The UNT men’s basketball team is in the midst of a crash course this weekend.
But it isn’t in offensive sets or the finer points of the 2-3 zone. It’s in being a unified team on and off the floor with noted sports psychologist Dr. Joe Carr.
Carr works with NBA and major college teams across the country, trying to make sure that they have the right collective mindset heading into the season. You can read my story on Carr and UNT’s off-season workouts that ended Friday here: UNT caps off-season
Carr and UNT head coach Tony Benford have been working together for years. Benford believes Carr played a role in the success of some of the teams he has been an assistant with in the past.
It’s another smart move by Benford as he continues to seemingly do all the right things in his first off-season.
Benford would have brought Carr in anyway, but UNT does have some interesting dynamics to deal with. Benford is replacing a wildly popular and successful players’ coach in Johnny Jones. UNT has guys that Jones recruited and guys Benford recruited. UNT has a talented senior group and some young newcomers who are going to compete for playing time and likely surpass some older guys in the rotation (Benford brought in some really, really talented players). The presence of Tony Mitchell, an NBA prospect who tends to reap a lot of the glory (and rightly so) could also cause issues.
Bringing Carr in should help UNT deal with those issues.
In a side note, Carr has been doing this a long time and seen a lot of teams.
His thoughts on UNT?
He seemed really impressed with what UNT has from a talent perspective. He commented that if UNT plays together, there are not a lot of teams out there the Mean Green couldn’t beat on any given night.