North Texas (14-11, 7-5 SBC) vs ULM (2-23, 1-13 SBC)
The Super Pit • Denton, Texas (10,500)
Feb. 16, 2012 • 7:00 p.m. CST
TV: NTTV (Denton Charter 22, Verizon 46)
Radio: MGRN • George Dunham, Hank Dickenson
Webcast & Live Stats: MeanGreenSports.com
Series: ULM leads 28-22
Last Meeting: NT won 68-55 on 1/14/12 at ULM
GAME NOTES
Denton, Texas – The Mean Green men’s basketball team will take on ULM on Thursday, and fans are in for high-flying slam dunk action in both the game and at halftime.
Tony Mitchell is sure to wow the crowd with his Sun Belt high 17.3 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, and the extreme dunking team, Big Air, is slated to take the Super Pit floor at halftime.
Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. and can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network – 88.1 KNTU-FM and 100.7 KWRD-FM.
Mitchell’s 22 point, 21 rebound outing at Florida Atlantic is among the best performances in the NCAA this year. It’s just the ninth 20/20 game in the country this year, and is the eighth best rebounding game. The outing ties for the ninth best rebounding game in NT history, and is the best by a Sun Belt player since NT’s George Odufuwa posted 24 boards against Cameron on 11/13/09.
Mitchell has racked up 21 blocks over the last four games, which are the most blocks in a four-game span in NT history. His 47 total blocks rank fifth in school history for a single season, and he leads the SBC with 3.3 blocks per league game. At 2.9 blocks per game overall Mitchell’s pace ranks just behind Shawnson Johnson (3.0 BPG in 2003-04) for the best blocks average in NT history.
One more Sun Belt win will make Johnny Jones just the fifth coach in the league’s history to win 90 SBC games. Jones will join Gene Bartow (UAB), Dickey Nutt (Arkansas State), Ronnie Arrow (South Alabama) and Kermit Davis (Middle Tennessee). Jones recently celebrated his 200th career victory as a head coach, and owns a 201-159 (55.8 percent) record.
ULM leads the overall series with the Mean Green 28-22, but NT has had a stranglehold on the matchup in recent years. ULM took one from the Mean Green last year, but North Texas has won nine of the last 10 meetings in the series dating back to 2007. The average margin of victory for NT since 2007 is 13 points, and includes a 72-40 game that was the largest loss in Fant-Ewing Coliseum history at the time.
Last time against ULM, Roger Franklin notched a career game with 16 points and 15 rebounds to lead North Texas to a 68-55 win on Jan. 14 in Monroe, La. Brandan Walton was on fire with 5-of-8 shooting from 3-point for 18 points, and Mitchell just missed a double-double with 15 points and nine boards. Charles Winborne was the only ULM player in double-figures with 15 points.
