W No. 4 North Texas (19-10, 8-8 SBC) vs. E No. 5 Troy (8-20, 6-10 SBC)
Hot Springs, Ark. • Summit Arena (6,200)
March 5, 2011 • 6:30 p.m. CST
Radio: KWRD 100.7-FM, KNTU 88.1-FM
George Dunham (PBP), Hank Dickenson (Analyst)
TV: None
Live Stats & Webcast: sunbeltsports.org
Series: NT leads 6-3 overall (1-0 on neutral court)
Last: Troy won 89-81 on Jan. 15, 2011
SBC Tourney Media Guide
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - In a rematch of last year's Sun Belt title game, West Division No. 4 seed North Texas is slated to take on the East's No. 5 Troy in the opening round of the 2011 SBC Tournament.
Tip off from Summit Arena is slated for 6:30 p.m. and can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network.
The Mean Green features the league's leading scorer in First-Team All-Sun Belt selection Tristan Thompson, as well as George Odufuwa, who is one of just four players in the nation to average a double-double in each of the last two seasons. Josh White is the Sun Belt's active career scoring leader with 1,614 points.
North Texas has won five of its last six SBC Tournament games, and owns a league-best 10-2 mark in the tournament since 2007.
NT has been playing shutdown defense in its last three outings. The Mean Green has held those three teams to a combined 36.0 percent shooting, including a 23.4 percent clip from beyond the arc. Only three opponents since 1950 have been held to fewer points than the 41 NT held Denver to last Saturday. What's more impressive, only six NT players are averaging double-digit minutes in this three-game span.
North Texas is a single victory away from its fifth straight 20-win campaign. No other Sun Belt squad can claim 20 wins in each of the last five seasons. After the 2009-10 season, NT was one of just 32 squads in the NCAA that had posted four-straight 20-win seasons. This year would mark the fourth time in this span that NT snagged its 20th win in the Sun Belt Tournament.
Few teams get to the free throw line and make it count like NT. NT leads the NCAA with 590 total free throws made and 20.3 free throws made per game, and is 37th in the country with a free throw percentage of 74.1.
