Even having a night to sleep on it doesn't get me any closer to explaining what happened last night. You watch it start to unfold and never think it could end up like it did.
First off though, N Texas has a top flight basketball facility! 10,500 chair back seats, not a bad seat in the house. They have one of those square scoreboards that hangs high above center court with video on all 4 sides. They do a great job of replaying highlights throughout the game.
Maybe 1,500 people in the place, though to their credit they sounded like 5,000 late in the game. Good pep band to boot. We complain about our crowds and they have an enrollment of 36,000 students. Few who bothered to attend.
Dig this, they sell beer, and their facility is on campus! Why was it not packed? Was told it is their first year selling beer. Wonder if the same holds true for the football stadium?
We played with a lot of energy and purpose from the first tip. Shot 64% first half. Mainly because we got a lot of clean looks.
If football and basketball is a game of adjustments made at half time, give the edge to North Texas. We got no clean looks in the 2nd half. Everything was contested. Really got sloppy with trying to force passes into their defense where there was clearly no openings.
N Texas just slowly started chipping away at the lead but never did we feel the game was lost.
I think what this team misses is senior leadership. No one in the 2nd half seemed to want to take over when we couldn't buy a basket. That is easier to do if you have the ball in your hands from the guard position. Needed Massey or Knight last night.
On a side note, about 10 or so MT fans there but as far as making a connection, no chance. For some reason MT fans, in my experience of a lot of road travel, rarely acknowledge one another. Then we wonder why we can't grow our fan base. A topic for another day.
CD and his staff have a lot of work to do to get this team up off the floor. Been a long time since I have seen a bunch as dejected as they were after the game.
One last fan experience observation. On their massive scoreboard overhead, they keep running tab of each teams FG%, 3 point %, and FT%. And on other scoreboards do a good job on hustle stats by team. Steals, blocks, assists, rebounds.
First off though, N Texas has a top flight basketball facility! 10,500 chair back seats, not a bad seat in the house. They have one of those square scoreboards that hangs high above center court with video on all 4 sides. They do a great job of replaying highlights throughout the game.
Maybe 1,500 people in the place, though to their credit they sounded like 5,000 late in the game. Good pep band to boot. We complain about our crowds and they have an enrollment of 36,000 students. Few who bothered to attend.
Dig this, they sell beer, and their facility is on campus! Why was it not packed? Was told it is their first year selling beer. Wonder if the same holds true for the football stadium?
We played with a lot of energy and purpose from the first tip. Shot 64% first half. Mainly because we got a lot of clean looks.
If football and basketball is a game of adjustments made at half time, give the edge to North Texas. We got no clean looks in the 2nd half. Everything was contested. Really got sloppy with trying to force passes into their defense where there was clearly no openings.
N Texas just slowly started chipping away at the lead but never did we feel the game was lost.
I think what this team misses is senior leadership. No one in the 2nd half seemed to want to take over when we couldn't buy a basket. That is easier to do if you have the ball in your hands from the guard position. Needed Massey or Knight last night.
On a side note, about 10 or so MT fans there but as far as making a connection, no chance. For some reason MT fans, in my experience of a lot of road travel, rarely acknowledge one another. Then we wonder why we can't grow our fan base. A topic for another day.
CD and his staff have a lot of work to do to get this team up off the floor. Been a long time since I have seen a bunch as dejected as they were after the game.
One last fan experience observation. On their massive scoreboard overhead, they keep running tab of each teams FG%, 3 point %, and FT%. And on other scoreboards do a good job on hustle stats by team. Steals, blocks, assists, rebounds.
