Mean Green Spotlight: Strength and Competition

DENTON — The North Texas men's basketball team, which begins its Conference USA title defense in less than a month, competed in its annual Strongman Competition recently.

A three-week challenge that aims to not just build strength and condition but competition — the heart of the Mean Green men's basketball program.

UNT strength and conditioning coach Andrew Wright broke up the squad into teams of three and had the teams compete against one another. Each team had to complete five exercises three times. The team that finished first earned the most points and the team that finished last received the fewest. They did this each Friday over three weeks. Each week Wright made the competition a little more difficult.

The results are below. The winning team was senior Zachary Simmons, junior Terence Lewis II and freshman Rubin Jones.

"We're not just playing for any basketball team we're playing for the North Texas men's basketball team," Wright said. "We want to make sure we're always competing and we made sure to build our weight room environment around competition. The most resilient athletes are the ones who can use force from the ground and travel it to move an object in their way."

THE FIVE EXERCISES