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DENTON, Texas (12/27/09) - North Texas head coach Johnny Jones, the dean of the Sun Belt, will coach in his 250th game with the Mean Green when Texas Southern comes to the Super Pit on Monday night. With one more victory, Jones can also tie legendary NT coach Bill Blakeley for second in school history in wins.
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North Texas bounced back from its overtime loss to FIU with a resounding win over Southeastern Louisiana last Tuesday. The Mean Green took a brief holiday break, and now returns to the court to take on Texas Southern. NT is 5-3 in its first game back from Christmas under Johnny Jones. Tip off is slated for 7 p.m.
Quick Hitters
- Johnny Jones will be taking the floor for his 250th game at North Texas on Monday night. Only one other coach in school history has coached more games than Jones - Pete Shands, who coached 482 games in 22 years.
- One Texas Southern assistant coach has some close ties to the DFW area. Nick Van Exel, a former NBA All-Star, played for the Dallas Mavericks from 2001-03 in his 13-year professional basketball career. The former Trinity Valley Community College standout led Cincinnati to the Final Four as a senior.
- Johnny Jones is one win shy of legendary North Texas coach Bill Blakeley on the program's career victories list. With 133 wins at North Texas, Jones can move into second place in career victories by passing Blakeley, who complied a 134-85 mark from 1976-83. Blakeley is honored in the North Texas Athletics Hall of Fame, and also coached the Dallas Chaparrals before they became the San Antonio Spurs.
- Tristan Thompson has scorched his last three opponents to the tune of 19.7 points per game on 54.1 percent shooting, including 60.0 percent from 3-point. Thompson posted outings of 20, 27 and 12 points and has been on fire from deep with 12 3-points. In his last 20 conference games Thompson is averaging 13.6 points per contest on 50.0 percent shooting from downtown and 81.9 percent from the stripe.
- No other current coach has been apart of more Sun Belt games than North Texas' Johnny Jones. In his ninth season with the Mean Green, Jones has coached 131 Sun Belt Conference games, and 280 games overall. In the league, only Troy's Don Maestri has been at his program longer than Jones has coached at NT.
- Texas Southern leads the all-time series with the Mean Green, 4-1, making the Tigers the only Southwestern Athletic Conference program with a winning record against NT.
- After last month's 68-58 win over Jackson State, North Texas has an 11-11 all-time record against teams from the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The Mean Green is 5-5 against Alcorn State, 2-1 versus Southern (La.) and 3-1 against Jackson State. NT hasn't played Texas Southern since the 1991-92 season.
- The Tigers are led by the trio of Travele Jones, Junior Treasure and DeAndre Hall. Jones, a SWAC Newcomer of the Week honoree earlier this year, is averaging 15.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, and has hit 12-33 from deep. Treasure is averaging 14.0 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. Hall is a First-Team All-SWAC selection last year, and is hauling in 13.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
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