The North Texas Mean Green men's basketball team represents the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

(UNT) in

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

, competing as a member of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

. For most of its history, the Mean Green have had patches of success, starting in the 1970s when the team received its first top-20 ranking under head coach

Bill Blakeley Billy Buie Blakeley (June 13, 1934 – October 27, 2010) was an American basketball coach. He coached at the high school, college, and professional levels. Coaching career High school (1957–1966) Blakeley served as the head basketball coach ...

as well as success in the late 1980s and early 1990s under head coach Jimmy Gales and then again in the mid to late 2000s under head coach Johnny Jones. Blakeley coached three consecutive 20-win seasons: 1975–76 (22-4); 1976–77 (21-6); 1977–78 (22-6). North Texas has appeared in the NCAA tournament on four occasions: 1988,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

, recording their first-ever tournament win in 2021. The Mean Green went on an especially strong run in the 2006–2010 era, with two tournament appearances, two conference championships, and posting more wins over this time period than any other Division I team in the state of Texas. The 2011–12 and 2012–13 teams featured the only 5-star recruit to play for North Texas in Tony Mitchell. In one season, he became the program's all-time leader in blocks. Despite Mitchell being highly touted, his performance in his second year suffered and he ended up struggling under new head coach Tony Benford eventually falling to the 2nd round of the

NBA draft The NBA draft is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual event, dating back to 1947 BAA draft, 1947, in which the teams in the league can Draft (sports), draft players who declare for the draft and that are Eligibility for the NBA dr ...

. On April 16, 2012, longtime head coach Johnny Jones was formally introduced as the next head coach of his alma mater

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

. His replacement, Tony Benford, was not able to capitalize on the program's momentum, resulting in a disappointing final year in the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

and then more struggles in the Mean Green's new conference

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

. Prior to 1973, the Mean Green played in the Ken Bahnsen Gym, nicknamed the Snake Pit. They now play in The Super Pit which derives its name from the Snake Pit.

Rivals

While the Mean Green hold a fierce rivalry with the

UTSA Roadrunners The UTSA Roadrunners is a collegiate athletic program that represents the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The UTSA Roadrunners are also commonly referred to as "UTSA", "Roadrunners", or "Runners", and are represented by the mascot Ro ...

across athletics in general, the team's most contentious conference rivals in men's basketball currently are the

UAB Blazers The UAB Blazers are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs that represent the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The school is one of the fourteen member institutions of the American Athletic Conference and participates in Divisi ...

and FAU Owls. In

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, the Mean Green and Blazers met four times in which UNT won the series, 3-1. The Blazers knocked the Mean Green out of the

tournament while the Mean Green defeated the Blazers in the 2023 NIT Championship. During the Grant McCasland era, there was also a stretch where the road team in the series won nine straight games. And while North Texas leads the historical series with FAU, a 2023 Final Four participant, 14-11, the Mean Green have dropped five straight games against the Owls by a combined 21 points, including a 77-71 loss in the 2024 AAC tournament. The Mean Green briefly restored their rivalry with the

SMU Mustangs The SMU Mustangs are the sport, athletic teams that represent Southern Methodist University in University Park, Texas, United States. SMU was founded in 1911 and joined the Southwest Conference, competing against Baylor Bears, Baylor, Rice Owls, ...

the one year they shared in the AAC (2023-24), with the home team winning both matchups by an average of 2.5 points. It is unclear if the teams will continue the series once the Mustangs enter the ACC in 2024-25. The teams have only played 19 times since 1949-50. Notable Non-conference rivals include the University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks, and former Conference USA foes Louisiana Tech,

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...

, and Western Kentucky.

Coaches

Postseason results

NCAA tournament results

The Mean Green have appeared in the NCAA tournament four times. Their combined record is 1–4.

NIT results

The Mean Green have appeared in the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

(NIT) four times consecutively, winning it in 2023. Their combined record is 10–3.

CBI results

The Mean Green have appeared in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) once, winning it in 2018. Their record is 5–1.

NAIA Tournament results

The Mean Green have appeared in the NAIA Tournament two times. Their record is 3–2.

Broadcasts

North Texas games are broadcast on the radio by the Mean Green Sports Network, part of Learfield IMG College on 88.1 KNTU and 95.3 KHYI. Former Texas Rangers and

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

announcer Dave Barnett does play by play, along with Hank Dickenson on color commentary. Television broadcasts are carried by the family of

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

networks, including

ESPN+ ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...

, and

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remain ...

Professional players

* Jeremy Combs (born 1995), basketball player for Israeli team Hapoel Ramat Gan Givatayim * Chris Jones (born 1993), basketball player for Maccabi Tel Aviv of the

Israeli Basketball Premier League Ligat HaAl (, lit., ''Supreme League or Premier League''), or the Israeli Basketball Premier League, is a professional basketball league in Israel and the highest level of basketball in the country. The league's name is abbreviated as either BSL ...

*Mike Miller (born 1996), basketball player for the Bristol Flyers of the British Basketball League *Thomas Bell III (born 1998), basketball player for the Bristol Flyers of the British Basketball League *Zach Simmons (born 1999), basketball player for Vitoria BC of the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:North Texas Mean Green Men's Basketball