TROY, Ala. (1/13/10) - Two of the Sun Belt's top three offenses will face off in Troy, Ala., on Thursday when Tristan Thompson and the Mean Green tangle with Brandon Hazzard and the Troy Trojans.
Led by the dynamic Hazzard, Troy leads the Sun Belt with an average of 80.5 points per game. Hazzard is the league's top scoring threat at 19.0 points per game, but he is countered by NT's Thompson, who is averaging 20.0 points in Sun Belt games. Tip time from Trojan Arena is set for 7 p.m.
Quick Hitters
With his 21-point performance against New Orleans on Saturday, Josh White became just the 18th player in North Texas history to record 1,000 career points. A junior, White needed just 77 games to reach the milestone, giving him a career average of 13.1 points.
NT and Troy have only met six times in their brief history, but the Mean Green leads the series 4-2. These two teams first met in January of 2006, with NT taking the first three. North Texas and Troy have split a pair of games in Troy, Ala.
North Texas' last two wins in the series have been by a wide margin - 41 and 26 points. The Mean Green set the school record for the largest win over a Division I opponent with the 41 point blowout in 2007. The next season, North Texas knocked off the Trojans 90-64 at the Super Pit. The common factors - NT held Troy to a combined 29.4 percent shooting and posted an 88-22 edge in points in the paint.
Brandon Hazzard leads a potent Trojan offense that ranks 23rd in the country at 80.5 points per game. The senior All-Sun Belt selection leads the league with 19.0 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting from 3-point. As a team, Troy is one of the country's most efficient offenses, ranking 16th in field goal percentage (49.4) and 14th in 3-point percentage (40.8).
The state of Texas contains 21 NCAA Division I programs, and NT is one of just eight to have already amassed 10 wins this year (four of the eight teams are members of the Big XII). NT is 3-1 against teams from the Lone Star State so far this year, and will have another chance against Houston Baptist in Feb. Only two other Sun Belt teams have reached 10 wins (Denver & South Alabama).
Courtesy: Rick Yeatts
