A General Misunderstanding

- Mark Moseley

A crazy but -somewhat- plausible situation:

Today LSU fired John Brady, their head basketball
coach of the last ten years. Johnny Jones, current
coach of our beloved Mean Green, is an LSU alum.
Granted, the UNT team is struggling a bit this year,
but let's assume that, as they did last year, this
team puts together a late season push and somehow
makes their way into the NCAA tournament as repeat Sun
Belt Conference champions. All of a sudden, you have a
successful former student-athlete who would probably
have a tough time saying 'no' to his alma mater. So
Jones becomes the next coach at LSU(ck), and UNT finds
itself without a head coach. To whom do they turn? Hm.
Let us ponder for a moment. A mid-level team, with
talent, in a conference where the NCAA tourney is
reachable, but small enough to be relatively obscure,
but close to a big market. Sounds like a pretty good
situation for a somewhat older coach with a good
amount of baggage and a legacy bigger than my... well,
big... see where I'm going with this?

PLEASE WELCOME THE NEXT COACH OF YOUR MEAN GREEN:
BOBBYYYYYYYYYY KNIGHT!

Am I crazy? Probably. Could it happen? It's a stretch.
Would it be the biggest boost the NT Athletic
department could possibly imagine, ever?

Oh hell yeah.


And then I woke up.

Addendum:
Brett Vito, beat writer for the Denton Record-Chronicle, agrees with me - at least on the first part.

KAZAAM!

- Ted Hall

"Shaq, you're not really a genie. And even if you were, genies can't go back in time."
"Oh... KAZAAM!"

I haven't posted since last year's March Madness and now we'll soon have arrived at March Madness '08. Don't know if I'll be posting again, but I couldn't resist this one.

It wasn't too terribly long ago that I hoped for the Mavericks to trade Dirk for Shaquille O'Neal. Even Simmons thought it was a good idea, asking, "How does this team not win a championship?"

The Nash-Shaq combo would have been unstoppable and, at the time, Shaq's stock was higher than Dirks, so his unhappiness in L.A. made it an equal trade.

That didn't happen, though.

Nash fled in free agency to Phoenix, insulted by Cuban's offer. Shaq went to Miami. Dirk stayed here.

Now Phoenix, in a trade that doesn't really make sense to me, has a deal in the works that would send Marion to Miami and bring in Shaq and guard Marcus Banks. Even though I wouldn't objectively do this deal in 7 out of 10 lifetimes, I'm still jealous. So very jealous of the MDE (Most Dominant Ever) playing with the MCE (Most Canadian Ever).

It's just some confusing and frustrating news that I didn't want to hear in my current condition: ILL as HELL.

The Mean Green Are Going Dancing

-Ted Hall

The University of North Texas is going to the big dance, but before I start into March Madness (there’s a lot to talk about), I want to issue a short rebuttal to Mark’s latest entry to NT Balls.

Mark said in his last article about the Mavs’ season:

…the Mavericks have one key factor, something they’ve never had since Cuban bought them. They’ve got respect.

On ESPN2’s First and 10 last week, Skip Bayless and his black co-star du jour both ranked the Mavericks the two spot in their NBA power rankings (one behind the Suns and the other behind the Spurs). Eric Neel wrote a column about the Mavs titled, “Mavs just can’t win my love,” pointing out their supposed lack of star power. John Hollinger’s power rankings (also on ESPN.com) have the Mavs perpetually in the two slot behind either the Spurs or Suns. And last night, after the Mavs’ 17-game win streak was broken by Don Nelson and the Warriors on Monday (the second game of a back-to-back in California, by the way), Stan Verrett had this to say to kick off the Sportscenter Minute: “Move over, Mavericks. The Spurs are the hottest team in the NBA.”

Respect? R-E-S-P-E-C-T? Ms. Franklin and I beg to differ.

The national media has absolutely no respect for the Mavs. At the All-Star Break, the Dallas Mavericks’s record ranked in the top five all-time at that point in the season. The other teams included in that ranking were the ’96 Bulls, ’97 Bulls, ’83 76ers and ’86 Celtics. Those, if you’re not familiar with basketball or history or America, are four of the greatest teams of all time. All. Time. Jordan. Bird. All four of those teams won championships. The ’86 Celtics, in fact, boast one of the greatest lineups of all time: Bird, two other Hall of Fame inductees in Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, and another potential Hall of Famer in the recently deceased Dennis Johnson. How do you think the Media and the rest of America ranks Nowitzki-Howard-Terry-Harris-Dampier compared to these teams? We should be talking about how the Mavs could turn out to be one of the greatest teams of all time, if we think they can sweep every opponent in the playoffs and how Nowitzki is a guaranteed Hall of Famer, but instead, the Spurs are “the hottest team in the NBA” and the Suns are the “real” power in the West.

The Dallas Mavericks are 3-1 combined against the Spurs and Suns. Respect? Yeah, right. I guess we’ll see when the Suns and Mavericks play tonight.

Ok, enough hate! On to North Texas Basketball! Oh… did I say, “enough hate”? I meant, “much, much more hate”.

It’s been a very exciting time for all fans* of the NT cagers. Winning the Sun Belt Conference Championship as a 5-seed was very impressive. Doing so by beating an Arkansas State team which had defeated them twice this season was heroic. Winning the last three games without an influenza’d Kendrick Davis was something I would have never guessed could happen. Ok, he only had the flu for the game against Middle Tennessee State, but the game after that, he was obviously still recovering and the game before… well, he just didn’t show up (1-18 in 42 minutes).

*-Mark is not included in the category of ‘fan’. He couldn’t manage to drive 20 minutes to Lewisville to watch the game against MTSU on television (the only bar I could find with the game was the Fox and Hound, an overpriced English-style pub) and left our watch party during the second half of the Sun Belt Championship Game to look for a cat. The cat came back the very next day. They thought it was a goner, but the cat came back. Maybe this site should be called Texas Ranger Balls, because that’s all that seems to interest Mark Moseley.

The biggest surprise of the tournament, though, was the play of Ben Bell. The kid was amazing. Not to say he played well as a point guard, because he does not have this ability, but Bell sank clutch shot after clutch shot in the last three games. Without Kendrick Davis to defer to, he was creating his own shots, driving to the lane, drawing fouls and hitting his open jump shots: a complete transformation. I guess we’ll see if he can keep that up on Friday.

Calvin “It’s Elementary, My Dear” Watson had a great tournament, too. He averaged 17 points per game and was named Tournament MVP after sinking six three-pointers and scoring 24 total in the Championship game against Arkansas State.

My special awards all go to Johnny Jones. Apparently, during the last practice before heading down to Lafayette, Jones brought out a ladder and a pair of scissors. Johnny Jones then had the entire Mean Green basketball team practice cutting down the nets in the EagleLair. If I had seen this, in addition to bursting into inspired tears, I would have never had any doubt at all that North Texas would be Sun Belt Champs. I actually might have written that they would win the national title. But that was before they were seeded against Memphis.

So, I guess what you’re all waiting for is my NCAA tournament preview and how the North Texas Mean Green will go about defeating the two-seeded Memphis Tigers. The Tigers (currently on a 22-game win streak) went undefeated in Conference USA – not a major conference by any means, but certainly more competitive than the Sun Belt. Memphis only has two quality wins (against Kentucky and Gonzaga) and I don’t consider either of those teams real contenders. That would be an indicator that we’d have a chance except that Memphis’ only three losses come against three teams (Arizona, Tennessee and Georgia Tech) that each could beat NT 99 out of 100 times. That’s not even taking into account that North Texas didn’t even play a quality game, much less garner a quality win. The most challenging opponent we faced all season was a weak 17-win Nebraska team, which beat us by 19 points.

I thought the Mean Green could win the Sun Belt Tourney because they had the heart and seemed to have the desire, but I don’t think heart is going to be enough this time. The Tigers have some size; North Texas has Justin Howerton (1.8 ppg!). The Eagles are at their best when they play a fast-paced, run and gun style of basketball; Memphis is too, and they’re much, much better at it. One tournament preview said that if North Texas tries to run against Memphis, the Tigers will run them out of New Orleans Arena. Bryan Cole, a friend of mine from Tulane, has seen his Green Wave play Memphis several times over the past four years. This year, Tulane played Memphis twice and was annihilated both times, losing one game by 44 points. When I suggested that UNT might have a chance against Memphis, he just laughed, then suggested that the Mean Green would probably match up better against Ohio State. Whether that’s true or not, I can’t say, but I’m beginning to believe that Johnny Jones’ boys don’t stand a chance this weekend in New Orleans.

I hate to be Debbie Downer (I’d rather be Sensual Sally…mmmm), but if North Texas plays the best game of its season and Memphis plays the very worst of theirs, I don’t think they pull this one out. But if North Texas plays the greatest game in the history of the school and Memphis plays the worst in the history of theirs, we might have a chance. If North Texas is firing on all cylinders; if Ben Bell, Calvin Watson, Kendrick Davis, Keith Wooden, Michael Sturns, Rich Young and Quincy Williams all have the game of their respective lives, we certainly have a chance. If Memphis’ starting lineup commits the common rookie error of consuming more than two Hand Grenades at Tropical Isle, we might just get that win.

And when we get that win, after the Tigers all come down with Kendrick Davis’ three-day flu, we’ll move on to the Field of 32 where we’ll face Creighton or Nevada.

Then we’ll definitely lose.

Notes:
Check out this article about Rich Young. “Oh. So that’s why they kept calling him 'the Marine'.”

Know Thine Enemy

- Mark Moseley

Remember when the Mavericks were just starting to get good? (Hell, remember when I wrote articles for this thing? I barely do) Think back to a few years ago: Mark Cuban was new to the whole ownership thing, and the Mavs had a pseudo-rivalry with the Kings, a coach who didn’t like to play defense, and a revolving door of mediocre white players (remember Antoine Rigaudeau? Me neither). Flash forward a bit, and the Mavs had Antawn Jamison coming off the bench (he and Danny Fortson combined to keep the bench warm for Antoine Walker’s fat ass) and the Dirk-Steve-Fin trio flying high. Move forward in time once more. Nash is gone, and a (Mavericks) Nation mourns. That is, until Basketball Jesus in the human form of Avery Johnson descended to Earth upon a cloud made of angels’ wings. He led Dallas into the playoffs, where they were single-handedly destroyed by… Steven John Nash.

What did all these teams have in common? An underachieving superstar? No. Unless you’re Ted and you think that Dirk Nowitzki should have been traded for Ron Artest last year. (Ron Artest, by the way, was arrested today on domestic violence charges and dismissed indefinitely from the Sacramento Kings. I hope he gets jail time so the world can find out just how good of a defender he really is, if you know what I mean) These teams all claimed to have a lack of respect from the rest of the league.

Ancient history.

After their disastrous Finals appearance last summer, the Mavericks have an insatiable bloodlust not seen in the NBA for years. With Dwyane Wade and the trifecta from hell seared in their collective memory, Dallas has compiled the best record in the league and still has that pissed-off look in their eye, led by Avery “We’re Still Not Satisfied” Christ. They’re hungry. Starving, in fact. Look at the remaining schedule. Away games at the Lakers, Pistons, and Suns, as well as home games against Utah, San Antonio, and Phoenix are the only games that jump out. So take that into consideration. If they lose every one of those games (they won’t), and drop the requisite gimmie game or two (Golden State likes to beat us at odd times, for instance), that puts Dallas at 66-16, thereby setting a new franchise record for wins. But the Mavericks have one key factor, something they’ve never had since Cuban bought them.

They’ve got respect.

Is that a bad thing? To be determined. Like I said, the season’s basically over. Even if the number one seed is somehow wrestled away from us at season’s end, Dallas has established itself as “The Team to Beat” this season. Herein lies the problem: the Mavericks have wrestled that title away from a team that is arguably just as hungry for a championship in the Phoenix Suns. You probably don’t remember, but a couple of months ago, we Maverick fans probably wouldn’t have wanted to cry if they lost a regular season game like we do now (Seriously, I’ll be so bummed out when we lose again). During the early months of 2006-07, Phoenix was that team, the team with the hot 15-game win streak. Dallas has taken that status away from them. And this is becoming a trend that has to absolutely burn Phoenix. Think about it. Two years ago in the playoffs, Jerry Stackhouse turned Joe Johnson’s face into mush, and even though they beat Dallas, even though Steve crushed the Mavs in every game, they were still pissed. Last year, Dallas went into their building and took the Western Conference from them, reaching the Finals before they did.

Jack McCallum, Sports Illustrated’s chief NBA writer, wrote a book chronicling the Suns’ run to the playoffs last season called :07 Seconds or Less. I highly recommend it. Oh hell, ask and I’ll probably let you borrow it. Unless you’re Ted, and take a year and a half to read my books. Before the Mavs/Suns series had started last May, McCallum wrote the following:

“Phoenix and Dallas are, to some degree, perceived as doppelgangers of each other- entertaining and talented, yet hard-wired to fall short of a championship because they lack some toughness gene. Each hates that reputation and wants to slough it off on the other. Both franchises have crawled their way to near the top of the NBA food chain, and now both are looking to beat the other to the very top.”

For now, Dallas holds that edge. But Phoenix knows that the war has not been won by either side, and they have genuine hatred for Dallas. The Suns are built around testy players like Shawn Marion, one of the unique talents in the NBA currently, who doesn’t play motivated 100% of the time but always gives the Mavs his best. And unlike last year, they have been able to reap the benefits of shelving their star center for a season. Amare Stoudamire was just as puzzling as Steve was in the playoffs two years ago for Dallas, and it will take everything the “Two-Headed Monster” of Diop and Dampier has to contain him in an extended playoff series. By the way, thanks to Skip Bayless for providing me with that term; he said it not to credit Dallas’ centers, but to discredit Dirk’s candidacy for MVP this season. Wisdom like that puts Bayless near the top of my most hated TV personality list, somewhere between Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Surprisingly absent from my list? Charles Barkley, a man who seems to have as little respect for the Suns as he does for the Mavs. According to McCallum, the Suns used Barkley’s negative comments towards them to motivate themselves in the first two rounds of the playoffs last year, when they beat the two LA teams (remember? The Clippers were good last year.) despite being undermanned and exhausted.

The Mavericks have the best team in the NBA this year. The Phoenix Suns have the second best team. Those are facts, and nobody can dispute them (well, except for Tim Duncan, who has to complain to somebody since he can’t whine to the officials as much this year). But legit teams in this league (and there are fewer and fewer of them every year) have a knack for exacting revenge. One need look no further than our own Dallas Mavericks, who finally knocked off the Spurs last year. So it would serve the Mavericks well to keep an eye on the rearview mirror, because the Suns are primed for an upset.

(SIDENOTE: you know, I hate to potentially be a jinx, but assuming the Mavericks beat the Nets at home tomorrow, they’ll have two games in California before hosting the Suns on March 14. If they win all three of those games, they will carry an 18-game win streak into that matchup. Can you IMAGINE playing the Suns boasting that? We’ll have one-upped them yet again, beating their 17-gamer earlier this year. If that happens, it’ll be the game of the season. No doubt about it. I have been looking forward to this game since December.)

*Note: This validity of this article depends on whether Dwyane Wade is a lying little pussy.

Briefly:

Be sure to check out Jet Terry’s new website, teamtakeoff.com. One of the last memories I have before getting violently ill two weeks ago is the Jet pimping his new clothing line. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the URL. I blame Olive Garden’s Crab Alfredo.

Even though I didn’t get to see UNT defeat Middle Tennessee (some might call that a blessing the way that game went), I’m ecstatic about playing for a spot in the Dance. Granted, we’re playing Arkansas State, a team that walloped us once this year, then came to Denton and beat us on our home floor. Be sure to catch the game at 8 CST on the Deuce, ESPN2!

Quote of the week: “i keep it real thats all i no” – Ben Bell’s Facebook profile