Men's Hoops Takes On UMass At Dickies

DENTON -- The North Texas men's basketball team is making its first voyage to Dickies Arena in Fort Worth Saturday as they face UMass in a neutral site contest as part of the 2021 Basketbal Hall of Fame Classic.

Saturday's game is scheduled to tip-off at 3:30 p.m. CT and is one of three games being played Saturday at the 14,000-steat two-year-old venue. The Mean Green's game will be broadcast on FloSports and as always on the Mean Green Sports Network with Dave Barnett and Hank Dickenson on the call.

UNT (4-3) is coming off of a 73-35 victory over LSU Shreveport last Saturday at the Super Pit. The back-to-back Conference USA champs enter its game against the Minutemen (6-4) on a two-game winning streak and own the nation's fourth-best scoring defense for the year holding opponents so far to an average of 55.3 points per game. Saturday the Mean Green will take on a UMass squad that averages just over 82 points per game, which ranks 32nd in the nation.

Saturday is just the second all-time meeting between the two schools. The Mean Green beat UMass in their only other meeting, 110-104, back on Dec. 29, 1982. Similar to Saturday's bout, the previous matchup was also a neutral site game. It was played in Tampa, Florida.

FLOSPORTS
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WATCH HERE

CLOSING OUT GAMES
In all but one game this year North Texas has had a lead with six minutes or less in the game. UNT has nine newcomers to its 2021-22 roster and similar to the 2019-20 season is figuring out how to use all the new pieces and close out games on offense and defense.

HOLDING OPPONENTS UNDER 40
UNT held NAIA opponent LSU Shreveport to 35 points last Saturday. It's the fourth time under fifth-year head coach Grant McCasland UNT has held an opponent to under 40 points. The three other times were against DI opponents. It was the second time this season UNT has held an opponent to under 40 points. They held UT Arlington to 36 points on Nov. 18 in a 64-36 win. Since McCasland arrived to Denton in 2017, the Mean Green are the only Conference USA men's basketball team to hold multiple DI opponents to under 40 points.

FINDING HIS WAY
After starting the season 2-of-17 from 3-point range over the first four games of the year, Rubin Jones has made seven of his last 11 3-point attempts over the last three games. Since the early season struggle Jones and associate head coach Ross Hodge work on his 3-point shooting every day at practice.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE FRESHMAN
North Texas true freshman Aaron Scott recorded his first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds on Dec. 4 versus LSU Shreveport. Both career-highs. He's the first North Texas freshman to record a double-double since Zachary Simmons had 10 points and 22 rebounds on March 26, 2018 at San Francisco. Scott got the double-double coming off the bench for UNT in the win. Since 2010 there have now been 10 double-doubles by UNT bench players. Scott's teammate Thomas Bell accomplished a reserve double-double on Jan. 23, 2020 vs. UTSA with 11 points at 15 rebounds. Scott had seven offensive rebounds in the double-double performance. The seven offensive boards are tied for the eighth most offensive rebounds by a reserve in a game this season in the nation.

SPLIT PERSONALITIES
North Texas enters Saturday's game with nation's fourth slowest tempo. Their average possession length is almost 21 seconds. UMass on the other hand has an average possession of just 16.5 seconds, which ranks in the top third in the nation for fastest tempo.

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Players Mentioned

Thomas Bell

Rubin Jones

Aaron Scott

Zachary Simmons

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