(01-07-2010 01:11 PM)Buc Island Wrote:  

(01-05-2010 11:43 PM)GoBucsGo Wrote:  This thread starting as discussing a big win for a team that we BEAT this year. Somehow, it's degraded to 'ETSU athletics sucks.'

It is amazing how our own so-called fans can tear down something that actually is a big positive for this basketball team.

No matter how much you guys scream & yell about the great mighty Southern Conference, it still gets one bid.

And by the way, the team behind Western in the SoCon North, App State, got drilled by Campbell the other night. If you're going to talk about how great the league is, then you gotta take the good w/ the supposedly horrible performances.

Is this a seminar Gold? Sorry man....

It's not so much that the thread devolved into an "ETSU athletics sucks" thread, it's just that somebody who doesn't care about anything that happened more than 5 minutes ago said that Belmont is a better rivalry than UTC.

If we miraculously left the ASun and scheduled Belmont out of conference, would anyone care? No. But even this year we scheduled our "homecoming" around UTC. Would you come home to see an out of conference Belmont game?

Ok. I will admit that UT Chatt/ETSU is a better atmosphere historically than ETSU/Belmont. I get annoyed at the constant SoCon, SoCon, SoCon talk and so I made a pretty rash statement. I've thought on it since then and it's not fair to discount the history of a rivalry. I wish I was here when the battles between ETSU/Chatt were heated dogfights. I've only been here a few years though. While I've been here I just haven't felt like anyone got too excited for Chatt. That is my personal observation. I do feel like there was a level of intensity when we've played Belmont that was greater than our games against Chatt.

The main reason I said that though, is I feel that in the recent past (5 years or so) Belmont has been a better team than Chatt. So when I said that it was a better rivalry, my mindset was that Belmont is a better team. I still think that is true. However, a rivalry is about more than just the quality of the opponent. It is about history, tradition, and proximity. I think Belmont is a good rivalry. I enjoy our games and battles against them. I will concede it is not the same as battles against Chatt in the past, based on what I've heard from those who were here then as well as the testaments on this board.

My main thing is, playing Belmont isn't that bad. Being in the ASun is not ideal, but it's not the worst situation either. We have the opportunity to make some noise by getting into the NCAA tourney and playing well on that big stage. That is simply my opinion though with my own experience as someone who wasn't around for the ETSU/SoCon basketball heydays.

That's my attempt at burying the hatchet and trying to get away from meaningless bickering, so we can get back to talking about our Bucs.

C of C beating Carolina does nothing but help us so I'm glad they won. Go Bucs!