North Texas Daily

Brett Medeiros / Staff Writer

Just more than a year ago, the Mean Green men’s basketball team traveled to Arlington to take on the University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks, trying to put behind a five-point loss to Texas Tech. Instead, the team was sent back home with an embarrassing 33-point loss.

Today at 7:30 p.m. in the Super Pit, the Mavericks (2-1) and Mean Green (3-3) will play again and start what could possibly be the beginning of an in-state rivalry.

“This is a game that we have been looking forward to, especially with the way they embarrassed us,” senior guard Roger Franklin said. “The main thing that we are going to focus on that we didn’t last year is that we’re going play hard and do everything we can to get the win.”

With last year’s loss still fresh in the minds of the UNT players, the matchup between the two teams will be a lot different than last year’s game. Since the loss, sophomore forward and preseason All-American Tony Mitchell joined the team, and first-year head coach Tony Benford now coaches the Mean Green.

While UNT has changed, UTA has stayed relatively the same.

The team is highlighted by the seven-foot senior center Stuart Lagerson in the post.

To put the size difference between the two teams in perspective, the Mean Green has only two players taller than 6 foot 8: senior forward Niko Stojiljkovic (6 feet 9 inches) and sophomore forward Keith Coleman (6 feet 10 inches). Neither player has seen considerable playing time this season, making Mitchell the team’s primary option in guarding Lagerson.

While this year’s UNT team is one of the more athletic teams in the history of the school, sophomore guard Chris Jones said the team needs to focus on the fundamentals.

“Being athletic doesn’t just mean we can dunk the ball and doing fancy tricks,” Jones said. “It’s also the little things we use our athleticism for, like getting rebounds and diving on the floor for loose balls.”

Last season’s 97-64 loss was highlighted by a 32-0 first half run by UTA and 19 first half UNT turnovers. The team couldn’t overcome the large deficit and suffered its worst loss of the season.

“It’s certainly hard not to remember a game like based on the score, and I think the guys have been working hard and getting better every day,” Benford said. “We are not looking ahead. We have got to be ready for UTA.”

The match against UTA will be the final nonconference match of the season before UNT plays its first conference match this Saturday against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

While the game will be played in the Super Pit, the game will also be televised on TXA-21.