Unfinished Business

A limited number of season tickets for the 2020-21 season are still available through the North Texas Athletics Ticket Office starting at just $99 per seat. Due to reduced capacity in the Super Pit, fans are encouraged to become season ticket holders and ensure they do not miss a Mean Green Basketball home game. Mean Green season ticket holders enjoy a number of benefits including preferred pricing and seating, an exclusive season ticket holder gift, payment plan options and the first opportunity to be present at the Super Pit when North Texas Basketball returns. For more information regarding tickets, contact the North Texas Ticket Office at 940-565-2527 or TicketOffice@unt.edu.

North Texas hosts Mississippi Valley for the season opener on Thursday at 7 p.m.

DENTON — It's rare to win a regular season conference championship for the first time in 31 years and still have unfinished business as your motivation for the next season.

But after COVID-19 put an end to the Mean Green's 2020 NCAA Tournament hopes just a couple weeks after winning the Conference USA regular season title, the seven returners have unfinished business on their minds.

After a slow start to last season North Texas went 14-4 in league play — a program record for conference wins. On March 1 they beat Western Kentucky for the first time in 11 tries to clinch the regular season title. The win over the Hilltoppers was arguably the best moment the program has had on their Super Pit floor ever. In addition to their win over WKU, the Mean Green beat Old Dominion for the first time in program-history and won at Louisiana Tech for the first time since 1952.

With the regular season title they earned an automatic berth into the NIT for the first time in program history and were the No. 1 seed in the Conference USA Championship for the first time in program history as well. Just three wins shy of earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament everything came crashing down the morning of their first scheduled league tournament game when the season was canceled due to the pandemic.

In 2020-21, UNT returns seven student-athletes from last season's championship squad. Most notably they bring back C-USA Player of the Year Javion Hamlet and fellow starters Zachary Simmons and James Reese. Six-man specialist Thomas Bell is also back and now expected to be a starter. Bell scored a season-high 20 points in the Mean Green's victory over WKU on March 1.

Along with the key returners the Mean Green welcome the No. 1 recruiting class in Conference USA and a top 50 recruiting class in the nation according to Rivals.com.

North Texas has added highly-regarded freshman guard Rubin Jones (Houston, TX) who brings with him a championship DNA from Jack Yates High School. They've also added junior college transfers Mardrez McBride and Terence Lewis II who are expected to contribute right away in various roles.

UNT will also lean on a few of the returners growing into bigger roles.

Sophomore guard Jalen Jackson might have only played 135 out of a possible 1,245 total minutes last season but down the stretch the coaches grew comfortable playing him in valuable minutes especially as a defender. The coaches have only become even more confident in Jackson's ability to make winning plays in gritty performances needed to repeat as champions.

Playing through the pandemic will certainly play a role in the outcome of the league standings and much of that is out of the team's hands but unlike last year the Mean Green are not sneaking up on anyone. Last season UNT was picked by the 14 league head coaches to finish in seventh-place. This year the coaches picked them to finish second and three coaches think they finish ahead of favorite Western Kentucky who got the remainder of the first-place votes.

At the end of last year North Texas caught fire and played nearly unbeatable basketball. As Hamlet grew more comfortable in his playmaker role the team went with him. UNT ended the year as one of the most efficient offenses in the nation. They had the nation's fifth-highest effective field goal percentage (accounts for the fact that a three-point field goal is worth more than a two-point field goal) and ranked in the top 20 in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage, 2-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage.

Can Hamlet and coach McCasland start this season where they left it off over eight months ago and get even better? There will undoubtedly be early season struggles especially playing in pandemic. But if Hamlet, McCasland and the returners bring the team together and play the efficient brand of basketball the Mean Green have built their name around over the last couple of seasons, a second straight championship is in sight.
But Mean Green fans shouldn't get worried if it again takes a few games to get there. UNT once again has a difficult non-conference schedule and if last year proved anything, it only takes Hamlet and North Texas a short while to catch lightning in a bottle.

Now in year four of head coach Grant McCasland the expectation has been set that 20 wins and a conference title contention is the minimum, a far cry from where the program has been the last 31 years.

Javion Hamlet
Last season was the tale of two acts for then newcomer Javion Hamlet. The eventual Conference USA Player of the Year averaged just 8.1 points and 2.1 assists per game over the first seven games. He had 15 assists and 24 turnovers in the first seven games and shot just 35.7 percent from the field. UNT went 2-5 in the first seven games.

However, in the final 24 games of the year Hamlet averaged 16.5 points and 5.5 assists per game. His assist/turnover ratio was an impressive 2.75 (132 assists to 48 turnovers). He shot 52.2 percent from the field and 44.9 percent from deep. In those final 24 games the Mean Green went 18-6. In the second act Hamlet grew to play with tremendous control of pace and patience while remaining optimistic as a scorer. He showed to be an incredible finisher in every way but especially at the rim, through contact with floaters with either hand. He drastically improved in isolation situations and became the biggest threat on ball screens. When given space Hamlet was an automatic bucket.

Conference USA has not had a player repeat as player of the year since 2002, but that's not Hamlet's concern this season. His goal is clear and simple -- finish the job. This year he's been vocal that there won't be any hesitancy like there was early last season. He knows what his teammates bring to the table and what they need from him, so now he just needs to deliver.
In the record books, the second-year JUCO transfer is 102 assists away from entering the top-10 in program history. Hamlet joined the team last year after transferring from Northwest Florida State College and had 147 assists, which was the sixth-most in a single-season in Mean Green history. Hamlet enters this season as the team's second active leading scorer and is 48 points from 500 for his career.

James Reese
Next to Javion Hamlet not too many Mean Green men's basketball student-athletes improved over the entirety of last season as much as James Reese.

At one point in non-conference last year Reese went 1-of-19 from the field and was 0-of-17 during that stretch. However, in conference play Reese shot 49.3 percent (66-134). After shooting 25.6 percent from 3-point range in his first nine games, he shot 38 percent in the following ten games and 43.3 percent from deep in the final 12 games. He was an elite shooter, but also much more than that, which he proved late in the season. He began becoming more of than just a shooter and someone who could score off the dribble. While he was doing that, he continued to guard the opposing team's best guard. Just like Hamlet and Thomas Bell, the first year from junior college started slow but coaches expect the start of this year to be different.

The connection he and Hamlet built became championship strong. The two connected on a key ally-oop in overtime of the March 1 victory Western Kentucky. He's going to have ample opportunities to get his points and shots, but his defense and efficiency is what the team needs most. Reese is 47 3-pointers away from his 100th. He made 53 3-pointers last season and is the team's active leading 3-point shooter. Reese joined the Mean Green last season after transferring from Odessa College. He's 83 3-pointers from entering the top-10 in program history. He made 80 3-pointers in his one year at Odessa.

James Reese

Zachary Simmons
Zachary Simmons, the Mean Green's most veteran player with 101 games played and 93 career starts (71 consecutive) has proven to be the key to UNT ever since he was a freshman. When Simmons makes five or more field goals in a game UNT is 23-5 all-time. Since the start of his sophomore season they're 19-2 in those games and last year they were 10-1 with the one loss being at No. 13 Dayton when Simmons scored a team-high 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

But where Simmons has become even more effective isn't just his own scoring. It's been the offense he's created out of the post.

In conference play Simmons was second on the team behind Hamlet in assist/turnover ratio and total assists. Furthermore, he became more of an anchor in the paint on defense and rim protector that championship teams needed. Though he wasn't initially recruited by fourth-year head coach Grant McCasland, Simmons will become his first four-year graduate at UNT and has been the championship foundation the team needed to get over the hump. The foundation the big man in the middle has brought to the program has led UNT to what has been one of its most successful three-year stretches in program history. And as he approaches multiple program records such as career wins and career field goal percentage, Simmons will likely go down in history as one of UNT's best big men.

He is 152 points shy of 1,000. He'll become the 23rd Mean Green men's basketball player to reach the 1,000-point total. He is also just 108 rebounds from entering the top-10 in program history (691). He had 160 rebounds last year. And lastly, he is seven starts away from his 100th. He has started the last 71 straight games for the Mean Green as they've won at least 20 games every year he's been at UNT and won a 2020 C-USA regular season title, a 2018 CBI title and in 2019 had the best start in program history at 16-1.

Zachary Simmons

Thomas Bell
The unsung hero for the champion Mean Green, Thomas Bell did it all for North Texas especially late in the year. He could guard any position on the floor, he could score from anywhere on the floor and he did it all while coming off the bench. He was just one of two players in the nation to lead their team in rebounding (180) yet never start a game. Among all players in Conference USA who didn't qualify as everyday starters, Bell ranked first in rebounds (180), defensive rebounds (140), second in minutes (763), third in steals (29), third in assists (42), fourth in scoring (201), fifth in blocks (15) and 11th in 3-pointers (21).
Despite not starting, the coaches played Bell the fourth-most on the team and his 763 total minutes ranked second in the nation among non-starters.

Bell played his best when it mattered most. He scored a season-high 20 points on March 1 versus Western Kentucky to help lead UNT to clinch the regular season title. He had 15 rebounds in UNT's dominate 98-78 win over UTSA on Jan. 23 and in the final 10 minutes of the game he had four offensive rebounds that turned into eight points.

His value on defense might be most exemplified on Feb. 1 last year when North Texas had its eight-game winning streak snapped at Rice and Bell played through a lower body injury. Bell not being 100 percent allowed the hot shooting Owls to score 84 points. It was the most points North Texas allowed in the final 17 games of the year.

Like Hamlet and Reese, Bell struggled early last year finding his niche and his touch. Similar to Reese, Bell had a stretch in non-conference last year where he missed 15 straight 3-pointers including the would-be game-winner against Oklahoma.

Bell has now pretty much locked up a starting role for the Mean Green in 2020-21 and could very well be the difference maker that puts them over the edge if he takes his game to another level like the coaches feel he will. Mean Green fans for sure have missed the high-flying in your face dunks Bell brought to the Super Pit.
Thomas Bell

Grant McCasland
Fourth-year Mean Green head coach and 2020 Conference USA Coach of the Year Grant McCasland has built a name around efficiency and toughness as the team has gone 61-41 under his leadership. McCasland and his staff preach that "the toughest team always wins" and in 2019-20 the Mean Green proved it to be true.

In conference games decided by 10 or less, the Mean Green went 6-2 last year with four of those six wins coming on the road. In the 14 conference games won, UNT held opponents to 27.0 percent shooting after the last media timeout. In UNT's championship clinching victory over WKU, they held the Hilltoppers to 0-4 shooting following the last media timeout and forced three Hilltopper turnovers as the Mean Green made a comeback to send the game into overtime.

McCasland's guidance of Javion Hamlet blossomed the newcomer into the toughest guard in the league. In the last five minutes of conference games, Hamlet made 38 free throws (2.2 per game) and made 30 of his last 34 (.882) free throws in the last five minutes of conference games. Furthermore, Hamlet averaged 7.4 points and shooting 70.9 percent (22-31) from the field in the final five minutes of a conference game. In the 14 conference games won, Hamlet shot 74.9 percent from the field and averaged 7.8 points in the final five minutes of the game.
Building toughness and efficiency is what has turned McCasland into one of the most successful coaches. Under McCasland, UNT has posted four straight 20-win seasons for the first time since 2008-12. North Texas has won a College Basketball Invitational championship on its home floor and a Conference USA regular season championship at the Super Pit as well.

UNT's 41 wins over the last two years are the second-most in Conference USA and just one shy of the most. McCasland is just nine wins shy of his 70th at UNT and he is just 19 wins shy of moving into the top five in program history. He's also just one home win shy of his 40th at the Super Pit where North Texas has gone 39-13 since he took over in 2017-18.

Last year McCasland led North Texas to the league's most efficient offense. McCasland's style is a slow tempo. They averaged 63.9 possessions per 40 minutes and 18.9 seconds per possession, which was the longest average possession among C-USA teams.

Once McCasland and Hamlet got on the same page and he gained trust to let his point guard play more free, UNT's offense soared. The Mean Green ranked first in C-USA in 3-point field goal percentage, 2-point field goal percentge and were second in free throw percentage. Furthermore, their defense helped dictate the tempo as they held teams to just 47.5 percent shooting from inside the arc — the Mean Green shot 57.9 percent from 2-point range.
UNT led C-USA in non-steal turnovers with 10.7 percent of their defensive turnovers forced were not by steals. That ranked 47 in the nation. Florida Atlantic was the only other C-USA school to rank in the top 115 in non-steal turnovers and the Owls were ranked 77th.

Tough charges drawn were a huge characteristic of last year's team and something you can hear the coaches preach during practice. Last season UNT drew 53 charges and Thomas Bell drew a team-high 15. It's an unofficial NCAA stat so it's hard to see where it ranks in the nation but the Mean Green drew a charge in all but five games last year. In their 75-70 win at Middle Tennessee last year, the Mean Green held off MTSU's late run by drawing three offensive charges in the second half.

"Tough winning plays" as McCasland calls them came from all over last season for UNT. On Jan. 4 at a hostile environment, senior Roosevelt Smart who was not known for his defense came up huge with a career-high four steals including three in less than six minutes that changed the tide of the Mean Green's road win and started an eight-game winning streak for UNT. It was the Mean Green's third eight-game winning streak under McCasland.

McCasland enters his fourth season in Denton aiming to help guide North Texas through the unfinished business. Only two coaches in program history have led the Mean Green to a NCAA Tournament and it's been now over a decade since they last went dancing.
Grant McCasland

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Players Mentioned

Thomas Bell

Javion Hamlet

Jalen Jackson

Rubin Jones

Terence Lewis II

Mardrez McBride

James Reese

Zachary Simmons

Roosevelt Smart

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