Mean Green basketball boasted an action-packed season full of new records, with the women's team beating Louisiana Tech for the first time ever to advance to the Conference USA semifinals co-hosted by UNT in March. Junior guard Terriell Bradley earned first team all-conference recognition after leading C-USA in 3-point field goal percentage and making a school-record 164 free throws this season. In February, she made nine consecutive 3-pointers in a game, setting a school and conference record.
"For Terriell to accomplish all the feats that she has in just her second year is amazing," says head coach Jalie Mitchell ('02), a senior on the 2001-02 team that last made a conference semifinal.
On the men's team, sophomore guard Roosevelt Smart earned second team all-conference honors. He finished the regular season fourth in C-USA, averaging 18.8 points per game, and made the most 3-pointers in a season at UNT. The Mean Green broke the school record for most 3-pointers as a team and celebrated the program's first-ever wins in the College Basketball Invitational.
UNT athletics kicked off its 2018-19 membership campaign with the introduction of the Mean Green Scholarship Fund, an enhanced version of the Mean Green Club that provides scholarships and support for UNT student-athletes.
"Annual scholarship and program support for our student-athletes remains a critical component in our mission of building champions and preparing leaders," Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker says.
The fund has its own website, which details the changes, including revised membership levels and new benefits such as annual gifts, Team Store discounts and a 110% Champions gift for members who increase their contribution by at least 10 percent or new members who contribute at least $110.
This also marks the implementation of minimum per-seat contribution requirements for season tickets in premier sections of Apogee Stadium and The Super Pit beginning in 2018-19.
The Mean Green football team had a busy winter after returning from the bowl game in New Orleans.
Coach Seth Littrell added a new director of recruiting in Luke Walerius, who previously served as a recruiting assistant at Kentucky.
The Mean Green signed 19 recruits in December and February in a class that emphasized defense. UNT's 14 high school players and five junior college transfers feature five linebackers and four defensive backs. The class includes two quarterbacks, including Manvel's Kason Martin.
The defending 2017 Conference USA champion women's soccer team has added two experienced transfers. Ansley Bunger, the all-time leading goal scorer at Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club, and Kelsey Brann, a goalie who was a member of the Mexican Women's National Team youth system, are expected to compete for starting positions in 2018.
Bunger comes to UNT from the University of Arkansas where she played one season. Brann joins the Mean Green after one season at the University of Tulsa.
UNT junior tennis player Maria Kononova recorded the best singles win in school history when she defeated the No. 2 ranked player in the country in February.
Kononova beat Florida International's Andrea Lazaro — the highest-ranked player a Mean Green tennis player has ever beaten — 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Kononova, a native of Ufa, Russia, has been ranked as high as No. 41 in the nation this year after earning first team all-conference honors as a sophomore last season.
Mean Green swimming and diving was named a Scholar All-America team by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America. UNT had a team GPA of 3.31 in the fall.
"Our student-athletes work hard both in the water and the classroom," UNT head coach Brittany Roth says.
To earn the honor, teams must post a GPA of 3.0 or higher. The Mean Green have been recognized as a Scholar All-America team each semester for the past 13 years.
