Are the ETSU Buccaneers an “elite” basketball program?

That’s what new assistant coach Matt Wise said in a statement. But he might not be far off.

Marky Billson

Is East Tennessee State now an “elite” basketball program?

That seems a bit much. This is a program that only earned a national ranking once in their entire history, in the 1991 season.

And while that team of Keith “Mister” Jennings and Greg Dennis actually cracked the Top 10 for a week, that accomplishment; small potatoes for a truly elite program like Kentucky or Kansas, was such that a banner was hung in the Mini Dome to note it.

Elite programs don’t hang banners commemorating the time nine teams were better than they were.

But the Buccaneers no longer display that banner. And in a statement announcing the hire of new assistant basketball coach Matt Wise, the former Wyoming assistant is quoted as saying “ETSU is one of the elite programs in college basketball.”

Wise began his coaching career as a grad assistant at Florida under Billy Donovan

While the statement seems manufactured, it is worth noting how far the Buccaneers have come not only in just the past couple of weeks, but as a program over the last generation.