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2016-2017 Men’s Basketball Roster
| Player Nbr | Player | Position | Classification | Mean Green Sports Bio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Ryan Woolridge | Guard | Freshman | Link |
| 1 | Jeremy Combs | Forward | Junior | Link |
| 2 | Greg White-Pittman | Guard | Junior | Link |
| 3 | Ja’Michael Brown | Guard | Sophomore | Link |
| 4 | Keith Frazier | Guard | Senior | Link |
| 5 | Allante Holston | Guard | Sophomore | Link |
| 10 | Deckie Johnson | Guard | Senior | Link |
| 11 | Derail Green | Forward | Graduate Student | Link |
| 12 | A.J. Lawson | Guard | Freshman | Link |
| 14 | Bryce Jackson | Forward | Junior | Link |
| 22 | Khalil Fuller | Forward | Sophomore | Link |
| 23 | Rickey Brice Jr. | Forward | Sophomore | Link |
| 24 | Jacob Gross | Guard | RS Junior | Link |
| 50 | Shane Temara | Forward | Junior | Link |
| 52 | J-Mychal Reese | Guard | Senior | Link |
| 55 | DJ Draper | Guard | RS Freshman | Link |
In light of the likely coaching changes that will be happening at the end of the year for the North Texas Men’s Basketball program, I thought I’d take a look at the roster to determine which players are more likely to leave the program as a result of the upcoming regime change.
Losses Due to Graduation/Expiration of Eligibility
Keith Frazier Senior Guard
So far this season we haven’t seen much of Frazier, who transferred from SMU to finish out his college career with the Mean Green. In 4 games he has amassed 32 point for 8 PPG and 14 rebounds, 2 Assists, 1 Block, and 1 Steal. He’s been saddled with a sore knee that has kept him out of 5 games so far this season at the publishing of this blog article.
J-Mychal Reese – Senior Guard
J-Mychal has started all but one of his 18 games he’s played in this season where he currently sits at second on the team in scoring with 164 total points giving him 9.1 points and 25.9 minutes per game.
The A&M transfer led the team last year in total points with 471 total points where he averaged 14.7 points on 33.5 minutes per game. He also lead the team with 118 Assists and an Assist-to-Turnover ratio of 1.16.
Derail Green – Senior/Graduate Student Forward
Derail Green has started 13 out of 19 games so far this season. He has averaged 22.4 minutes and 6.9 points per game. Two-thirds of his shots have been from behind the 3-point line where he is 27-77 35.1%, which is good for second best percentage behind Keith Frazier (7-19 36.8%) on more than 10 attempted 3-point shots. Green currently sits in 4th on the team in terms of points scored (131).
Deckie Johnson – Senior Guard
Deckie’s senior season has been marred by a hip injury that has kept him sidelined for five games and affected his ability on the court as well. So far this season he is below his 2015-2016 PPG average of 14.5, where he currently sits at 8.9 PPG. Last season, Deckie was third on the team in points scored (451) and points per game (14.5) while playing the second most minutes of the season (1007 and 32.5 minutes per game).
Considered ‘At Risk’ to Leave the Program
Jeremy Combs – Junior Forward
Jeremy hung up his jersey on Tuesday for the 2016-2017 season due to a nagging ankle injury he had surgery on over the summer to correct. Despite the injury, he was third on the team in scoring with 143 points in 14 games averaging 10.2 points on 26.1 minutes per game. He sat out several games this season in an effort to try to allow the ankle to heal but after a rough outing against Southern Miss on January 19th, the coaching staff decided to shelve him for the remainder of the season. He declined to comment on his status after this season in an article posted by Brett Vito.
He is considered a moderate flight risk due to the fact he is scheduled to graduate with his bachelor’s degree this summer. He could play for another program as a graduate transfer if he wanted to look for a program that produces more wins than North Texas has in the Benford era.
A.J. Lawson – Freshman Guard
A.J. currently leads the team in scoring with 186 total points which is good for 9.8 points and 20.4 minutes per game. He is also third on the team in total rebounds at 72 while being second on the team with 20 steals, averaging 3.8 rebounds and just over 1 steal a game. A.J. is the type of player a future coach can build a program around since he is a productive player on both ends of the court with lots of room for growth in his basketball career.
A.J. is a true freshman and has not red-shirted so he is considered a high flight risk. He came to North Texas to play with former HS teammate J-Mychal Reese. He will have 4 years left to play 3 after this season.
Ryan Woolridge – Red Shirt Freshman
Woolridge transferred from San Diego after a semester in California and after sitting out a year has collected 84 points in 10 games where he has averaged 8.4 points and 23.6 minutes per game. In terms of points per game, Ryan currently averages 8.4 which gets him fifth on the team. Ryan has shown flashes of amazing skills on both ends of the court where he already picked up 15 steals putting him at 1.5 steal per game plus he’s a knack at being in a good position to collect rebounds where he is third on the team in average rebounds per game at 4.1.
Given that he has already used his redshirt in order to transfer to North Texas, he would be considered a low to moderate flight risk. He will have 3 years of eligibility remaining after this season.
Considered ‘Low Risk’ to Leave the Program
Ja’Michael Brown – Sophomore Guard
Ja’Michael’s numbers are down this season compared to last season. 15/16 he averaged 8.2 point per game and this season he is averaging just 6.1 points per game. Last season Ja’Michael played through a bone spur in his heal and has been healthy for this season. It’s not exactly evident why his offensive numbers are slightly lower this season. Perhaps he has been asked to play a role he’s not entirely comfortable with?
Ja’Michael is a low to moderate flight risk. He has not redshirted thus far and he is from Louisiana and could possibly find a program from his home state to play for.
Rickey Brice Jr. – Sophomore Forward
Despite the two losing seasons Rickey has been involved in, it always seem like he’s having fun out on the floor. Also, he’s from Arlington, TX and unless he can land himself in another Texas school I don’t see him leaving the program as the result of a regime change.
Rickey has not used his redshirt and will have 3 years of eligibility to play 2 more seasons at the end of the year. He is considered a low flight risk for the program.
Jacob Gross – Junior Guard
Jacob went to Sachse High School in Sachse, TX and I do not believe his parents have missed a home game and they are frequent road warriors with the Mean Green. I can’t 100% confirm this but I believe he is a walk-on non-scholarship player. It’s unlikely he would transfer to another school as that would make it tough for his parents to continue attending their son’s games. I believe he has 2 years remaining to play 1 after the completion of this season.
Jacob Gross is considered a low flight risk to leave the program.
Shane Temara – Junior Forward
Shane started out at Angelina College where he played his freshman and sophomore years. After transferring to North Texas, he has been a good utility player frequently coming off the bench to fill in for one of the starting forwards. With Jeremy Combs’ season being done, Temara has the potential to become a regular starter. He already started against Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech where he shot 30.8% from the floor and collected 10 points.
Shane Temara is considered a low flight risk to leave the program. It is believe he still has two years of eligibility left to play 1 more season as it is possible he has not used his redshirt yet.
DJ Draper – Freshman Guard
DJ Draper is a Redshirt Freshman who used his redshirt for the 2015-2016 season. He has gotten extremely limited minutes where he has only played in 10 games this season for a total of 24 minutes and scored 8 points. He has only seen clean up action when the outcome of the game was already well determined. It is not known whether DJ is under scholarship or not with the program.
DJ is from the DFW area and graduated from Birdville HS in Bedford, TX. He is considered a low flight risk due to having to sit out a full year per NCAA transfer rules if he were to leave to go to another Div. 1 program. He will have 3 years of remaining eligibility after this season.
Allante Holston – Sophomore Guard
Allante’s role is difficult to describe. He does not score very much, 3.2 for this season and 3.8 for his freshman season, and doesn’t post dominant rebounding or defensive stats. He is something of a utility player where he often defends a 2 guard or 3 forward/guard on the other team and does a good job with his assignment. He’ll sometime be assigned to guard the 4 power forward if Benford is running a smaller unit but this is not very often. He has a tall and lean body which allows for him to have good speed/endurance to get up and down the court if the game flow allows for it.
I do not believe Allante has redshirted yet and so he will have 3 years remaining to play 2 after the conclusion of this season. He is not from Texas and so he would be considered a low to moderate flight risk.
Bryce Jackson – Junior Forward
Bryce Jackson has played limited minutes as a Redshirt Junior. In 13 games, he has averaged 4.3 minutes and 0.9 points per game.
He is considered an extremely low flight risk. I believe he has used his redshirt already after transferring from New Orleans (2014-2015) to walk-on at North Texas (did not play in 2015-2016). The 2017-2018 season should be his last year of eligibility he has left.
Non-Participating Players on the 2016-2017 Roster
Greg White-Pittman (Junior Guard) and Khalil Fuller (Sophomore Forward) are redshirting this year due to injury. It is difficult to determine whether either player would leave the program since they are both sitting out this year due to possible (although unconfirmed) injuries.