Mustangs Now Have North Texas, Stepping Up in Competition

After a couple of blowouts, lessons learned could help Ponies against Mean Green

DALLAS — It may not be a long trip, but SMU will go over to Denton on Thursday night and an old rivalry will be renewed. After a couple of big wins, the Mustangs might find the competition a little stiffer at the Super Pit against North Texas at 6 p.m. on ESPN2 and fuboTV.

It came as somewhat of a surprise when I was looking over the notes and they haven't played since the 2002-03 season. Considering the close distance and the long history for the team, it kind of sneaked past noticing they weren't playing every year. The Ponies had won 9-of-11 wins since 1984-85 and the Mean Green probably weren't too sad to see it go away.

SMU leads the all-time series 34-17 since they started playing in 1917. With North Texas now in the AAC, the series could renew but the Mustangs are headed to the ACC next year. The Mean Green are 4-1 like the Ponies with an 11-6 overall record (SMU is 13-5).

Saturdays Will be Football-dominated for SMU Fans

The Mustangs are also on a roll after a 103-70 win over Tulsa on Saturday. The Ponies have won three straight and seven of their last eight. The scoring tied for the most by SMU in an AAC game, tying the mark from the 103-62 win against Memphis on March 4, 2017.

The Mustangs had 13 steals and held Tulsa to 41.9% shooting while recording 21 assists on 36 field goals. Chuck Harris led SMU with 18 points, a career-high 10 assists and six rebounds. Samuell Williamson recorded a second straight double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Zhuric Phelps had 18 points, six rebounds and three steals.

SMU is led in scoring by preseason All-AAC selection Zhuric Phelps (14.3, 14th AAC) and Chuck Harris (13.3). Phelps is also averaging 4.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.0 steals (4th AAC). B.J. Edwards has a team-best 3.8 assists per game (9th AAC) with a 2.88 assist-to-turnover ratio (3rd AAC) followed by Harris at 3.5 assists (12th AAC) and a 1.75 assist-to-turnover ratio (10th AAC). Samuell Williamson is leading in rebounding at 7.0 (8th AAC). Tyreek Smith is averaging 5.9 rebounds and 1.5 blocks (6th AAC). Keon Ambrose-Hylton is averaging 1.1 blocks (13th AAC).

Tip-off for the game Thursday night in Denton is 6 p.m. and in case you missed it earlier, it will be televised on ESPN2 and fuboTV. You can hear the game in Dallas on KAAM-AM 770 radio.

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PONY EXPRESS:

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PONIES FINALLY FIND MISSING INGREDIENT NEEDED TO BECOME ELITE TEAM

SLOW START BY TEMPLE MAY HAVE CAUSED MUSTANGS TO RELAX, ALLOW OWLS BACK IN GAME

SMU HAS EVOLVED INTO AAC TITLE CONTENDERS, NCAA TOURNAMENT THREAT

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