Thursday, December 5
The Super Pit
7:05 PM
University of North Texas
vs
Oklahoma
Mean Green Host Oklahoma
12/4/2019 8:58:00 AM | Men's Basketball
DENTON — For the first time in program history, the North Texas men's basketball team will welcome the Oklahoma Sooners to the Super Pit.
The Mean Green (3-5) and Sooners (6-1) will tip-off on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. The game will air on the Mean Green Sports Network (Dave Barnett and Hank Dickenson), which can be found on 88.1FM and 95.3FM or by searching KNTU on the tuneIN app. It will be streamed live on Facebook by CBS Sports Network (Ben Holder, Avery Johnson, Ashley Holder). You can watch the game on the Mean Green Basketball Facebook page or on Facebook/LiveCUSA.
Thursday will be the eighth all-time meeting between the two schools and the third in three years. OU has a 6-1 series lead. The Mean Green won the first game of the series in 1960. All previous seven games were played in Oklahoma.
Best Scoring Defense
North Texas' defense is allowing just 59.4 points per game, which is the best in Conference USA and 26th best in the nation.
While the Mean Green's scoring defense has been impressive, two of their first eight opponents have scoring defenses that rank even better. Arkansas has the third-best scoring defense in the nation and is giving up just 51.4 ppg, Eastern Michigan is the ninth-best scoring defense and is giving up just 55.1 ppg.
17.0 Or Less
On average, North Texas has so far held its opponents to 17.0 points below their season scoring average. Most notably, they held then No. 15 Utah State to 18 points below their season scoring average on 11/24 and Arkansas to 21 points below their season average on 11/12.
Tough Schedule
North Texas' first seven opponents this season had a combined winning percentage of .744 (32-11). It was the 12th toughest schedule in the nation through the first seven games and toughest in C-USA. The schedule gets a little easier moving forward, the last 19 games of the Mean Green's regular season schedule has a combined .543 winning percentage (76-64), which ranks 192nd in the nation.
Mo Buckets
Redshirt sophomore Umoja Gibson has been on fire the last four games. The guard is averaging 19.3 ppg and is 14-31 (.452) from deep. Overall, he's shooting 49.1 percent from the field (28-57) over the last four games. Gibson led the team in scoring last season with 12.6 ppg. So far this season he's averaging 14.3 ppg.
New Guys
UNT has played eight guys this season (Bell, Geu, Hamlet, Jackson, Mohamed, Murray, Reese, Wise) who are playing their first season with the Mean Green. On the year, UNT has six guys averaging 20+ MPG. Four of the six are new guys.
Drape Juice
North Texas' DJ Draper aka "Drape Juice" is 14-of-26 from deep this year. His .538 3-point field goal percentage is the second-best in Conference USA as of Tuesday. He has made 14 3-pointers, which is just 20 less than he made all of last year. Draper is on track to finish the regular season with 58 3-pointers made. His single-season career-best was in 2017-18 as a redshirt sophomore when he made 49 3-pointers at a .415 percent clip.
Five or More
Since the start of last season, North Texas is 11-1 when Zachary Simmons makes five or more field goals in a game. Over the last three years, UNT is 15-4 when he makes five or more field goals. They are 2-0 this season. He went 6-for-9 versus Oklahoma Christian on 11/5 and 5-5 on Monday at UT Arlington.
Turnovers Are Down
In North Texas' first four games of the year they averaged 18.25 turnovers per game.In the four games since then, the Mean Green are averaging just 13.1 turnovers per game.
Dynamic 3-Point Duo
North Texas' leading 3-point shooters Umoja Gibson and DJ Draper have made a combined 34 3-pointers through the Mean Green's first eight games at a combined 44.7 percentage. The rest of the entire team has combined to make just 22 3-pointers at just a combined 23 percent clip.
Offensive Rebounder
North Texas' Zachary Simmons leads the Mean Green with 25 offensive rebounds. He nearly has as many offensive rebounds as defensive rebounds (30). He's averaging 3.1 offensive rebounds per game, which is tied for the third-best in C-USA. He had seven offensive rebounds on Monday at UT Arlington, which is the most he's had in a game since 3/26/18 when he had career-high eight at San Francisco in the first game of the 2018 CBI Championship series. He finished that game with a still career-high 22 total rebounds. In UNT's last two games, Simmons has grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. He's had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds in each of UNT's last two games. He had 89 offensive rebounds last year (2.7 per game).
The Mean Green (3-5) and Sooners (6-1) will tip-off on Thursday at 7:05 p.m. The game will air on the Mean Green Sports Network (Dave Barnett and Hank Dickenson), which can be found on 88.1FM and 95.3FM or by searching KNTU on the tuneIN app. It will be streamed live on Facebook by CBS Sports Network (Ben Holder, Avery Johnson, Ashley Holder). You can watch the game on the Mean Green Basketball Facebook page or on Facebook/LiveCUSA.
Thursday will be the eighth all-time meeting between the two schools and the third in three years. OU has a 6-1 series lead. The Mean Green won the first game of the series in 1960. All previous seven games were played in Oklahoma.
Best Scoring Defense
North Texas' defense is allowing just 59.4 points per game, which is the best in Conference USA and 26th best in the nation.
While the Mean Green's scoring defense has been impressive, two of their first eight opponents have scoring defenses that rank even better. Arkansas has the third-best scoring defense in the nation and is giving up just 51.4 ppg, Eastern Michigan is the ninth-best scoring defense and is giving up just 55.1 ppg.
17.0 Or Less
On average, North Texas has so far held its opponents to 17.0 points below their season scoring average. Most notably, they held then No. 15 Utah State to 18 points below their season scoring average on 11/24 and Arkansas to 21 points below their season average on 11/12.
Tough Schedule
North Texas' first seven opponents this season had a combined winning percentage of .744 (32-11). It was the 12th toughest schedule in the nation through the first seven games and toughest in C-USA. The schedule gets a little easier moving forward, the last 19 games of the Mean Green's regular season schedule has a combined .543 winning percentage (76-64), which ranks 192nd in the nation.
Mo Buckets
Redshirt sophomore Umoja Gibson has been on fire the last four games. The guard is averaging 19.3 ppg and is 14-31 (.452) from deep. Overall, he's shooting 49.1 percent from the field (28-57) over the last four games. Gibson led the team in scoring last season with 12.6 ppg. So far this season he's averaging 14.3 ppg.
New Guys
UNT has played eight guys this season (Bell, Geu, Hamlet, Jackson, Mohamed, Murray, Reese, Wise) who are playing their first season with the Mean Green. On the year, UNT has six guys averaging 20+ MPG. Four of the six are new guys.
Drape Juice
North Texas' DJ Draper aka "Drape Juice" is 14-of-26 from deep this year. His .538 3-point field goal percentage is the second-best in Conference USA as of Tuesday. He has made 14 3-pointers, which is just 20 less than he made all of last year. Draper is on track to finish the regular season with 58 3-pointers made. His single-season career-best was in 2017-18 as a redshirt sophomore when he made 49 3-pointers at a .415 percent clip.
Five or More
Since the start of last season, North Texas is 11-1 when Zachary Simmons makes five or more field goals in a game. Over the last three years, UNT is 15-4 when he makes five or more field goals. They are 2-0 this season. He went 6-for-9 versus Oklahoma Christian on 11/5 and 5-5 on Monday at UT Arlington.
Turnovers Are Down
In North Texas' first four games of the year they averaged 18.25 turnovers per game.In the four games since then, the Mean Green are averaging just 13.1 turnovers per game.
Dynamic 3-Point Duo
North Texas' leading 3-point shooters Umoja Gibson and DJ Draper have made a combined 34 3-pointers through the Mean Green's first eight games at a combined 44.7 percentage. The rest of the entire team has combined to make just 22 3-pointers at just a combined 23 percent clip.
Offensive Rebounder
North Texas' Zachary Simmons leads the Mean Green with 25 offensive rebounds. He nearly has as many offensive rebounds as defensive rebounds (30). He's averaging 3.1 offensive rebounds per game, which is tied for the third-best in C-USA. He had seven offensive rebounds on Monday at UT Arlington, which is the most he's had in a game since 3/26/18 when he had career-high eight at San Francisco in the first game of the 2018 CBI Championship series. He finished that game with a still career-high 22 total rebounds. In UNT's last two games, Simmons has grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. He's had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds in each of UNT's last two games. He had 89 offensive rebounds last year (2.7 per game).
Players Mentioned
Guard
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