Troy-North Texas basketball

January 03, 2008

By Drew Champlin

Troy women won 72-63 for its first win over North Texas. Maybe Troy’s men can do the same thing. Gametime is in 3 minutes. Crowd is a little bit better than North Texas. A few more students here, but it’s still a bad week for home games. Swap this week and next week (with Troy on the road twice) and it’s better, but the Sun Belt doesn’t care much about when students are out of school when you figure in that teams have to play 18 conference games.

I’ll post briefly at halftime and with some postgame thoughts.

HALFTIME - Troy’s firing up a ton of bricks, shooting 34.2 percent from the field and 6-of-23 from the field. It’s 46-39 NORTH TEXAS, so at least Troy’s in the game this time. UNT is shooting 54.8 percent and 7 of 13 from 3-point land.

In the last 7:01, Troy has just two free throws and one made bucket, but has forced 11 first-half turnovers and surprisingly is outrebounding UNT 21-20.

FINAL -  Troy wins 91-88 in overtime. I’ll add thoughts later when I get home.

This could be the 12th game

By Drew Champlin

I spoke with Alcorn State SID LaToya Shields earlier this afternoon, and she told me that Troy and Alcorn State are in talks for a 2008 game to be played in Troy.

However, nothing is final yet.

“They’re interested in playing us,“ she said. “Nothing is set in stone yet.“

As I said, that’s not final, but looking more and more like it will happen. The game would more than likely be played the third weekend of the season (Sept. 13). That’s when Ball State was supposed to come, but the Sun Belt forced Troy to accomodate Western Kentucky on its schedule in 2007 and 2008. Thus, Troy went to WKU last year and WKU went to Ball State. In 2008, WKU goes to Troy and Ball State goes to WKU (instead of Troy). Troy still needed a fifth home game.

I’m pretty sure Troy tried to get an FBS team in for 2008, but with the 2009 and 2010 schedules already set in stone, that may have proven difficult if Troy couldn’t guarantee a return trip until 2011.

Oh, Alcorn State, an FCS team in the SWAC, was 2-8 last year and recently hired Ernest Jones to be its new head coach. Unless Steve McNair has some eligibility left, I don’t expect it to be a competitive game.

This announcement likely won’t come until March 1. The Sun Belt teams put their schedules out there and ESPN decides if they want to pick up any of the games. As of right now, Troy is supposed to open the year at Middle Tennessee, but last year the Sun Belt changed Troy’s schedule five times before it was finalized.

Troy’s other non-Sun Belt games are @LSU, @Ohio State, @Oklahoma State and home against Western Kentucky, which won’t count as a Sun Belt game until 2009.

As far as naming an offensive coordinator, that could be announced tomorrow.

Hoops look: North Texas at Troy

January 02, 2008

By Drew Champlin

GAMEDAY LINKS

Dothan Eagle: Troy hosts North Texas.
Denton Record-Chronicle: UNT freshman OK with lack of attention; Mean Green blog

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What: North Texas (9-3, 0-1 Sun Belt) at Troy (6-6, 0-2)
When: 7:30 p.m. CST Jan. 3
Where: Trojan Arena, Troy (4,000)
Last time out: Troy fell to Western Kentucky 94-90. North Texas beat Texas A&M-International 97-70.

Probable starting lineups
TROY
G-Jerome Odem (6’1, 160, Sr.) - 6.9
G-O’Darien Bassett (6’2, 190, Sr.) - 18.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg
F-Justin Jonus (6’6, 221, Sr.) - 13.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg
F-Trayce Macon (6’8, 191, Soph.) - 8.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg
F-Jarvis Acker (6’6, 210, Sr.) - 6.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg

NORTH TEXAS
G-Josh White (5’10, 167, Fr.) 16.6 ppg, 56.4 3pt percentage
G-Ben Bell (6’3, 190, Sr.) 8.6 ppg
G-Collin Dennis(6’2, 185, Jr.) 12.9 ppg,  48.5 3pt percentage
F-Keith Wooden(6’9, 245, Sr.) 11.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg
F-Quincy Williams (6’8, 230, Sr.) 8.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg

What to watch for: Troy has beaten all but two Sun Belt teams in Sun Belt play, but one was UL-Monroe in a game where the Warhawks had a fluke late comeback. The other is North Texas, and it hasn’t been close. The Mean Green have been incredibly mean to the Men of Troy. Some great players are gone from the last two years, but the biggest advantage UNT has is down low with forwards Keith Wooden and Quincy Williams. It’s just not even close when you compare the frontcourts between the two and don’t be shocked to see UNT have a 25-rebound advantage. UNT did lose a surprise game at Denver by four, but the change in altitude causes a few teams with more talent than Denver to lose at Denver.

Troy is 0-2 in Sun Belt play just like last year. North Texas was the Sun Belt’s NCAA Tournament representative last year.

Player to watch, Troy: O’Darien Bassett. The 6-foot-2 senior scored a career-high 36 in a 4-point loss to Western Kentucky last Saturday. He’s playing at a very high level right now and is worth the price of admission. He’ll need to keep playing like that for Troy to have a chance.

Player to watch, UNT: Josh White. The 5-foot-10 scoring guard is the frontrunner for Sun Belt Freshman of the Year.

Troy will win if: The Trojans get very hot from the outside and/or UNT’s forwards get in some foul trouble.

UNT will win if: The Mean Green dominate the boards and attack the press like Western Kentucky did.

Drew’s prediction: It’s like picking against Arkansas State in football. It needs to happen before I do it. UNT 86-78