North Texas (10-8, 3-2 SBC) vs ULM (2-16, 1-4 SBC)
Monroe, La. • Fant-Ewing Coliseum (7,085)
Jan. 14, 2012 • 1:00 p.m. CST
Radio: 88.1 KNTU-FM, 100.7 KWRD-FM • Hank Dickenson
TV: None
Live Stats & Webcast: ulmwarhawks.com
Series: ULM leads 28-21
Last: ULM won 82-75 on Feb. 19, 2011
GAME NOTES
DENTON, Texas – North Texas used a season-high 56.4 percent shooting to take down rival Western Kentucky on Thursday night. Now the Mean Green, featuring the Sun Belt’s most high octane offense, takes to the road to face ULM on Saturday.
NT is averaging 9.2 points per game more than any other team in SBC play, and that is due in large part to Tony Mitchell. The reigning Sun Belt Player of the Week, Mitchell leads the Sun Belt with a 73.7 (28-of-38) field goal percentage and a 77.8 (7-of-9) percent clip from 3-point in league games. The freshman also leads the league with 9.6 rebounds per Sun Belt game and ranks 7th with 15.2 points per league game.
Chris Jones, who is proving to be one of the league’s top all-around players, is atop the Sun Belt with 14.6 points per game overall. On top of his scoring ability, the freshman also ranks in the top 10 in the league in assists (3rd), steals (3rd) free throw percentage (9th), assist/turnover ratio (9th) and defensive rebounds (9th).
ULM leads the overall series with the Mean Green 28-21, but NT has had a stranglehold on the matchup in recent years. ULM took the Feb. 19 game at the Super Pit, but North Texas had won the previous eight meetings in the series dating back to 2007. The margin of victory during that eight-game span was 13 points, and included a 72-40 game that was the largest loss in Fant-Ewing Coliseum history at the time.
North Texas head coach Johnny Jones is nearing his 200th career win. Including his stay as the interim head coach at Memphis in 1999-00, Jones is 197-156 (55.8 percent). Jones, in his 11th year at NT, has won at least 20 games in each of the last five seasons and has taken the Mean Green to three of the last five Sun Belt Tournament finals.
