MEAN GREEN
Hoop, There It Is Mean Green men’s and women’s basketball teams net spectacular seasons with record-setting wins and conference bids — and making UNT history for both reaching postseason play in the same year. The North Texas men’s basketball team is once again the Conference USA West Division champion and played in the National Invitation Tournament for the first time in the program’s history. With two games still remaining in the regular season, the Mean Green defeated Louisiana Tech to clinch the division title in front of a home crowd of 8,522, the fourth-largest in Super Pit history. In early March, the team won a program-record 15th straight game with a victory over UTSA in San Antonio. The men made it to the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament and then, as a No. 2 seed, to the NIT. At the Super Pit, they defeated Texas State University in the first round of the NIT before losing a heartbreaker in overtime to Virginia, 71-69, in the second round. The team finished with 25 wins, a single season program record, and had the nation’s best scoring defense.
Meanwhile, the women’s team clinched a No. 2 seed in the C-USA tournament, making it to the semifinals, and played in the opening round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, losing to Tulsa at the Super Pit. This season is the first time the women’s basketball program has won back-to-back double-digit conference games in consecutive seasons since 2000-01 and 2001-02. They set a program record for most consecutive C-USA victories with six. And they finished the season with 17 wins overall (conference and nonconference), the fifth-most in program history. “Great way to send our seniors out with a win,” says head coach Jalie Mitchell.
Check out more sports news. meangreensports.com
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| northtexan.unt.edu | Spring 2022
Right Sophomore forward Abou Ousmane
