Excellent chance to play spoiler with a young and thin team. Would hurt ETSU much more than us losing this year considering the circumstances. Hard to say spoiler so early in the year but that's what this would be.

This is clearly a spoiler role for the Owls. We have some talent, and some players that can give the Bucs some trouble. We will just need an outstanding effort by all involved to take this one home. I would love to see Mitchell play in this one, even if only for a few minutes. Don't know where he has on his rehab process, but we are going to need him come January, so if he could return now, that would give him about 2 weeks to get into real game shape where he could start to really contribute.

It'll be tight for awhile. We're hurting a little with Jocolby Davis and Seth Coy both out.

Prepare to meet thy doom

A lot of factors have to go right for Kennesaw to keep this one close. Fortunately for us it is at home which gives us a puncher's chance. ETSU is playing great basketball right now....

The only way the Owls win this game is if ETSU comes out in their "I don't give a damn" mentality and even then you're hanging onto a wing and a prayer.

Astute analysis Gold...thanks for more of your intelligence on display. You can make a point without being a jerk. There are plenty of times when an underdog comes in a plays a great game and beats a better team. We all realize that right now ETSU is the better team, but it doesn't mean that in order for us to win you have to hand it to us.

You continue to try and pick fights ... that will come back to bite you. Perhaps as soon as next year when Tiggs and Pigram are gone...not to mention Davis and Hamlin. Enjoy your bravado while you can. We are still a work in progress and we realize that.

You mean when Tubbs takes over? I can remember a year and a half ago, before I got a hold of you, your whole online fan base thought you were ready to win regular season championships.

This game scares me (for the reason gold stated--I don't give a damn teams are dangerous). Even though we are playing at a high level--the best we've played since 03-04--I worry about overconfidence and complacency. We're doing the things we have not the last couple of years: playing defense, rebounding, and moving the ball. Returning to former ways could allow KSU to smell blood. Smith, Pigram, and Tiggs are fulfilling lofty expectations, but are also playing too many minutes.

In short, we have a lot to lose, while KSU has relatively less to lose and they are at home. A loss for us would not be devastating, but it would as Matthew Wilder said, "...break our stride". Moreover, Coach Ingle is crafty. It's cliche and perhaps meaningless, but good teams get beat all of the time in college basketball.

If we play with the same intensity and soundness that we have the last 4 games, I think we will wear down KSU. I am not sure of the final score, but I'll be satisfied as long as we have more points when the final horn goes off.

Best of luck whatever the outcome.

Faithful,

I watched them on A-sun tv the other night and I am just not impressed.

Anything can happen in college basketball. However, I see ETSU winning by 15-20 points.

We are still a year away before we make some noise in the A-Sun

My question is who's going to the game?

I will be there.

Bucfaithful Wrote:This game scares me (for the reason gold stated--I don't give a damn teams are dangerous). Even though we are playing at a high level--the best we've played since 03-04--I worry about overconfidence and complacency. We're doing the things we have not the last couple of years: playing defense, rebounding, and moving the ball. Returning to former ways could allow KSU to smell blood. Smith, Pigram, and Tiggs are fulfilling lofty expectations, but are also playing too many minutes.

In short, we have a lot to lose, while KSU has relatively less to lose and they are at home. A loss for us would not be devastating, but it would as Matthew Wilder said, "...break our stride". Moreover, Coach Ingle is crafty. It's cliche and perhaps meaningless, but good teams get beat all of the time in college basketball.

If we play with the same intensity and soundness that we have the last 4 games, I think we will wear down KSU. I am not sure of the final score, but I'll be satisfied as long as we have more points when the final horn goes off.

Best of luck whatever the outcome.

Gold - please take note of the above post as a reference of how to make a post that has utmost confidence in your team, yet not deride the other fanbase, and still predict a positive outcome for your team. Bucfaithful takes the facts, predicts an ETSU win due to the obvious strength of your team, and all the while manages to keep it cordial.

I agree with your analysis Bucfaithful, and like I said earlier, our hope is that Coach Ingle will be 'crafty' enough to figure out a way to steal a victory. Our first year in D1 we were crafty enough to steal our first 9 victories (which if anyone saw that team play was a complete miracle). Anything can happen in college basketball.

They are forgetting the help we will have from the refs tomorrow!

8 vs 5 baby! Maybe even 8v4 if we get creative enough.

Kennesaw,

You strike me as the kind of guy who buys into the false premise that there are rules in war

The are rules among gentlemen and scholars, and I am at war with no one.

I will most definitely be there. It's been a couple weeks, since before finals, that the Owls have been at home. Someone sort of mentioned this, but this is what I love about college basketball. David has a chance to slay Goliath. Is KSU David and ETSU Goliath, no, that wasn't my reference. Only that on any given day any team can win. This game really has huge implications for either team. While ETSU has a 2-game lead in the overall standings, both teams are 1-0. Stetson and Jacksonville are both sitting at the top of the standings with a 2-0 start. The winner of the game tonight keeps pace. The key for the Owls tonight is nothing new. It's been there all year. Can the Freshmen step up? Can the big men defend? The Owls have played some ridiculous games at the Convocation Center. I think back a couple years ago where former Player Andre Morgan nailed two freethrows at the end of the game. And last year how we took the eventual conference champs (Belmont) to the wire, winning by two. And the Mercer game last year, where Wooten hit that ridiculous half court shot at the end of regulation. We didn't win that game, but that was one of the greatest games I've seen. My point is, the team comes to play at home. Some are saying a loss by 15-20, and on the road that might be the case, but at home, as lee corso might say on college gameday "closer than the experts think".