Louisiana Lafayette (1/27/11)

[untjim1995]

So in the course of a month, we go to Louisiana State of the big, bad SEC and give them their worst loss in almost 20 years, but can't even guard anyone in a loss in freaking Lafayette. It sucks for us UNT fans. But, I will say that this is what makes college basketball, as a whole, the greatest sport for competitiveness and entertainment. In football, especially college football, the upset or near-upset happens, but it is nowhere near as frequent as it is in college basketball. ULL hits shots and UNT is flat, down goes the much better team, just as it does to other top teams in the major conferences. Its how Butler, Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Cornell, etc...can make a run in the postseason even when they play the high dollar majors. Not to mention the somewhat important fact that at least we still have our chance to play our way into something. Maybe I am just being overly optimistic, but I still think we will be ok as we head into the final stretch of conference play. Don't be surprised if we go up to Denver and beat them soundly. Just sayin'.

[Censored by Laurie]

So in the course of a month, we go to Louisiana State of the big, bad SEC and give them their worst loss in almost 20 years, but can't even guard anyone in a loss in freaking Lafayette. It sucks for us UNT fans. But, I will say that this is what makes college basketball, as a whole, the greatest sport for competitiveness and entertainment. In football, especially college football, the upset or near-upset happens, but it is nowhere near as frequent as it is in college basketball. ULL hits shots and UNT is flat, down goes the much better team, just as it does to other top teams in the major conferences. Its how Butler, Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Cornell, etc...can make a run in the postseason even when they play the high dollar majors. Not to mention the somewhat important fact that at least we still have our chance to play our way into something. Maybe I am just being overly optimistic, but I still think we will be ok as we head into the final stretch of conference play. Don't be surprised if we go up to Denver and beat them soundly. Just sayin'.

This. Thank you. Everybody just needs to calm the eff down.

[Army of Dad]

As far as road games go for the remainder of the year, I want to win at least 2: @Denver & @WKU. If we can keep our home winning streak in tact (will be tough with FAU coming to town), and we can find a way to get those two road games (and I'm sure we can pick up at least one out of UALR & ASU as well), we should be OK.

Looking at this loss and the MTSU loss (which appear to be very similar), I think the issue is with the pace of the game being interrupted by fouls. If UNT controls the pace of the game, it's in the bag. If fouls continue to throw wrenches in the flow of the game, we really struggle if not lose.

Here's an extra credit assignment for Tasty/CBL/CMJ if you choose to accept: Are there specific Sun Belt referees who are known to call more fouls versus some who swallow the whistle? I would be interested to see how UNT plays when specific referees are calling the game.

As good as we normally shot FTs (except for Hogans, oh how I had hoped his year off was used to work on this) this shouldn't be an issue. Pace and flow shouldn’t matter to a team that historically shoots very well from the charity stripe. IIRC one of our early conference season visitors got a tech for saying something along the lines of 'its always a free throw shooting contest in Denton'.

[FloMoGrad]

Just another factor. If we'd have eeked out a win, by just being a little better at the FT line, everyone would still be cruising. Bump in the road, even Kansas lost at home, it happens, 4 out of 21 isn't an alarming rate, just shows we still have to show up and do the dirty work. There's no cruising to wins for this squad.

Everything we want for this season is still out in front of us.

[Mean Green Matt]

Just another factor. If we'd have eeked out a win, by just being a little better at the FT line, everyone would still be cruising. Bump in the road, even Kansas lost at home, it happens, 4 out of 21 isn't an alarming rate, just shows we still have to show up and do the dirty work. There's no cruising to wins for this squad.

Everything we want for this season is still out in front of us.

You are right...sort of. The problem with losses like these are that when the NCAA selection committee (if we make it) looks at us, they will see TERRIBLE losses to Troy, and ULL. The loss to MTSU is considerably less concerning, as they are at least doing fairly respectable. Can we still make the NCAA Tournamemt? Yes. Can we still win the western division? Yes. Can we still win the regular season championship? Yes, it really is possible if we end conference play like we did last year. Will we be any higher than a 15 seed no matter what we do from here on out? Highly Doubtful.

I can only speak for myself here, but the feeling I got from a lot of people was that this year the expectations were a little higher. Maybe something along the lines of a 13 or 14 seed in the tournament and a much better shot at winning a game. I guess on the positive side, if we do still make the NCAA tourney we are going to have a chance to knock off a top 10 team on national TV...

Go Mean Green!

[untjim1995]

You are right...sort of. The problem with losses like these are that when the NCAA selection committee (if we make it) looks at us, they will see TERRIBLE losses to Troy, and ULL. The loss to MTSU is considerably less concerning, as they are at least doing fairly respectable. Can we still make the NCAA Tournamemt? Yes. Can we still win the western division? Yes. Can we still win the regular season championship? Yes, it really is possible if we end conference play like we did last year. Will we be any higher than a 15 seed no matter what we do from here on out? Highly Doubtful.

I can only speak for myself here, but the feeling I got from a lot of people was that this year the expectations were a little higher. Maybe something along the lines of a 13 or 14 seed in the tournament and a much better shot at winning a game. I guess on the positive side, if we do still make the NCAA tourney we are going to have a chance to knock off a top 10 team on national TV...

Go Mean Green!

I have never thought a 13 seed was even plausible, and I have had my doubts on the 14 seed being even possible, unless we lost less than 5 games all season. The Sun Belt is just so bad this year that we were going to be on the down side anyway. Plus, with the new play-in game added, that adds two more teams who will vie for a 12 seed from major conferences, so that pushes all of the other conferences down a peg. At this point, just making it to the tournament would be huge again, no matter the seed, since it would be the 3rd year out of 5 to make it to the Dance as a conference champion. It would signify progression as a program that has jumped leaps and bounds over the last decade. Remember the Trilli years, anyone?

Edited January 28, 2011 by untjim1995