University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: The Matchup With K-State
3/14/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, March 14, 2010, 8:22 p.m.
So the matchup is set, it's Willie the Wildcat vs. Scrappy in the opening round of the NCAA Tourney. From a location standpoint in Oklahoma City, it doesn't get any better for North Texas. From a pure basketball matchup, it probably doesn't get any tougher than Kansas State. Of all the No. 2 seeds in the tourney, K-State is as good as all if not better than the rest.
For North Texas to pull the shocker, all systems have to be go on Thursday. Three of the seven losses by the Wildcats were the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Kansas.
The other four were to Ole Miss, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Iowa State. The OT loss to the Cyclones makes you go hmmmmm, but not the rest. This is a team that won 19 of its 26 games by 10 points or more. Like North Texas, they have four players averaging in double figures.
Their backcourt tantum of Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen is stout. Their low-post game is just a strong with Curtis Kelly and Dominique Sutton.
No doubt the low-post will be a war with Odufuwa and Tramiel for the Mean Green, but this game will be won or lost I think by the guards.
In March and the NCAA Tournament, stop me if you've heard this before, but guard play wins tournament games. Period, that's the bottom line.
The North Texas backcourt is playing as well as it has been all year with Tristan Thompson and Josh White. Need I remind anyone about the last 30 seconds in Hot Springs, or the game against ULM when Thompson hit a money-ball 3-pointer to give North Texas the lead.
The key matchup for the Mean Green against the Wildcats is going to be the guards. In the seven losses for Kansas State, Pullen and Clemente shot a combined 27 percent (32-116), well below their season averages of 38 and 33 percent between the two.
Kansas State presents matchup problems across the board for every team in the country, but for North Texas the key is to zero in on horses that K-State rode to the party, and that's Pullen and Clemente.
