University of North Texas Athletics
NT Facing Former SBC Foe, UNO, Tuesday
12/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
North Texas (6-6) vs. New Orleans (9-4)
Denton, Texas • The Super Pit (10,500)
Dec. 27, 2011 • 7:00 p.m. CST
Radio: 88.1 KNTU-FM, 100.7 KWRD-FM
• George Dunham, Hank Dickenson
TV: NTTV (Denton Charter 22, Verizon 42)
Live Stats & Webcast: Meangreensports.com
Series: UNO leads 14-9 • Last: NT 68-46 @ UNO (2/11/10)
Game Notes
DENTON, Texas – With the Christmas holiday in the rear view mirror, the North Texas basketball team welcomes its former Sun Belt Conference mate, New Orleans, to the Super Pit. Tip off from Denton is slated for 7 p.m. and pregame begins on KNTU 88.1-FM and KWRD 100.7-FM at 6:30 p.m.
Quick Hitters
• NT is 15-4 (78.9 percent) at the Super Pit against teams from the state of Louisiana since 2006-07.
• Former UNO standout Bo McCalebb became Sun Belt’s career scoring leader at the Super Pit on Jan. 17, 2008 with a 23-point outing (2,679 career points) against NT.
• NT is 33-11 (75.0 percent) in the month of December since the 2006-07 season.
• North Texas is 38-1 (97.4 percent) since 2009-10 when leading at the half.
• Last week’s loss to LSU snapped North Texas’ 17-game non-conference home court win streak. The Mean Green is still 58-8 in home non-con action under Johnny Jones, including wins in 33 of its last 35 tries. As a matter of fact, NT has never lost more than one non-conference home game in Jones’ tenure.
• North Texas has an opportunity to wrap up non-conference play with seven wins under its belt - a feat topped only eight times in the last 30 seasons of Mean Green basketball. A program with lofty expectations, NT has at least seven non-conference wins in each of the last seven years.
• Tony Mitchell’s highly anticipated debut has lived up to the hype through three games. The Rivals.com No. 2 ranked forward of 2010 poured in the first debut double-double of the Johnny Jones era against Jackson State, and has followed it with double-figure scoring in each of the next two games. Mitchell is already tied for second on the team with five blocks, and his dunk total is up to seven.
• New Orleans leads the overall series with the Mean Green 14-9 thanks to a 10-year rivalry in the Sun Belt Conference, which the Privateers left following the 2009-10 season. UNO won its first seven SBC matchups with the Mean Green, and still owns a 7-4 record against NT at the Super Pit. This will be the two programs’ first meeting since UNO left the SBC.
• Since the Mean Green last faced the Privateers in the spring of 2010 a lot has happened with the University of New Orleans. The Privateers changed university systems (from LSU to the University of Louisiana system) and have begun the transition to NCAA Division II athletics. A unique situation this year, New Orleans will be a Division I schedule counter, but will not count towards North Texas’ RPI.
• UNO is off to a 9-4 start thanks to the shooting of Lovell Cook - the reigning Louisiana Sports Writers Association Player of the Week - and Antonio Wertz. Averaging 13.3 and 12.5 points per game, respectively, Cook is shooting 50.7 percent from the floor, while Wertz is leading the Privateers with 53.7 percent shooting.
