I was impressed by the number of students that came out.

It's worth going over the timeline at the end of this one.

At 3:16 it’s 83-83 and it appears as if the Bucs are going to atone for all their sins by sacrificing their first big home game in front of the best regular season crowd they’ve had in a long time. And they’ll have nobody to blame but themselves for failing to defend, getting outhustled in some key moments,and letting Western Carolina crawl back from the dead, as they already have in several games this year. Let’s see, that would be the sin of pride for thinking that the game was won. And the sin of sloth for getting beat on the boards and down the floor and failing to defend at key moments.

Sacrifice the game?? Well, on second thought…..

At 2:54 Jalen draws the foul on a drive to the basket. And sinks them both. 85-83 Bucs.
That’s the 5th foul on 6’7” 240 Junior Torrion Brummitt, their best front court player, who is replaced by the much less effective Freshman 6’10” Tucker Thompson.

James Sinclair finally finds a 3 point shot that he can miss after several improbable, well defended makes. Rebound to 6’0” Petey McClain at 2:35.

Jalen drives again into the teeth of the defense but doesn’t get the call this time. Block and rebound to Catamounts at 2:14.

But 6’10” Freshman Tucker Thompson makes a silly charge driving to the hoop. [edit] Petey McClain set up well in advance to draw the charge -[ thanks Fan1 for telling us] This play was big. That would have been the much more capable Torrion Brummit had Jalen not fouled him out. At 2:08 ball back to the Bucs.

And this time Jalen makes a deadly long range 3 that brings down the house at 1:40. Bucs up 88-83.
That's the Bucs 15th made three, tying the school record for the second time this year. They finish at 50% (15-30) from three for the night.

At the other end Harrelson rushes a 3 pointer and misses. Jalen skies for a huge rebound at 1:25

Devin Harris is fouled making 1 of 2 at 1:16. Bucs up 89-83.

Again Harrelson misses a jump shot and Devin Harris snags the rebound at 0:58.
But Devin turns it over at 0:53 to Mike Brown, who turns it over himself. Ball to the Bucs.

And Jalen is fouled again at 0:50. He makes them both to put the Bucs up 91-83. And that’s pretty much the ballgame.

So in the biggest 2:26 of the game, it's the Bucs who make the most stops, grab the rebounds, make the shots, draw the fouls and make the free throws as Murry shuttles in players for offense and defense each time down the floor.

On second thought, we’ll let the other guys sacrifice this game.

Petey drew that charge.

(12-04-2014 01:00 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  Petey drew that charge.

Huge play.

Amazing how big the little guys like Petey, Jalen and Devin played down the stretch.

What's amazing to me about Riley is the way he got that 31 points, and the way he gets most of his points; he's not really that great of a shooter (just .36% from the field last year and 38% so far this year, although those numbers are skewed by a high volume of three pointers), but he draws a ton of contact and gets himself to the line where, prior to last night, he was an 83% career free throw shooter. Last night, he drew two-thirds of Catamount fouls - 18 of 27. From the stripe alone, he scored 15 points. For a guard who barely clears six feet tall, that's insane.

(12-04-2014 12:27 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  That's the Bucs 15th made three, tying the school record for the second time this year. They finish at 50% (15-30) from three for the night.

For the fans flipping the "3" cards over after each made three, it was a good thing the Bucs didn't break the record. They had no more cards to turn over.

Better have a few more ready for future games. This Bucs team is apt to break the record.

According to current NCAA stats, with our 6 games considered, the Bucs are 3rd in the nation for threes made per game. And, even more impressive since we've not played as many games as others higher on the next list, the Bucs are tied for 11th in total made threes right now (Belmont is 2nd, but if you give us an extra game or two we beat them out!). And they're doing it at a 3FG% that's also 18th in the nation. It's not just Rashawn anymore; the Bucs are truly one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the nation early this season.

Now we're the Belmont that everyone hates to play.

(12-04-2014 08:59 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  Now we're the Belmont that everyone hates to play.

Finally

I know its a minor thing, but I looked at the CollegeInsider Mid Major poll just now and we do not even receive any votes. Im hoping that our team will at least get some respect in this poll soon.

Yeah, the poll was released before our Morehead and Western wins. I'd say we'll either be ranked or close to being ranked next Monday.

“How many 5-10, 150-pound guys in the country can get to the free throw line almost 20 times?” ETSU coach Murry Bartow said. “He’s got an incredible ability to get in there and get fouls, and he’s a good free throw shooter.”

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/article/...z3L2N2LOby

(12-05-2014 10:25 AM)Bucfaithful Wrote:  “How many 5-10, 150-pound guys in the country can get to the free throw line almost 20 times?” ETSU coach Murry Bartow said. “He’s got an incredible ability to get in there and get fouls, and he’s a good free throw shooter.”

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/article/...z3L2N2LOby

For me there are some echos of Nate "Tiny" Archibald, listed as 6'1" and 160, with the Cincinnati Royals/Kansas City-Omaha Kings and later with the Boston Celtics. Nate had that uncanny ability to penetrate, draw the foul and get to the line, often getting flattened in the process.
http://www.nba.com/history/players/archibald_bio.html

Riley is one tough egg to crack. The real surprise is lack of injury, not to jynx it. We'll definitely need him all season to do what we want post-season. I will readily admit that our early record probably looks more like 3-3 if you exclude him from play.