University of North Texas Athletics
Trip To The Dance On The Line In SBC Finals
3/6/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Sun Belt Conference Tournament Finals
No. 5 North Texas (18-13) vs No. 7 Western Kentucky (14-18)
Hot Springs, Ark. • Summit Arena (6,000)
March 6, 2012 • 6 p.m.
Radio: MGRN - 88.1 KNTU-FM, 100.7 KWRD-FM
TV: ESPN2
Webcast: ESPN3.com
Series: WKU leads 12-5 overall, 1-3 SBC Tournament
Last: NT won 84-67 on Jan. 12 in Denton
GAME NOTES
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – In what’s becoming an annual event, the North Texas basketball team has advanced to the Sun Belt Tournament finals for a third straight year, and for the fourth time in the last six seasons. A trip to the NCAA Tournament is on the line when the Mean Green and Western Kentucky tip off at 6 p.m. in front of a national television audience on ESPN2.
NT is now just the third program in Sun Belt history to advance to three straight SBC Tournament finals. North Texas won the Sun Belt title in 2010 over Troy, but fell in last year’s title game in the closing seconds to UALR. Tonight, NT will face an upstart Western Kentucky squad that entered the tournament as the No. 7 seed, but quickly proved its doubters wrong under new head coach Ray Harper.
The Hilltoppers and the Mean Green have combined to bring home four of the last five Sun Belt Conference titles. In fact, one of these two programs has played in the SBC Tournament final dating back to 2006. North Texas won Sun Belt titles in 2007 and 2010, while WKU won back-to-back championships in 2008 and 2009.
In their only meeting this year, Tony Mitchell (21 points) and Roger Franklin (20 points) led NT to an 84-67 win over WKU on Jan. 12 in Denton, but that was the first game for Harper as the WKU interim head coach.
With 68 on the year, Mitchell is just one block shy of the North Texas single season blocks record, and he has played in only 22 games. Shawnson Johnson, who owns the current school record of 69 blocks in 2003-04, was also a semester break acquisition who played just 23 games for the Mean Green. At 3.1 blocks per game overall, Mitchell’s pace is just ahead of Johnson’s 3.0 average for the best in NT history.
Jacob Holmen has been electric for NT in the SBC Tournament. The junior entered the tourney with just one double-figure scoring game this season, but has outings of 10 and 21 (career-high) and is shooting 60.0 percent from the floor in the two games. Holmen is also 5-of-6 (83.3 percent) from 3-point.
