Embarassed At Ea Diddle

greeninok · February 13, 2011

This game pretty much summed up the disappointment the conference season has been. I don't know what has happened but we are playing the worst we have played in at least 5 years. This team needs someone to step up and become a leader very quickly. Josh White played very bad today, we played with no agression and got his pocket picked a couple of times in the 1st half. He played better as a freshman than he is playing right now. A guy that has scored more than 1500 points in his career needs to be taking more than 7 shots in the game. I don't want to pick on him but he is a senior point guard and should be the leader of the club.

Our defense was absolutely horrible today. We have been giving up way too many points, its like we can't stop anyone on the road. The alley oop backwards dunk given up right before the half was terrible, no one within 10ft of Patillo. Any chance we had of coming back was sunk after Tristan missed his 3rd and 4th ft of the 1st half and the desperation 3pt shot rattled in at the buzzer of the half, you could see it in JJ's face at the beginning of the 2nd half. After fighting back to get the lead to 2 after a horrid start, we give up 12 straight pts in the last 2 min of the 1st half.

Shannon Shorter has been pretty much nonexistant lately, he is definitely not playing near as well as he did last year. Odufuwa got in early foul trouble again and couldn't contribute in the 1st half and had a terrible offensive game. Tristan Thompson, hit some good shots but went 1-6 from the line. Domo really didnt contribute much at all today, he is usually good for a couple of big shots but that didnt happen today.

On to the 2 guys I thought played fairly well. Kedrick Hogans played hard and had a good game. He has played better this year than I had expected, without him he would have no other big guy besides Odufuwa to consistently contribute. Jacob Holmen also played well today, I think it is a good sign to see him playing better this year, because early in the year I thought he looked horrible an might not be asked back next year.

My next topic is Alonzo Edwards. Is he still hurt?? He has been a total fail so far as a juco transfer, the only thing he has done this year consistently, is foul. No offense to Ben Knox, but he can't even take his minutes away. And if he can't get his knee right, JJ needs to let him finish his career somewhere else.

I see people saying this team has quit on JJ, you can say that, but if they are quitting on anyone, it is themselves. JJ is going to be back next year and most of the guys playing are not, they are the ones that are going to look back one day regret how they are finishing their basketball careers. I also saw someone say we burnt ourselves in non conference play, if that is so than we weren't very good from the start of the season, our SOS was in the 200s and the teams we beat are not very good. The 2 bcs schools we beat both suck, we have beaten 2 teams with a winning record this year, Jackson St and Texas Southern of the SWAC, which is the worst conference in the nation. So if you look at the body of work we were so excited about earlier in the year, it really wasnt too much to be excited about. Bottom line is we under .500 in the 24th ranked league in the country which equals NOT VERY GOOD. My opinion is that our team has never recovered since JJ benched Tristan, since then we have been playing like we did today.

There is also a lot of talk of us still having a chance to get a bye in the tournament, I just want us to win another game first. Best case scenario would be that we win 4 of 5 going into the league tournament to give ourselves a little confidence going to Hot Springs. But but bottom line this season is a disappointment and was going to be a disappointment if we didnt make the NCAA tournament. Even though we have no shot now, I saw people talking NIT earlier this year, but NIT means Not Important Tournament.

Overall the things that really hurt us is our defense sucks, if we aren't hitting outside shots we are in trouble and we aren't athletic enough down low and have no depth. The best thing that has happened to this program in the 2011 calendar year is Tony Mitchell enrolling and there is no guarantee he will ever play for us.

UNT Mean Green · February 13, 2011

We have not played well since the long December layoff. Period.

CMJ · February 13, 2011

Dominique did make it to double figures. I thought he played decent enough - at least in comparison to some of the guys.

I don't feel Josh has to score to be effective, so I don't agree he needs to take more than 7 shots. Some of the best games of his career (IMHO) were in his sophomore year where he didn't score much because of his injured hand. Nonetheless, I do agree he was not up to snuff today. Both he and DJ had issues against WKU's guards.

Otherwise I pretty much agree with you on the team.

However, I think it's ridiculous to slam the National Invitation Tournament. There are 340 teams in D1 basketball or so. That means only 1 of 5 makes the Big Dance. It's still pretty big for schools (especially schools outside the power 6 leagues) to make the NIT.

greeninok · February 13, 2011

I just dont think we should be satisfied with the NIT, to get to the program we want to be, the NIT isnt good enough. I want to get to the point of being like Butler and Gonzaga, not if we are going to the tournament, but how deep are we going to get?

CMJ · February 13, 2011

I just dont think we should be satisfied with the NIT, to get to the program we want to be, the NIT isnt good enough. I want to get to the point of being like Butler and Gonzaga, not if we are going to the tournament, but how deep are we going to get?

It took Butler and Gongaga years to get where they are. As in decades.

We're still relatively early in the "trying to make NT relevant" phase. Any postseason appearance where we don't have to pay to play (like you do in the CBI or CIT) is good.

Edited February 13, 2011 by CMJ

NT03 · February 13, 2011

For a program like ours playing in the NIT would be a honor , but that's just me.

greeninok · February 13, 2011

What are your opinions on Alonzo Edwards? A failed experiment as I pointed out earlier?

CMJ · February 13, 2011

Too early to say failed for me (it's hard for me to label anyone that). But the returns sure look that way.

Edited February 13, 2011 by CMJ

TheTastyGreek · February 13, 2011

When your conference is struggling so bad that the regular season is basically irrelevant for your chances at making the NCAA tournament, getting an NIT berth is very significant.

Even for very good teams that far outpace the rest of their conference, tournament basketball is very much a crapshoot and a cold night or unfavorable officiating can end your NCAA hopes.

Making the NIT means you were the best team in your league during the long slog of the regular season. That means something. And considering we've never made it to the NIT, I wouldn't exactly go turning up my nose at the opportunity to play in it.

Not that it's relevant to us this year, unfortunately.

Lurker · February 13, 2011

And just to add insult to injury, channel 11 showed the supposed highlights of this game - even before TCUs.

Andrew · February 13, 2011

And just to add insult to injury, channel 11 showed the supposed highlights of this game - even before TCUs.

Yea, no news station ever covers us when we win... they only cover our losses and then dispose of our wins. I cannot stand Dale Hanson! "What is North Texas?".... what a joke for being a "local sports caster"

untjim1995 · February 14, 2011

And just to add insult to injury, channel 11 showed the supposed highlights of this game - even before TCUs.

This is what all those complaint emails to the sports stations do in this town.

UNTFan23 · February 14, 2011

This is what all those complaint emails to the sports stations do in this town.

I think positive reenforcement is the only way to go. If a station covers one of our games, we need to email the station and thank them for the (positive) coverage. If it is negative, ignore them. If they get flooded with thank you emails, they'll have a good idea of just how many people are watching for North Texas coverage.

filmerj · February 14, 2011

Yea, no news station ever covers us when we win... they only cover our losses and then dispose of our wins. I cannot stand Dale Hanson! "What is North Texas?".... what a joke for being a "local sports caster"

Or it could just be that they were able to pull hi-lights because this game was actually televised, still sad none the less.

Edited February 14, 2011 by filmerj