Two opponents have bested the North Texas Mean Green men’s basketball team this season. One was an in-state rival — the other was a staff appreciation lunch.
A university-scheduled luncheon forced the Mean Green to hit the road for their NIT quarterfinal game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Despite NIT appearances in three previous years, including a 2023 championship win, the university didn’t feel the need to block off the UNT Coliseum, better known as the Super Pit, in case it was needed for postseason play.
North Texas athletic director Jared Mosley told the Record-Chronicle that the school worked to explore alternative venues but weren’t able to find any.
“There is no guarantee even if the staff appreciation luncheon could have been moved that we would have been selected to host due to other planning the NIT does and not knowing if television would have slotted our game for Tuesday or Wednesday,” Mosley said.
Here’s a truly insane story: North Texas can’t play an NIT quarterfinal game at home because the school scheduled a faculty luncheon.
Don’t see that in big-time athletics. https://t.co/QHFVH4elua
— Ben Baby (@Ben_Baby) March 25, 2025
In a statement provided to ESPN, North Texas also referred to a dance competition the school is scheduled to host this week. However, that does not begin until Friday. Even if North Texas hosted a game on Wednesday, there still would have been two days to set up and prepare for the American Dance and Drill Team championship at the Super Pit.
It seemed to be a given that had the two-seed Mean Green advanced to the quarterfinals, they were going to host the quarterfinal game on campus since the then-top-seeded SMU Mustangs were eliminated. But just before North Texas’ win against Arkansas State on Sunday, the scheduling conflict was reported, which meant the win against the Red Wolves was the final home game of the season. The NIT semifinals and finals are at Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse.
It’s not just the men that have been inconvenienced — the women’s team is one of 16 left in the WNIT. Second-year coach Jason Burton also spoke out about the scheduling issues.
“We gotta get to the point where we block it off,” Burton said after the team’s win on Monday. “Because the men should be playing at home. We should have the opportunity to play at home in these tournaments.”
This isn’t the first time a basketball team hasn’t been able to use its home arena in the NIT. Illinois was unable to host an NIT game in 2010 because Cirque du Soleil was in town. More recently, NYU’s men’s and women’s teams are trading court usage in the Division III tournament.
The Illinois situation is more applicable in this instance. But even then, there is a bit of extra context needed. For a team in a Power Four conference that generally receives a slew of at-large bids into the NCAA tournament, hosting an NIT game isn’t going to be a top priority. For mid-majors such as North Texas, however, the only hope of reaching the Big Dance rests on winning their conference tournament. Otherwise, the NIT is the most prestigious postseason option available.
The lack of home-court advantage didn’t end up hurting North Texas in the NIT. The Mean Green survived a late comeback to beat Oklahoma State on Tuesday night 61-59. Guard Atin Wright led North Texas with 15 points in the win.
Scheduling issues will now also be another coach’s problem. After two successful years at North Texas, men’s coach Ross Hodge is set to take the vacancy at West Virginia, sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Jeff Borzello on Wednesday. He is set to take over after North Texas concludes its run in the NIT. The Mean Green will face UAB or UC Irvine in the NIT semifinals on April 1.
Hopefully Hodge doesn’t have to worry about dining tables interrupting his schedule in Morgantown next season.
