1. The 03-04 team was the best. This was not Bartow's team, it was inheritied from Eddy D. As Bartow said, I just got out of the way and tried not to mess up this team. Bartow actually said this in an interview and was quoted in the newspaper.

2. The 04-05 had I believe three starters and the sixth man from the previous year and they were woeful. This was the start of Bartows teams. Funny how the starters played so well under Eddy and were miserable under Bartows watch.

3. ETSU played two a-sun tournaments at home and lost both times in embarrassing fashion.

First, they couldn't get organized on an out of bounds play against Gardner Webb. Tim Smith was frantically signaling a time out to Bartow but coach did nothing and the ball came in and was dunked, game over.

Second, they played zone against the best three point shooting team in the a-sun, Belmont, for both halves and was drilled on national tv.

4. When Bartow was coaching the defense it was bad. Its only been since Scott Wagers was allowed to take over the defense did it get better. Wagers was the defensive coach for Eddy D and they played good D.

5. I agree with many of the posters, we have gone down in talent and definitely in coaching.

6. Yes, ETSU has gone to the NCAA three times since Bartow has been coach. The 03-04 was going not because Bartow was coaching, but because they were better than anyone in the SoCon and better than most mid- majors and a lot of majors.

7. ETSU has gone to the other two NCAA's because they were in the lowly a-sun. They would not, IMO, beaten Davidson/Curry or won the SoCon any year, under Bartow, except 03-04.

All true and well said.

The only thing I would immediately add is that we had been up, what, 18 on G-W in the second half before that final play? Whatever it was, it was a lot. That final play was only the final nail in the coffin. That game was truly more embarrassing than the Belmont one, because at least Belmont probably played their game of the year that night. The G-W loss was sheer coaching ineptitude, purely and simply......

(03-16-2010 06:52 PM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  I've got to go with the 05 and 06 teams being worse than this one.

I agree. Those teams may have had more talent but the bottom-line is they did nothing with that talent. And as much as I liked Tim Smith, "The Tim Smith" offense wasn't worth a crap once Wadood and Fields left and that really isn't Smith's fault, it was the coaches fault.

Saying the team this year was better than the 05-06 team is insane, lets look at a few numbers. After the christmas break that team went 14-2 before losing ben rhoda the senior leader, captain, do it all guy and glue to the team full of offensive firepower, and the only two losses in that stretch where both overtime losses, they could have easily been 16-0 in one stretch. when they lost rhoda on senior night they obviously they didnt win after that,. yes he eant that much to the team. The 05 -06 team at one point was leading the country is scoring at 83pts per game with memphis following right behind them. The 05-06 team had 5 people scoring over double digits....FIVE!!!!!!!! In fact the only games the bucs lost in conference where the games where rhoda was missing besides belmont. And even with that being said they still went into the last weekend of the reg season tied for first before falling. Numbers on the players:

SNEED,..... 11.3 pts per game in only 23.2 minutes!!!
PIGRAM,.... 12.0 pts per game in only 24.4 minutes!!!!
RHODA, .......... 11.2 pts per game in 30.6 mins.
SMITH,....... 22.0 pts per game in 37.7 good for #12 nationally
STRONG,...... 10.4 pts per game in only 23.9 minutes!!!!!!

This years team.

Tubbs...... 12.0 pts per game in 27.1
Tommy..... only 14.1 pts per game 33.6
Micah...... 12.5 in 26.7 minutes per game

thats it for double digits the closest after that is isaih at 7.7 and brad knucles 8 per game canceled that out.

Not takin away from this years team at all but to say that they where better than the 05/06 team is just insane, and yes they are missing mike smith but its a big difference when you lose a star player for the season as compared to a week and a half before the playoffs and the team is clicking on all cylinders with the best offense and one of the longest win streaks in the country.

And i won't even mention 04-05 they had maybe 7 scholarship players fully dressed for most of the season,..they even had to have trainers and coach bailey suiting up for practice to be be abe to play 5 on 5 in practice and they played in the so-con but yet still manged to have the soconss leading reounder sneed whom also was top 20 in the country and the socons top scorer in smith whom was also top 10 in the country in that. If you want to see a disaster season when everything that ould have went wrong went wrong look at 04-05

James anthony- suspension violation team rules

Ben Rhoda- hurt ankle missed 8 games

Brad knuckles- planar faciatis /out for the season

Drew reed - broken hand in blue gold game missed games played part of the season with the full cast on his arm with padding on top of it

Chris mitchell- awol and just left the team

greg surmacz -/ started season injured and missed beggining part of season (knee) suspension violation team rules after that injury

Mike Tolliver- Knee surgery missed his complete senior season

Tim Smith running wild trying to make the NBA with the second most shot attempts in the entire NCAA with 529


Obviously 04-05 and even 05-06 teams where totally different but to compare them to this years team talent wise is just not a smart observation if you really know basketball.

And if you read my posts, I never said this team was better talent wise...

Oh, and for my amusement, please post the statistics for how many points those teams allowed again...

RunningFool...I will give you a detailed post on why they were better in reality as well as talent....at some point after the kentucky game

I've already made my detailed post...and doubt yours will convince me.

But feel free to go for it.

It all comes back to heart, and those teams had none. And no defense. Allowing 80 points a game is pathetic.

Oh I read it

(03-18-2010 05:18 PM)Goldfinger Wrote:  Oh I read it

Can I change my vote? Haha.

Still think the 04-05 team was worse. This game has convinced me the 05-06 team was not.