I know I’m a little late. Going into Thursday night’s game, the Mean Green were 16-7 overall, 7-5 in Sun Belt play and alone in second place in the Conference’s West Division. The team was headed in the right direction, and I could feel it. Then they took the court.
The Eagles got off to a slow start against an undersized and outmatched New Orleans team. The Privateers took the lead and the tempo early and held on for much of the game. North Texas managed to keep it close and briefly held victory in their grasp until Privateer Bo McCalebb sank a clutch three to win it for New Orleans.
The loss isn’t what bothered me about this game, though. Somehow, only one week removed from putting up 98 points against Troy, Johnny Jones’ Boys forgot how to shoot and, much more importantly, forgot how to create shots.
This is the Eagle Dilemma: Coach Jones is currently running the offense through point guard Ben Bell. There is a slight problem with this strategy: Bell is a terrible point guard. Maybe ‘terrible’ is a strong term. I meant it in the best way, honestly. I like watching the kid play. He’s fast, handles the ball well and is aggressive on defense (4 steals against New Orleans). Those attributes don’t add up to ‘Point Guard’, though. They add up to ‘Great Energy Guy’ or ‘Quality 6th Man’ at best. A great point guard has vision (like Steve Nash); a good point guard can distribute effectively and can at least create his own shots when necessary (like Jason Terry). Ben Bell moves the ball to the top of the key, waits to be challenged, and immediately passes off to either Kendrick Davis or Keith Wooden, no matter whether either of them are open, available, willing, sitting on the bench, still at home or in the library of the North Texas Research Park.
With his speed and ball handling, Bell should at least be able to drive to the basket and draw fouls but shrinks at any resistance. The only time he drove down the lane against New Orleans was on the last possession of the game (he drew the foul, made 1 of 2, nearly won the game, and almost redeemed himself…almost). Basketball players are supposed to pass out of double teams; Ben Bell passes into them.
Now, before you write me off forever as an idiot who has ridiculous and unreasonable expectations for a Sun Belt Conference team that has made the NCAA Tourney once in its history and who may or may not have moved to Denton half way through the season, hear me out. I realize that this is not a high profile program and Bell may be the best point guard we have. I also have come to accept the depressing prospect that Bell being the best option at the point means that no one else in the program possesses any of the point guard attributes I listed in the previous paragraph (with the possible exception of JA-RED RUF-FIN). This does not mean, however, that Bell has to play.
If there’s no one who can create opportunities for Davis and Wooden and distribute effectively, then why wouldn’t we just run the offense through our best offensive weapons? Kendrick Davis at the point would give us a guard who could drive the lane, create his own shot and draw double teams, creating opportunities for others. This is the solution to the Eagle Dilemma, assuming, of course, that Davis steps out of his current slump (he had 0 points with 17:33 left against New Orleans).
Putting Davis at the point could be a big risk. It’s one I’m willing to take, but it’s all probably too little, too late. And now that the Dilemma has been solved with four games left in the regular season, go see for yourself what Coach Jones and his boys will try to do at home versus U. of Arkansas - Little Rock (Harvard of the Ozarks) and Arkansas State. They’re currently 16-9 and three games out of first place in the West. With a little skill and a little luck, the North Texas Eagles could be playing for the Sun Belt Championship. Though, with Ben Bell at the point, none of that will matter.
Random Game Notes:
- New Orleans G Shaun Reynolds began the game with a big play and began to yelp/hoot/holler. My friends and I began emulating him immediately, yelping every time he took possession. Reynolds stopped yelping and finished with 2 points. My buddy Mark kept making the noise long after the rest of us had stopped. Though it was apparently effective, we nearly had to kill him.
- North Texas G Calvin “It’s Elementary, My Dear” Watson went 5-6 from the line against New Orleans. This should be an official nickname.
- Unlike Ben Bell, Bo can dish it out. He can’t, however, take it.
- The hotdogs at The Pit are fantastic. Where’s the beer?
- There was a guy a few rows ahead of us who was rooting for New Orleans, and was wearing a New York Yankees ball cap. It didn’t really bother us that he was rooting for the opposing team, but rooting for the other guys and rooting for SATAN? Not acceptable. We gave him the business.
Official Notices:
Attn: Mean Green Band
You guys are awesome. Really. I enjoy it. But don’t play the gotdamn fight song immediately after losing a game on a last-second three-pointer. Play the Alma Mater, play Taps, play When Doves Cry, just don’t play the fight song. It doesn’t make sense. This bothered Orange Soda (my buddy Seth from Austin College) for the rest of the evening.
Attn: Halftime Show Planners
Bring back the little kids from the Troy game. Only two things would have made yelling at those 7-year-olds about boxing out and transition defense better: 1) Being drunk 2) Being number 4’s father. But not that fat kid. He’s Mark’s kid. And have them play against the gopher from the Rough Riders.
Attn: “Spirit Wench”
I went to get a hat from the girl that hands them out in the student section and I was told to wait until the next half. My man Seth went back in the second half and she told him he had to cheer. He cheered. No hat. He cheered and cheered. She gave the last hats to some kids. She then gave him a shirt sized small.
Stop bogarting the hats. Stop bogarting the shirts. You are not the Queen of UNT Spirit. You are not Elizabeth, Patron Saint of Eagles.
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