Quick Reaction: North Texas MBB 61 UAB 64

Close loss to the rival squad.

We got some of what we wanted. Massie was aggressive. Mou Sissoko was important and impressive early. NT outshot UAB from three. Still, it came down to a last-chance three-point attempt. North Texas fell short this time. It was physical, probably overly-so. UAB got away with a ton of physicality that seemingly would be called differently away from Birmingham.

Whatever. That is college basketball.

North Texas has a guard problem. Jasper Floyd was nice — 15 points on 7/14 shooting — but is not the kind of guy who can create his own 3-point shot. Massie, Walker, and Jossell need four-and-five dribbles to make something happen — and really, Walker is not a create-your-own-shot kind of guy. When they get in scenarios where they need a bucket like at the end of this game they are at a disadvantage. It is Atin Wright and that’s it. Tonight, Floyd pushed the ball looking for the classic 3-hand off but got stuck and threw up a prayer. Atin Wright was coming over, Massie was coming over. Both were well-guarded.

All told, this was a much better effort than we saw Saturday in the first half vs UTSA. UAB was always a talented team, but had the roughest of starts to the season. They were always to be respected despite the record. The history of this series tells us all we need to know about it.

A concern is that Atin Wright was held in check. He only had 6. Mou Sissoko was briefly hurt, and didn’t do much beyond his excellent first half. His 10 points is near his ceiling anyway, so really looking at Brenan Lorient for more is the goal. He was limited by the physicality, and was bullied out of some shots. Was it the refs only? Was it the kind of thing that he and the rest of the squad need to adapt to? Well, we’ll leave that for the staff to figure. This morning we wrote about how there is only so much time in the day and many, many areas for improvement for the average basketball team. You have to make choices. North Texas focuses on defense and that has brought trophies to Denton. That has meant they can’t be super great on offense, however. When good teams match up with NT, it makes the limitations in the attack look glaring.

That said, remember nothing has really changed. North Texas will likely need to beat one of UAB or Memphis to win the AAC tournament. That still remains. Splitting with UAB helps build the knowledge base for next time. Losing to Memphis on the road was a morale boost.

Before we get to that point, there is the rest of the schedule:

The absolute thing that can happen is skipping to the tournament mentally. There is still work to do.