University of North Texas Athletics
In My Own Words: They Had It
3/31/2020 12:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Â
" I have been privileged to work at the University of North Texas athletic department, as both an administrator and broadcaster for a quarter of a century. I'm not sure which sounds longer – a quarter of a century or 25 years – you decide.
Bottom line, in that time I've been exposed to a lot of Mean Green men's basketball both in person and thru the many stories and highlights that I have been taught by predecessors and colleagues.
In this article I hope to get across the point that there have been many fruitful seasons of North Texas men's basketball and some close misses in championship bids. This past year's team was one of the most exciting and talented teams we've had in my 25 years and in the program's deep history. Maybe the best…
In order to understand this year's squad you have to know what was built leading up to the Conference USA Championships in Frisco and what many have taken for granted along the way.
Tim Jankovich was the first coach I worked with here at UNT in 1995.
Jank is now, of course, the head coach at SMU, but he has had a very successful overall career with many important stops along the way, including a national title as an assistant to Bill Self at Kansas in 2008. Many people forget that in 1995 Jank had the men's basketball team 20 minutes away from the NCAA Tournament. In fact, he took two of his first three North Texas teams to the Southland Conference Championship game, only to be turned away in close games both times.
The Eagles, as they were known at the time, led Northeast Louisiana (now Louisiana Monroe) at the half in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the 1995-96 Southland Conference Tournament championship game. However, UNT couldn't hold on against the Indians – now known as the Warhawks. But, that was my first year here and it was exciting to see a team get that close.
I didn't realize it would be another 11 years before another team would actually punch a ticket to the Big Dance.
That team was the surging 2006-7 Mean Green squad under the direction of head coach Johnny Jones, who turned the program around after five years of battling to build a winner. The 06-07 squad featured the school's all-time three-point shooter in Calvin Watson, the author of 208 career treys made. Watson was the MVP of the Sun Belt Tournament at Louisiana Lafayette, where a surprising UNT squad put it all together as a No. 5 seed. They faced Memphis in the NCAA tourney and hung around for a time, actually cutting the Tiger lead to 5 points at one point, rousing the crowd in New Orleans to become full-fledged Mean Green fans, no matter their real allegiances.
That particular Mean Green basketball team helped Jones gain a recruiting momentum that had not previously existed and a true foundation was set. And, that is what you have to have for consistent success. I will always argue that the breakthrough season of 06-07 led to the dominant roster of Josh White, Tristan Thompson, Eric Tramiel and George Odufawa. That core was capable of winning three titles. They did punch a ticket in 2009-10, one of the best seasons in program history (and, we had that group back this year to celebrate 10 years after….). That group had a serious foundation for success.
Foundations are the key. They set the culture for your team. That's why Grant McCasland's short tenure at UNT has been so impressive to me. It's like the man arrived with a foundation already in place. Three straight 20 win seasons, a post season championship and this year's dominant stretch…it adds up to a strong foundation of basketball.
Over his first two seasons, McCasland and his staff built a defensive identity. The 2018 College Basketball Invitational championship, the program's first NCAA national postseason tournament title, was the ignition.
Injuries derailed season two but you always felt like a championship was possible.
Ryan Woolridge, one of the most gifted Mean Green players I've seen, transferring to a national title contender in Gonzaga was tough but you can't blame the guy. It was an incredible opportunity. And Javion Hamlet was the perfect fit to come in and supplant that massive roster change. It was perfect for every party involved. In fact, Hamlet proved better for this team in the long run – and nobody but the Mean Green coaches could have predicted that at the beginning of the year.
Nothing was automatic, however. Hamlet and the seven other Mean Green newcomers had their growing pains early on.
As a close follower of the RPI and now the NET, the non-conference schedule the men's basketball team had this year was the best I have been associated with. It prepared the team for the rigorous schedule conference play throws at you. From being just a possession away from upsetting a nationally ranked VCU on the road, to struggling to find offense at Arkansas to holding your own at nationally ranked Dayton and being one possession away from beating Oklahoma the newcomers faced a lot of challenges but learned a lot.
This is where Hamlet became the player of the year, Thomas Bell became a weapon off the bench and where James Reese built his confidence.
However, you can't underestimate what returners like Umoja Gibson, Roosevelt Smart and Zachary Simmons did. To bring in eight new players, accept them, change their own roles to fit and make them a fabric of what was being built can't be overlooked. A championship isn't won without that.
Where this team made its turn was on Jan. 4 at Marshall. It's where the ultimate rebound was made – coming off of a very disconcerting loss to Western Kentucky to open league play. A disappointing 15-point second half blown lead, it could have come crashing down. Here was one of the constant powers in Conference USA and the Sun Belt and they scored 61 points in the second half.
But instead they went into a very tough environment at Marshall, played a mature game and held off a very good Thundering Herd squad. It was by far the best defensive effort I'd seen by Smart who had a career-high four steals. Two years ago you would have never thought we'd win a game like that with his defense instead of his offense.
The ride back to Denton after that game was great. The team was loose. They were together. It was as if the loss to WKU was far in the rearview mirror. And soon enough it actually was.
What that win started was one of the best stretches of basketball I've seen at UNT.
Eight straight conference wins.
And they accomplished things during that stretch that hadn't been done since even before I was alive. The fact that my age was often the measuring stick, notwithstanding, the streak busting became a theme of the year – both on the floor and in the film room. We used Luke Della's historical notes to inspire the team to do things they hadn't done, in places where they had not won.
In the 24 years prior to this season, I had made seven trips to Ruston, Louisiana, with the UNT men's basketball team to play at Louisiana Tech. And all seven times we left their arena as losers. Only once had we lost by single digits. But the losing streak at LA Tech went much further back than that.
Sixteen straight.
UNT hadn't won at their place since the first time the two schools met in 1952.
But this time was different. This time we left their arena as winners.
It was a dog fight and with just a little luck and an immaculate floater from Hamlet this season really started feeling special.
Convincing wins at Southern Miss, over UTEP and UTSA really insured that things were rolling.
And when there were hick-ups like at Rice on Feb. 1, the team matured and grew from it.
This team had it. What was needed for a championship.
Now during my long stretch of Mean Green hoops, I have had the honor of working alongside two of the most talented and dedicated Mean Green alums of all time: my current broadcast partner Dave Barnett and my previous on-air collaborator for 20 seasons, George Dunham. Together, they are two very well-equipped historians of both football and basketball, which makes them both very important members of our UNT Hall of Fame committee.
Dave is defender of the great Bill Blakeley years in the 1970s when North Texas was winning 20 games a year but independent of a conference. George was the broadcaster for all three of North Texas' NCAA Tournament appearances. Together they've seen some important and big games at the Fabulous Super Pit and would probably mention a few other games.
But in my 25 years, I don't know if there was a bigger or better game than what happened on Sunday afternoon on March 1 at the Super Pit versus Western Kentucky.
Regardless of rooting interest, the game was madness and was everything you love about college basketball in March. Add in the pregame storylines, the in-game ups and downs, overtime and then confetti and cutting down of nets, Sunday March 1 was one of the best days at the Super Pit in Mean Green history.
Now, I started all this by telling about my first year at North Texas. When Jank and the Eagles were just 20 minutes away from going dancing and not realizing it would be 11 years before North Texas actually punched its ticket to the dance.
Well, I'll finish this by trying to put a bow on this unusual season.
Nothing is guaranteed.
When the team went to Charlotte a couple days after beating WKU for the regular season championship in what on the surface felt like a meaningless game, none of us knew that'd be the last game of the year.
My enduring memory of this golden year, sadly, is on a bus with the team headed to the Plano Sports Authority for a practice as the No. 1 seed in the C-USA Tourney. We had just watched personnel video at the team hotel, the prep work was spot on, the vibe was awesome. It was the reason I have loved team travel for all of these years. To be with kids and coaches with anticipation and expectation so high…
Then, the bus stopped. Coach Mac walked down the aisle and told us the tourney was canceled. Three hours later, so was the NCAA tournament. We would have been there as regular season champs. I think we would have won it all in Frisco. I think we would have been a No. 13 seed…but, we will never know.
Which is why I think unfinished business is a proper way to describe this season. I can hear Dave Barnett screaming at me – "It's the only way to describe it!"
Due to circumstances out of anyone's hands, this year's team wasn't given a chance to punch that ticket. You never know when the next time you'll go dancing but this team, which has a majority of its core coming back, should be celebrated as one of the best in program history. They deserved to go dancing. Whatever IT really is, trust me, they had IT."
- Hank Dickenson, Executive Senior Associate Athletic DirectorÂ
