North Texas Has Raised The Bar

[UNTflyer]

Merely making the NCAA tournament shouldn't be the goal for UNT anymore.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- After taking a job not many coaches wanted, Johnny Jones vowed to win championships at North Texas.

Nine years later, he has delivered on his bold promise, claiming a pair of Sun Belt championship trophies in the current streak of four consecutive 20-win seasons.

That's a remarkable accomplishment for a program that had won a grand total of 20 games in the four seasons before Jones' arrival in Denton. In the process, he has raised the bar.

UNT proved that punching its ticket to the 2007 NCAA tournament was no fluke. It returned a few years later, meaning the Mean Green have been to the Big Dance more under Jones than under every other coach in school history combined.

It's now time for North Texas to take the next step.

And it's a big step, as evidenced by Kansas State's 82-62 win over UNT in a West Region first-round game Thursday at the Ford Center.

Just like in their last tournament appearance under Jones, the Mean Green were a No. 15 seed that lost by double digits. Unlike in the 2007 loss to Memphis, UNT didn't have a chance to win this game midway through the second half. Big 12 bully Kansas State was simply too big, too fast and too deep for a Sun Belt squad that shot 31 percent from the floor and had its two interior players hit with foul trouble.

But there's no reason to believe the Mean Green can't position themselves to put on a glass slipper in years to come. Exhibit A: Sun Belt rival Western Kentucky won three NCAA tournament games in the previous two seasons.

Athletic director Rick Villarreal and Jones, who recently agreed to a five-year contract extension, preach the importance of continuity for a program that clearly has established itself as the Metroplex's elite.

(Memo to SMU and TCU: If you don't think that's true, agree to a home-and-home series with UNT. More on scheduling in a moment.)

Power forward Eric Tramiel was UNT's only senior scholarship player, meaning the Mean Green's core will return basically intact. Forward Kedrick Hogans and point guard Dominique Johnson will return after injury-induced redshirt seasons, adding experienced depth. Center/power forward Alonzo Edwards, a transfer from Nebraska via junior college, has orally committed to replace Tramiel as George Odufuwa's partner in the paint. UNT hopes to sign a dynamic guard with its remaining scholarship, with doors opening for UNT a lot more often in recruiting lately than they had in previous years.

"When you look at our program nine years ago, we didn't have the players to get through the first round of [the Sun Belt] tournament," Villarreal said. "Now we've made it to the NCAA tournament. That tells the kids … 'I can go to North Texas and play at a high level. I can be the piece that takes them the next step.'"

So what else can UNT do to increase its odds of moving on in March Madness? Start with the schedule, a somewhat sensitive subject for Jones.

Let's be blunt: There's no reason to book hotel rooms through the weekend if you're following a 15-seed. There have been only four 15-over-2 upsets in NCAA history. If it doesn't happen this season, there will have been 100 15-seeds that were first-round losers.

The Mean Green must schedule with NCAA seeding in mind. It's all about RPI and strength of schedule for the mid-majors. Here's how the Mean Green ranked in those categories this season: 104 and 272. Western Kentucky, with strength of schedule rankings that were triple digits better, landed at 59 and 41 in the RPI the previous two seasons. That allowed the Hilltoppers to earn 12-seeds, putting them in position for opening weekend success.

"We are now at a point that we've got a veteran team," Villarreal said. "You do have to schedule to test ourselves a little more."

Jones counters that he considers road games against Texas A&M and Oklahoma State, which the Mean Green played this season, to be pretty challenging. UNT's schedule next season includes a trip to LSU and a home game against Texas Tech.

"You can't just expect to go out there and play a brutal schedule, raising money," Jones said. "They don't only expect you to play that schedule; they expect you to win that schedule, as well. We need a certain type of balance in our schedule."

He's absolutely right. Making the nonconference schedule a fundraiser almost killed the program under previous coach Vic Trilli. But balance shouldn't mean scheduling a gimme win for every guaranteed paycheck game.

It's time for UNT to think like a mid-major power, which means scheduling to prepare itself for March Madness, from a competitive standpoint and in terms of putting together a résumé that will impress the selection committee.

That means a mix of major conference foes and respectable mid-majors in the nonconference schedule. Call Sam Houston State, the Southland Conference champion that scared Baylor in the first round. Maybe Murray State, which pulled off an upset over Vanderbilt, is another possibility, given that the athletic director there is a former UNT staffer who still has a lot of friends in Denton. How about Houston? UTEP?

Or UNT can keep the current balance in its schedule and accept another 15-seed when it wins the Sun Belt tournament, which is certainly a strong possibility next season.

The UNT program already has far exceeded expectations under Jones. It's just not as good as it can be yet.

Tim MacMahon covers colleges for ESPN Dallas.

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/ncb/columns/story?columnist=macmahon_tim&id=5007539

[CMJ]

We did play San Houston State...twice last season. But yeah, scheduling is something that can be improved. The problem is we never know exactly how good teams will be. We schedule Indiana State for acouple of seasons and they were lousy. If they were on the season this year, that woulda been a decent win.

[Green P1]

Other than realizing that we do schedule SAMU.... that was a damn fine article.

[gruu]

I agree that we should play SMU and TCU every year, but would that not hurt out SOS?

[UNTflyer]

I agree that we should play SMU and TCU every year, but would that not hurt out SOS?

He was making the point that UNT is the best basketball in the Metroplex and if SMU/TCU has a beef with that claim, they should schedule us.

[gruu]

He was making the point that UNT is the best basketball in the Metroplex and if SMU/TCU has a beef with that claim, they should schedule us.

Lol... very very well understood...

[CMJ]

UTA hurts our SOS, but we need to keep that series.

[BleedGreenRamBO]

UTA hurts our SOS, but we need to keep that series.

Agreed, but it would be nice to throw in SMU and TCU, just for good rivalry games.

[gruu]

I think we should play UTA, SMU, and TCU once or more every year.

[GrandGreen]

Hindsight is always great. Scheduling teams from lower rated conferences based on who is going to be good might prove to be more than a little bit tricky. Was not Southeastern Louisiana the pre-season Southland favorite? I think it is a very good article and NT should schedule a more challenging oc slate next year because they should be a team that can handle bigger challenges. However, with the way that NT started this year, I doubt that scheduling more top 100 teams would have helped. NT has to win some of these games to benefit, a higher SOS with more loses would accomplish nothing positive. The problem this year was not the oc schedule anyway, it was loses in the Belt that killed NT's rpi. Only the Boise State scheduling fiasco hurt NT in the oc.

[NM Green]

I'm very encouraged about the future. K-State was a beast that dismantled UNLV this year in Las Vegas worse than what I saw them do to us today. They are a top 10 team for a reason. This article is right on the money with trying to move up the chain. We could work for years to get up to an 8 seed and still lose like the Rebels did today. So we need to schedule decent/good teams like Baylor, Houston, UTEP, any of the top MWC 4. Let's get NMSU on the schedule again, Gonzaga, St. Mary's...

Congrats Mean Green team and fans! Great year ahead!!!

GMG

[Censored by Laurie]

Aside from Cameron, Tech, LSU, Rice and UTA do we know who else may make the OOC?

JJ Template for OOC from here on out:

2-3 - Big 12

1-2 - SEC

2-3 - Southland

1-2 - Missouri Valley

1 - WAC

1 - Bracket-Buster type game...Murray State, Siena, ect.

1 - Either D2, NAIA or SWAC team has home opener.

1 - road game with 5 hour drive of New Haven, CT

[CMJ]

Aside from Cameron, Tech, LSU, Rice and UTA do we know who else may make the OOC?

JJ Template for OOC from here on out:

2-3 - Big 12

1-2 - SEC

2-3 - Southland

1-2 - Missouri Valley

1 - WAC

1 - Bracket-Buster type game...Murray State, Siena, ect.

1 - Either D2, NAIA or SWAC team has home opener.

1 - road game with 5 hour drive of New Haven, CT

What about 1 versus a southern California school D1. There's about 15 to choose from.

Edited March 19, 2010 by CMJ

[ColoradoEagle]

Aside from Cameron, Tech, LSU, Rice and UTA do we know who else may make the OOC?

JJ Template for OOC from here on out:

2-3 - Big 12

1-2 - SEC

2-3 - Southland

1-2 - Missouri Valley

1 - WAC

1 - Bracket-Buster type game...Murray State, Siena, ect.

1 - Either D2, NAIA or SWAC team has home opener.

1 - road game with 5 hour drive of New Haven, CT

No MWC, CUSA, or Big 10?

[Censored by Laurie]

No MWC, CUSA, or Big 10?

MWC - I'm taking travel considerations into account with this schedule...the only MWC teams within good travel distance are TCU and UNM...TCU doesn't have the program that would help and UNM may think themselves too high up the food chain for a home and home.

CUSA - maybe with a long term contract...but every effort we've made to consistently schedule CUSA teams better than Rice seems to end with us winning 2 games and then not being scheduled again (Tulsa, I'm talking to you). I'd rather play MVC teams.

Big 10 - Maybe an Indiana situation where the Big 10 team is just looking to fill out their schedule...but I'd rather fill out the schedule with Big 12 or SEC

[Got5onIt]

Very good article. The flip side, do any of these teams want to schedule NT? This team really is dangerous.

[MDH]

Very good article. The flip side, do any of these teams want to schedule NT? This team really is dangerous.

Not to be a naysayer, but I don't think that's the case . A W against us looks pretty good and comes much easier if you get us playing on the road, which would be the case of a major conference program. If we continue to play better on the road as we did this year, this could, and hopefully will change.

[Censored by Laurie]

Not to be a naysayer, but I don't think that's the case . A W against us looks pretty good and comes much easier if you get us playing on the road, which would be the case of a major conference program. If we continue to play better on the road as we did this year, this could, and hopefully will change.

With an RPI around 100? No, a win does little for team, whereas a loss could be devastating. As it stands now playing us anywhere is an all risk, little or no reward proposition.

Take Utah State or UTEP, the last 2 teams in the tourney this year...a win over UNT would not have affected seeding in the least, but a loss would've probably kicked them to the NIT.

Adding Tech and LSU will help, but our conference mates are going to have to pick it up as well before we're an attractive match-up for anyone

[ColoradoEagle]

A W against us looks pretty good and comes much easier if you get us playing on the road, which would be the case of a major conference program.

For the most part, I don't think we're scheduling single away games anymore unless we need to fill an opening. The Super Pit hasn't been too kind to OOC teams the past few years (Oklahoma State, Indiana State, Tulsa, SHSU, NMSU, etc). We might get some bottom feeders from the 'major' conferences like LSU and Texas Tech coming into Denton.

Those with something to lose, however, like Xavier, Baylor, Illinois, Memphis, Ole Miss, Miss. State, etc probably would not even do a 2-1 with us.

[TheTastyGreek]

For the most part, I don't think we're scheduling single away games anymore unless we need to fill an opening.

We're still doing anywhere from one to three per year, probably to finance the guarantees we have to pay to fill out a home schedule.

[ColoradoEagle]

We're still doing anywhere from one to three per year, probably to finance the guarantees we have to pay to fill out a home schedule.

My impression is that the only one this year was A&M. Boise State, I thought, was us having an opening that we needed to fill and they were available.

[Rudy]

Someone email the article to the local stations and newspapers as an example of a good story.