No. 9 North Texas (12-19, 7-13 SBC) vs. No. 8 Louisiana-Lafayette (12-19, 8-12 SBC)
Hot Springs, Ark. • Summit Arena (6,000)
March 8, 2013
Radio: MGRN - 88.1 KNTU-FM, 95.3 KHYI-FM • George Dunham, Hank Dickenson
TV: None
Webcast: sunbeltsports.org
SUN BELT TOURNAMENT MEDIA GUIDE
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Winners in four of their last six outings, the North Texas men’s basketball team is hitting its stride heading into Friday’s Sun Belt Conference Tournament, and will face Louisiana-Lafayette at 6:30 p.m. on the Summit Arena Convention Center court.
The game can be heard on the Mean Green Radio Network, and is being webcasted for free on SunBeltSports.org.
The Ragin’ Cajuns have taken five of the last six meetings with NT, but that one loss was in the opening round of last year’s SBC Tourney. Brandan Walton splashed home a deep 3-pointer with eight seconds remaining to give the Mean Green the win and a trip to the semifinals against Arkansas State.
In fact, North Texas is 2-0 against the Cajuns in Sun Belt Tournament play after also taking ULL in the 2007 opening round as well.
This year, NT won’t have the services of Walton to help put them over the top. Due to mounting injuries, NT will take the court with just nine scholarship players. NT has lost Walton, Justin Patton and Jacob Holmen to season ending injuries this year. NT’s injuries have already accounted for 78 individual games missed in 2012-13.
In the 36-year history of the Sun Belt only two programs have a better winning percentage in the SBC Tournament than North Texas. NT is 16-10 (.615) all-time in the SBC Tourney, which trails only Western Kentucky (45-22, .672) and former Sun Belt member UAB (20-8, .714).
North Texas has dominated the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in recent years. In fact, the Mean Green became just the third team in SBC history to advance to three straight finals appearances. NT has gone to the finals in four of the last six years, winning championships in 2007 and 2010.
