Is the Honeymoon Over For ETSU Hoops?
2018–19 has been a good season. But not a great season. Is just being good enough for a perennial winner?
Since coming to ETSU Steve Forbes has won 20 games every season, something no other Buccaneers coach has done and the program only did in the Glory Days of 1989–92.
With four more victories the Bucs will have won 100 games in four seasons for the first time in their history. Yes, that needs to be prefaced with the comment that in the old days, teams didn’t play as many games as they did now (Skeeter Swift’s NCAA Tournament team played only 27 games including the three in the NCAAs).
But it’s still a nice round number that makes the publicists happy and an indication one can expect ETSU to have a chance to win any game they play.
But it’s like Duane Kuiper, the spray-hitting second baseman of the 1970s and ’80s who is currently a renown San Francisco Giants broadcaster. In 12 years in the big leagues Kuiper hit just one home run.
“The problem with hitting a home run is everyone expects you to do it again,” Kuiper once said.
That’s where the Bucs are now. Realistically, it doesn’t seem they’ve got much of a chance at the NCAA Tournament, which they made two years ago.
In their last three games, ETSU went from leading first place Wofford with 32 seconds left in overtime before losing, then getting blown out by Furman by 30 points, and now trailing The Citadel by 46–40 at halftime before coming far short of covering the 17-point spread the Bucs were favored by, 91–83.
Only 3,723 fans showed up for the game against The Citadel, the lowest total for a home ETSU basketball game against a Southern Conference foe this season.
There’s just a Peggy Lee feeling to the Bucs right now; “Is that all there is?”
Which speaks of the high standards they’ve set for themselves but realistically, what can this year’s team do to top their predecessors? Even Forbes is talking about next year in press conferences.
Perhaps winning the remaining five games of their regular season schedule, including victory at North Carolina-Greensboro, could change perspectives, but suffice to say the Bucs will not be the favorite in Asheville. Team Rankings.com gives them a 16 percent chance to win the Southern Conference Tournament.
And while bracketologist John Templon, a one-time guest on my radio show, does project ETSU to make the NIT Tournament as an at-large team, something that hasn’t happened since 1983, who gets excited about making the NIT?
Much has been said about ETSU’s failures from the free throw line, but ultimately they are converting at a rate just two percent less than their opponents (67 percent to 69).
Recent ineffectiveness at center (where are you, Lucas N’Guessan?), failures to defend from outside, and the fact there really isn’t a true go-to player on the team seem to be the difference from the Bucs being great instead of just good.
True, there is a feeling that this era of ETSU basketball will have a longer run of success than previous winning eras enjoyed.
But regular season victories in college basketball mean only so much. It’s hard to knock perennial 20-victory seasons, but it will soon be time for the Bucs as a program to really go to the next level; be it the Top 25 ranking next season or an NCAA Tournament run.
Marky Billson is a sports talk show host in the Tri-Cities, TN market. Watch him live 12–2 p.m. ET weekdays or archived here.
