Quick Reaction: NT 68 vs UNI

Thanksgiving in Kissimee

If there was any day to not play with one’s food. It is today, the feast day. North Texas answered a little run by UNI near the end of the game with an 11-0 shut-it-down run punctuated with Grant Newell’s put-back slam. Northern Iowa was good and well defeated.

North Texas has had some nice starts thus far in this early season of college hoops. The squad continued that even though it is a weird trip to Florida on Thanksgiving. The Mean Green came out of the gates hot, shooting around 57% for a bit before settling on 52% for the half. Atin Wright, buoyed by the big game winner vs Oregon State, came out firing. He had 10 at the half, in a balanced attack that saw Floyd and Newell score a couple (7, and 6 respectively).

Northern Iowa has a good program and made some nice little runs punctuated with some athleticism — twice they got some turnovers and finished with some dunks on flying fast breaks. The Mean Green answered the latest with an 8-0 that saw a couple come on two steals of their own.

There was more of the same in the second half. Atin Wright started with 8 more points. NT controlled the game and kept the lead at double-digits before a late run from UNI (you knew it was coming). For the most part NT killed a lot of runs with great defensive effort. That’s why we love this squad. Every shot was challenged. Every fast break was chased down. Every shooter was closed out.

The final gasp of a proud program came with the aforementioned aggressive last-gasp series of small runs and the door was slammed shut decisively.

Tomorrow, Utah State in the finale of the NIT season tip off.

1. Atin Wright Stepped Up

MGN had Wright as the go-to scorer among some guys that all had similar skills. Thus far, he has not been as great of a scorer as he was for Drake and Cal-State Fullerton. He looked like the guy who was advertised tonight, being aggressive on the transition threes and also getting into the half-spaces for midrange looks.

He scored 18 on 7/15 shooting, including 3/8 from distance. His aggression stood out most, as he was playing with an increased level of confidence. Game winners will do that to ya, I suppose.

2. Lattrell Jossell Was Cooking

That last 11-0 run was heavy on the Jossell, who had a nasty step back (with a behind-the back dribble) pull up. He then hit a wide-open catch-and-shoot three pointer after a nice passing sequence from the squad. He calmly hit free throws (6 out of 6) after missing some clutch ones in Denton last game. We said there are a lot of guys who do similar things on this squad, and Jossell was just as effective driving, shooting, and handling the rock.

3. The Defense Was Great, Again

We mentioned how quick the UNI runs were killed, but the defensive effort also led to easy buckets going the other way. The steals, quick run outs, transition buckets all came from that effort. When North Texas is playing their brand of basketball, they get you out of your rhythm, frustrated, and upset. It is the cornerstone of the program and it is great to see that despite the roster turnover, that aspect is still intact.

Mix that with some dynamic scorers? Well you have a dangerous basketball team.

GMG