Here are the Rankings for Conference USA as of 01/01/2016 as available on the ESPN website.  I am also adding the RPI Ranking as this can be a factor for whether a team may appear in post season play if they do not win the conference tournament. Points Per Game Louisiana Tech (13) - #47 Western Kentucky (13) - #88 North Texas (13) - #95 UAB (13) - #112T Marshall (13) - #112T UTEP (13) - #123 Rice (13) - #159 Charlotte (12) - #215 UTSA (13) - #231 Middle Tennessee State (12) - #240 FIU (13) - #241 Old Dominion (11) - #307 FAU (13) - #339 Southern Miss (11) - #346 Assists UAB - #8 UTEP - #60 Marshall - #97 Western Kentucky #107 Louisiana Tech - #126 FIU - #192 Rice - #201T Old Dominion - #201T Middle Tennessee - #228 Charlotte -

The Mean Green kicked of its conference slate at home against the Road Runners of UTSA after an 11 day break.  The game against Oklahoma Pan Handle State was canceled due to in-clement weather.  Head Coach Jalie Mitchell had expressed concern that North Texas would have some rust to shake off given the long and unexpected break however the first period proved to show the Mean Green were anything but rusty.  North Texas managed to 21 points, a season high and then held the Runners to just 6 points in the second period. Kelsey Criner scored a career high of 23 points while notching her sixth double digit game.  She was 8 of 11 (72.7%) from the floor, 2 of 2

North Texas kicked off its conference slate on the road at UTSA in San Antonio, TX.  The Mean Green only managed 25 first half points on 10 of 22 (45.5%) shooting from the floor.  The Mean Green clamped down on defense to reverse things up allowing the Mean Green to pull ahead.  However, Free Throw shooting continues to be a problem as North Texas was only 13 of 28 (46.4%) from the line.  This was the Mean Green's first road win of the season. However, North Texas has yet to defeat an opponent that has a winning record. This evening's Player of the Game is Ja'Michael Brown coming off the bench with a career high of 21 points shooting 8 of

For the final out of conference match up, North Texas outlasted the Bearkats in a game that saw 8 lead changes and 6 ties.  Foul trouble was a problem for the Bearkats late into the 2nd Half of the game however no players fouled out of the game for either team. Today's uncontested Player of the Game is Deckie Johnson with 27 points (Career High @NT) shooting 8-13 (.615) from the floor, 3-6 (.500) from behind the arc, and 8-12 (.667) from the charity stripe.  This is his 10th game to post double digits in a game so far this season and he is averaging 14.3 points per game. Another solid contributor in tonight's game was J-Mychal Reese with 13 points.  His

North Texas fell to Creighton Blue Jays tonight in front of a sell out crowd in Omaha, Nebraska.  Foul trouble plagued the Mean Green's interior players through much of the game.  The team did improve on its free throw shooting in tonight's contest but it was not enough to overcome the potent Blue Jay offense. J-Mychal was the team's leading scorer with 20 points (FG 6-16 37.5% 3FG 1-3 33.3% FT 6-7 85.7%).  Deckie Johnson (16), Ja'Michael Brown (12), and Jeremy Combs (11) also finished the game  in double figures. Combs led the team with 8 rebounds. The Mean Green's next game will be against Sam Houston State on December 29th at 8 PM in the SuperPit in Denton, TX. Game Stats

The Mean Green fell to the Salukis of Southern Illinois for the second time this season.  This is the seventh straight loss North Texas has suffered and have not registered a Div. 1 win so far this season. The last Div. 1 win dates back to Feb. 26 when the Mean Green defeated Charlotte 81 to 65 in the SuperPit. Free Throw shooting continues to be a problem as the Mean Green went just 7-19 (36.8%).  Turnovers (21) were another problem that plagued the team. J-Mychal Reese lead the team with 25 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.  Jeremy Combs was the rebound leader with 14 -- 8 Off., 4 Def. -- however he seems to have fallen into a scoring slump,

I'm going to post every two weeks on Tuesday or Wednesday the rankings for all 14 teams in Conference USA for various categories.  This won't be a direct representation of how "good" or "bad" a team actually is but it could be a leading indicator.  These rankings are pulled from the ESPN NCAA Men's Team Statistics pages that I presume are updated constantly as games are completed.  This will be out of 351 Division 1 schools playing Basketball.  The number in parenthesis represents the number of games played. Points Per Game Louisiana Tech (7) - #45 Western Kentucky (8) - #77 North Texas (8) - #96 UTEP (8) - #106 Rice (9) - #170 Marshall (6) - #225 UTSA (8) - #228 FIU (9) - #234 UAB (8) - #253 Charlotte (8)

Tac Acheil lead the team with 13 points on her way to scoring her second double-double of the season. She managed 10 rebounds -- 3 Offensive and 7 Defensive -- on 32 minutes.  Unfortunately it was not enough to lead the team to a victory in the Hospitality Hill Tournament.  North Texas shot 34% from the floor, 22% from behind the arc, and 75% from the line. Next up for the Mean Green is IUPUI.  Game time is 2:30 PM at The SuperPit in Denton, TX. Stats for today's game have been posted online.

In this young season, the Mean Green had their worst night of the season shooting just 33.3% from the Free Throw line. The Mean Green also had a 4 minute stretch where they were held scoreless allowing UTA to get out to 23-6 lead. The Mean Green managed to fight their way back and tie the game up but never managed to ever take the lead. In the 2nd half the Mavericks took control of the game and held North Texas to just 25 points, shooting just 33.% from the floor. Top scoring players were Deckie Johnson and J'Mychal Reese, each with 16 points. Johnson was 3-5 from the floor, 1 of 7 from behind the arc and a