Date: January 10th, 2024

Time: 7:00 PM

Opponent: Western Carolina (13-2, 2-0 SoCon)

Place: Freedom Hall (6,194)

Television: Nexstar

Webcast: ESPN+

Radio online: 640WXSM.com

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Will the Nexstar broadcast be on our local ABC station?

Huuuuge opportunity for the Bucs. Western has been on a roll. Need either Ilic or Hughes to play well and help the starters control Woolbright. Need QP and Rice to handle Rusell Jones Jr's fantastic on-ball pressure. And need to hit some shots.

Does anyone know if Western is driving over here tomorrow or are they already here? Weather might be a factor tomorrow.

Western opens as -1.5 point fave's

No boyd tonight

(01-10-2024 06:51 PM)Buced_Up Wrote:  No boyd tonight

But he's doing great in Japan this season........

........and Justice Smith comes out of persona non grata sequestration........

Justice and Maki (especially) can't handle their guys mano-a-mano.

Bucs been reading the shampoo bottle.............."Rinse; repeat": 2/15 from deep. Sigh........

Western looks really really good.

Boy, the Bucs really have stunk at three point shot selection. Might as well count those as turnovers.

(01-10-2024 08:43 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  Western looks really really good.

I haven't seen Samford play this year, yet, but the Catamounts are the best SoCon team I've seen. They are well-oiled; know who they are; play well together; play under control and within themselves. Great shooting, nice spacing, sooo smooth, polished, and total confidence. Really a nice team that's seemingly fully gelled.

To his credit.............Savage took blame for his players' poor shot selection. Ok......but the season's halfway over. And these guys have played enough hoops to know what good and bad shot selection looks like. I think Seymour was trying to do too much - seeing himself as the best option, which turned into hero-ball to a degree.

We did shoot better from outside in the second half: 4/12 (lol). But even without Boyd........this team doesn't need to be taking 27 3-pt. shots. As to Boyd's absence........yeah, big hole to fill, but SOOO many times our guys were just *literally* standing around hoping the rebound would just bounce into their hands without crashing in. It became a self-fulfilling stat-to-be. And several players were guilty of that.

But this game was over before the second media timeout of the *first* half. I very nearly posted that (truly). Of course it wasn't *really* over, but it sure seemed like ETSU had no life, no spunk, no urgency. And to (perhaps) pre-empt Mr. sky-is-falling..........this sky fell back when Wake finally got around to firing Danny Manning. Hopefully Savage can find enough pieces to gradually put this team back together again, but it ain't happenin' this year. And this is not some critical, whining, complaining diatribe. Thankfully I lost 2/3 - 3/4 of my passion for ETSU athletics back when I realized how some of their players were being treated. So this is merely a *dis*passionate review - as are all my comments these last 2 years, at least.
Would love to see the Bucs do well and win a lot - but my blue-and-gold colored glasses got smashed a while back.

Feel sorry for Desonta, Devontavius, and Bo, who were there in person and had to witness what now passes for ETSU hoops.

We are far enough into the season to know that the conference has three teams: Western Carolina, Samford, and UNCG, who are far above the rest of the pack. ETSU just doesn't have the same talent as those three teams. The hope is that Savage can maximize what we have this season, which has largely been the case. My main complaint has been the same as others, which is the frequency and selection of our 3-point shooting.

Much of our success this season depends on Peterson's ability to drive and score at the hoop, whether Seymour is on during a given game, and the defensive effort. I expect us to be a 4-5 seed in the conference by the end of the season.

I thought this team was one player away from being pretty good (a decent wide body). I was wrong, and now realize they are two players away, wide body and a consistent shooter.

Right now if Peterson can't penetrate and no one is connecting from outside, it is game over.

Definitely missed Karon Boyd's rebounding and defense tonight. Both observations above appear to be true at the moment. We are missing another big body down low and a knock down shooter. I'm not sure we'll find either of those on this years roster. We've faced two of the top teams in the conference already and have looked pretty mismatched. After a strong end to the non-con, while not totally doom and gloom, we look like the 5th or 6th best team in the league at this point.

Coaching/career development moment for Savage: need to address the offense issues with some adjustments/changes in strategy—stretch goal to finish top 3 in conference; main goal should be like 4th to beat the preseason expectation. Need to create a stronger team identity by 2nd half of conference/tournament time. When the shots aren’t falling the confidence takes a visible hit and the team seems to force it with the ridiculous shot selections.

Western is flat out better than the Bucs right now. Their top 3 are really good. They can win a game in the NCAA's.