December 20, 2007 9:40 am ET by Kyle Whelliston |
Centenary (Summit) at North Texas (Sun Belt)
Super Pit - Denton, TX
8:00 PM EST
We hear there's some battle royale of double-digit undefeateds happening somewhere tonight, but we don't give a %^#&. Our invisible G!O!T!N! broadcast team will be in Denton, providing virtual "TMM 360" event coverage of two teams that couldn't be more different, disposition-wise: the Gentlemen and the Mean Green.
Centenary (7-4, 1-1 SL) is 3-1 against the great state of Texas (loss: at Baylor), and notably took advantage of Bobby Knight's niceness and beating Tech earlier this month. This right here is the 15th-best 3-point shooting team in the country, and the Gentlemen are great from the line, sinking 75.5 percent of their freebies (that's 17th best). And don't forget about the Gents' "white-glove defense", which may allow a lot of shots to go in but ends a lot of possessions prematurely: Rob Flaska's squad forces a Badlands Conference-best 17 turnovers a game.
Tonight, the staid Gentlemen will travel from their geodesic Gold Dome to the funky Super Pit, where they will be challenged to get down. North Texas (7-2), defending Sun Belt champions, have shown themselves to be gritty on the glass again, averaging a league-best 37 rebounds and grabbing 59.7 percent of all available missed shots (only 13 teams do it better). The Mean Green are led by 5-10 Josh White, one of the most exciting freshmen in Hoops Nation with his game-winning heroics against Oklahoma State earlier this season, and his 18.6 ppg. He's a nice player -- a perfect gentleman, even -- but the team is Mean! Mean! Grrrr! Tune in for the ultimate battle that will determine the collective mood of Hoops Nation.
UNT 76, CENT 54 (nice guys finish last again)
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