DENTON, Texas — UNT Basketball is rolling. The Mean Green are the top team in Conference USA, once again. 21-4 on the year, winners of 13 straight, and 19-1 in their last 20 games.
Their only loss in the last three months, they avenged by beating UAB last Saturday.
"You know," junior guard Tylor Perry said, "we're not scared of anything."
Several key players on this Mean Green team, though, have a common thread -- not that long ago, nobody really wanted them. Four of their most important players did not have Division I scholarship offers, coming out of high school, forcing them to go the Junior College route
"The fact that these guys have had to work sometimes against all odds, in order to just be a part of this team, really is I think the foundation of who we are."
Tylor Perry, Thomas Bell, Mardrez McBride, and JJ Murray all had to play junior college ball before they got their shot at UNT. And take it from them -- JuCo is not glamorous.
"After games," Murray said, "we'd go like to McDonald's or Wendy's - and we'd have $7 or $8 limits."
The group have compared notes from their JuCo days. And that includes head coach Grant McCasland, who won a Junior College national championship with Midland in 2007. On their way home from the national championship game, they got dinner at a gas station convenience store.
It's quite different now... but they haven't forgotten.
"Yeah, you walk around with that chip on your shoulder," Perry said. "I think we all carry that, even through the coaching staff, because they were in the JuCo ranks too."
Thomas Bell is UNT's second-leading scorer, and leading rebounder. He played at two different junior colleges, before finally making it to the Mean Green.
"You know, somebody gonna see, one day, what you're made of, and regret the fact that you were overlooked," Bell said. "'Oh, he can do that? Or he can do this? Oh, I didn't know that until now.' Well yeah, I can do that."
That collective experience, and shared struggle, has hardened them, and made them better.
"You know, we've had to come from a lot of tough situations," Murray said. He not only went the JuCo route, but also had to walk-on at UNT before earning a scholarship. Now, he's one of the best defenders in the conference. "So, that's just carried us while we've been here, and we know that we have to work to get here. So, in order to reach our goals, we have to keep on working."
And their goals are much bigger than what they've done so far.
"March is what matters," McCasland said. "So there's an eye toward the end, of how we get better, and how we play our best basketball in March. And that's how you get judged."
It is. But the accomplishments of these men, long overlooked by other schools and coaches, is testament to how far they've come.
"It's love around here," Perry said. "We all know where we come from, we all know we've been through a grind of it, and I feel like now, it's paying off for us."