University of North Texas Athletics
Mean Green Valentines Matchup In Murfreesboro
2/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (2/14/09) - Middle Tennessee and North Texas played in an overtime thriller in Denton on New Year’s Eve, and will once again battle for Sun Belt Tournament positioning at the Murphy Center on Saturday night. Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. (CST) and can be seen as apart of the ESPN Full-Court Package on DirecTV channel 721, as well as ESPN360 online.
What To Watch For
The Mean Green needs just one more win in the regular season’s final five games to secure a .500 record for a fifth consecutive season. That would make this era the most successful stretch of North Texas basketball in over 75 years, dating back to when the teams posted winning records from 1917-1931.
Eric Tramiel just narrowly missed another double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds against New Orleans on Thursday. As a matter of fact, the junior has been 1-2 plays shy of a double-double on seven occasions this season.
If the Sun Belt Tournament were to start today, North Texas would earn the fifth seed and would host No. 12 New Orleans at the Super Pit on March 4. Middle Tennessee is currently the fourth seed, just one game up on NT.
Mean Green head coach Johnny Jones snagged his 120th win at North Texas, inching him that much closer to Bill Blakeley for second place in school history. Blakeley won 134 games in eight season at NT. Jones and Blakeley, along with Pete Shands, are the only coaches in the program’s history to reach 100 wins at the school. Only Blakeley reached the mark faster than Jones, who eclipsed the mark last year.
Middle Tennessee leads the overall series with North Texas 6-4, including a perfect 4-0 mark in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Blue Raiders have won the last two meetings, as well as four of the last six. The two opponents never met until the Mean Green joined the Sun Belt for the 2000-01 season. NT knocked off MTSU in the semifinals of the 2007 Sun Belt Conference Tournament en route to their first SBC title.
