March 16, 2010, at 5:08 pm
When you’re mean and your green you’re usually Shrek but when the discussion is about the 2010 NCAA tournament, you have to think North Texas. Sun-Belt regular season and conference champion, the Mean Green will be taking on the Big-12 Kansas State Wildcats in Oklahoma City. Kansas State was a surprise team in the Big-12, not only making the NCAA tournament but doing it by dominating teams outside of their own state both in and out of conference. Frank Martin was not expected to make an impact as fast as he did but the head coach of the Wildcats has his team on a final four run. The second round of the 2/15 matchups, as much as North Texas thinks they can win this game, they simply can’t.
(2) Kansas State Wildcats (26-7) vs. (15) North Texas Mean Green (24-8)
Game Time 2:40 ET Thursday, March 18th 2010
The Wildcats of Kansas State started the season well, played great in the middle and tapered off every so slightly toward the end. Kansas State racked up three losses against Kansas and handled everyone else with conviction so playing against a team from Texas should be right of their alley. The back-court one-two combo of Dennis Clemente and Jacob Pullen is arguably the best in the country and when KSU crashes the boards, there as good as anyone. The problem with Kansas State, especially during tournament time is going to be their free-throw shooting. One of the worst teams in the country shooting from the stripe, the Wildcats will have a hard time closing out games at 66% from the foul line and unless they can get their act together, you can bet it’s going to cost them.
North Texas has been on the college basketball map for the past few seasons now but when you have Western Kentucky regularly coming out of the Sun Belt conference you tend to lose sight of everyone else. The Mean Green finished the season on an 11 game winning streak which concluded with a skin of their teeth victory over Troy in the Sun Belt conference championship game. If you think the guard play of Kansas State will dominate, think again because the UNT guards are just as capable. Led by Josh White and Tristan Thompson, North Texas scores just a shade under the KSU average point total and their defense output is identical to that of the Wildcats. The big drawback to this green team is that they can play undisciplined at any given moment and a home lost to FIU mid-season says that better than anything else.
The size of Kansas State will simply be too much for North Texas to handle. While George Oduwufa is very capable underneath, he’ll be in foul trouble almost immediately and once the Wildcats get going, even free-throws won’t stop them. Early and often … KSU will shine.
Final Score Prediction: Kansas State Wildcats 81 – North Texas 59
