Before Dusty May and Florida Atlantic took over Conference USA in route to a final four appearance in 2023,

the league's standard bear was North Texas. In 2020, the season that did not reach a true

conclusion due to the pandemic, North Texas won the regular season championship.

2021, the COVID bubble year, the Mean Green won the Conference USA Tournament, and indeed

won a game in the NCAA tournament over Purdue.

2022, North Texas, another regular season conference title.

They fell in the tournament semifinals.

One heck of a run still.

Now, Rubin Jones was part of the 2021 and 22 seasons, along with

the two most recent. By the end of last year, he was the program's all-time winning his player.

And in addition to that three-season run of at least one conference USA championship, with

Rubin being a part of the second and third seasons of that run.

North Texas was the champion of the 2023 NIT, a tournament that Jones was critical to.

May was complimentary of North Texas while he was in Boca Raton.

Last year after a narrow FAU home win over the mean green,

May talked about the healthy rivalry, the respect between the two programs.

He called North Texas a, quote, machine and expected to see them in March, which did indeed happen in the Conference USA tournament. Then did media availability before the second matchup

in Denton in early March. May was asked about the changes to North Texas since the first meeting.

They were playing better basketball. He led with health, and the first example he gave was the

return of Rubin Jones. Sure enough, a month and a half later, Dusty May was Michigan's head coach,

and Ruben Jones was one of the first to accompany May to Ann Arbor as a player. I mentioned that because it is easy to compliment opponents

and players you go up against in the moment.

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