Rivals Top 347 Countdown

[NT03]

RIVALS

251-300

344-Houston Baptist

340-Texas Southern

283-FAU

271-New Orleans

260-ULM

Edited September 13, 2009 by NT03

[Censored by Laurie]

Double Digits

[NT03]

151-200

153 - DENVER

169 - JACKSON ST

187 - ARK ST

197 - UALR

[Censored by Laurie]

/starts to back-off of earlier prediction

//hatred for Rivals growing...

[CMJ]

I'm thinking 121 or so?

[NT03]

108-118

[Mad Hatter]

North Texas checks in at #103. Hey - that's top 30%.

[Censored by Laurie]

1.

2.

3. North Texas (103)

4. Middle Tennessee State (142)

5. Denver (153)

6. Arkansas State (187)

7. UA-Little Rock (197)

8. UL-Lafayette (201)

9. South Alabama (220)

10. Florida International (225)

11. UL-Monroe (260)

12. New Orleans (271)

13. Florida Atlantic (283)

I guess they've got Troy 2 and Western Kentucky 1...I want to think we're better than Troy, but we may want to prove it on the court.

Other than that, not bad...I think Denver will be better than MTSU

[ColoradoEagle]

I don't buy Troy being a better team than NT, but it's just an article to pass the time before the season is here. I do remember when we would have been ranked a lot closer to 347, though.

[DeepGreen]

Like Vito said in his blog today, UNT has a legit shot at the SBC title. Especially now that Western Kentucky's Orlando Mendez-Valdez is gone. What was he, a 7 year senior? I hated that guy! But man could he play basketball.

Edited September 15, 2009 by DeepGreen

[NT80]

#103 is impressive; but I'd like to see at least a Top 200 team visit the SuperPit.

[ColoradoEagle]

Troy at #82 and WKU at #52. Yeah, no.

[NT03]

Troy at #82 and WKU at #52. Yeah, no.

WKU is about right , maybe even a little higher

Troy id say is a bit too high for me , high 90s- low 100s for me

[ColoradoEagle]

I don't see WKU finishing that high without Mendez-Valdez. Troy is just straight up wrong, imo. Troy didn't even make it to the semifinals last year (which NT did, obviously). I could see them being ranked closely with NT, but I still think they rank below us due to the end of last year and that we're returning 4 of 5 top scorers.

In other words, there's nothing to indicate that all of the sudden Troy should be ranked 21 spots ahead of us when last year they failed to make it as far in the SBC tourney as NT and finished with a worse record.

Edited September 17, 2009 by ColoradoEagle

[Censored by Laurie]

I don't see WKU finishing that high without Mendez-Valdez. Troy is just straight up wrong, imo. Troy didn't even make it to the semifinals last year (which NT did, obviously). I could see them being ranked closely with NT, but I still think they rank below us due to the end of last year and that we're returning 4 of 5 top scorers.

In other words, there's nothing to indicate that all of the sudden Troy should be ranked 21 spots ahead of us when last year they failed to make it as far in the SBC tourney as NT and finished with a worse record.

Probably the same thing you were saying last season when Western Kentucky lost Courtney Lee and Tyrone Brazelton...

As for Troy I've already said I think we're better, but its something we have to prove. They finished 3 games ahead of us in conference, went to a post-season tourney and they return 1st team, 2nd team and 3rd team all conferene selections (all deserving) so I would say on paper Troy looks better than UNT.

I think we should be ranked higher, but lets not sell short what our conference mates have accomplished.

[utamav91]

methinks Denver, with the young talent they have, might be 120-100 by the end of the season. They really slowed us down last year when we played them.

[LoveMG]

methinks Denver, with the young talent they have, might be 120-100 by the end of the season. They really slowed us down last year when we played them.

how will uta be this year?

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

If the ratings turn out to be true then we should win as many as 24 games this year but two won't count in the RPI. Cameron and University of the Southwest are Division II and NAIA respectively. Only Oklahoma State and Texas A&M appear to be sure losses. WKU and Troy are also likely, especially since we play them away.

There are no OOC games of real interest for the Super Pit. UTA will be played on the stage again as the new Events Center won't be finished until 2012. They have a pre-season ranking of 228 which is in pretty much the middle of the Southland. If we are truly 103, we should beat them, even at their place. All to often, we find a way to lose against them (or they find a way to win).

[utamav91]

Hate to say it, but I think just mediocre for the Mavs this year. We've got a fairly soft pre-conference schedule (big games are Michigan State (wow), Baylor, North Texas), and the rest are a bunch of mid to low majors and non-div. I schools (E. Washington, Utah Valley State, Houston Baptist, Dallas Baptist, etc.). Without big man Vereen in the post, our interior game is young and inexperienced. Most of the guys that went to the NCAA tourney are pretty much graduated by now. Not a ton of size once you get beyond our 3 big centers, so rebounding may be a question. Speed and athleticism will determine how we do. Guards are gonna have to hit their 3s to keep the Mavs in ballgames. We've got like 6 freshmen on the team, so it'll take 5-10 games to see who earns playing time. Marquez Haynes, our big-time transfer from Boston College (top 150 out of high school), will score 40 at least once this year. I think the new arena is definitely helping us sign better talent overall, but it'll be interesting to see how this class gels and improves over the season. Even playing on the stage where we never lose, this might be the year UNT wins one. But next year's recruiting class looks like one of our best ever (verbal from a big-time guard out of Houston, a 7-footer from San Antonio).

Edited September 20, 2009 by utamav91

[untwillrise]

This is the year we finaly beat UTA! Us and WKU are going to be the cream of the crop in the Belt this year. We lost two good players in Dennis and McCoy but they seemed to be more of distractions then leaders. Ive seen the two new juco gaurds play and they are bigger and one is going to be our lock down defender while the other will get a lot of off the ball deflections. And oh ya we got three 6'8" players who didnt play last year on a 20 win team. If we can not have the usual let downs during Christmas break and on the road in confrence this will be a special year.

[NT03]

Only Oklahoma State and Texas A&M appear to be sure losses.

Not guaranteeing victory , but..