I had pancakes and a latte (my wife makes them). It is rainy at MGN HQ and the children got their rain boots on and constructed an obstacle course for their bikes that included some puddle splashing. My son was refilling the puddle with water from an unknown source. Good times.
Making it even better? The Mean Green beat Rice 52-23. Although it was a blowout the game was not pretty. “We didn’t practice well and we practiced how we played.” Tayven Jackson “wasn’t on top of his game” but played we well “had 300 yards. I think lot of guys would take that” said the head coach.
It is UTSA Hate Week and I am feeling good. I have been a Mean Green fan for a long time so I get a little concerned when I feel too good. In that way a shaky blowout vs Rice was the best possible result. To the national people looking at the box score, the Mean Green took care of business. To the players, they will see the things that didn’t work and can work toward getting better and ready for this big game.
UTSA was embarrassed on the road to FAU and will come back ready to show their home fans they are better than that. Jeff Traylor is a great coach when he feels the odds are stacked against him. They have an experienced quarterback.
The Mean Green are playing “survive and advance, like a mini-tournament” says Neal Brown. UTSA. Tulane. UAB. Two of those teams are bad, and one is in 2nd place. The schedule has presented North Texas with a relatively week schedule. FAU is the only other squad in the top seven in the league. Some of that is just that Navy is down, but we will happily take the luck. In previous years — I’m thinking of Morris’ first two years — NT played Tulane/Memphis/UTSA when they were good. Now? Well a light schedule is appreciated.
The only issue with that set up is that the one game is all you get. UTSA is the best team NT will face until the league title game, and if they drop this? Well, it puts in jeopardy the (last) chance to host the game.
Today should have been the Duke-NT WBB game in San Antonio but it was cancelled. Duke reportedly started emailing other programs on Friday looking for a make up game. They found FAU in Boca Raton as the replacement. It is weird that the Mean Green didn’t try — or reportedly didn’t try — to get the game in Denton or even to take up the reported “incentive” to play in Durham.
Weirdness all around. My guesstimate is that it is probably related to the even organizer — The Foundry — which had originally planned to have Jason Burton speak on Saturday.
Whatever happened, I think it reflects poorly on North Texas even if the program was not directly involved.
The Men’s squad plays Wednesday against Santa Clara at the Super Pit. NT is ranked 107 in Kenpom, while Santa Clara is at 80. It is a good matchup for the Mean Green ahead of a relativlly light schedule. For context, Memphis (71), Wichita State (81), and USF (91) are also Kenpom top-100 teams.
The schedule has Boise State in a neutral site (sorta) over Thanksgiving, but the game this week is a great early test.
My Thanksgiving Party is now going to include like 25 people. My wife is trying not to be super stressed. I’m looking forward to the Turkey Bowl we will have. Given we have so many people I think we might break it up into smaller games and have a tournament.
GMG