When North Texas and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette face off Saturday at The Super Pit there is a lot at stake for both teams. This is the time of the season when teams need to peak going into conference tournaments and earning a possible NCAA bid. ULL is tied with Denver for second place in the Western Division with a 9-5 record. North Texas is trailing one game behind in fourth place with an 8-5 record. All teams are in the running for the second place bid and no one wants to falter.

The University of Arkansas-Little Rock continues to lead the West Division with a 10-3 record however, two of their three games left are against Troy, North Texas and Arkansas State. A loss or two could propel North Texas, Denver or ULL into first place. So there is lot at stake for the Saturday contest.

Middle Tennessee, 12-1, has won the East Division even if they lose their last three games.

ULL is entering the game after losing an overtime loss to Denver 70-72. North Texas enters the game with a win over Louisiana-Monroe 86-51.

These two teams played each other on January 25^th, with ULL taking a 64-62 win. The game was a close one throughout the game. The two teams tied once, 7-7, at the 15:35 mark in the first half and North Texas' only lead, 27-26 came with just 35 seconds left in the first half on an Alonzo Edwards dunk. It was short-lived as ULL took a 28-27 halftime lead.

ULL did build a ten point lead twice in the second half the last ten point lead coming with 4:36 left in the game. North Texas was able to cut the lead to two with 56 seconds left. Two three point shots by Tony Mitchell and Roger Franklin to win the game with less than three seconds left failed to find its mark resulting in North Texas handed a 62-64 lost.

At the time, this was the third game with North Texas not having their two top scorers in the game because of grade issues.

The key to the Ragin' Cajuns is defense. They rank second in the league in field goal percentage defense.

Everyone gets involved in the ULL gameplan. Stop one player on offense results in another picking up the slack, stop him and another steps in. Only one player, #1 Josh Brown, G, 6-4, 200, Sr., is in double figures with 10.5 points a game. Three players # 23 Kadeem Coleby, F/C, 6-9, 250, Jr., has 9.9 a game, #21 Darshawn McClellan, F, 6-7, 240, Sr., averages 9.3 and #5 J.J. Thomas, F, 6-5, 220, So., puts in 9.2 game.

Seven players average 20 or more minutes a game. Brown grabs 6.5 rebounds a game followed by three players getting 5 or more per game.

ULL holds opponents to 67.5 points a game while their offense score 69.5 a game.

Most of their stats are pretty even so this is coming down to a close contest and like last time a game will be decided by the team with the ball last.

Overall, ULL is a well balanced team in scoring and height. However, they have some big body players to push opponents around. They managed to exactly this in the last game. Roger Franklin was the leading North Texas scorer with 15 points. Mitchell, Walton and Williams were bullied to the the point they were only able to put in 11 points each.

If this is a close game, North Texas should take the win because of the hometown crowd. However, ULL is a more dominate team between the two and they can silence the crowd they can go home knocking off North Texas.