It's simple, University of Arkansas-Little Rock (14-14, 11-3) knocks off North Texas (15-12, 8-6) and they win the Sun Belt West. With a 16-8 overall record, 4-2 at home against North Texas, UALR is making room for their trophy. North Texas plans to put those plans on hold afterall they have won the last two at UALR.

The last time the two teams faced each other was at The Super Pit, 12/29/11, where UALR (3-10) dumped the home team 69-66. Since then UALR has posted an 11-4 record, North Texas has gone 9-5.

Since the last meeting, North Texas lost their two top scorers to grades resulting in a weak bench.

While the equation is simple for UALR it is different for North Texas. They need to win the next two games on the road against UALR and Denver to get a first round bye in the Sun Belt Tournament. Lose one or two and it gives South Alabama and Florida Atlantic, if they win, an opportunity to get the bye.

D'Andre Williams is the leading score for UALR with 12.6 points, Will Neighbour puts in 11.1 and Chuck Guy with 10.2. They have close games scoring 63.6 a game while opponents outscore them 63.8 points a game. They get outrebounded -2.1 a game but are +2 in turnovers.

The big strength UALR will have against North Texas is the bench, nine players have ten minutes or more game time experience. Williams gets about 34 minute per game, Guy goes for about 30, Courtney Jackson for about 29 and Neighbor about 26. All the rest get between 11 and 18 minutes each game.

The University of Southern Mississippi has formed a 21 member search committee to identify the next candidate for the position of Athletic Director. The present AD stepped down after 13 years at the helm, 

There is a large block of Southern Miss Fans that want North Texas AD Rick Villarreal to return home because they feel he is the right candidate for the stated qualifications.

Here are some of the characteristics Southern Miss is looking for in their new AD:

1. A person with "a record of successful fund-raising ability and keen business sense.

2. "Established relationships with athletic directors and coaches across the country.

3. "A passion for accepting the challenges currently facing Southern Miss.

4. "An ability to build additional links to all areas of campus and focus on student success."

The stated case for Villarreal is he is a Southern Miss grad thereby he understands the challenges facing the university and the athletic program.

He is a former assistant athletic director and has a deep understanding of inner workings of the Athletic Department.

As AD at North Texas, he has accomplished more than what has been done at Southern Miss during the same time frame.

North Texas recently extended Villarreal's contract for five years.

The Super Pit was crawling with a lot of elementary school children for the last home game against Sun Belt Conference Rival the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The students were there as part of the Senior Week festivities. Three out going seniors were recognized, Tyler Hall, Alonzo Edwards and Kedrick Hogans, all three got the start.

It looked like North Texas was going to send their fans home happy as they took a seven point lead in the first half but crumbled under the pressure of the Ragin' Cajuns defense and let the lead slip away resulting in a 53-57 loss.

In the past several seasons, North Texas could overcome poor shooting, turnovers and counted on wins from the charity stripe in close games. With only 11 of 24 free throws falling, North Texas did not come close to helping themselves to a win from the line.

Add in 19 shots falling of 65 attempts North Texas blew opportunities to win or put this game out of reach.

North Texas seemed to be on the fast track to a win when Hall fed Mitchell for a slam dunk for the first score of the game for both teams. ULL answered, Williams added two more points before Edwards got his first career three point basket giving North Texas a 7-2 lead.

The two teams battled back and forth before Roger Franklin hit a jumper to give North Texas a 7 point lead at 11-4. However, the team did not seem to have any spark and had to work at getting the ball to fall through the hoop. The fans were not in the game because of it.

ULL closed to within one before North Texas' Hall hit a three then followed with another three to give North Texas a 17-10 lead. ULL battled back to tie the game at 21 all at the 6:16 mark in the first half. After hitting two free throws, ULL had a two point lead but Williams tied the game on a two point jumper.

ULL took a one point lead by hitting one free throws and Edwards responded by hitting just one of his two free throws to tie the game at 24-24. ULL took the lead and built upon it and led at half 32-25.

Out of the break ULL went up by nine before Holmen cut the lead to six by hitting a three point shot. ULL was able to move ahead by seven when Williams, inside the paint, put the ball in for two then a few minutes later he cut the lead to three with another shot from inside the paint. ULL managed to push their lead out to six.

Edwards on a dunk, Williams on a fastbreak layup and Holmen on a layup tied the game, 42-42 bringing the 4000 or so fans to their feet. ULL took a two point lead but Niko Stojiljkovic tied the game with 8:08 left in the contest. From here it was ULL bullying North Texas.

They built their lead back to six points 50-44 with 4:42 left. North Texas cut the lead to two 51-53 with1:13 left, then to one 53-54 with 13 seconds left but four free throws by ULL sent North Texas fans to the showers outside wondering what is happening to their team.

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.

Got several calls from fans from CUSA schools asking when North Texas is going to join CUSA. Seems AD's from several schools have stated in booster meetings North Texas will be one of the two choices to make the conference 24 teams.

They also seem to think that the second choice will be the University of Texas-San Antonio passing up LaTech. Main reason is the San Antonio television market.

While fans think fans in the stands is important, for television networks the main item for them is the amount of households with televisions and or cable. They make money from television advertising and do not make money off hotdogs sold in a stadium.

North Texas AD Rick Villerreal still contents the best place for North Texas is the Sun Belt and told Eagletalk.net he has nothing more to say about expansion.

Back in 2004 when North Texas was passed over by CUSA it was reported that North Texas was not committed enough and Fouts Field proved it. Now is a different story. Apogee Stadium is right there in the mix to be one of the better stadiums in CUSA.

What were are hearing is simply this, they believe North Texas is in stronger position to join CUSA than when Central Florida joined. Now look at where the UCF program is.  

North Texas took off on Sun Belt Conference member the University of Louisiana-Monroe leading from start to finish. This time they were not going to allow an opponent to come back to make the game close or even take a win. It took North Texas three tries to score before they got the first score of the game when Tony Mitchell hit a three. From there North Texas glided to an 86-51 win.

North Texas had a 7-0 lead before ULM got their first two points of the game. North Texas continued to widen their lead and with 11:55 left in the first half they held a 20-7 margin after Alonzo Edwards hit one of two free throws.

Mitchell hit another three at the 10:22 to mark to give North Texas a 15 points at 25-10.

ULM closed the gap before Trey Norris, coming in off the bench, got a steal and an assist on the Tyler Hall three point basket. It gave North Texas an 18 point lead, 30-12, with 8:38 left in the half.

North Texas maintained the lead then pushed their lead to 19 when Mitchell hit one of two free throws. Mitchell was fouled again and pushed the lead to 20 after hitting one of two free throws resulting in North Texas up 35-15 with 6:27 left before halftime.

ULM went on a rally and closed the lead to 15 before Alzee Williams hit a jumper followed by Niko Stojiljkovic getting a layup pushing the North Texas lead to 39-20.

The Warhawks chipped away at the lead cutting it down to 13 points before Brandan Walton hit a three with five seconds left in the half to give North Texas a 44-28 halftime lead.

Opening up the second half Mitchell, on a dunk, gave North Texas a 46-28 lead. Franklin hit two free throws to extend the lead to 48-28. The lead stayed at 20 points until Jacob Holmen got a layup giving North Texas a 52-30 lead.

ULM was able to cut the 22 point lead down to 18 before North Texas started to push the lead back to 22. ULM cut the lead back to 18 points at 67-49 with a little over eight minutes left. That was about the end of the Warhawks.

With Mitchell at the line, he moved North Texas up by one hitting one of two free throws. From here North Texas simply scored their way to a win.

Edwards got a layup in the paint, Mitchell hit one free throw, Williams hit a jumper, followed by him hitting another jump shot, Mitchell got a tip-in, Norris hit a three before ULM got their next basket making the score 80-51 with 1:56 left in the game.

Forrest Robinson, Holmen and Hall all hit for two point shots each making the final score North Texas 86, ULM 51.

North Texas improves to 15-11, 8-5, ULM falls to 2-24, 1-12.

Mitchell had another double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing three offensive and 12 defense rebounds for a total of 15 rebounds. He also had six blocks shots.

Williams added in 12 points and a team high four assists. Hall added 11 points and Franklin had ten points. Hall, Stojiljkovic, Norris and Mitchell each had two assists. Every North Texas player scored in the game.

The home season ends this Saturday as Louisiana-Lafayette visits The Super Pit for a 3:30 tip-off. The game will be on the Sun Belt Conference Network. North Texas will finish out the regular season at UALR, Thursday, February 23 and the final regular season game will be at Denver Sunday, February 26^th.

The Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be at Hot Springs, Arkansas March 3-6^th.

North Texas hosts the University of Louisiana-Monroe in Sun Belt Conference action this Thursday at The Super Pit. The Warhawks are bringing in an eight game losing streak with North Texas losing their last game.

The two teams faced each other in Monroe, La., Jan., 12 with North Texas taking a 68-55 win. In the contest Chris Jones scored 26 points and Jordan Williams added in 19 but both players are no longer with the team because of grades. The question is can North Texas overcome the loss of the two players and take home win.

ULM (2-23, 1-11) only conference win came against Florida International.

This season they are scoring 60.1 points a game while giving up 70.5. They are shooting .406 from the field, .364 from three point range and from the line they are hitting .660. They are being out-rebound -3.6 per game, losing 2 more steals per game then they get and are minus 1.9 in the turnover department. While they get 2.1 blocks a game opponents get 4.1 blocks a game.

The leading scorer on the team is #55, Fred Brown, G, 6-2, 180, Sr., averaging 12.3 points a game while #11 Charles Winborne, G, 6-1, 185, So., puts in 10.9 and they are the only players scoring in double figures for ULM.

In 18 games, #15 Steven McClelland, C, 6-7, 250, So., leads the team with 6.4 rebounds a game. He played played in the last 18 games because during the first several games he was on the bench as a planned red-shirted but his talents were needed on the floor and he is producing. McClelland has a tendency of getting into foul trouble and has fouled out of six games. Second on the team in rebounds is #24 Hugh Mingo, G, 6-3, 175, Sr., with 4.7 per game.

This is not a tall team #41 Fabio Ribeiro, C, 6-10, 250, Sr., is the tallest player on the team. Coming in as the second tallest player on the team is #5, Christian Bibi Ndongo, F, 6-8, 195, Sr. One player is 6-6 and two players are 6-7.

This is a young team with four seniors no juniors and the rest are sophomores and freshmen. So they are taking their lumps this season.

Keith Richard is head coach and is in his second season. He took over a team that went 12-19. In his first year he guided ULM to a 7-24 record and 2-23 so far this year. In the last seven years they have had only one winning season going 18-14 in 06-07 with North Texas bumping them out of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Not discounting ULM but this is a team North Texas needs to face at this point in the season. After blowing a 19 point lead against FAU, the players might be questioning themselves and a win against the Warhawks might give them some much needed confidence.

ULM has played to the level of their competition and will be up against North Texas. ULM knows that they can come back against North Texas because several times this season North Texas has blown some leads. While they are struggling for wins, ULM has played several games close so North Texas has to get out of the gates fast.

Tip-off is 7PM.

North Texas Head Football Coach Dan McCarney confirmed early reports that he suffered from a stroke and is the reason he was helicopter to a local hospital on Sunday evening.

After a workout, McCarney sat down to eat a sandwich when his left side went dumb. He was giving a series of tests and reports he is expected to recover fully from the incident. As of Tuesday morning he was still in the hospital with some tingling.

Conference-USA and the Mountain West Conference announced their plans to merge into one big happy family. The move was a result of defections by schools in both conferences.

Air Force, Colorado, UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming are the leftover members from the MWC. East Carolina, Marshall, Rice, Southern Mississippi, Texas-El Paso, Tulane, Tulsa and the University of Alabama at Birmingham are the leftover member from CUSA.

Coming into the MWC for the 2012 season are Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii.

The new conference is expected to begin play in the 2013 season.

This is not a new partnership for the two conferences as they served as the "Champion versus Champion" format for the Liberty Bowl which was started in 1997-1999, both conference champions faced each other.

The merger will affect the bowl lineup. CUSA  is currently aligned with Liberty Bowl vs. SEC, Hawaii Bowl vs Hawaii/WAC, Armed Forces Bowl vs MWC/BYU/Service Academies, Beef O Bradys Bowl vs Big East, New Orleans Bowl vs Sunbelt, Military Bowl vs ACC/Service Academies and the TicketCity Bowl vs Big 10.

The MWC has their lineup of Las Vegas Bowl vs PAC 12, Poinsettia Bowl vs WAC/Service Academies, Independence Bowl vs ACC and the New Mexico vs PAC 12.

Both conference overlap in the Armed Services Bowl.

Also television deals have to be reworked as both conferences are in the middle of television contract negotiations with the CBS Sports Network that run through the 2015-2016 season. In place for the MWC is an option to extend their contract for four years.

In addition to the CBS agreement, CUSA has a deal that runs through the 2015-2016 season with Fox Sports.

Details of the TV deal have to be worked out. Before the loss of the CUSA schools, television industry sources pointed out there are no television markets attractive to them from CUSA if SMU and Houston left.  With speculation the new conference could go to 24 teams which means they would be looking to get schools that could deliver in television markets.

While details of the what the conference will look like is forthcoming, the plan is to keep all regional rivalries in place in the divisions to maximize fan involvement in the new conference.

Hawaii will be a member in football only.

Other issues to be worked out is a possible NCAA change to allow the new conference to play 14 games. Right now the NCAA limits the conference games to 13. CUSA is planning to kept its conference championship game with the winner of that championship facing the winner of the MWC side of the house for the overall championship.

The hope of the new conference is to get a BCS bid. The Big East is trying to keep its bid by adding new schools from CUSA. If the Big East works it out the earliest the new conference could get a bid is 2018.

Eagletalk.net has worked out an arrangement with Athlon's Football Magazine for a special cover specifically designed for North Texas. This special cover will not be available in any stores and right now can only be ordered through Eagletalk.net.

Here is a copy of the one Eagletalk.net was involved in at Southern Miss. The one for North Texas is not firmed yet but an example of what it could look like is forthcoming.

Athlon's has a national publication and regional publication. The Sun Belt is in the Southeastern magazine and at this point it looks like that is what the front cover will be on. It could be on the national publication but that would require fans to purchase two magazines. 1. The national to get the special cover and then 2. to get the preview of the Sun Belt.

In the history of special cover editions only nine schools have taken advantage of the offer. Because of distribution problems and other problems, the program was not active last year. At this point this year only North Texas is being considered because Eagletalk.net is willing to back up the orders and do the distributions.

There is nothing special inside Athlon's on North Texas. Everything inside the magazine will be the same as if anyone bought it off the shelf. What is different is the cover. If you go to the store to pick up an Athlon's Southeastern addition, there will be pictures of Auburn, Alabama etc on the front cover. What North Texas fans will have is the same magazine with North Texas on the front cover.

OK, here is the hump. Last year the store list pricing of Athlon's was $7.99 and this year it is slated to be $8.99 although they might keep it at $7.99. While we do not have an order process at this time, we are working out several options at this time. We are looking to sell the magazines are $9.25 each to cover cost of PayPal or .26 cents above the proposed list price. In order to make this go, we have to have 1,500 pre-sold orders. The minimum order is 1500, but we can order more in 500 increments.

Eagletalk.net will not figuring to make a profit in this project and probably will lose money. We have given the actual costs to Rick Villerreal except the shipping costs because we do not know what they will be. When added up it is a break even proposition and RV can verify it. By the time Eagletalk.net gets the magazines here and drive them over to Denton, we will lose money. We are looking for other alternatives to this too.

Right now, Eagletalk.net is guaranteeing the 1500 or more orders and taking on all risks with distribution. Basically, we are putting up slightly more than $10,000 or higher to get these things printed. PayPal will cost around $400.00. We are projecting shipping to be in the $1,000 range or higher. The cost to bring the magazines to Denton should be around $200 and a couple of days in a motel, meals etc. So you can figure the numbers. We are still working on details, like how to place orders and where they can be picked up.

North Texas fans complain about not getting national exposure, here is your start. If you have a business, instead of having a magazine with Texas, Texas A&M in your waiting rooms have one that has the North Texas cover on it. If you entertain, have the Athlons Magazine with a North Texas cover on your coffee table. Having the cover in the hands of local high school coaches would not hurt.

This can lead to other special things for North Texas with Athlons and lead to other national media outlets doing things. Eagletalk.net will keep putting information out about this project as things unfold.

If we can't get close to the order this thing will go away.