http://www.soconsports.com/ViewArticle.d...=211702989

Tianna Tarter got 1st team all-conference but once again lost POY to Kahlia Lawrence who led Mercer to a historic undefeated conference season. Mercer teammates Keke Calloway and Sydni Means also made 1st team. Susie Gardner of Mercer got coach of the year - she probably should have gotten recruiter of the year 4 years ago when she brought in this senior class.

Erica Haynes-Overton was Freshman of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and 2nd team all-conference.

The 2nd seeded Bucs start the tournament Thursday at 3:30 pm against 7th seed Wofford.

Friday they will likely face 3rd seed Chattanooga at 1:15 pm. The Bucs have beaten Chattanooga twice, but it's been a battle. Fan support will be important for this one.

Championship is Sunday at noon. They'd likely face undefeated Mercer who have beaten them twice. Mercer is a great shooting team (.373 from 3 to .254 for ETSU, but with an essentially identical number of makes: 60 versus 61 in conference), but if the Bucs could ever sustain one of their hot streaks for the full 40 minutes, they could beat anyone in the SoCon. Their defense can create chaos and terror against the best of them when their defense is on. Their turnover margin is 30th in the country and they average 10 steals. The trouble is that Mercer is a good ballhandling team whose turnover margin is 2nd in the country and they also average 10 steals. The Bucs do have a significant rebounding edge, +4.4 to -1.3 for Mercer.

Go Bucs!

I believe the issues at Chattanooga filtered to the women’s team this year as well. Yes, they are still a relatively tough team and finished 3rd, but they lost a lot more games than I expected them to ever lose in a season. I always expect them to be much tougher, but that just wasn’t the case this year. I also see this year’s Chatt team to have a battle in their first round against UNCG. They split with them this year and UNCG got fired up enough to beat the Bucs once as well. So I’m not 100% set on the Lady Bucs facing Chatt in the semis. I think there is a 40% chance, maybe more, that the Bucs will face UNCG on Friday.

(02-28-2018 08:16 AM)queenladybug817 Wrote:  I believe the issues at Chattanooga filtered to the women’s team this year as well. Yes, they are still a relatively tough team and finished 3rd, but they lost a lot more games than I expected them to ever lose in a season. I always expect them to be much tougher, but that just wasn’t the case this year. I also see this year’s Chatt team to have a battle in their first round against UNCG. They split with them this year and UNCG got fired up enough to beat the Bucs once as well. So I’m not 100% set on the Lady Bucs facing Chatt in the semis. I think there is a 40% chance, maybe more, that the Bucs will face UNCG on Friday.

Interesting to hear about internal issues. Despite a hall of fame coach, they did really struggle this year in conference after an excellent OOC in which they knocked off 5 power conference teams. Not many SoCon teams ever do that!

You're right, they might not make it through to the second round. Then again, they've got the physical talent to be very tough if they do.

(02-28-2018 08:25 AM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  

(02-28-2018 08:16 AM)queenladybug817 Wrote:  I believe the issues at Chattanooga filtered to the women’s team this year as well. Yes, they are still a relatively tough team and finished 3rd, but they lost a lot more games than I expected them to ever lose in a season. I always expect them to be much tougher, but that just wasn’t the case this year. I also see this year’s Chatt team to have a battle in their first round against UNCG. They split with them this year and UNCG got fired up enough to beat the Bucs once as well. So I’m not 100% set on the Lady Bucs facing Chatt in the semis. I think there is a 40% chance, maybe more, that the Bucs will face UNCG on Friday.

Interesting to hear about internal issues. Despite a hall of fame coach, they did really struggle this year in conference after an excellent OOC in which they knocked off 5 power conference teams. Not many SoCon teams ever do that!

You're right, they might not make it through to the second round. Then again, they've got the physical talent to be very tough if they do.

Just a theory about internal issues. But with the other chaos within the athletic department there, it seems like that may have just somehow affected the women’s basketball team as well. It is really strange for Chatt to have lost 6 SoCon games this season, after being so dominant for so long. They didn’t lose that many key players, plus as you said, had some success OOC.