Date: February 17th, 2024

Time: 4:00 PM

Opponent: Western Carolina (18-8, 7-6 SoCon)

Place: Ramsey Athletic Center (7,826)

Television: none

Webcast: ESPN+

Radio online: 640WXSM.com

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Terrible possession with 19 sec left. And a terrible missed FT ….again. No real surprise :(

And we come through once again with a close loss.

Does savage follow the Forbes school of not practicing free throws? (And losing at least 4 games a season because of it?)

Criminal negligence on the part of the officials at the end of this game. The Bucs, trailing by 1, miss the shot (which hits the rim) and the ball is out of bounds off of Western with 18.8 seconds left. The shot clock should have reset and been turned off. Instead, the shot clock remains at 8.1, and the Bucs have to force a bad shot which Western rebounds, makes free throws, and win the game. How do all three officials, as well as Western's scorekeeper miss resetting the clock? For that matter, how does the ETSU staff miss it?

(02-17-2024 06:08 PM)JWBUC Wrote:  Terrible possession with 19 sec left. And a terrible missed FT ….again. No real surprise :(

how the hell do you come out of one time out down one point with 18 seconds to go and not know the shot clock is expiring? and come out of another time out late in the game I think maybe tied or down one or two also and you draw up a play for Seymour to shoot a three? i've supported and defended this team all year but I'm tired of the same old crap and lay a lot of it on the coaching staff. The teams just not very good offensively but making the same mistakes over and over is starting to scream coaching.

(02-17-2024 06:13 PM)Flippmb Wrote:  Criminal negligence on the part of the officials at the end of this game. The Bucs, trailing by 1, miss the shot (which hits the rim) and the ball is out of bounds off of Western with 18.8 seconds left. The shot clock should have reset and been turned off. Instead, the shot clock remains at 8.1, and the Bucs have to force a bad shot which Western rebounds, makes free throws, and win the game. How do all three officials, as well as Western's scorekeeper miss resetting the clock? For that matter, how does the ETSU staff miss it?

I agree if that is correct but again it goes back to my that's on the coaching staff how could etsu coaches miss that if the shot clock was supposed to reset/be turned off at that point?

One more thought I know there's not a ton of depth or talent on the bench but should you not figure out at this point that if we keep blowing so many games late maybe they're tired? maybe we have to find some way to at least get some bench minutes so these guys aren't completely gassed come crunch time? we guard the hell out of you for about 30 minutes a game and then it's just breakdown after breakdown and layup after layup

This is all true but we are so bad down the stretch we probably would have missed multiple wide open shots and still lost.

(02-17-2024 06:22 PM)buc nekkid Wrote:  

(02-17-2024 06:13 PM)Flippmb Wrote:  Criminal negligence on the part of the officials at the end of this game. The Bucs, trailing by 1, miss the shot (which hits the rim) and the ball is out of bounds off of Western with 18.8 seconds left. The shot clock should have reset and been turned off. Instead, the shot clock remains at 8.1, and the Bucs have to force a bad shot which Western rebounds, makes free throws, and win the game. How do all three officials, as well as Western's scorekeeper miss resetting the clock? For that matter, how does the ETSU staff miss it?

I agree if that is correct but again it goes back to my that's on the coaching staff how could etsu coaches miss that if the shot clock was supposed to reset/be turned off at that point?

"Criminal" is an awfully strong descriptor of a basketball situation...............but I believe in this case it fits. Allllll that time reviewing the play and they still completely blew that aspect of it. And agree also about the ETSU staff not making a big stink about it. Unbelievable. I mean really - unbelievable.

20% from deep At least we 'only' shot 20 of them. And only 58% FTs. (Catamounts shot 86.4%.)

Wherefore art thou, O Tray Boyd? O Courtney Pigram and Jalen Riley?

(02-17-2024 07:15 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  20% from deep At least we 'only' shot 20 of them. And only 58% FTs. (Catamounts shot 86.4%.)

Wherefore art thou, O Tray Boyd? O Courtney Pigram and Jalen Riley?

The problem in this situation is not missing Tray or Courtney or Jalen .The problem is an incompetent officiating crew (typical at this level) and how the hell didn’t the etsu coaching staff raise a stink? Then again, maybe they did. Or maybe they assumed competence. Whatevs. Just another game in the SoCon.

No, the problem "in this situation" wasn't the lack of 3-pt. shooting. Nor did I say it was. However........the lack of 3-pt. shooting *has* been a problem all season. And it caused us to be in that situation tonight - yet again. 95+% chance if we had any of those 3 guys this year/tonight (or about a dozen others that could be named), we wouldn't have been "in [that] situation". You and I had been on the same page earlier in agreeing that this is not a good shooting team. Are you backing away from that assessment?

While that end of the game was a disaster for both the officiating crew and the ETSU staff..........it's only one of a long litany of events over the course of the game that had us in that bind.

But certainly, "just another game in the SoCon" is pretty accurate.

I'd also like the point out the incorrect call at the end of the Furman game where the officiating crew said the ball went off our player and it did not. Watching live, the tv crew were shocked it was not given to us. Just another example of ****** officiating in the SoCon.

It is well known that our SoCon refs are not too good especially on Saturday. We have gotten a multitude of game losing calls at the ends of games. What troubles me is why are we always in a position, even against a losing team, to have a single shot or a bad call lose the game? That is what the coaches have to fix. It is happening over and over.

The writing’s been on the wall a while. I just hate that this team is poised to have a worse record in conference this year than Oliver’s last season. It’s really hard to sell my pre-teen kid on going to the Friday game in Asheville. He remembers the Forbes days well and complains each year (rightfully & woefully) that it’s not fun to attend losses over and over, especially at home and in Asheville. He took it very hard when the Samford game didn’t go the Bucs’ way. It’s a long way to the top. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

Early 90’s era. Forbes era circa 2020. I really can’t wait another 25 years for a meaningful program. In Savage we hope.

(02-18-2024 10:02 AM)bucfan81 Wrote:  It is well known that our SoCon refs are not too good especially on Saturday. We have gotten a multitude of game losing calls at the ends of games. What troubles me is why are we always in a position, even against a losing team, to have a single shot or a bad call lose the game? That is what the coaches have to fix. It is happening over and over.

SIX (6) losses by an average of 2.8 points.

(02-18-2024 05:07 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  SIX (6) losses by an average of 2.8 points.

But also won 5-6 games by 3 points or less. Kinda a wash.

(02-18-2024 01:07 PM)shampoo Wrote:  The writing’s been on the wall a while. I just hate that this team is poised to have a worse record in conference this year than Oliver’s last season. It’s really hard to sell my pre-teen kid on going to the Friday game in Asheville. He remembers the Forbes days well and complains each year (rightfully & woefully) that it’s not fun to attend losses over and over, especially at home and in Asheville. He took it very hard when the Samford game didn’t go the Bucs’ way. It’s a long way to the top. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning.

Early 90’s era. Forbes era circa 2020. I really can’t wait another 25 years for a meaningful program. In Savage we hope.

Well-expressed. Altho unlike some here, I had no expectations; certainly no great ones.

Right now we're shooting only 39.9% overall; only 29.3% from distance. Someone posted that they heard Savage on the coaches show say he was still gonna be wanting to score from outside. Well.........we all know what one of the main definitions of insanity is. I'm *not* ascribing that to Savage, but it's clear that is not a winning strategy - and so it baffles me why he keeps going to that (mostly dry) well. No point belaboring it this late in the season, I don't guess - but hey - miracles can and *do* happen in college basketball. Another (valid) axiom in sports is "if something ain't working - try something different".

(02-19-2024 01:53 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Right now we're shooting only 39.9% overall; only 29.3% from distance. Someone posted that they heard Savage on the coaches show say he was still gonna be wanting to score from outside. Well.........we all know what one of the main definitions of insanity is. I'm *not* ascribing that to Savage, but it's clear that is not a winning strategy - and so it baffles me why he keeps going to that (mostly dry) well. No point belaboring it this late in the season, I don't guess - but hey - miracles can and *do* happen in college basketball. Another (valid) axiom in sports is "if something ain't working - try something different".

It is self evident that whatever our current strategy is, it has not been a winning strategy. But, I don't believe eschewing the 3-point shot will produce a winner either. So, I can see where Savage might say we still want to score from outside. If your point is we should be more selective with those shots, then I agree: Karon Boyd, 1-17 from 3; and Allen Strothers, 3-14 (stats are for conference play).

Certainly, we can do better and we need to change some things. But, I think the bottom line is, we do not have the horses yet to play anywhere near a consistent championship level, no matter what style we adopt. Any specific suggestions for what changes we need to make for the rest of this season?