North Texas Head Basketball Coach Johnny Jones said he was expecting a tough game out of Rice. He thought they are a “very confident team and played like it.” The Owls were able knock down shots and made it “difficult for us at times to defend them.” The Rice post players were able to hit the jump shots and hit the three-point shots.

“We expect these types of games” Jones said because North Texas will get the best shots from their opponents and “at the same time we have to make sure they are getting ours.” When North Texas are in these type of games they are going to have to respond and against Rice “we responded well.”

Going into the second half North Texas missed close to 30 three point attempts but that ended in the second half of the Rice game when Tristan Thompson hit three threes in a row which sparked a North Texas comeback. “Tristan is one of those guys that is capable of knocking down those shots.” While he can hit the threes, he can also get in the gaps, he can also get to the rim with the basketball and is able to draw fouls. “Tonight, again, I thought he came through big for us.”

North Texas uses the type of offense where they like the post players to touch the ball because once they do “great things happen when you get it inside.” Getting the ball inside forces the defense to collapse which allows North Texas to go outside for the long shot.

During the first half, Jones stated “I thought we started to settle early” where the offense was shooting too soon and taking the first available shots and not waiting for the best shot. During the second half the team was a little more patient and were able play more of the game he wanted and as a result played from behind.

“We wound up going into our light press which is very aggressive for us.” As a result North Texas was able to get their hands on the ball and it seemed to bother Rice. The result was the tempo of the game picked up because Rice to be a little shaky and North Texas started to feed of it, get some turnovers and score. At times near the end of the game they used the full court press.

Jones was pleased with the team so far this season. “We did not play extremely bad at Kansas” and part of it was North Texas did not play their A game. Against the Owls they did not play extremely well but got the win against a determined Conference-USA team.

After each game, the players have to learn from it and get better. “Tonight I thought we got better.”

North Texas travels to Texas State on Saturday. The team will get Wednesday off but The Super Pit will be opened if any of the team wants to practice. On Thanksgiving Day they will get a little practice in before they go to the house for a turkey dinner with the fixings and watch some football.

Part of the dinner will include cakes but he thinks the team will be a “little hesitate” on the eating the cakes because “they think I'll run them pretty hard on Friday.”