By Alex Al-Kazzaz
The North Texas Mean Green's magical fairy tale run has ended with a true happy ending. North Texas defeated the University of Alabama-Birmingham to claim its first NIT title. A total of 31 wins this season along with wins against Oklahoma State and Wisconsin led UNT to a well-deserved championship triumph.
Earlier today, it was announced that UNT head coach Grant McCasland will be departing the UNT program for Texas Tech University. McCasland arrived at UNT in 2017 and led the team to a CBI championship triumph his first year. In 2021, UNT participated in the March Madness tournament, eliminating Purdue in the first round before falling short in the Round of 32.
This match was a rematch of the Conference USA semi-finals where UAB emerged victorious. Florida Atlantic went on to win to the conference and are currently in the March Madness final four! Interestingly enough, UNT beat UAB twice in the regular season.
UNT guard Tylor Perry was named NIT MVP. He's also conference player of the year. Perry played a major role helping his team secure a lead and eventually the title. It was quite a second half he had. UNT had to play every second of the game as if it were a life or death situation. Honestly, winning the NIT title meant a lot to the team, so they knew that every second of the final counted. And they made it count quite in their favor. At the end, it was all worth it.