University of North Texas Athletics
Green Gang: No. 28 Won't Be Easy
4/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Return to Play
By Steven Bartolotta, April 25, 2010, 6:06 a.m.
The road to respectability has been a long one for the North Texas men's golf team, but starting tomorrow morning the journey towards respect could end as the Mean Green begin their quest for the 28th conference title in school history at the SBC Championship. It won't be easy.
I've been kind of a junkie this year when it comes to the rankings as North Texas slowly climbed up from around 120, to 90, then to the peak of 69 a few weeks ago. A hiccup, hopefully, at Ohio State dropped the Mean Green down to 76 heading into the championship this week.
The favorite going in is Middle Tennessee. They are 39th in the nation and are the defending champion. That didn't fazed North Texas this year when facing the Blue Raiders a month ago at the Rio Pinar Intercollegiate. Playing its sixth round in five days, the Mean Green knocked off MTSU by 10 strokes.
Just one tournament, but a good sign. To be fair the Blue Raiders thumped the Mean Green back in October by 32 strokes at La Tech, but that was a totally different team for Brad Stracke, no Rodolfo Cazaubon or Carlos Ortiz in that event.
Those two have been the catalyst for the resurrection of the program. Just freshman, but two pair has been remarkably steady and good, real good in the spring. Cazaubon has finishes of 12, 28, 20, 20, 5, 22, and 21st. Ortiz, just as good with finishes of 12, 16, 11, 59, 7, 8, 9, and 17. The 59th place finish came at the Border Olympics but of the eight tournaments he's played in the spring, he finished in the top 10 three times, the top 15 five times, and the top 20 seven times.
With senior's Dustin Thompson and Peter Fallon helping as well, the Mean Green this spring captured its first tournament title in five seasons. Along the way North Texas just about manhandled most of the Sun Belt competition it ran into in these tournaments.
The title isn't going to be a two-team race though, more like four or five. After Middle Tennessee, the teams with a realistic chance of winning are North Texas, New Orleans, and Florida Atlantic, and possibly Troy.
New Orleans is ranked 71st you know they would love to win the championship in their final rounds of golf as a member of the Sun Belt. Middle has no interest in surrendering a conference crown despite a guaranteed regional bid in their hip pocket. North Texas is going to have to take it.
Stracke has managed to pull this golf program outta the ditch and on the road to respectability. Until you conquer your conference foes however, the road to respectability will take a little while longer to find.
