Quick Reaction: North Texas 64 Memphis 68

Mean Green come up short against the league's best team

Memphis shot 55% and it wasn’t because the NT defense was poor, instead Haggerty who had 27 on the night, was a flamethrower. He caught a mishandled pass at the logo and tossed it high into the air as the shot clock expired and nailed the jumper — all net.

Meanwhile, Atin Wright, and Lattrell Jossell each went 0-6 on the night.

North Texas won most of the possessions where they could play UNT basketball — defend, run the offense, control the game. Memphis thrives in chaos. They have talent and athleticism and it is most evident when the ball is bouncing around. The high press got to NT — and forced Hodge to bench Atin Wright — and created easy buckets for Memphis often.

North Texas’ athletes — Walker, Lorient, Sissoko (strength and size), and Floyd (ball handling) — helped calm NT and bring the game closer at the end.

Ultimately, NT couldn’t get a bounce, shot, or bucket when they needed. All the fortune was on the Memphis side, and you can credit their press and hustle for that. North Texas competed — never let it be said they do not compete — but they were not as hot, or as fortunate as they needed to be.

Some bullet point observations in no particular order:

• Rondell Walker created some nice things for NT with his hustle and effort

• Brenen Lorient was an answer for a lot of problems that Memphis created

• The guard post-up play was money for about 5 straight possessions.

• Mou Sissoko steps his game up when the competition is good

• Memphis’ bigs were terrible handling the ball and helped NT get back into it

• Foul trouble for Lorient (1st half) and Sissoko (2nd half) limited North Texas

North Texas has Rice coming up, and are expected (per Kenpom) to sweep the rest of the AAC schedule. The road to the Tourney was always going to be about getting through Fort Worth and this game tells us that NT can compete with the best of the league on the road. It portends good things.