University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Tangles With The Razorbacks At Alltel
1/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (1/03/09) - Looking to break a rare three-game skid, the Mean Green faces one of the country’s hottest squads in the Arkansas Razorbacks. The game is being shown on ESPN-360, and can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network.
Winners of their last eight, Arkansas holds a 12-0 edge all-time over North Texas, but NT will be facing a familiar foe in former South Alabama head coach John Pelphrey.
What To Watch For
Add another name to the North Texas "Super Sophomores" lineup. Collin Mangrum sat out the 2007-08 season to recover from five offseason surgeries, but exploded for 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 5-of-9 from deep, in just his third game back. Entering Wednesday’s game Mangrum had scored just 34 total points in his career before scorching Middle Tennessee.
Josh White didn’t miss a free throw in the month of December - a span of 24 makes over seven games. As a matter of fact, the reigning Sun Belt Freshman of the Year has missed just four from the stripe all season long. White leads the Sun Belt and ranks third in the country with a 92.6 percent clip.
Arkansas leads the overall series 12-0, but this will be just the second meeting of the Johnny Jones era. The only other meeting was five years ago to this date, and saw an 8-3 Razorbacks squad knock off the Mean Green 96-61 at Bud Walton Arena.
Wednesday’s game was the 250th of head coach Johnny Jones’ career, which has spanned nine seasons at North Texas and Memphis. Jones has managed a record of 129-121, and has made the Mean Green into a perrineal winner. NT has won 20 games in each of the last two seasons, and went to the NCAA Tournament in 2007 after winning its first Sun Belt title.
Despite the losses, North Texas has kept the turnovers to a minimum in its last three outings. The Mean Green is averaging just 10.3 turnovers in that span, down from 14.7 per game over the first 10 games of the season.
