Mean Green Start Bonus Play At LA Tech

BONUS PLAY
RUSTON, La. — After falling out of the top group of Conference USA Bonus Play, the North Texas men's basketball team will face Louisiana Tech on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Saturday's game, which will be played at the Bulldogs' Thomas Assembly Center, will be aired on CUSA.tv and on the Mean Green Sports Network on KHYI 95.3 FM or through the tuneIN app. Dave Barnett and Hank Dickenson will be on the call.

North Texas (20-7, 8-6 C-USA) beat LA Tech (17-10, 7-7), 63-59 on Jan. 3 in Denton. The win, which was led by a 16-point outing from Zachary Simmons, ended a five-game losing streak to the Bulldogs. However, UNT on Saturday aims to end a 15-game losing streak in Ruston. North Texas last beat the Bulldogs on the road on Dec. 18, 1952, which was the first meeting between the two schools.

Additionally, LA Tech hasn't lost a home game since Feb. 17, 2018, are on a 14-game home winning streak and have yet to lose at home this season.

Saturday's game is the first of the Mean Green's final four contests, which were scheduled last Saturday after the league finished the first 14 games of the conference schedule. Following their loss to FIU in Miami on Saturday, the Mean Green sat in sixth-place and were grouped with seventh-place Marshall, eighth-place Florida Atlantic, ninth-place FIU and 10th-place Louisiana Tech.

After Saturday's game against LA Tech, North Texas will host FAU Feb. 28 and Marshall on Sunday, March 3. It will conclude the regular season on Saturday, March 9, in Miami at FIU before heading into the conference tournament in Frisco, in which they've already secured a position.

Due to their position in the second group of Bonus Play, the Mean Green can't finish any higher than sixth place in the conference regular-season standings and no worse than 10th and thus will be seeded 6-10 in the conference tournament.

HOW BONUS PLAY WORKS
After all 14 C-USA schools have played one another, teams will be grouped into one of three pods: the top five, middle five and bottom four teams in the standings. Teams will play the opponents in their pod during Feb. 23-March 6, and each team will play two home and two road games.

Regardless how a team does in Bonus Play, each team will remain in its respective group for the C-USA Tournament: if the No. 6 team goes 4-0 in Bonus Play and the No. 5 team goes 0-4, the No. 6 team can't finish higher than sixth and thus can't be higher than a sixth seed in the conference tournament.

WHY BONUS PLAY?
The goal of Bonus Play is to get more C-USA teams into the NCAA postseason tournament and improve their seeding when they get in. By having the top teams playing one another, the top teams have more opportunities to earn resume-boosting wins.

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
The 2019 Air Force Reserve C-USA Basketball Championships presented by Baylor Scott & White Sports Performance Center at the Star will be held in Frisco March 13-16 at the Ford Center.

C-USA Championship all-session passes for all UNT games are available exclusively from the North Texas Ticket Office, and all revenue from the passes goes to UNT Athletics. For information on purchasing all-session passes, visit meangreenpostseason.com or call the ticket office at 940-565-2527.

40-MINUTE MEN
With just six players active for their game at FIU last Saturday due to injuries, North Texas was forced to play Umoja Gibson, DJ Draper, Roosevelt Smart and Michael Miller for 40 minutes. It was the second time this season a team had played just six players and four starters for 40 minutes in a regulation non overtime game. The other school to do so was UL-Monroe who beat Georgia Southern 88-79 on Feb. 8. In the last nine years, there have been 19 instances of a team playing four starters for 40 minutes in a non overtime game. Of those 19 games, there have been 10 wins by the team who had four starters play 40 minutes. UL-Monroe has three of those 10 wins. South Dakota State had four starters play 40 minutes in their first round NCAA Tournament loss to Michigan in 2013. In last Saturday's 69-59 loss at FIU, North Texas' five starters played a combined total of 192 minutes. In the last nine years, there have only been six instances of a starting five playing more combined minutes. In 2015, Arizona State lost to UCLA and played its starters for a combined 199 minutes. The Sun Devils lone bench player logged just one minute in their 15-point loss to the Bruins. If North Texas has ever played four starters for 40 minutes, the last time was over 15 years ago.

RYAN WOOLRIDGE
North Texas junior Ryan Woolridge missed the Mean Green's game last Saturday at FIU due to a leg injury sustained at Florida Atlantic the game prior. It was the first time Woolridge had ever missed a game and ended a streak of 74 straight games starting.

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Players Mentioned

DJ Draper

Umoja Gibson

Michael Miller

Zachary Simmons

Roosevelt Smart

Ryan Woolridge

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