Aiming For Best Start In Over 30 Years

DENTON — Coming off a conference road sweep that saw the North Texas men's basketball team earn two historic wins, the Mean Green are hosting Rice on Monday aiming for its best start in conference play since the 1988-89 season.

Monday's game versus the Owls (9-10, 1-5 C-USA) will be broadcasted on ESPN+ and the Mean Green Sports Network (95.3 FM KHYI) or the tuneIN app.

On Thursday, UNT beat Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, Mississippi for the first time since 1971. Then they traveled to the league's top NET ranked team in Louisiana Tech and beat the Bulldogs 51-50 for their first win in Ruston, Louisiana, since 1952.

Redshirt junior Javion Hamlet had a double-double at Southern Miss with 13 points, 10 assists and zero turnovers and then followed that up on Saturday by making the game-winning shot at LA Tech at the buzzer.

Monday's game against Rice, who UNT has a four-game winning streak against, is in the middle of what possibly is the Mean Green's most difficult stretch of league games. UNT (11-8, 5-1 C-USA) is playing five games in 10 days. Three of the five are against teams who were picked to finish in the top four of the league standings by the C-USA coaches in the preseason poll (UTSA, LA Tech and UTEP).

There will be no pity from the Owls, though. Rice also is playing five games in 10 days and have to play on the road on Monday versus UNT.

A win Monday over Rice would improve the Mean Green's conference record to 6-1. It'd be UNT's best start to league-play since the 1988-89 season when they were in the Southland Conference and started 8-1.

UNDER 60
UNT has held its last four opponents to under 60 points. The last time they did that was Dec. 19, 1951-Dec. 30, 1951 when they played in the Gulf Coast Conference. North Texas has held its last four opponents to an average of 54 points per game. During the four-game stretch in 1951, UNT also held the four consecutive opponents to 54 points per game.

TOP RANKED
On Sunday, North Texas earned a NET ranking of 92, which put them ahead of LA Tech (95) and made them the highest ranked C-USA team.

ROAD SWEEP
North Texas beat Southern Miss in Hattiesburg on Thursday and then LA Tech in Ruston on Saturday. It was the first conference road sweep by the Mean Green since they won at UTEP and then at UTSA Dec. 28, 2017-Dec. 30, 2017, which was Grant McCasland's first conference series as UNT's head coach. This past week's road sweep was just the third time UNT has swept a Conference USA road series. UNT joined C-USA for the 2013-14 season.

FIRST TIME SINCE 1952
North Texas won 51-50 at LA Tech on Saturday. It was the Mean Green's first win in Ruston since Dec. 18, 1952, which was the first time the two teams ever met.

FIRST TIME SINCE 1971
North Texas won 72-52 at Southern Miss on Thursday. It was the first time they beat the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg since 1971. They were on a six-game road losing streak to USM.

FIVE IN A ROW
UNT has won five consecutive conference games. The last time they accomplished that was Feb. 12, 2015-Feb. 26, 2015. The last time North Texas won six straight conference games was the 2009-10 season when they ended the regular season on a eight-game winning streak. UNT played in the Sun Belt Conference that season.

CONFERENCE LEADER
North Texas' Javion Hamlet has a league leading 36 assists in conference play (6.0 per game). The next most is Antonio Daye Jr. from FIU with 31.

LONGEST WINNING STREAK
The Mean Green are on a five-game winning streak, which is the longest winning streak in Conference USA. WKU's three-game winning streak is the next longest.

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Javion Hamlet

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