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- North Texas basketball began play on Monday vs Southern Nazarene, a school that I had heretofore not heard of but one that is very insistent upon its name being spelled correctly.
The YouTube broadcast was subpar, with the graphics being incorrectly displayed in the brief time they were even visible, and the audio missing for large portions of the game. This comes on the heels of the home ESPN+ broadcasts being weak — with poor camera work, poor directing, and audio syncing issues.
It is MGN’s understanding — via the various mechanisms available to us — that the long-time team responsible for producing NT broadcasts has moved on to richer, more prestigious pastures and NT has had trouble hiring their replacements. It seems we are in ‘make-do’ status this is corrected. It should happen as quickly as it is possible for people to move and get set up in new digs, and the like.
So the complaint and quality are noticed, and action has been taken.
- Also the basketball team struggled but that is not super concerning right now. It is very early in the season and everyone has to get used to playing high-level ball right now. The scoreboard for the 300-or-so games that started across the season indicated that there were some head-scratching results. That tells us that this is common.
What good was there? Well, Abou Ousmane looks trim, and moved well. He looks like he is continuing his journey with the strength staff and it is paying off. He should be able to handle the marathon that is the hoops season and produce consistently for NT. The team also got some time without Rubin Jones and Tylor Perry, who were both held out for injury. NT’s depth was questionable last season, and was tested as the NIT got going. Guys looked banged up and foul-trouble meant that NT was playing super thin. Now, Mac likes to play a short rotation — it provides consistency and quality — but getting early season repetitions for guys that have not had a lot of time playing for NT is a good thing.
NT overcame a little adversity, and won the game. Good times. Saint Mary’s is up next. A stronger test.
- UAB is next the football schedule and NT opened as -7 point favorites. The main concern is the NT run game, which has three banged up running backs. I believe in Ikaika Ragsdale, but behind him are freshman and that is likely putting some strain on the game plan. NT would still like to run the ball first and foremost, but it will look different.
Beating UAB will not wrap up 2nd place and a title berth, but it will go a long way to making that happen. Rice would need to lose this weekend or the next with an NT win vs UAB. If not, NT still controls their destiny when they host Rice in the final game, two weeks from Saturday. - The AAC schedule for NT has been announced.
We tweeted about this, but had it wrong. Here is the schedule:
2023
Home: UTSA, Memphis, UAB, Temple
Away: Tulsa, SMU, Tulane, Navy
2024
Home: SMU, Rice, South Florida, Charlotte
Away: UTSA, UAB, Florida Atlantic, East Carolina
2025
Home: Tulsa, UTSA, Tulane, Florida Atlantic
Away: SMU, Memphis, South Florida, Temple
2026
Home: SMU, South Florida, East Carolina, Navy
Away: Tulsa, Rice, Tulane, Charlotte
The league announced they are prioritizing NT-SMU (good!) but it means in 2026 that NT will not play UTSA, which isn’t so great. It looks like there is at least one in-state road game per season, which is nice. Tulsa is also very close to Denton, so that isn’t too bad, either.
