(11-08-2018 09:54 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  I noticed that several SoCon schools are playing them.

As above.

Given the number of SoCon schools that play them, do they have a relationship with someone in the conference office? Is there an advantage to having an opponent that schools can play if they can't fill their schedule?

(11-08-2018 09:58 PM)prosec34 Wrote:  I made the plunge for ESPN+ only to discover that Kasey Marler does the play by play. Luckily he's not nearly as annoying as I'd have expected.

I did feel sorry for those who spent money on tickets for such a joke of a game. There's no sense at all in scheduling such a team.

Kasey Marler is at least acceptable. That Bruce Tranbarger is horrible. I simply can't stand his sanctimonious, I-know-more-than-you attitude. He pronounces insights as if he's reading from some additional book of the Bible he wrote. I know he used to be a coach, and *does* know some things, but he doesn't know quite as much as he thinks. More problematic is his attitude, and saying THE SAME THING over and over throughout the year, or throughout the game. He's got some sort of mental playbook of platitudes that he regurgitates ad naseum. I mute that, try to sync the video with the slightly-delayed audio of Sandos, and make it sort of work that way.

That said, I've had a terrifically difficult time with ESPN+ both games now.

Hiwassee actually has a history as a JC power between the 80s and 90s, getting SEC guys that couldn't cut it grade wise . They're based in my home town of Madisonville, TN. I went there before transferring to ETSU. Ultimately after 2008, they reclassified as a four year school citing financial issues and dropped to the level of competition you saw tonight. They are still known in the south and 3 to 5 hours from a few SoCon teams, thus the easy scheduling.

(11-08-2018 07:51 PM)Bucs06 Wrote:  James Harrison better step up. Octavion is coming for his minutes...

Really pleased to see Corley on the floor, even if it was against sub-par competition. He plays so comfortably for someone his size. He moves easily and quickly on the court. He appears to have that extra sense that the better centers have to anticipate the optimum instant to reach out and/or leap to defend a shot. Too many bigs don't time that as exactly and end up unintentionally pummeling a shooter from above drawing a foul. It makes me wonder what his playing at Georgia State might have meant to that game.

As to playing Hiwassee, I would have rather seen something a little more challenging, but I am willing to accept that that is largely a matter of continuing problems with scheduling.

The valuable thing is letting guys like Corley, Williamson and Bernard cut loose a bit and find their confidence. But, yes, at least a decent DII team would be better.

As on his highlight tapes, Corley looks so fluid and impressive in this setting. Absent N'Guessan, he's the most natural shot blocker that we have. Got to give him a chance against the good teams. The downside: remember how good Seth Coy looked against Wingate? You've got to do it against good D1 teams.

Coach Forbes was on the radio this morning

- There was a lengthy discussion about playing Hiwassee. Coach was asked if he had heard from anyone about playing a Non-D1 team. He said that he hadn't and then launched into a detailed explanation about how this game came about. This was one of the last two home games that he had to fill out. As he has mentioned before, ETSU is restricted in when they can schedule games because of the nature of Freedom Hall being a venue not under their control. Therefore, in speaking to other teams he firstly can only schedule for specific dates. Secondly, Coach is adamant that he is not going to pay a D-1 team to come here. He wants to sign D-1 teams OOC for a home and home or in connection with an arrangement like the Cayman Island Tournament which arranges payment. ETSU paid Hiwassee $2000 to play. There were other Non-D-1 teams that offered to come, but they wanted more than $2000 and Coach said he wasn't going to rob the budget just to play someone else at that level. ETSU was paid to play at GSU and will be paid to play at Creighton. He has tried to schedule local Mid-Majors (App State, MTSU and Asheville were mentioned) but they refuse to play a home and home. He regretted that North Dakota was one of the few home and home that he could schedule as he thought it was unfair to the players, but that is just the nature of it. When asked if he had spoken to Davidson or Belmont, Coach said he hadn't spoken to Davidson, but had spoken to Rick Byrd but they hadn't been able to work anything out. He said it wasn't that they are afraid to play us, it just doesn't suit their own interest. In addition to the problem of getting another team to play a home and home, an issue also often comes up as to who will start away from home. He said that he didn't want all of their OOC games in any given year to be on the road if ETSU was first to blink. He said that he hoped to talk to GSU and Charleston about a home and home.

-The bottom line forCoach was that playing Hiwassee was making the best of a bad situation. ETSU came out of that game with all the boxes checked as fair as his expectations for that game were concerned. He hadn't heard of any injuries, the team won, the team played hard, and everyone got double digit minutes. Even though he said that he hadn't heard any complaints about playing Hiwassee, his comments seemed pointed at something or someone. He isn't thrilled about the rigors of scheduling home games. In fact he said that this was the hardest place to schedule that he had ever been at. Still he opined that ETSU fans would come out to see the team play regardless of the opponent.

-When asked about Corley in the Hiwassee game Coach said that he could be a "difference maker." He was injured this summer just as he was getting into the flow of things. He was inconsistent prior to that. He really needed to play. Coach says that he has good touch and is a good shot blocker. He makes a difference around the rim.

-Coach was asked about N'Guessan and the rumor that is apparently out there that because of the nature of how he left his last school, he might be able to play this year. Coach downplayed that possibility, but said that they had sent a waiver request in to the NCAA and would probably hear in about 10 days. Yikes!

-Speaking of the Creighton games Coach said that their coach is offense minded. They are fast and shoot a lot of 3's. He said that the team had learned from the GSU game that defense travels even when your offense isn't up to par. He hopes that will take that lesson with them. Creighton is a young team.

- Coach felt that the team let the GSU game slip away from them. Offensively the team was playing too fast which caused most of the blocks that GSU got on them. He was frankly surprised that they weren't able to win the game.

(11-09-2018 10:32 AM)BigIslandBuc Wrote:  Coach Forbes was on the radio this morning

-Coach was asked about N'Guessan and the rumor that is apparently out there that because of the nature of how he left his last school, he might be able to play this year. Coach downplayed that possibility, but said that they had sent a waiver request in to the NCAA and would probably hear in about 10 days. Yikes!

...

- Coach felt that the team let the GSU game slip away from them. Offensively the team was playing too fast which caused most of the blocks that GSU got on them. He was frankly surprised that they weren't able to win the game.

Yikes, indeed! Corley has promise, and I hope gets some chances soon. But N'Guessan, as we saw in the open practice, seems a lot more D1 ready right now.

If the NCAA is still processing waiver requests, that may explain Mercer's silence on the Maciej Bender situation, which could change them from a bottom half SoCon team into a competitor.

I like Forbes take on the Georgia State game. He wants the team thinking that they SHOULD win games against NCAA tournament teams on their floor. That game WAS winnable - if not for the T on Bo and a fine play by Damon Wilson, it could very well have gone the other way. And tough as Creighton is, and tough as it is to play on their floor, that game, too, IS winnable. I'm sure he wants the Bucs to go in thinking that they SHOULD win it.

If Georgia St paid ETSU to go there, why can't ETSU pay someone to come to our place?

(11-09-2018 03:29 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Georgia St paid ETSU to go there, why can't ETSU pay someone to come to our place?

Good question. It would also be interesting to know what ETSU got paid to go there, and the same with Creighton. We shelled out some money for home CIT games a few years ago but have no idea how that compares with the going rate of regular season home game agreements.

I'm pretty sure I heard Forbes say on the radio this am that ETSU could buy a D1 home game for a minimum of 50K. He said the BUCS were getting paid by Georgia State, Creighton, Illinois, and UTEP. He made the comment about having to generate money for the ETSU Athletic Department Budget, but I can't remember what he said the amount was. If they have to generate "buy game" money for the overall Athletic Department Budget, I would doubt they have the funds to buy any D1 home games.

He said that ETSU was paying Hiwassee 2K and he said, "you get what you pay for". Kenny asked him what Tennessee paid Tusculum and he guessed from 10K to 15K. He went on to say that TN would probably buy 5 or 6 home games vs. D1 opponents in the neighborhood of 80K to 90K a game.

If I'm understanding all of this correctly, it looks like ETSU does not have the money or does not want to spend the money to buy any home games vs. D1 opponents. If this is so, ETSU must schedule a "home and home" series with teams to get a home game in Year #1 or Year #2 of the series. He commented how hard it was to get teams to come to JC and start the series in JC. He also explained how ETSU uses the MTE format to get home games but I can't remember how he said that works.

On one hand it seems like we are fine with being paid to go to other mid majors but are too cheap to spend some of that money on home games. On the other hand, if we werent too cheap for that we might not have the money to retain our coaching staff or fund the other sports. Tough spot to be in. Maybe getting some of these football money games over the next few years will help improve the situation.

(11-09-2018 06:50 PM)ETSU4Life Wrote:  If I'm understanding all of this correctly, it looks like ETSU does not have the money or does not want to spend the money to buy any home games vs. D1 opponents. If this is so, ETSU must schedule a "home and home" series with teams to get a home game in Year #1 or Year #2 of the series. He commented how hard it was to get teams to come to JC and start the series in JC. He also explained how ETSU uses the MTE format to get home games but I can't remember how he said that works.

MTE format:

MTE format(s) explained

We won't have poor ol' Hiwassee College to kick around anymore. They're shutting down at the end of this semester, May 10. Only 225 students, and are graduating 33.

(03-29-2019 10:24 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  We won't have poor ol' Hiwassee College to kick around anymore. They're shutting down at the end of this semester, May 10. Only 225 students, and are graduating 33.

I more or less said the same thing last night. My buddy and I were at the ETSU-Georgetown baseball game (by the way, heck of an ETSU pitching performance!). My buddy showed me the story on his phone and I replied that ETSU will have to find another OOC opponent.
Don't know much about Hiwassee but it's too bad they're shutting down. Students have to find other places to continue their studies and all who work there have to find new jobs. And the local community will lose a positive institution.

(03-29-2019 10:24 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  We won't have poor ol' Hiwassee College to kick around anymore. They're shutting down at the end of this semester, May 10. Only 225 students, and are graduating 33.

Interesting. They had representatives at the December SACS meeting. I assumed they were going to pursue reaccreditation. Might have evaluated what it was going to take to become reaccredited and elected to close instead.

I hope now that folks understand why I was so apprehensive that ETSU was playing Hiwassee.

What does closing the school this year have to do with playing them last year?

(03-31-2019 12:40 AM)Buc76 Wrote:  What does closing the school this year have to do with playing them last year?

It means that we won't have to play them ever again.