What if?

[Shark84]

This basketball season was such a major disappointment. Like everyone else, I was crushed when Johnny decided to go to LSU. It seemed like Tony would be gone for sure and I heard rumors that Jordan and Chris might seek a transfer as well. Then Benford was hired and it seemed like the season was back on. I didn't know who Benford was but all college hoop publications seemed to think he was one of the top young coaching prospects and recruiters in the country, and when he got Coach Evans to join him, I thought we were set for a historic season. Based solely on this year, the Benford hire was a complete failure. Let's play the "what if" game that so many on this board love to play. What if we had hired Shawn DeForrest, like some called for, or Danny Kasper from SFA, or the UTA coach? What would our record have been? It couldn't have been worse, but would we have been a top 25 team? Made the deep run in the NCAA that everyone expected out of the "greatest" team in UNT history. Remembering that this needs to happen with Walton missing the whole season, losing Holman to concussions, Chris for most of the year with a broken foot, and Patton to knee problems. Would another coach have been able to get Overlander to shoot better? Benford's first year was a disaster but even if we had made a better hire, I don't see how this team would have been able to reach the high goals we set. It just wasn't going to happen. Sometimes it ain't easy being green!

[UNTstormchaser]

If one is to truly play the "what if" game, those injuries wouldn't be included. Had we hired someone else, none of those injuries would have happened, and different ones may (would) have.

Regardless...in retrospect, any choice would have been better than Benford. Even with the freak Walton injury early on, there was NO excuse for our horrid start, and the injuries didn't start piling up until it was far too late to use them as an excuse for the poor season.

Deep tourney run though? Nope. I think we all completely underestimated just how much the hype would effect the team, as well as the amount of luck that went into our run last season. The team was clearly not nearly as talented as we thought, and when you combine that with the inflation of the team's collective ego rivaling that of the inflation of the dollar, it was a recipe for disappointment from the beginning.

That being said, I will not go to another UNT basketball game while Benford is the head coach. I went to EVERY home game excluding the few I missed during winter break during the 2011-2012 season. I went to one this year, the Cameron game. And I live in the basketball team's dorm literally 200 feet from the Super Pit. Sorry, I'm not going to take two hours out of my day to sit there miserably watching a miserable excuse for a basketball team. I'll do that for football if the time comes. But not for basketball.

[Mean Green Matt]

Those other coaches may have had to endure the same injuries, but I doubt they would have looked completely lost on the sidelines for the entire season like our multiple suit wearing leader.

[UNT90]

If one is to truly play the "what if" game, those injuries wouldn't be included. Had we hired someone else, none of those injuries would have happened, and different ones may (would) have.

Regardless...in retrospect, any choice would have been better than Benford. Even with the freak Walton injury early on, there was NO excuse for our horrid start, and the injuries didn't start piling up until it was far too late to use them as an excuse for the poor season.

Deep tourney run though? Nope. I think we all completely underestimated just how much the hype would effect the team, as well as the amount of luck that went into our run last season. The team was clearly not nearly as talented as we thought, and when you combine that with the inflation of the team's collective ego rivaling that of the inflation of the dollar, it was a recipe for disappointment from the beginning.

That being said, I will not go to another UNT basketball game while Benford is the head coach. I went to EVERY home game excluding the few I missed during winter break during the 2011-2012 season. I went to one this year, the Cameron game. And I live in the basketball team's dorm literally 200 feet from the Super Pit. Sorry, I'm not going to take two hours out of my day to sit there miserably watching a miserable excuse for a basketball team. I'll do that for football if the time comes. But not for basketball.

Another post that conveniently ignores the fact that we lost to a D2 school with only Walton out. Played like crap with only Walton out early in the season, losing by double digits to an ordinary UTA and LaLa at home.

Spin in full force.