The Shanice Stephens era at North Texas will finally get underway tonight.

Shanice Stephens

UNT’s new women’s basketball coach has spent the last few months putting together her program and transforming the Mean Green into an up-tempo team. Stephens will get to see how all that work turned out when UNT takes on Marshall on the road in its opener at 6 p.m.

The UNT men will also be in action when they travel to Oklahoma State to see if they can pull off a repeat of last season’s win at the Super Pit. The Mean Green men (1-0) are already off to a solid start after a season-opening 87-66 win over Cameron.

The Mean Green women will look to match that performance in its first outing under Stephens, who plans to have her team play at a high pace.

“I love the up-tempo game, trapping on defense and also being able to flow into an offense,” Stephens said. “We are not run-and-gun, but up-tempo. I want to be sharp.”

UNT looked solid in its first outing of the season, an 87-77 exhibition win over crosstown rival TWU. Senior guard Jo Hall led four UNT players who finished in double figures with 18 points to go along with 14 rebounds.

The Mean Green will begin the season with all three of its top scorers from a year ago returning in Hall (10.5 points a game), senior forward Amber UNT hasn’t brought back its top three scorers since the 1999-2000 season, when the Mean Green finished 17-11.

Stephens is hoping those returning starters will help the Mean Green bring a new attitude to the game against Marshall, which won its season-opener over Appalachian State.

“I want them to show their excitement in a game we say we love and let people see it,” Stephens said. “I want to be uncool, where we are excited and jumping on the floor. We are trying to break that cool attitude. We didn’t win enough games last year to be cool.”

UNT finished 14-18 a year ago.

Johnny Jones

The UNT men won more than their share of games on their way to a 20-11 finish last season, and will revisit arguably their biggest win when they take on the Cowboys. Sophomore guard Josh White had his coming out party in an 82-73 win over OSU when he scored 25 points and made a series of key plays down the stretch.

The Mean Green will head into its rematch with the Cowboys off a season-opening 87-66 win over Cameron, a member of the Division II Lone Star Conference.

Sophomore guard Tristan Thompson led UNT with 13 points and was one of four UNT players to finish in double figures.

OSU is also 1-0 after opening the season with a 76-57 win over Texas-San Antonio in Travis Ford’s debut as head coach.

Ford was the head coach at Massachusetts before taking over the Cowboys program.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .