Courtesy: University of North Texas8:09 p.m. - North Texas places Tony Mitchell and Jacob Holmen on the All-Tournament Team.
8:01 p.m. - The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers defeat the Mean Green 74-70 in the Sun Belt Championship game. Tony Mitchell finishes with 18 points to lead North Texas.
7:53 p.m. - Kahlil MCDonald makes a three-ball for WKU, Toppers lead 70-68 with 50 seconds on the clock.
7:52 p.m. - Alzee Williams makes two free throws to put NT back up, 68-67 with 1:20 to play.
7:50 p.m. - WKU takes the lead on a Fant jumper, 67-66. Mean Green timeout with 2:36 to play.
7:43 p.m. - We've reached the final media timeout in the second half and North Texas finds itself up 66-63 with 3:35 left to play. Mitchell leads the Mean Green with 18 points.
7:40 p.m. - WKU tied up the game briefly, but a Tony Mitchell bucket and an Alzee Williams three-point play puts NT back up five, 64-59. Under five minutes to play.
7:35 p.m. - Just got a stat sheet and one thing immediately popped out... North Texas has four players with at least five rebounds. The entire team is chipping in to get the boards.
7:33 p.m. - The North Texas offense stopped the bleeding and lead WKU 59-54 with 7:50 to play.
7:29 p.m. - The Toppers are beginning their comeback and force North Texas to take a timeout. Mean Green lead 55-51 halfway through the second stanza.
7:24 p.m. - Roger Franklin just picked up his fourth foul with 11:59 to play. He'll have to sit for a little while. Mean Green up, 55-45 thanks to that 12-0 run.
7:21 p.m. - Four more Mean Green points leads to another Western Kentucky timeout. North Texas up 55-42, 12:41 left.
7:17 p.m. - Following another defensive hold, Walton nails another jumper and forces WKU to take a timeout. 51-42 Mean Green, 13:40 left in the game.
7:15 p.m. - Brandan Walton hits a big three-ball and Tony Mitchell collects his own three-point-play the hard way to put the Mean Green up 49-42 with 14:14 to play.
7:11 p.m. - First media timeout has North Texas ahead of the Hilltoppers 41-38 with 15:52 to play.
7:08 p.m. - Former Mean Green marketing intern Sarah McCance checked in with us and says she has an entire airport cheering for the Mean Green!
7:05 p.m. - The Toppers started with the ball and nailed a three-pointer, but Tony Mitchell responded with a bucket of his own. 34-33 NT.
7:03 p.m. - Everyone is back in place and the final half of the Sun Belt Tournament is underway. WKU is starting with the posession.
6:48 p.m. - Alzee Williams misses a pull-up jumper at the buzzer and the Mean Green take that 32-30 lead into the break. Tony Mitchell has nine points, Williams has seven and Holmen six.
6:47 p.m. - Tony Mitchell slams home a thunderous dunk on the pass from Alzee Williams to put NT back on top, 32-30. 6.3 seconds to play in the half.
6:36 p.m. - Jacob Holmen has six points for the Mean Green, who lead Western Kentucky 28-26 with 3:57 to play in the first stanza.
6:29 p.m. - The North Texas lead moves to five points with 6:43 to go, 25-20. Brandan Walton already has two fouls and Tyler Hall has been picking up the slack! He's been all over the place making great plays.
6:18 p.m. - Mean Green are up on WKU with 11:04 left in the first half 16-14. Both teams were hot early on, but now the defense is stepping up.
6:09 p.m. - First media timeout sees the Hilltoppers with a 12-10 lead. Jacob Holmen has four points while Walton, Mitchel and A. Williams have two a piece.
6:04 p.m. - Here we go! Tip-time on ESPN2 for a chance to make the NCAA Tournament!
6:00 p.m. - Starting lineups are being announced. Normal five for the Mean Green. Jacob Holmen, Brandan Walton, Alzee Williams, Tony Mitchell and Roger Franklin
5:55 p.m. - Both teams are out of the locker room with their head coaches this time. Make sure you're watching or listening to this one! ESPN2 on your televisions and 88.1 FM KNTU in Denton as well as 100.7 FM The Word in the D-FW area.
5:52 p.m. - National Anthem is complete and there is just five minutes on the clock. Almost game time here in Summit Arena.
5:47 p.m. - We have coach Jones' pregame talk with the MGRN on the video part of the homepage, but the internet here will not allow us to link it into the blog at the moment. You should chek it out!
5:38 p.m. - 18 minutes let on the pregame clock and the North Texas crowd is amped up. You can't look around and see anyone sitting still. Let's get this game started!
5:29 p.m. - In the only meeting between these two teams this season, Tony Mitchell and Roger Franklin notched 20 point outings and the Mean Green shot a then-season-high 56.4 percent from the field.
5:20 p.m. - A bus load of 57 students just made it into Summit Arena and have taken up their spot behind our location. Right now, North Texas fans outnumber Western Kentucky fans 2:1.
5:08 p.m. - VIDEO Pregame roundtable discussion with Hank Dickenson and WKU's radio announcer.
4:52 p.m. - The Mean Green has arrived in Summit Arena! We'll have some video of the send off for you shortly. Just over an hour from gametime!
4:03 p.m. - Calling all fans in Hot Springs! The men's send off will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the Austin Hotel. Make sure you make it over to show the men your support as they leave for the Sun Belt Conference Championship game.
3:37 p.m. - With two blocks in tonight's game, Tony Mitchell will be in sole posession of the school's single season blocks record. He currently has 68 blocks this season in only 21 games.
3:35 p.m. - The Hot Springs Arena workers have confetti cleaning down to a science. It took them just over 10 minutes to get all of that off the floor. They're vaccuming it up now. Men's Sun Belt Conference Championship begins in just over two hours!
3:25 p.m. - What a game that women's championship was. Middle Tennessee came back from 22 down in the first half to nearly pull out win, but UALR took it in overtime. For those of you that have decided to stay in Denton, we have received word that Dan's Silverleaf is having a watching/listening party on their back porch. Make your way over there for the Mean Green championship action!
2:43 p.m. - With the scored tied at 61-61 in the women's championship and 1:35 left on the clock, someone accidently turned on the confetti machine for a brief second and got some of the confetti on the court. This has turned out to be a great game!
2:34 p.m. - Either North Texas (2) or Western Kentucky (2) have won the Sun Belt Conference Championship in four of the last five seasons, while each of the last six SBC Championship games has featured one of the two schools.
2:31 p.m. - Sun Belt Freshman of the Year Tony Mitchell has now made 12 straight free throws dating back to Feb. 18 vs Louisiana-Lafayette.
2:24 p.m. - Back at Summit Arena and UALR and Middle Tennessee are playing a close one. UALR once led by 22 points in the first half, but the Blue Raiders have stormed back to within one. Trojans lead 55-54 with eight minutes to play in the women's championship.
1:42 p.m. - Our pregame lunch was excellent and it is time to start getting down to business. We're almost four hours until game time, so it is about time to head over to the arena to catch the end of the women's championship game. I'll have a bunch of notes for you upon arrival at Summit Arena as the Green Gang is set to dive into this matchup.
12:22 p.m. - Sorry it's been a little while. We just finished our pregame staff meeting and are headed to lunch. Game time is almost five and a half hours away! The Mean Green is appearing in it's third straight Sun Belt Conference Championship game tonight. North Texas is only the third program in Sun Belt history to make three-straight championship games.
10:31 a.m. - VIDEO Last night's postgame press conference, courtesy SunBeltSports.org.
10:26 a.m. - Students, there is still time to catch the shuttle to Hot Springs for the game tonight. The bus is staging now and will leave the Fouts Field parking lot at 11 a.m. It will then return to Denton after the game. Everyone that can needs to come up and support the Mean Green men's basketball team! Let's drown out the Western Kentucky fans!
9:51 a.m. - We're winding down practice here at Summit Arena right now. Western will take the floor after North Texas, so we can't hang around the court for an hour or so. The women's championship game will be at 1 p.m. and will pit UALR vs. Middle Tennessee. The arena crew will clean inbetween games to have everything ready for the men's championship at 6 p.m.
9:38 a.m. - CollegeSportsMadness.com has a differing opinion than the rest of the brackets, putting North Texas as a No. 15 seed and squaring the Mean Green off with No. 2 seed Marquette.
9:33 a.m. - The right hand man for Coach Jones in his 11 years at North Texas has the scout for tonight's game. Assistant coach Charlie Leonard going over the game plan during shoot-around. Everyone listening pretty closely despite all the racket by the ESPN crews setting up.
9:25 a.m. - CBSSports' Jerry Palm also placed North Texas in his bracket last night. He has the Mean Green as a No. 16 seed and playing Mississippi Valley State as well, but the winner of that game advances to play No. 1 seed Kentucky in Louisville
9:19 a.m. - We did a little research this morning while waiting around for practice and noticed that the NCAA Tournament bracketology folks have North Texas in the field now. As the highest remaining seed in the tournament, that was expected. ESPN's Joe Lunardi has the Mean Green as a No. 16 seed playing Mississippi Valley State in the play-in game in Dayton, Ohio, with the winner advancing to face No. 1 seed Kansas in Omaha, Neb.
9:08 a.m. -Good morning from Summit Arena! This is Ryan Kasmiersky, Steven Bartolotta and Stephen Howard reporting from the men's shootaround and practice this morning. It's Championship Tuesday here in Hot Springs and yet another beautiful day outside. For anyone that is still sitting around in Denton, get in your car and make it up to the Spa City for the game tonight. We need everyone to make sure that we have more fans than Western Kentucky! Students, the shuttle coming to Hot Springs will stage at 10:30 in the Fouts Field parking lot close to the ROTC building. It will leave at 11 and be here for game time, then return following the game.
