito has been reading CBL's and my posts on the subject. :lol: Sure, it retrospect we might've been better off losing. However, have a 2 game skid going into the tournament is not ideal. Nor is having UNO continue the streak on us.

Edited March 4, 2008 by CMJ

chrisfisher · March 4, 2008

You can never coach a team to lose, which had JJ told them to throw the game, would have been more detrimental to our team's confidence and moral than having to play WKU a round early.... Quite frankly, if they are truly NCAA tourny bound, then it shouldn't matter what order they play the SBC games... I hope that we got the road monkey off our back, as well as super instilled confidence with the win against a UNO team we could never seem to beat over the past few years....

foutsrouts · March 4, 2008

Yeah, personally I'm glad that we have it tough right off the bat. It'll show what we're made of, and we shall see what we have to make it happen again this year. Winning close on the road (or anywhere) has been rare for us this year, and I'm hoping that we will have a little extra boost of confidence fron here on out after Saturday's road win. Let's do it!!

emmitt01 · March 4, 2008

The way I see it we only have one chance to win this tourney. We have to blow out ASU. If we are able to cruise against ASU at home then we can take a lot more confidence into Mobile. A nip/tuck game against ASU would leave our team wondering "If we were only able to beat these guys by 2,3,4 points at home then how are we gonna beat the prohibitive favorite on the road?"