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North Texas Basketball: Can the Mean Green contend in the C-USA?

By Bryan Mauro

OKLAHOMA CITY - MARCH 18: Cheerleaders for the North Texas Mean Green performs against the Kansas State Wildcats during the first round of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Ford Center on March 18, 2010 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY - MARCH 18: Cheerleaders for the North Texas Mean Green performs against the Kansas State Wildcats during the first round of the 2010 NCAA men's basketball tournament at Ford Center on March 18, 2010 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /
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For the first time in a while, North Texas basketball has high expectations heading into 2018-19. Can the Mean Green potentially do some damage?

College basketball in the state of Texas is dominated by three schools: Texas, Baylor, and Texas Tech.  A small school located in Denton, with an upstart coach and a talented returning roster, is looking to change that at least for a year. The team is the North Texas Mean Green.

Rising coach Grant McCasland leads the Mean Green, and he has filled his roster with great talent, and not just at the mid-major level.  North Texas struggled out of the gates last year, but that was to be expected with a young and inexperienced roster. When the Mean Green put it all together towards the end of last year, though, it put the C-USA on alert.

Entering the season, the Mean Green are going to be one of the favorites in the Conference USA.  Their roster, which was young last year, is now experienced and has two of the better players in the entire league. McCasland is entering a year where the expectations are high for North Texas for the first time in what seems like forever.  If he succeeds this year, his time at North Texas may be cut short due to potentially better opportunities.

Who is going to lead the way in 2018-19?

The Mean Green are led on offense by rising junior Roosevelt Smart. Smart is an elite scorer and will be the go-to guy on offense for North Texas. McCasland gained confidence in Smart last year, and Smart did not let North Texas down very often. Smart, who is originally from Chicago, spent a year at New Mexico Junior College before ending up in Denton. Smart set all kinds of offensive records for North Texas last year. He scored over 750 points, Made 133 3-pointers, and shot 89% from the free throw line. If the Mean Green are going to be successful this year, Smart is going to have to build off of the numbers he put up last year.

The second player who makes North Texas go is rising junior point guard Ryan Woolridge. Woolridge is a typical do-everything type player, who often times never leaves the floor. In fact, Woolridge played over 1,300 minutes last year, which equates to just under 37 minutes per game played. Woolridge, a lot like his counterpart Smart, also was not shy about setting records for the Mean Green. His 221 assists last year and overall minutes played are both North Texas basketball single-season records. McCasland hopes to get Woolridge fewer minutes this year, but based on his play, it may not be as plausible as it sounds.

Where is the program’s momentum coming from?

North Texas gained some positive momentum going into the season this year. They were the winners of the CBI tournament. While the CBI is not the NCAA Tournament or even the NIT, it is still a great step in the right direction for a program like North Texas, who is trying to rebuild.  The Mean Green also gained valuable tournament experience playing in the CBI.  The tournament experience is going to help this team immensely once conference play starts.

The only thing at this point that could kill the momentum that North Texas seems to have is the hiring away of Grant McCasland to a bigger power 5 school.  As mentioned earlier, McCasland is going to be a hot commodity on coaching searches, especially if North Texas is able to live up to the expectations put on it this year.

Next: Updated preseason Bracketology

Woolridge, Smart, and the Mean Green are going to continue to keep the Conference USA on alert, especially with the gap expected to shrink between the middle tier of teams and the teams at the top. The conference is going to be up for grabs this year and North Texas with their experience, great coaching, and superb players will be in the conversation all year.