North Texas is on the verge of history heading into the final two games of the regular season, a stretch that will begin with a key home game against Louisiana-Lafayette tonight.

A win today and Saturday at Louisiana-Monroe will give UNT its first outright Sun Belt Conference West Division title. Win either of those games and the Mean Green will win at least 20 games for a fourth straight season.

There have been plenty of reasons for UNT’s success, from a host of bench players who have thrived when thrust into larger roles to the base provided by longtime head coach Johnny Jones.

The biggest reason, though, could be UNT’s core of five starters who form arguably the best starting lineup in the league.

The Mean Green’s starting five features the Sun Belt’s top rebounder in George Odufuwa, maybe the league’s best power forward in Eric Tramiel, two guards who rank among the top 15 scorers in Josh White and Tristan Thompson and maybe the best “glue guy” in the conference in Shannon Shorter.

“What you have to look at is would you want to trade any of your guys for any of the other players in the league at their position,” Jones said. “I love our guys. They get along really well and play well together. We have great continuity.”

The group’s chemistry has been on display during a season-ending run that has seen UNT (19-8, 11-5) win eight of its last nine games with its starting five all healthy and on the floor as a unit.

The Mean Green is 10-1 on the season with its starting five intact with wins over Western Kentucky, UT-Arlington and Florida Atlantic.

Those teams all struggled to match up with a balanced UNT starting five.

White (14.9), Thompson (13.9), Tramiel (13.0) and Odufuwa (11.5) are ranked among the top 25 players in the 13-team Sun Belt in scoring. Odufuwa leads the conference with an average of 10.4 rebounds a game.

Shorter’s impact is in his all-around play. He ranks fifth on the team in scoring at 6.9 points a game, second in assists (2.3) and third in rebounds (3.8) in addition to being perhaps UNT’s best perimeter defender.

No other team in the Sun Belt has more than three players ranked among the top 25 scorers in the league.

“As far as our starting five, I think we are the best,” Thompson said. “Everyone knows their roles and doesn’t try to do too much. Our balance makes us that much tougher to defend. Teams can’t just try to shut down one guy.”

Every member of UNT’s starting five has pushed his way into the spotlight at some point this season.

White scored a career-high 35 points and played 46 draining minutes in UNT’s double-overtime win at UTA.

Tramiel hit the game-winning shot in the Mean Green’s 84-83 overtime win over WKU, while Thompson scored 19 points and hit a clutch 3-pointer in the closing seconds of UNT’s win at Florida International.

Odufuwa scored 16 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in a win over South Alabama. Shorter scored 13 points in UNT’s win over Denver at the Super Pit, when he helped hold the Pioneers leading scorer Nate Rohnert to three points, well below his average of 15.5 heading into the game.

UNT will adjust to how a team is approaching it defensively and find the right player to go to offensively to exploit its opportunities. That ability is the product of the experience they have gained playing together as a unit.

White and Thompson are in their third seasons as starters, while Tramiel and Odufuwa are in their second seasons in the starting five.

Shorter is in his first season at UNT after transferring from Paris Junior College. He needed some time to adjust and establish himself as a starter, but has scored in double figures in seven of the 13 games since he became a fixture in the lineup.

“We got a lot out of playing together last year and have a great amount of chemistry,” Tramiel said. “We know that we have a lot on our shoulders.”

UNT has been forced to depend on its five core players due to a series of injuries and lineup changes. Starting guard Dominique Johnson played just four games and was lost for the season after he broke his ankle in the seventh game of the season. Richard Thomas, who started 12 games early in the season before Shorter took over as a starter, eventually left the team due to family issues.

UNT’s starters have adjusted to help fill the voids those injuries and departures have created. White moved to the point guard spot full-time after Johnson was lost for the year and is averaging 3.8 assists a game, up from 2.6 last year.

Shorter is the only starter UNT has who isn’t averaging at least 27 minutes of playing time a game on the season, but he is averaging more than 28 minutes a game since becoming a starter.

The final piece of the puzzle was Tramiel, who missed four games with a wrist injury during a two-week period in late December and early January.

UNT has been able to have all five of its top players in the lineup since Jan. 21, and has lost just once since Tramiel returned as a starter. Middle Tennessee pulled out a 69-64 win on a night Tramiel played just 17 minutes due to foul trouble.

The form the group has found is one of the reasons UNT is confident in its chances to win the Sun Belt West Division title, and maybe a whole lot more over the last two weeks of the season.

“Those guys play well together,” Jones said. “They feed off each other and respect each other.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .