University of North Texas Athletics
Division Showdown Saturday Versus Denver
1/20/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
North Texas (11-8, 4-2 SBC) vs Denver (15-4, 5-1 SBC)
Denton, Texas • The Super Pit (10,500)
Jan. 21, 2012 • 7:00 p.m. CST
Radio: 88.1 KNTU-FM, 100.7 KWRD-FM • George Dunham, Hank Dickenson
TV: None
Live Stats & Webcast: meangreensports.com
Series: NT leads 13-10 • Last: NT won 63-61 (2/26/11)
Game Notes
DENTON, Texas – North Texas isn’t even halfway through this season’s Sun Belt Conference slate, but Saturday’s showdown with Denver at the Super Pit might go a long way in deciding this year’s West Division champion.
The Pioneers (15-4, 5-1 Sun Belt West) are a single game up on the Mean Green (11-8, 4-2 Sun Belt West) for the division lead, and feature a potent version of the Princeton Offense led by a handful of Lone Star state standouts.
Brothers Chase and Travis Hallam hail from Mesquite, Texas, and Chris Udofia attended Dallas’ Jesuit High School while growing up in Irving, Texas. Royce O’Neale went to Harker Heights High in Killen, Texas.
North Texas has won six of the last seven meetings with Denver, and leads the overall series 13-10. In the Johnny Jones era (2001-02 to present), the Mean Green is 12-8 overall against the Pioneers and 9-1 in the Super Pit.
NT has dominated the Pioneers at the Super Pit. NT is 10-2 at home against Denver, including wins in each of the last eight meetings. The last DU win in Denton came on Jan. 11, 2003 (59-55). North Texas even overcame a school-record tying 24 point deficit to top Denver, 69-62, on Jan. 15, 2009.
Tony Mitchell was named the Sun Belt’s Player of the Week for a second straight week. He becomes the 11th player in the league’s history to earn the honor in back-to-back weeks, and the first since Brandon Hazzard of Troy in 2008-09. The freshman poured in 21 points and 13 rebounds in a win over Western Kentucky and followed it with 15 points and nine boards in a win at ULM. The league’s shooting percentage leader was 13-of-19 (68.4) from the floor and 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from beyond the arc for the week.
Udofia and Mitchell, who both played high school ball in Dallas, play similar roles for their teams as high scoring, rebounding and shot-blocking paint players. Mitchell and Udofia average 15.2 and 15.0 points per Sun Belt game, which ranks 5th and 6th in the league. Both players also rank in the top 10 in rebounding, field goal percentage and blocks.
Despite polar opposite offensive philosophies, the Pioneers and the Mean Green rank first and second in the Sun Belt in field goal percentage through six league games. DU, which runs the Princeton offense, leads the SBC with a 48.8 percent mark. The up-tempo Mean Green aren’t far behind with a 47.0 clip from the field.
