NORTH TEXAS
Mean Green brace for Nova.
Grant McCasland didn’t need long to turn the page following the biggest win in program history.
One glance at Villanova was all it took for North Texas’ coach to move on from a 78-69 overtime stunner of Purdue in the first round of the NCAA tournament, where UNT had lost each of its previous three games.
That win sent the Mean Green, the No. 13 seed in the South Region, on to face the Wildcats in a 7:45 p.m. game on Sunday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. UNT has already taken out a No. 4 seed in the Boilermakers and know building on that win by toppling the No. 5 seed in the region will be no easy task.
“How you reset is you watch Villanova for five minutes. You realize you are playing one of the most disciplined, cultured programs in college basketball,” McCasland said. “Our guys were talking about it when they walked into breakfast at 10:30 this morning.
“They know what it is. As much as we loved winning last night, we didn’t come to win just one game.”
UNT is aiming to become just the seventh team to reach the Sweeet 16 as a No. 13 seed and the first since LaSalle in 2013.
The Mean Green have already beaten the odds once with their win over Purdue behind Javion Hamlet. The senior guard guided UNT to four wins in four days in the Conference USA tournament to get the Mean Green back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010 and followed up with a huge outing against Purdue.
Hamlet posted a doubledouble with 24 points and 12 rebounds to spark an efficient offensive outing by UNT. The Mean Green shot 47.5% from the field and had four of its five starters finish in double figures.
Thomas Bell and Mardrez McBride both scored 16 points and James Reese added 13.
“We had to make the simple play like coach emphasizes,” Hamlet said. “No one tried has to hit the home run. It was death by 1,000 paper cuts.”
UNT’s performance made an impression on Villanova coach Jay Wright.
“Their perimeter guys are really talented, and they are an outstanding defensive team,” Wright said. “They have a lot of guys that can break you down, and they do a great job of finding the right matchups. I also saw they do a great job of offensive rebounding. They will give us a lot of problems.”
Villanova won national titles in 2016 and 2018 under Wright and is coming off a 73-63 win over Winthrop in its first-round game, despite being without its one of its top players. Senior guard Collin Gillespie suffered a season-ending knee injury in a win over Creighton late in the regular season.
Villanova turned to Chris Arcidiacono to help fill that void and didn’t miss a beat in its win over Winthrop.
“Gillespie was involved in a lot of their possessions with ball handing, but you watch them play last night,” McCasland said. “They didn’t skip a beat.
“They can put a guy in there who is ready for the moment.”
Villanova turned the ball over just six times in its win over Winthrop.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl scored 22 points against the Eagles. The sophomore forward is averaging 16.0 points per game to lead Villanova.
“They have guys who can break down defenses and get in the paint,” McCasland said. “They cut well, space well and drive it. They play in a disciplined, aggressive, structured way, and they make threes.”
UNT knows what it’s up against and enters the second round of the NCAA Tournament looking to maintain the confidence it has shown throughout its unexpected postseason run.
“People didn’t believe it when I first said it because things were going bad, but I knew we had a special group of guys,” Hamlet said. “We’re taking it one game at a time, are getting better and showing the world we belong.”
Hamlet and his teammates showed that is the case with they knocked off Purdue for the program’s first NCAA tournament win.
McCasland could tell when he heard his players talking about building on that win by taking down Villanova that they weren’t satisfied with just one win in the tournament.
UNT has an opportunity to further cement its place in history by following up its win over Purdue by knocking off Villanova to reach the Sweet 16.
“We said all along that we didn’t come just to play. We came to win,” McCasland said. “We celebrated, but I was the one who acted the craziest. The guys were like, ‘Let’s get back to the hotel so we can get ready for another one.’”